Gaming Gurus: Strategy Expert Article Archive - Page 815

Gambling Updates from Near and Far

The corporate philosophy that has made Jack Binion's Horseshoe Casino Hammond the No. 1 grossing gambling property in the Chicago-area starts at the top. Horseshoe Gaming CEO Jack Binion himself was present at a banquet held March 26 at the casino to personally congratulate the winners of the 2002 "Jack Binion's Best" awards. Marquita McIntosh of Country Club Hills, Ill., was honored as Employee of the Year...read more

How Realistic Are Your Casino Profit Goals?

What's the chance of entering a casino with one pile of pelf and leaving with some greater amount, assuming you go for broke? That is, growing stake "S" to fortune "F" before busting out. In the limit, a "fair" game with no edge, the probability equals S divided by F...read more

A Shuffle Through the Gaming Mailbag

Q. I took an interest in roulette about six years ago, and I've seen a lot of things happen in that time. What I find fascinating is when a streak of red or black starts going more than four or five spins...read more

Bits and Pieces from Indian Country - June 2003

California remains the leading story in Indian gaming. During the last year California Indian gaming has seen dramatic expansion.  Two new casinos opened in June and tribal employment leads the state in growth.  However, unionization continues to be controversial with the sides trading insults with very strong language. Tribal governments continue to far outpace all other California private and public sector employers in job growth, registering a 12-percent increase in employment for the year ending May 31, according to state figures.  No other industry with more than 20,000 workers experienced job growth anywhere near the figures posted by California's tribal governments, according to figures released June 11 by the state Employment Development Department...read more

Aristocrat Watch - June 2003

On the great international stage, Australia and Aristocrat are always interesting to watch.  First, because Australia's local gaming market is more mature than the American market, one can see trends that may come one day to the United States.  Problem gaming lobbyists have pushed for legislation that calls for stricter controls on operating, increasing taxation, and a gradual reduction in the number of gaming devices and venues.  The Australians have one of the highest per-capita gaming expenditures in the world.  That is bad news for the anti-gaming lobby, but good news for operators and slot manufacturers.  Because Australian slot players are very frequent players, their reaction to a new game is a good indication of that game's potential success.  If a slot machine is successful in the Australian club environment, it will most likely be successful in the United States.  And here begins the story of the success of Aristocrat, both in the U...read more

Quick-takes: The month's trends in a glance - June 2003

The war is relegated to page 2, and it's the third or fourth story on the evening news.  The economy is improving, if slowly.  The feds have lowered interest rates to new 45-year lows, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average is back in the 9,000 range.  Things are looking up. Or are they?  The news from the casino industry is mixed.  There are new taxes, most states reported a decline in win from the previous year, and significant expansion seems dead for the year.  Even on an annual basis the industry growth has slowed down dramatically, except for Indian gaming, which is driven by expansion in California and is still growing much faster.  Even the industry's 3 percent overall growth doesn't necessarily translate into increased profits.  Besides taxes, the cost of operating and competition is going up faster than revenue. Revenue at tribal casinos grew nearly 11 percent last year to $14.1 billion - more than triple the growth rate of commercial casinos, according to a study by the Analysis Group Inc.  Revenue from commercial casinos in Nevada; Atlantic City, N.J.; along the Mississippi River and elsewhere rose 3 percent last year to $26.5 billion, according the American Gaming Association.  Doug Abrahms, Gannett News Service, Lansing State Journal, 6-14-03 Intense competition, lower gaming volume, higher operating costs such as taxes and insurance as well as adverse weather contributed to year-over-year decreases in cash flow for casino operators in the first quarter, Standard & Poor's said in an industry report card.  …Even so, the casino sector is expected to be a "relatively stable performer, with many markets experiencing flat to modest revenue growth," analysts said.  Liz Benston, Las Vegas Sun, 6-19-03 There are a couple of interesting surveys out this month.  The survey that received the most publicity reports that most Americans approve of gaming and would like a casino close enough to visit.  The other from Michigan is more revealing; it reports that fewer people actually gambled during the previous year but spent more.  Eight-five percent may approve of gaming, but not all of those people are making a bet.  To be healthy, the industry needs the opposite, more gamblers spending less but continuing to come back year-after-year. Eighty-five percent of Americans view casino gambling as an acceptable form of entertainment, with adults 21 to 39 showing the highest acceptance…In a statement, Fahrenkopf said the survey findings "quantify our long-held assumption that the more familiar people are with the casino industry, the more likely they are to embrace and support it."  John Stearns, Arizona Republic, 6-24-03 Due partly to a choppy economy, 53 percent of Michiganians haven't bet on horses, visited a casino, played bingo, bought a lottery ticket or engaged in any other sort of gambling within the past year, a new study shows.  That's up from 43 percent last year and is the first time that Michigan's gambling abstention rate has exceeded 50 percent, the study's authors say.  The previous high mark was 49 percent in 1997, when Marketing Resource Group began tracking Michigan residents' gambling habits.  Becky Yerak, The Detroit News, 6-23-03 Dead and dying, the news on expansion is no expansion, except in Pennsylvania, where legislation is still creeping along.  Most state legislatures have gone home without passing any new enabling legislation on gaming. The push to ask voters to approve casino gambling in Nebraska failed Friday when the Legislature adjourned -- but may be resurrected in January.  Las Vegas Sun, 6-2-03 The 2003 Oklahoma Legislature adjourned Friday as a budget fight fizzled and time ran out on a bill to expand Indian casino-type gambling to horse racetracks.  Ron Jenkins, Associated Press, Las Vegas Sun, 6-2-03 A last-minute push to put racetrack video slot machines on the November ballot fell apart in the Ohio Senate on Tuesday.  … "We just couldn't come to terms on how this money would be broken out," said Sen...read more

A Well-Placed Semi-Bluff Wins a Big 7-Stud Pot

Many people who are only casually familiar with poker assume that bluffing is the key to winning. This impression has been falsely instilled in their minds by dramatic bluffing scenes in Hollywood movies about poker...read more

Thunder Not So Loud?

Thunder Valley, the Station Casinos/Auburn Rancheria casino that opened on the 9th of June in Lincoln, California (just over the mountain from Reno) isn't having a very visible impact on Reno, and I think maybe there are a couple of issues that will keep things that way...read more

Ask the Slot Expert

Knowing how an RNG (random nuumber generator) works (I was a computer programmer on IBM mainframe for 30 years), I wonder how stopping the spin or freezing it affects the 'predetermined' selection of the RNG.....read more

The Secret of Cold Tables

Pssst... Wanna know a secret? How about the secret of winning at cold craps tables? It's realy not too hard to find one. Just look for quiet tables with lots of empty spaces and somber-looking people with just a few chips in front of them...read more