The Easy Vegas thread
• Correct the $500 to $5000
• Note that the 24% withholding applies to certain games like sports and lotteries, but not slots or table games
• Note that the withholding kicks in if you don't supply a SSN or TIN
• Link to the IRS doc that explains all this as a source. I'm supposed to cite my sources anyway, not just for readers, but for myself, so if in the future it's challenged I can see where I got the info.
So, thank you again. I hate accidentally publishing wrong info, so I greatly appreciate your help.
What bothers me about slot videos is that the channel host usually asks some bystander to hit the spin button on a slot machine, but never gives them a voucher for what they won on those slot pulls. If there's a hand pay, usually casinos say whoever pushed the spin button wins the hand pay. Are slot channels actually paying their bystanders any hand pays? No? Why not?
If you don't show ID, you're not getting paid.
If you show ID, you're getting paid. The question is then whether the casino withholds 24% for taxes?
After showing ID, if you also provide SSN or TIN for a slot win, nothing is withheld. If you don't supply SSN/TIN, then the casino withholds the 24%.
Quote: Instructions for Form W2-GA payee of gambling winnings meeting the reporting thresholds for bingo, keno, and slot machines, and a payee of gambling winnings meeting the withholding thresholds from horse racing, dog racing, jai alai, sweepstakes, wagering pools, lotteries, sports wagering, and certain other wagering transactions, but not from a state-conducted lottery, must present two forms of identification, one of which must include the payee’s photo. A completed and signed Form W-9 is acceptable as the nonphoto form of identification. Gaming establishments owned or licensed by a tribal government of a federally recognized Indian tribe may waive the photo ID requirement for payees who are members of that tribe and present a tribal member identification card issued by the same tribe.
This continues my specialty: Doing things no one else has done.
Quote: MichaelBluejayI've had this idea for about 20 years but finally implemented it: a visual representation of how hard it is to win the lottery. Chances of winning Megamillions or Powerball is about 1 in 291 million, so my page shows you a black ball (your winning ball), then shows 291 million other balls. Buckle up.
This continues my specialty: Doing things no one else has done.
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LOL
I love it!
Quote: MichaelBluejayI've had this idea for about 20 years but finally implemented it: a visual representation of how hard it is to win the lottery. Chances of winning Megamillions or Powerball is about 1 in 291 million, so my page shows you a black ball (your winning ball), then shows 291 million other balls. Buckle up.
This continues my specialty: Doing things no one else has done.
link to original post
If those 291 million marbles were each one half inch wide, placed along Interstate 80, they'd stretch roughly from Sacramento to Toledo.
Best of luck!
Quote: MichaelBluejayI've had this idea for about 20 years but finally implemented it: a visual representation of how hard it is to win the lottery. Chances of winning Megamillions or Powerball is about 1 in 291 million, so my page shows you a black ball (your winning ball), then shows 291 million other balls. Buckle up.
This continues my specialty: Doing things no one else has done.
link to original post
lol.. Nice.
What i do is tell a person 'imagine a shuffled deck of cards'.
Imagine how hard it would be to pick the 5 of clubs.
And that's only 52 cards.
Now imagine picking 1 number from millions of numbers to win the lotto
Quote: DieterQuote: MichaelBluejayI've had this idea for about 20 years but finally implemented it: a visual representation of how hard it is to win the lottery. Chances of winning Megamillions or Powerball is about 1 in 291 million, so my page shows you a black ball (your winning ball), then shows 291 million other balls. Buckle up.
This continues my specialty: Doing things no one else has done.
link to original post
If those 291 million marbles were each one half inch wide, placed along Interstate 80, they'd stretch roughly from Sacramento to Toledo.
Best of luck!
link to original post
I– I still ain’t made up my mind yet about Toledo!
There are lots of ways to try to *imagine* it. Mine is the first way that *shows* you.Quote: 100xOddsWhat i do is tell a person 'imagine a shuffled deck of cards'.
Imagine how hard it would be to pick the 5 of clubs.
And that's only 52 cards.
