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.
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.
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
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.
Quote: AutomaticMonkeyJust 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: TomGInstead 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: WizardI'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.
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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: DieterQuote: 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.
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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.
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.
As to sports, I'll probably update my NFL data after this season. I could stand to update the NBA too.
As to how dealers learn to deal, they usually go do a dealing school. The schools are mostly the students dealing to each other. I shouldn't put them down as I haven't been to any. However, I can say that many times at the craps tables a dealer would recognize me from my videos and say he learned the rules from them.
I think I'll do some more betting system videos. I'll start with analyzing the system of any video with more than say 250,000 views. If anyone want to suggest one, I'm all ears.
Quote: Wizard
I think I'll do some more betting system videos. I'll start with analyzing the system of any video with more than say 250,000 views. If anyone want to suggest one, I'm all ears.
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There is one Youtube slot player who seems to put in $100 and try to double it before he goes broke.
I'm reasonably sure he is not playing with an advantage, but a review of how often he doubles up vs how often he goes broke (or rebuys) might be interesting.
(He seems to get around 20k views per video, with obnoxious commentary - even by the usual low standards of slot channels.)
Quote: Dieter
There is one Youtube slot player who seems to put in $100 and try to double it before he goes broke.
I'm reasonably sure he is not playing with an advantage, but a review of how often he doubles up vs how often he goes broke (or rebuys) might be interesting.
(He seems to get around 20k views per video, with obnoxious commentary - even by the usual low standards of slot channels.)
My question is does he post all of the losing videos? I wouldn't, winning generates more clicks.
Quote: DRichQuote: Dieter
There is one Youtube slot player who seems to put in $100 and try to double it before he goes broke.
I'm reasonably sure he is not playing with an advantage, but a review of how often he doubles up vs how often he goes broke (or rebuys) might be interesting.
(He seems to get around 20k views per video, with obnoxious commentary - even by the usual low standards of slot channels.)
My question is does he post all of the losing videos? I wouldn't, winning generates more clicks.
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I honestly don't know if he posts all the losing sessions.
With his particular style, he could, while keeping the subscribers engaged.
I know he used to post losing sessions, but his increased bankroll would allow for some tricky selectivity while maintaining a similar overall format.
Quote: Dieter(snipped!)Quote: Wizard
I think I'll do some more betting system videos. I'll start with analyzing the system of any video with more than say 250,000 views. If anyone want to suggest one, I'm all ears.
link to original post
There is one Youtube slot player who seems to put in $100 and try to double it before he goes broke.
I'm reasonably sure he is not playing with an advantage, but a review of how often he doubles up vs how often he goes broke (or rebuys) might be interesting.
(He seems to get around 20k views per video, with obnoxious commentary - even by the usual low standards of slot channels.)
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Wiz, hopefully you have a marketing budget.
Do slot videos. :)
$200 in a non-AP machine at high denom but lowest bet (ie: .10 so $5)
Play till
1) you're broke
2) good line hit
3) bonus
Rinse/repeat till you're out of marketing $
ask for more marketing $
rinse/repeat :)
Quote: Dieter
There is one Youtube slot player who seems to put in $100 and try to double it before he goes broke.
I'm reasonably sure he is not playing with an advantage, but a review of how often he doubles up vs how often he goes broke (or rebuys) might be interesting.
(He seems to get around 20k views per video, with obnoxious commentary - even by the usual low standards of slot channels.)
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Are you referring to Color Up?
Quote: WizardQuote: Dieter
There is one Youtube slot player who seems to put in $100 and try to double it before he goes broke.
I'm reasonably sure he is not playing with an advantage, but a review of how often he doubles up vs how often he goes broke (or rebuys) might be interesting.
(He seems to get around 20k views per video, with obnoxious commentary - even by the usual low standards of slot channels.)
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Are you referring to Color Up?
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No, but that seems similarly interesting.
Two very different statements, but from which can be deduced the same thing:
1) "I can see the position of the slot machine reels 5 seconds into the future."
2) "I can feel what my mental state will be after I see the reels 5 seconds from now."
The first one is likely forbidden by a naturalistic explanation. But the second, not so strongly, depending on how much anthropism you accept in natural science. For if Penrose and Hameroff are right and the human mind is sensitive to quantized events, there isn't necessarily entropy and thus there is no hard reason why events can't be reversible in time.
So I wonder which casino would allow a volunteer for the experiment to sit at a machine or table, wired up to an EEG and penile plethysmograph and track their physiological data relative to events: the last hand and the last series of hands (to normalize), and the next hand and hands which they have not yet experienced. Will it make a difference if they are playing with their own money, for keeps, or with funds provided by the experiment? Will it make a difference if they are playing for enough to induce an emotional response, or much less than that? How will an experienced counter at a blackjack table, who has made a prediction of the next hand with his count, fare relative to a basic strategy player for whom all hands are the same until he sees the cards? It seems like casino denizens are uniquely qualified to work such an experiment and gather enough data to come to a reasonable conclusion.
Do a hard ball interview with Mikki Mase.Quote: WizardI'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
let's see if he can fool yet another interviewer. If nothing else, he will distract you with some hot chicks and fancy comps.
https://wizardofvegas.com/forum/questions-and-answers/math/39834-fair-deal-when-holding-separate-number-of-tickets-to-casino-lottery/#post947166
It has real world application, and is surprisingly complex and I believe the consequences are very unintuitive. For instance I believe that the only fair approach will result in a situation where it's actually to your advantage to be picked last!
And you can add a level of complexity by introducing a third person, with person 2 and 3 to be "together" for the sake of interest.
In fact I'm surprised none of the math nerds in this forum picked up that post.
Quote: AxelWolfDo a hard ball interview with Mikki Mase.
let's see if he can fool yet another interviewer. If nothing else, he will distract you with some hot chicks and fancy comps.
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I'm open to it, but don't know how to reach him. Hopefully I won't be taken in by the hot women who hang around him.
Direct: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eK5MF-yXmBk