Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 783

Quicktakes - The month's trends in a glance - November 2003

The economy continues to show very strong growth, although the Dow Jones Industrial Average did not change much during November, finishing the month down slightly. Overall gaming results were not dramatic either, most jurisdictions had modest growth at best, but Wall Street and the rest of us will have to adjust to that trend, as gaming is no longer a growth industry...read more

Observations from Here and There

If you are a member of the Harrah's Total Rewards players club program, which is available at Chicago-area Harrah's destinations in Joliet, Ill., and East Chicago, Ind., your mailbox is probably filled every month with marketing letters and postcards announcing special promotions. The promotions range from scratch-offs, gifts, bonus point multipliers and cash-back offers...read more

The Casino and Gaming Television Network

I was near the end of a conversation with Robert Carlsson, co-founder and co-chairman of the planned Casino and Gaming Television network, and he had a question. "What do you think of the idea?" I told him I'd long thought an all-gaming cable network was inevitable. Three times in the last several years, I've spoken with people who wanted to do a weekly casino TV show...read more

Can You Size Your Bets for Maximum Happiness?

What if you had some cash stashed in a cookie jar and a chance to gamble with it when you had (or thought you had) an advantage? That is, with a payoff multiple greater than the odds you're fighting to win. How do you decide how much of it to bet? You have the edge, but could easily lose...read more

Let's be fair-o to faro

Dear Mark, I recently read that the most popular Nevada casino game in the 1800s was faro. The Virginia City casinos were kind enough to offer the game 24 hours a day "for the convenience of miners from all shifts." Have you ever heard of faro being played in modern times? Any idea as to why it disappeared? Andy K. Like you, Andy, I sure would love to see the game reappear in towns like Virginia City, Deadwood, or on a Mississippi riverboat...read more

Class II Slots, Deuces Wild, Should I Play a Machine That Has Just Hit?

Hi, I would like to know where there is a web site where I can play Yukon Gold slot machine. I have other sites where I just play for fun and I would love to play Yukon Gold. Thank you, Sue Dear Sue, Sorry. I don't know of any website that has Yukon Gold...read more

Bad Blackjack Players Don't Hurt Your Odds

Throughout the annals of established blackjack literature, you've read that a bad player at 3rd base can't hurt your own chances in the game. In public seminars, I've presented illustrations with cards on sequential billboards that showed that same effect -- or lack of...read more

Barney Vinson's World: Radio KENO

Here I was in Las Vegas, the entertainment capital of the world, making $11 a day shilling at the Pioneer Club. All I could do was watch helplessly as my life savings slowly dribbled away, a dollar at a pop. There was only one thing left to do...read more

New Video Poker at G2E

On the last day of the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas, I stood at the IGT booth, playing a few hands of Five Play Multi-Strike Poker, when a fellow gambling writer approached. "How does this work?" he asked, and I demonstrated. Many of you are familiar with Multi-Strike Poker, introduced last year and that since has carved out a strong niche at local casinos...read more

Scobe's Quick Tips: #79 and #80: Single-Zero Roulette, Soft 17

Scobe's Quick Tip #79 If you are playing roulette, always try to play on wheels that have only one zero. Why is a single-zero wheel better? Because it reduces the house edge from 5.26 percent to 2.70 percent. That's almost a fifty percent reduction...read more