Now imagine picking 1 number from millions of numbers to win the lotto
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I got the idea about 20 years ago but realized that a black image would one red pixel, 26 million pixels total, would overwhelm anyone's computer/browser. The secret sauce here is to not have one picture, it's to continually generate new balls that are deleted as soon as they scroll past view so they don't take up any memory. Also it does the heavy lifting (the scrolling) for you.
Quote: DieterQuote: MichaelBluejayI've had this idea for about 20 years but finally implemented it: a visual representation of how hard it is to win the lottery. Chances of winning Megamillions or Powerball is about 1 in 291 million, so my page shows you a black ball (your winning ball), then shows 291 million other balls. Buckle up.
This continues my specialty: Doing things no one else has done.
link to original post
If those 291 million marbles were each one half inch wide, placed along Interstate 80, they'd stretch roughly from Sacramento to Toledo.
Best of luck!
link to original post
It's roughly the distance from NYC to Mexico City, as the crow flies.
So what are the chances of there being 291 million Americans, and the one you are is you?
Quote: billryanQuote: DieterQuote: MichaelBluejayI've had this idea for about 20 years but finally implemented it: a visual representation of how hard it is to win the lottery. Chances of winning Megamillions or Powerball is about 1 in 291 million, so my page shows you a black ball (your winning ball), then shows 291 million other balls. Buckle up.
This continues my specialty: Doing things no one else has done.
link to original post
If those 291 million marbles were each one half inch wide, placed along Interstate 80, they'd stretch roughly from Sacramento to Toledo.
Best of luck!
link to original post
It's roughly the distance from NYC to Mexico City, as the crow flies.
link to original post
You got them floaty marbles?
Nice!
5+ hours is mind-boggling.
I guess I could also imagine I’m Professor Xavier and I’m seeing every American using Cerebro.
And that's for Lotto Texas at 1 in 26M. Try PowerBall / Megamillions for 1 in 291M and you're looking at *days*.Quote: smoothgrhI pressed the Stop button after about 30 seconds.
5+ hours is mind-boggling. link to original post
https://easy.vegas/games/slots/returns#spinsToReachRTP
Quote: MichaelBluejayWe all know about the RTP % for slots, but how many spins does it take to get there? Short answer: millions, which would take years.
https://easy.vegas/games/slots/returns#spinsToReachRTP
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i've had 40% return over 10k coin-in @ $3.75 (2600x) before hitting what i was going for.
I'm assuming a high variance machine takes more millions of spins to reach theo rtp than a low var machine?
Well, what does the article I just posted say?Quote: 100xOddsI'm assuming a high variance machine takes more millions of spins to reach theo rtp than a low var machine?
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I also want to be one who gets short-term > 100% payback on a machine, rather than experience the machine’s theoretical RTP percentage!
Quote: smoothgrhI now prefer to think of RTP as a percentage from the machine’s perspective, not the player’s.
I also want to be one who gets short-term > 100% payback on a machine, rather than experience the machine’s theoretical RTP percentage!
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The machine's theoretical RTP is not always stated correctly in the help pages. I refuse to be bound by numbers that are not calculated properly.
We had a discussion awhile back on how the Game King blackjack theoretical percentages are way off based on the rule changes like even money on blackjack and no double downs or splitting.
I'm also giving shout-outs within the map to some of my competing cartographers, like Strip Stumble and our own Dave Miller Gaming.
Quote: MichaelBluejayI just made a big update to my Ultimate Map of the Vegas Strip, lots of new features and such.
I'm also giving shout-outs within the map to some of my competing cartographers, like Strip Stumble and our own Dave Miller Gaming.
link to original post
Looks good! I noticed you mentioned Tylenol increasing gambling on a PSA to the right of the map, and I actually tried that. Took 1 gram of acetaminophen before playing over several sessions to see if it makes me feel any different when I get my spread down.
No discernible difference, although of course I am not betting for the same reasons a compulsive gambler or even an ordinary gambler is so it might only make a difference for those who are emotionally driven to gamble.
Quote: AutomaticMonkeyQuote: MichaelBluejayI just made a big update to my Ultimate Map of the Vegas Strip, lots of new features and such.
