Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 728

Gambling on the Ballot

Legal gambling is once again a hot political issue. The November 2004 elections will not be a repeat of the November 2002 elections. For anyone who has been following developments over the last few years, especially the proliferation of gaming devices, the ballots look more like a Hollywood remake than a TV rerun...read more

Investing In College Basketball By Seidel--One Of The Best Ever

Every decade or so a new book emerges with new ideas from a new author--and so it is with Investing in College Basketball (368 pages, hardbound, $34.50) by Larry Seidel. Seidel sent me an outline of book months ago. I immediately asked for a sample chapter to see the quality and depth of his approach to betting college hoops...read more

Naysayers unwittingly become 'Yeah'sayers

Some people refuse to accept all the proof in the world. The concept of Expert Strategy has been proven repeatedly for the past 15 years. There are numerous writers and mathematicians who can attest to this. They may not call it 'expert strategy' but the concept is the same...read more

Reputation of Gaming Industry is Hurt by Battle Over Proposal 1

The gaming industry certainly has made for some strange bedfellows in the past year. Whether or not you agreed with the passage of Proposal 1 here in Michigan (the recent proposal which passed requiring a state and local vote for any future gaming expansion), it is clear that the reputation of the gaming industry has been tarnished as a result of the recent campaign...read more

Players Rate Midwest Native American Casinos

In spite of the fact state sanctioned and regulated casino gambling in Illinois and Northwest Indiana gets a majority of the attention, there's a thriving Native American casino and hotel industry in the Midwest in Iowa, Wisconsin, Michigan and Minnesota. In its July 2004 edition, Midwest Gaming & Travel Magazine devotes a section to the results of its annual Readers' Choice Awards for Midwest Native American casinos...read more

The ABCs of Slots

It's not that long ago that if you were playing a slot machine, you probably were playing a game manufactured by IGT. And if it wasn't an IGT machine, it was a Bally game, or perhaps one by Sigma. Certainly, the machine had three spinning reels, with no bonuses and no video screen. Even by the time riverboat gaming came to the Midwest in the early 1990s, diversity on the slots was slim...read more

Royals and Flushes

In my August article, Grit Your Teeth and Go For It, I considered the 9/6 Jacks or Better Video Poker situation wherein you are dealt a four-card Royal and a pat Flush. Although giving up the sure winner is tough to do, we saw there that the correct play was to break up the pat Flush and hold the four-card Royal...read more

Smart play and goodies equal profits

Dear Mark, I think that you're right on with your answer regarding counting cards at blackjack. The pit crews are almost paranoid now regarding card counters--witness one of the last episodes of American Casino. I guess they think that everyone is as good as the MIT students...read more

Betting $32 Across at Craps: more Action, less Distraction

Craps offers the excitement of spreading bets all over the layout with lots of action and money flying to or fro whenever the dice come to rest. It's a feature that makes the game appealing to veterans, and simultaneously intimidating to recruits. A newcomer can avoid confusion by betting on a single outcome and waiting for it to be settled...read more

Losing Power at Bellagio

Dear John, We were in Vegas the weekend of the big power outage at Bellagio. We were wondering what happened to the people playing slots. Many probably had credits in their machines, and many were probably hitting large or small jackpots when it happened...read more