Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 390

Ask the Slot Expert: Claiming gambling losses

I read an article about a man who one $1,000 at Yonkers raceway in New York. He won it on a slot machine and asked if he had to file taxes on his winnings. You told him in the article that it was taxable because its was considered a lottery winning. The same thing happened to me at Yonkers and I received a W-2G form to send with my taxes...read more

Beginner's luck

Given enough trials, anything that can happen eventually will. A Megabucks slot jackpot can be years in the making, but eventually there will be a new multimillionaire. A craps shooter holding the dice for a couple of hours? It happens. And then there's the best streak of beginner's luck I've ever heard. A father called me to tell me he'd taken his wife, daughter and son to the Hollywood Casino in Joliet on the son's 21st birthday...read more

The 12 superstitions about craps: #2 - Late bets and the seven

The 12 most popular superstitions at the game of craps are adhered to or believed by most craps players -- so if you want to play the game and not be thought a craps barbarian, you should know them. Keep in mind that individuals add their own superstitions, too, so you might hear someone yelling some incoherent thing at the table which, to him, will ward off the coming of the ominous 7 -- or bring it on, if he is a darkside player. Late bets thrown onto the layout or to the stickman once the shooter has been passed the dice will bring out the seven...read more

COMPlexity

Casinos want your money. No question about it. They can advertise that they are the luckiest casino around, maybe the friendliest, or they treat you like royalty, but the bottom line is everything they do is designed to separate you from your bankroll...read more

Jest for Fun

Two men overheard at a bathing beauty contest in Atlantic City: "How do you like bathing beauties?" "Can't say. Haven't bathed any." * * * * * I couldn't decide whether to spend my vacation in Las Vegas or Atlantic City. So I flipped a coin...read more

Helping a friend

A friend decided that she wanted to learn how to play blackjack. I sat down with her and went over the basics of how the game is played, and then showed her the basic playing strategy. I told her she would have to learn the playing strategy and I gave her a software program to use at home to practice the strategy...read more

A shuffle through the gaming mailbag

NOTE: Today's mailbag is an e-mail exchange with a reader who had a further question after the initial answer. Both questions are from the same reader. Q. I read that the random number generator on slot machines is constantly moving and constantly generating new numbers, whether the machine was in use or not...read more

Ask the Slot Expert: How do "guaranteed to hit" jackpots work?

There are casinos promising that someone will hit the jackpot before or by the minute a certain amount is reached. Really? John, I thought all spins are random because the law requires so. By guaranteeing that the jackpot will be reached by a certain time or sum, isn't that somehow manipulating or controlling the RNG? How do they do it? Thank and bless you for your continued clarifying of slot-machine issues. Peter Dear Peter, Thanks for the kind words. These "guaranteed to hit" jackpots are decided outside of the usual reel-spinning game...read more

Why banker wins more often than player in baccarat

Those who dabble in baccarat know that the bet on the banker hand is slightly better than the bet on player. Both are among the better bets in the casino, with a house edge of 1.06% if you bet on banker, and 1.24% if you bet on player. The banker bet actually wins a little more often than it loses...read more

The 12 superstitions about craps: #1 - The hand and the dice

The 12 most popular superstitions at the game of craps are adhered to or believed by most craps players -- so if you want to play the game and not be thought a craps barbarian, you should know them. Keep in mind that individuals add their own superstitions too, so you might hear someone yelling some incoherent thing at the table which, to him, will ward off the coming of the ominous 7 -- or bring it on, if he is a darkside player. When the dice hit someone's hand, the roll will be a seven...read more