Bills only, thank you!
July
19, 2008
Dear Mark: I
liked your column last week where you told Ruth
to slow down her play by inserting coins instead
of using credits. Unfortunately, where I play,
they only use bill acceptors. Still, it’s good
advice, just not here. Denny B.
A friend of mine has a
yellow ski boot where he hoards all his change
thru the year, separates it in different
denominations for slot play, and then hits the
casino for fun and frolic. Like you, where he
plays, the casino wants him to keep his loose
change at home. (Side note: The last I heard
Burger King still takes coins for their Value
Menu, although have you noticed -- they now ask
if you want to pay for that Whopper Junior with
a credit card?)
My apprehension with bill acceptors, or using
credit slips, is that you play slots oh, so much
faster. Twice, maybe even three times as fast.
Back in the day when you could plop coins in for
each spin, you would average 250 twirls an hour.
Today with credit play it’s double that, and
players of dubious talent with a hungry twitch
can see 1,000 spins.
What that means to player on a $1 slot machine
that holds onto, let’s say, 92% of what you put
into it, at $3 a yank, instead of losing $60 an
hour, it’s now $120 and $240 if you work at it.
Like you, Denny, it’s not only the $3.49 prime
rib buffets I long for.
Dear Mark: When you nearly line up three
jackpot symbols, does that mean the machine is
due to hit in the near future? Jenny S.
Ah, Jenny, were it only true!
Those "almost jackpots," Jenny, we call, "near
misses," and you see them for two reasons: The
fun factor, and to encourage you to keep
playing.
Although it seems you are on the doorstep of
hitting the big one, the odds don’t change on
your next spin. Your chances, albeit minuscule,
of hitting a jackpot are the same on each and
every spin whether you’ve had a near miss or
not. The near miss has no predictive talent.
Dear Mark: Do players win less when they
use their player’s club card? Sue N.
Just because you are accumulating comps on your
club card, the casino is not going to make you
pay for it with a lower return on their
machines. Besides, the random number generator
within doesn't even know you are using a slot
club card.
Let me also add, Sue, that differential paybacks
are illegal. Oh, and one more thing. Think of
all the time and energy the casino went through
to enroll you in the slot club and put you in
the database so that through its incentives
you’ll keep coming back.
They want you as a loyal, regular customer, and
not one it can screw over. Appeasing you with a
feeding frenzy at the buffet while stiffing you
on returns on their slots would make for bad
business.
Dear Mark: I have a coupon from our
local casino that pays 3 to 1 for a natural
blackjack. What’s that worth to the player
percentage-wise? Nick G.
Get your scissors or grab
your saber, Nick, clip that coupon and use it. A
3 to 1 payout on a natural in blackjack gives
the player a 6.52% advantage over the house.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week:
"No victor believes in chance." Friedrich
Nietzsche
