Creative Impasse

I've been saying for at least ten years now that it's hard to find anything new to say about gambling. However, I've really hit a wall lately. I enjoy analyzing games and writing about them. However, I feel like I've analyzed everything out there. I hardly ever see a new table game. The legal environment is there is little incentive to innovate. It takes at least $50,000 to develop and get to field trial a new game, most of the time. In the unlikely chance it is successful, there is little to stop the big companies from stealing it and simply give it a new name. I could spend all day walking through casinos and not see anything new.

My question for the forum is there anything in the casinos you feel I haven't given proper attention to? Any gambling questions I haven't not properly answered?

I welcome all thoughts and suggestions. Thank you.

How about simply be more creative with it.

There wasn't too much more to say about the mechanics of a hi-lo count after Thorpe's book. But I liked the story Mezrich told of people actually using it.

Instead of analyzing blackjack switch to tell us the best decision to make, analyze why it boomed as blackjack variant then disappeared and tell us that story.

It's very easy (and very boring) to figure out how much a casino earns per dollar bet on all the types of roulette, European, single zero, double zero, triple zero. It's elusive to figure out which one will give a casino the highest earnings. That could be interesting.

Personally, I'm most interested in the relatively new and pervasive sportsbook model of offering bets that they don't want customers to make, then limiting and backing off anyone who does make those bets.

First of all, I would like to thank you for the work you have done! It is very informative and has helped a huge number of people!


As for ideas and directions, in my personal observation, although there really have been few innovations in gambling lately, the following directions seem relevant to me:

Everything related to the probabilities of the result ranges.

a) Bets on a streak and the like. (this is unusual)
b) Probabilities of the game ranges. (since casinos are increasingly using rollbacks, advantage players take this into account when playing even in games with a negative mathematical expectation).
c) Buying bonus games is becoming very popular in slots

Take different betting systems that claim to work and explain why they don't work. Even buy a book that says it has the 'secret' inside and give the reasons why it will never work. Or give the reasons why they might work if that's the case.

Just the last thing to cross my mind: linked progressive jackpots on different table games. For example that thing the Venetian has been doing, big jackpot over $2.5M for rare hands (I think it's a diamond RF) on the poker-based carnival games, but the games all have different probabilities of seeing the hands. Seems like there should be some advantage to playing one and not the other. I see that in a lot of casinos now.

The impression I get is that the industry, like many others, is afraid of labor. That may be the biggest incentive to dump table games and replace them with slots- little to no labor involved in running a slot bank. I can remember when you were never out of sight of a restroom in a casino. Now you have to walk to the other side of the floor in some places. A restroom is labor- you have to assign someone to clean and resupply it, needs to be inspected continuously 24 hours a day because that's a popular place to do slip-and-falls and other kinds of bad behavior, so they'd rather say screw patron comfort, shut them down and wall them off.

Now you know the quality of dealers they've been getting these days, no English, bad attitude, not very competent, and if that's what they're going to get for what they're willing to pay, I can understand why they want to eliminate labor, and there's no way they want to try to teach them to deal a new and interesting game. Especially if there is only one or two tables of it, then they need to make sure they have qualified main and relief dealers for it on every shift they want it open. That's a lot of training to do (of people who are not exactly quick studies to begin with) to accommodate 1 or 2 tables.

I think you should update your writing on sportsbooks, what with so much of the action being online ... it really presents something quite different from walking into a brick and mortar sportsbook

Quote: AutomaticMonkey

Just the last thing to cross my mind: linked progressive jackpots on different table games. For example that thing the Venetian has been doing, big jackpot over $2.5M for rare hands (I think it's a diamond RF) on the poker-based carnival games, but the games all have different probabilities of seeing the hands. Seems like there should be some advantage to playing one and not the other. I see that in a lot of casinos now.

The impression I get is that the industry, like many others, is afraid of labor. That may be the biggest incentive to dump table games and replace them with slots- little to no labor involved in running a slot bank. I can remember when you were never out of sight of a restroom in a casino. Now you have to walk to the other side of the floor in some places. A restroom is labor- you have to assign someone to clean and resupply it, needs to be inspected continuously 24 hours a day because that's a popular place to do slip-and-falls and other kinds of bad behavior, so they'd rather say screw patron comfort, shut them down and wall them off.

Now you know the quality of dealers they've been getting these days, no English, bad attitude, not very competent, and if that's what they're going to get for what they're willing to pay, I can understand why they want to eliminate labor, and there's no way they want to try to teach them to deal a new and interesting game. Especially if there is only one or two tables of it, then they need to make sure they have qualified main and relief dealers for it on every shift they want it open. That's a lot of training to do (of people who are not exactly quick studies to begin with) to accommodate 1 or 2 tables.
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Do casinos teach their employees how to deal games? I thought people went to schools to learn games and were certified before the casinos hired them?