I'm also giving shout-outs within the map to some of my competing cartographers, like Strip Stumble and our own Dave Miller Gaming.
link to original post
Looks good! I noticed you mentioned Tylenol increasing gambling on a PSA to the right of the map, and I actually tried that. Took 1 gram of acetaminophen before playing over several sessions to see if it makes me feel any different when I get my spread down.
No discernible difference, although of course I am not betting for the same reasons a compulsive gambler or even an ordinary gambler is so it might only make a difference for those who are emotionally driven to gamble.
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Oh wow, i should try that.
I play UTH for fun but i press my bets when i win.
Buy in for $300, base bet is $10/$10.
So if I manage to press to $100/$100 (my max because max payout for a Royal is $50k), putting $400 on Play makes my heart race.
($600 on the table for 1 hand is double my original buy-in for playing for an expected 2 hrs)
Ironically, i'm so used to losing $2k on a slot play that it no longer phases me
Also, ugh, I forgot to update the Legend for the new map I posted. I just fixed it. If you already tried the Legend, try it again.
Quote: MichaelBluejayI met a young man with Parkinson's, he said the Parkinson's drugs caused him to gamble away everything he had, which also ended his engagement to the woman he was supposed to marry. He'd never had a gambling problem before. Some might say that he should have read the papers that came with the drugs, but the papers *made no mention* of the risk, even though it seems that the manufacturer was aware of it. It's scandalous. After I learned about that, I put the warning under the ads on the website. Then as I noticed more news articles about how other drugs can also encourage gambling, I listed and linked to those too.
Also, ugh, I forgot to update the Legend for the new map I posted. I just fixed it. If you already tried the Legend, try it again.
link to original post
One of the regular things I hear from GLP1 users is a reduced desire to gamble (and drink booze). I don't know if there's enough hard science on it yet, but definitely something to look for news about.
Quote: DieterQuote: MichaelBluejayI met a young man with Parkinson's, he said the Parkinson's drugs caused him to gamble away everything he had, which also ended his engagement to the woman he was supposed to marry. He'd never had a gambling problem before. Some might say that he should have read the papers that came with the drugs, but the papers *made no mention* of the risk, even though it seems that the manufacturer was aware of it. It's scandalous. After I learned about that, I put the warning under the ads on the website. Then as I noticed more news articles about how other drugs can also encourage gambling, I listed and linked to those too.
Also, ugh, I forgot to update the Legend for the new map I posted. I just fixed it. If you already tried the Legend, try it again.
link to original post
One of the regular things I hear from GLP1 users is a reduced desire to gamble (and drink booze). I don't know if there's enough hard science on it yet, but definitely something to look for news about.
link to original post
I attended a couple of GLP1 support group meetings because I've been thinking about trying them. I understand that the people who show up at support groups don't represent everyone using them, but some of the stories make you go hmmmm. It seems to me you are simply changing addictions.
Quote: billryanQuote: DieterQuote: MichaelBluejayI met a young man with Parkinson's, he said the Parkinson's drugs caused him to gamble away everything he had, which also ended his engagement to the woman he was supposed to marry. He'd never had a gambling problem before. Some might say that he should have read the papers that came with the drugs, but the papers *made no mention* of the risk, even though it seems that the manufacturer was aware of it. It's scandalous. After I learned about that, I put the warning under the ads on the website. Then as I noticed more news articles about how other drugs can also encourage gambling, I listed and linked to those too.
Also, ugh, I forgot to update the Legend for the new map I posted. I just fixed it. If you already tried the Legend, try it again.
link to original post
One of the regular things I hear from GLP1 users is a reduced desire to gamble (and drink booze). I don't know if there's enough hard science on it yet, but definitely something to look for news about.
link to original post
I attended a couple of GLP1 support group meetings because I've been thinking about trying them. I understand that the people who show up at support groups don't represent everyone using them, but some of the stories make you go hmmmm. It seems to me you are simply changing addictions.
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Maybe. My doctors are pretty convinced that I have a better chance of surviving whatever amusement I pick up better than my previous tendencies, however.
A1c is lower; weight is trending towards goal at a modest rate; they might just be right. I haven't started knitting ferociously (yet), so there may be some unintended consequences coming.
