Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 674

Demystifying slots myths

Dear Mark, Does it make any difference on a slot machine if I pull the handle or push the spin button? If a machine recently hit for a decent sized jackpot, should I avoid that machine? Lastly, if I get up from a machine and the next player hits a jackpot, would that have been mine? Jean B. Readers are either going to nod in agreement with what I'm about to write, or stay in defiance...read more

Tribal Gaming Regulations

Hi, John I'm pretty familiar with the RNG and probabilities, but am having a problem figuring out in my mind how an EGD can truly generate random numbers on each spin when it's been programmed to payback a certain percentage over time...read more

No Sweat? Not always!

The Captain of Craps, the legendary Atlantic City player I have written about in The Craps Underground: The Inside Story of How Dice Controllers Are Winning Millions from the Casinos!, once explained to me his theory on how much a person should bet at whatever game he wishes to play in order to experience a high degree of thrill with a low chance of having a heart attack and an even lower chance of being totally bored. Casino gambling for the recreational player should be a "manageable thrill." The Captain stated that a typical casino blackjack player playing for matchsticks or pennies would get bored rather quickly, since no hand really meant that much to him - losing had no sting; winning had no jolt...read more

Cooke's Rules of Real Poker Should Help Settle Arguments

The author of Real Poker II, co-authored with John Bond, has written and compiled with Bond again a fine, useful, timely resource titled Cooke's Rules of Real Poker (171 pages, paperbound, $9.95). Given that poker has become America¹s game, this work will provide standards for running a game...read more

Host Communities Reap Benefits of Casinos

Elected officials and civic leaders in gaming communities across the country have an overwhelmingly positive view of the impact of casinos in their community, according to the results of a survey analyzed in the latest "white paper" release from the American Gaming Association...read more

Heard It On The River

As we met our deadline for this column the Mississippi Legislature had not yet met in special session to consider, among other things, a change in the 1990 Gaming Control law to permit casinos to build on land rather than over water. That is obviously the right thing to do when you consider the damage to buildings, lives and jobs that were blown away with HURRICANE KATRINA...read more

Harrah's Joliet Responds to Pressure from NW Indiana

Joe Domenico, senior vice president and general manager of Harrah's Joliet Casino & Hotel, knows what it's like to operate from both sides of the highly competitive greater Chicagoland gambling market Prior to being appointed to his current post last year, he served in a similar capacity at Harrah's East Chicago, where he oversaw a $27 million renovation and improvement project that took place in the pavilion and on board the vessel. Most recently he was the architect of what he describes as a much needed "facelift" of the Joliet property in an effort to remain competitive with the Northwest Indiana gaming market, which attracts thousands of Illinois residents each day. "If you look within Illinois, we are probably in the most competitive sector in the state," Domenico said...read more

How Many Gamblers Can You Fool, How Much of the Time?

Back in those halcyon days of my youth, Lenny -- who lived next door -- got a chemistry set for his birthday. The box prominently proclaimed it to be "harmless." Lenny told us this meant if you don't know what you're doing, "it'll go boom!" In awe, I believed him...read more

My First Time Playing in a Casino Card Room

If you've been going to casinos as long as I have, you remember when poker didn't exactly have star quality. At more than one Las Vegas casino, I saw card rooms shrink to make way for more slot machines, move to a small room off the main casino floor, and eventually disappear entirely...read more

Wheel of Fortune Paybacks

My husband and I are going to Vegas in October. I love to play video poker and he likes the regular slots. I always play the full amount on the machine. My question is: Are the cards you draw really determined by what you keep in your hand or is it already set in the machine? I hope I'm making myself clear. Thank you, Annie Dear Annie, This is the way modern machines operate...read more