Where She Drops, Nobody Should Know
November 13,
2009
Dear Mark: Do
casinos have policies regarding the minimum
number of revolutions a roulette ball should
make before dropping off the track? What would
be considered too few? If the roulette wheel
stops moving before the ball lands in the pocket
or stops in less than a quarter of a revolution
after the ball lands in the pocket would that be
cause for concern?
Consider the following
scenario. A player comes to an empty table in
the morning and bets ten dollars straight up on
a single number. After that spin, a new dealer
is brought in who turns his head to the side and
yells out “What number do I have to hit?” The
player bets another ten dollars on the same
number. The new dealer says, “You can’t bet on
that number, you have to bet on the numbers that
I pick.” What are your comments on that? Daniel
D.
Casino operators,
Daniel, have plenty of security procedures in
place to preserve the integrity of their games,
out of self-interest, as well as to protect the
general public. You know the deal: Casino
managers watch the shift manager, who watches
the pit bosses, who watch the floorman, who
watches the dealers, while the “eye in the sky”
surveillance cameras, watch everything. Believe
me, Daniel, the last thing a casino wants is a
rogue dealer who thinks he can sector-shoot, or
a player exploiting a biased wheel or dealer by
clocking the wheel.
Is the wheel
coming to a dead stop while the ball is circling
above on the track permissible behavior? Not in
any joint that I ever dealt in, or probably any
casino for that matter. “Round and round and
round she goes, where she drops, nobody knows”
is the tune all dealers should be adhering to.
When I dealt roulette, I was trained
to either speed up or slow down both the wheel
and ball delivery before each spin to avoid
wheel clocking, but I’ve got to tell you,
Daniel, to consciously sector-shoot or pocket a
particular number with the wheel going one way,
the ball the other, with frets impeding a
descending ball and between the pockets, make it
frankly impossible to anticipate where the ball
is going to land. A slowing or stopped wheel
surely helps, but casino operators, for obvious
reasons, just aren’t hip to that happening.
As for the dealer yelling out “What
number do I have to hit?” or not allowing you to
play certain numbers, well, more than likely it
was just a flippant remark and/or a rude dealer.
Some dealers do believe they run the asylum.
The long and short of it, Daniel, is
that every casino has its own set of guidelines
for its dealers to follow, as well as a few
procedures I’m sure of that keep the wheel speed
within a certain range, and of course, players
being allowed to bet the numbers of their
choosing. Calling over a pit boss and explaining
your situation should correct both problems.
Dear Mark: If a casino
advertises video poker machines that can return
up to100%, wouldn’t they be losing money? Glen
D.
Yes, but
only if every player had access to “selected
machines,” and understood and used perfect basic
strategy. But since “selected machines” can be
fewer than a half dozen on the casino floor, and
probably less than one percent of players
effectively play perfect basic strategy, the
casino won’t lose money by making such an offer.
Oh, and Glen, one of the tricks of the trade is
for the casino to surround those “selected
machines” with others that have pay tables
offering significantly lower payoffs,
guaranteeing even more winnings from the
uneducated – and therefore preferred – patrons.
Gambling Wisdom of the Week: "The
stock market is a huge casino, larger by factors
of magnitude than all the casinos of the world
combined." --Ion Saliu
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