Quote: TomG

Instead of analyzing blackjack switch to tell us the best decision to make, analyze why it boomed as blackjack variant then disappeared and tell us that story.
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Yes, what happened to it?
I remember playing it at Casino Royale in Vegas a couple of decades ago. it was amazing with Switched bj auto wins so .18% HE!!!

Then a couple yrs later when i went back, they changed it to not auto win. :(

I haven't seen it this decade yet i still see Freebet BJ.
Why did it die?

Quote: Wizard

I've been saying for at least ten years now that it's hard to find anything new to say about gambling. However, I've really hit a wall lately. I enjoy analyzing games and writing about them. However, I feel like I've analyzed everything out there. I hardly ever see a new table game. The legal environment is there is little incentive to innovate. It takes at least $50,000 to develop and get to field trial a new game, most of the time. In the unlikely chance it is successful, there is little to stop the big companies from stealing it and simply give it a new name. I could spend all day walking through casinos and not see anything new.

My question for the forum is there anything in the casinos you feel I haven't given proper attention to? Any gambling questions I haven't not properly answered?

I welcome all thoughts and suggestions. Thank you.
link to original post

How about writing about gambling trends?

ie: High limit ($25/spin min) Dragon link
Grand progressive used to be capped at $1,888,888.
Then casinos uncapped it.

At one casino where it went to $2.5M, i've seen people betting $250/spin trying to hit it.
That casino has auto-pay till like $25k so if your win was less than $25k, you didn't need a slot attendant. Press a button on the slot screen to credit the $ into the slot with a w-2g recorded to your players card. Saves lots of time.
You can pick up the accumulated w-2g's at the cage whenever you want, including end of year.

One strategy is set the bet at $125 but only put in a $100 bill and press Lucky Chance.
Most of the time, you get a $125 bet for only $100.
It waaaaay slows down your play but if your usual bankroll is for $25/spin, this adds excitement by playing 5x your normal *AND* a huge progressive.
And you're sitting in that seat for longer and enjoying more of the moment by doing this.

Basically, more wealthy people have so much discretionary $ now because of the stock market and/or their baby boomer parents dying that they're blowing it for a chance for the new novelty of HUGE progressives on slots they normally play.

Quote: billryan

Do casinos teach their employees how to deal games? I thought people went to schools to learn games and were certified before the casinos hired them?

In the big jurisdictions there are usually "Dealer Schools" that run from three to six weeks for training. The new jurisdictions generally have the staff train dealers. They will hire experienced table game managers and pit personnel and have them train new dealers from the local area.

Quote: billryan

Do casinos teach their employees how to deal games? I thought people went to schools to learn games and were certified before the casinos hired them?
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As I understand, many prospective dealers go to "school" to learn cheque handling, card handling, pay/take procedure, and a standard way to deal one game (usually blackjack).

Getting the gaming license seems to be part of the hiring process - a background check, an application fee, and a few extra days for processing between the audition and the first shift, if you don't already have the card.

Learning house specific procedures and any other games is on-the-job training.

Quote: Dieter

Quote: billryan

Do casinos teach their employees how to deal games? I thought people went to schools to learn games and were certified before the casinos hired them?
link to original post

As I understand, many prospective dealers go to "school" to learn cheque handling, card handling, pay/take procedure, and a standard way to deal one game (usually blackjack).

Getting the gaming license seems to be part of the hiring process - a background check, an application fee, and a few extra days for processing between the audition and the first shift, if you don't already have the card.

Learning house specific procedures and any other games is on-the-job training.
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Poker dealer is probably the best position. you get to keep your own tips. (30hands/hr = avg $30+/hr + $5/hr salary)
the casino will once in a while hold a free poker school for in house employees.
During the poker boom of 2 decades ago, there used to be (not free) poker training for anyone at dealer school after you take the basic intro casino course.

Now with poker solved by GTO, fish are losing their $ FAST thus poker isn't as popular.
So if you want to be a poker dealer now, you usually have to get a job as a table dealer then after at least 6 months, sign up for in house poker training.

This probably takes too much work to compile data, but I was intrigued by the sportsbook baseball bet about whether a team will score in the first inning against a particular opponent starter.

Especially interesting to me is that my Oakland A's had for a season an experimental "designated starter" in which a relief pitcher pitched only the first inning, then the regular starting rotation pitcher came in.