Casino Player December 2022

Roulette Machine I have been a subscriber of Casino Player for some time now.Thank you so much for all the tips you have provided to your readers for all the games on the casino floor. I visit LasVegas three to four times a year and play different table games and video poker and slot machines.The game that I love most of all is roulette.Although I know that the house edge is higher on this game I still love playing it. I enjoy the thrill and excite ment of the game. I always played table roulette but from my first visit I played the roulette machine.There’s not a lot of this game but I was able to find several at Palazzo andVe netian. Venetian used to have a single zero roulette machine. I played the roulette machine atVenetian and my initial playing money was $150. I’d been betting on 25 single numbers for a total of $25 for half an hour, hitting re-bet all the time. It was hit and miss but I was up to about $250.All of a sudden I saw the roulette spin counter clockwise and from then on it mostly missed on my numbers. My question is,do you think the program on the roulette machine can remember my numbers and readjust itself so I would not be hitting the same numbers? I would really appreciate any input that you can give on this. Thank you so much for your time. —Robert West Covina, CA No, the machine does not remember your numbers and adjust to go into any losing streak mode.Virtual roulette machines are subject to the same randomness require ments as any other electronic gaming devices. In order for the game to be licensed, it has to pass gaming lab inspection and be certified for randomness. Remembering your numbers and fixing the wheel to avoid them is illegal, and a device that can do that would not be certified. Hot and cold streaks are just consequences of normal probability. Over a very long time, any such streaks will fade into statistical insignificance, and the house will collect a percentage very close to the house edge. Casinos count on that.Anything can happen in the short term, but the casino is in it for the long haul and knows it will profit as long as the games are random.

Busting Out What is it about blackjack that makes players bust so much more often than dealers? There must be a cause. It can’t all be luck. —Jake F. Via theWeb Actually, players bust less often than deal ers—a LOT less. In a common six-deck game, dealers bust about 29 percent of the time if they stand on all 17s, and just under 30 percent if they hit soft 17.Basic strategy players bust about 16 percent of the time. That’s because players hit fewer hands than dealers do. If you have 16 and the dealer has a 6 face up, you can stand. If the dealer has 16, he has to hit, no matter what the players have. It can seem like you bust more often, because every time you bust, you lose. The dealer can bust and lose to some players, but all the players who already have busted still lose.That’s where the house edge comes from in blackjack: Players risk going bust before the dealer hand is played. Players don’t bust more than dealers. Player busts just hurt more. Three-Card Mystery Maybe I’m just late to the party here—why do straights beat flushes inThree Card Poker? —Anonymous Via theWeb The probabilities are different in three-card hands than in five-card hands.In Three Card Poker, you’re dealt flushes an average of once per 22.1 hands, and straights once per 30.7 hands.That makes straights the rarer hands, so they outrank flushes. In five-card stud poker games, straights are nearly twice as common as flushes—1 in 256 hands vs. 1 in 509—so flushes out rank straights. Late Bonus Could you please tell me something about slot machine odds and bonuses? I was play ing for a while and it seemed like the bonus wasn’t happening very often. I spotted a guy with a name tag that said slot supervisor, and asked him how often the bonus was’sup-

posed to come up.He said no set time,but he thought the average was about once in 80 plays. I went back to play and counted. It took 224 spins before I went to the bonus. How is that even possible if it’s supposed to come up once per 80?Thank you. —Anonymous Via theWeb Results are random, and every result is pos sible on every spin. If the odds are 1 in 80 of going to the bonus round when you start, they’re still 1 in 80 if you’ve gone 80 spins without a bonus, or 100 spins, or 224 spins. Over a very long time, the odds of the game will lead toward about 1 spin per 80 taking you to the bonus round. To illustrate, I’m going to make up an oversimplified example. Imagine you were rolling an 80-sided die, with spaces numbered 1 through 79 and one space marked“BONUS!” You could have a chart giving you a slot reel combination for each number.No.1 could be five ravens, No. 2 five unmatched symbols, and so on.When the die landed on BONUS!, you’d get to play a separate game to accumulate extra credits. The first time you rolled, chances would be equal of the die landing on each space. The second time you rolled, your actions would be exactly the same, and the chances for each space would still be equal. No matter how many times you rolled and how long you went without a bonus, you’d still be starting from scratch on the next roll. If you rolled 224 times without a bonus, the chances on the next would still be 1 in 80. Slot machines are more complex with many more possible outcomes. Instead of one face among 80 on a die, one-eightieth of thousands—or even millions, in the case of big jackpot games—of combinations will take you to the bonus. You are a 79-1 underdog of going to the bonus on each spin.That makes long bonus less streaks not only possible, but inevitable. There’s a flip side. Given enough chances, multiple bonus events within a few spins also are not only possible, but inevitable.

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