Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 677

Updating The Slot Machine Answer Book

Little by little, every year, slot machines change. The rise of bonus rounds, the introduction of ticket printers for payoffs, the disappearance of handles on the machines --- there are new wrinkles all the time. When Bonus Books asked me for a revised edition of my Slot Machine Answer Book, I knew some things had changed...read more

Bits and Pieces from Indian Country - July 2005

The battle in Congress over Indian sovereignty is not one that will end, ever; every Congress will have its sovereignty issues. The discussion is generally framed around gaming, but that is only because Indian gaming is the hot topic of the day...read more

Quicktakes: The month's trends at a glance - July 2005

Casino revenues were up again in June (Nevada's results are for May) with a couple of exceptions, Detroit and Connecticut. The only rationalizations that I have heard are the price of gas, war and a bumpy economy. They hardly seem valid if they only apply in two places...read more

More on Randomness and the RNG

John, I still have a hard time with the RNG as you explain it. Random means having no specific pattern. That each number in a set has an equal chance of being chosen. Then why is it that slot machines in general will eat for days or weeks and then pay out numerous high-paying combinations 2 or 3 times in a day for sometimes 2 or 3 days in a row? Being a casino frequent visitor (sorry to say), I have seen this happen many, many times...read more

The Dunes

My buddy Russ had set me up with a possible job at the Dunes Hotel in Vegas. All it would take was $500, which I would "loan" to a pit boss named Bill that Russ knew from his hometown. It was a risky move on my part, but sometimes you have to go out on a limb, especially when you're almost flat broke with no job in sight. So that night I went into the Dunes for the first time in my life...read more

The Secrets of Hop Bets

Pssst... Wanna know a secret? How about the secrets of hop bets? A hop bet is a little understood one-roll, verbal bet you can make on any combination of numbers. For example, if you have an intuitive notion that the combination 4&1 will appear on the very next roll of the dice, you can place a bet for "4&1 hopping"...read more

Bits and Pieces from Indian Country - June 2005

Indian gaming is growing, maybe not as fast as in other years, but growing nevertheless. The numbers are large enough to get everyone's attention, or said another way, much too large to ignore. Indian gaming started officially in 1988 with the passage of the National Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (IGRA)...read more

Quicktakes: The month's trends at a glance - June 2005

Summer is here, time to go on vacation, shop and, of course, visit your local casino. The price of gas following the price of crude oil shows new signs of returning to 2004 or 2003 levels. But so far that is having less effect on travel or the economy in general than one would have expected. The AP reported that gas prices surged…tracking the steep climb in the cost of crude oil, according to an industry survey Sunday...read more

Bits and Pieces from Indian Country - May 2005

Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell may have retired from Congress after serving in the U. S. House from 1987 to 1993 and the U. S. Senate from 1993 to 2005, but he has not retired from politics. He joined the law firm of Holland & Knight and, as one would guess as the former chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, is a popular speaker and valued consultant...read more

Quicktakes - The month's trends in a glance - May 2005

The national economy may or may not be healthy and growing; consumers may or may not be spending more money each year. But, however one interprets national statistics and trends, gaming is clearly growing. Each year more Americans visit casinos and leave more money than the previous year. Americans spent $28.9 billion last year in nontribal casinos across the United States, a 7 percent increase from 2003, according to an industry-funded study issued today...read more