Just say NO to keno
4 June 1999
By Mark Pilarski
Dear Mark:
Though I'm not a keno player, my favorite casino
offers a Special Bonus Keno ticket. All I have
to do is hit 19 out of 20, and I win $250,000.
Is this ticket worth a try? Marti S.
The nerve of your favorite casino calling it a
"Special Bonus" ticket. Let me illustrate how
appalling this ticket is. Let's say you were to
play one keno ticket per second, 24 hours a day,
365 days a year. According to laws of
probability you will catch 19 out of 20 once
every 93,420,116 years. What are the odds of
hitting it? Two quadrillion, 946 trillion, 096
billion, 780 million to one.
Unfortunately, Marti, this isn't the only
ruthless ticket in keno. The chances of hitting
10 of 10-and mind you they will only pay you
$50,000-is nine times harder than hitting your
state lottery. Then the casino has the audacity
to pay you what is called an "aggregate payoff,"
meaning if both you and someone else are playing
the same numbers and it hits solid, you split
the money.
Or how about this popular ticket here in
Nevada-the 15 spot. Chances of your hitting it?
428 billion to one. Tall odds, but consider that
no person has ever hit a solid 15 spot, a solid
14 spot, a solid 13 and to the best of my
knowledge, a 12 out of 12. As you can see,
Marti, these long-shot tickets-or keno in
general for that matter-are a game designed for
the Tootsie-Pop crowd; known by the casinos as
"a sucker's born every minute" club.
Dear Mark:
My husband claims that certain casinos use
different weighted dollar coins for their slots
in order to make it sound as if people are
winning in the casino. Is he right? Sally L.
Your husband is on to the casinos. It's not
heavier coins, though, but the tray where the
coins fall. Casino operators have long
understood the value of "the sounds of winning,"
so what some do is install "loud drop bowls,"
which are the metal trays that catch the slugs
when your slot is paying off. These deeper pans
tend to make more noise when the coins drop,
creating the misimpression that people are
winning big. Unfortunately, that sense of luck
is really nothing more than an illusion the
casino hopes will stir interest in playing their
machines.
Dear Mark,
How Did the strip get its name? Suzanne S.
One day I was walking down the strip in Las
Vegas recently and overheard a couple vehemently
arguing over how "The Strip" got it's name. The
husband said; "Bugsy Siegel named it when he
built the Flamingo-and I should know, I played
there the second week it was open." The wife
believed it was Liberace who named the Strip.
The dialog was hideous and I would have butted
in, but like I said, they were arguing, actually
screaming at a level that brought security out
of Caesar's Palace. Now, I've seen some
skirmishes over positioning in a $3.49 prime rib
buffet line, but over how the Strip was named?
It's a first.
So, Suzanne, here's how "The Strip" got it's
name.
Known also as Las Vegas Boulevard and earlier
the Los Angeles Highway, The Strip's name came
from a Los Angeles Police Captain named Guy
McAfee, who said it reminded him of Sunset
Boulevard (Strip) in LA. The story doesn't end
there with Captain McAffe. He was a Las Vegas
casino owner as well. McAfee purchased the
Pair-O-Dice on the Los Angeles Highway in 1938
and reopened it as the 91 Club.
Liberace's early fame came from being the first
to demand, and get, $50,000 a week to perform in
Vegas.
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