Dear Mark: I
was sitting at a casino bar in casual
conversation with another player who said
that he was a card counter. I asked him why
play here since this casino uses only
continuous shuffle machines. He replied that
he liked to play on them because it drew
less scrutiny versus a hand or shoe dealt
game. Funny thing was that he was broke and
couldn’t even buy a round of drinks. Was he
pulling my leg? Tom D.
So let me get this straight, Tom Here’s a
guy bellied up at the bar, tapped out and
unable to by you a dollar draft, telling you
he loves continuous shuffle machines because
they draw less heat from pit bulls. Huh?
I remember reading a few years back that
Shuffle Master, one of the manufacturers of
continuous shufflers, offered $100,000 to
any player who could show that a continuous
shuffle machine could be beaten by either
shuffle tracking or card counting
techniques. What I haven’t read is anyone
ever collecting on that $100,000 challenge.
But thwarting card counters isn’t the only
reason casinos love continuous shuffle
machines. What they like best about a
constant shuffle machine is that dealers do
not waste time manually shuffling the cards.
From the casino’s perspective, shuffling is
time, and time is money -- their money.
The more hands you, the player, see per
hour, the more you are exposed to the house
edge, which allows the built-in casino
advantage to eat away at the chips in front
of you. It’s for this reason, Tom, and not
the ability to count down a deck or two that
I’m no fan of continuous shuffle machines.
Dear Mark: If as you say, all spins
are random, then how can a machine be set to
return a certain percentage back to the
player, especially machines that
“supposedly” are advertised to return 98%
back to the player? Tracy H.
Let’s start with the premise that when a
slot machine displays the outcome of any one
particular spin, it hasn’t been picking and
choosing; it displays at a mechanically
dictated moment, a randomly arrived-at
member of a pre-defined pool of possible
outcomes.
Now, Tracy, to guarantee a 98% return on a
select machine, all the casino has to do is
add up all the money the player could win on
all of the equally likely outcomes, then
divide that by the total number of all those
possible outcomes, and out pops the payback
percentage of that particular machine.
To radically simplify matters, imagine an
undernourished, underprivileged machine with
only 100 possible outcomes – although
today’s electronic gizmos actually have
millions and millions – and the total amount
of money you can win when you've hit them
all is 98 dollars. Divide 98 by 100, and
there’s your 98% payback machine.
What happens over the long haul is that the
odds of getting any particular outcome will
get closer to 1 out of 100, and the amount
of money the machine pays back will get
nearer to 98% of the money wagered. But when
you’re dealing in real world slots, with
millions and millions of possible outcomes,
it doesn’t necessarily mean that every time
you sit in front of a slot machine and play
through $100, you should expect to end up
with 98 credits.
Dear Mark: Why shouldn’t I insure my
twenties against a dealer ace? It’s darn
near a guaranteed winner, so why not protect
it? Zell R.
Who’s holding at least two of the cards the
dealer needs to make blackjack? YOU, Zell.
When you insure a hand composed of two 10
cards you’re giving the house a huge edge,
up to a 14.3% edge on a single deck game,
making this one of the worst bets you can
make in the casino.
Granted when you do insure a pair of 10’s,
30% of the time you'll save your wager, but
70% of the time you'll be throwing half that
bet away. To me, that’s a losing proposition
every time.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week:
"What's a whale?” he asked finally. Martinez
clinked his glass against the window. "A
whale is someone who can lose a million
dollars at cards--and not give a damn.' "
--Ben Mezrich, Bringing Down the House
