Casino Tips

Intuition impacts on our decisions - every single day. But what is it? Where does it come from? And should you trust your guts ahead of data-driven decision-making?

You walk into a casino and find yourself lost in a maze of flashing slot machines, Blackjack tables, exuberant Craps players, and scantily clad cocktail waitresses.

Human beings love to gamble. We’ll put our money down on spinning reels, card games, tumbling cubes of ivory, horses, dogs, sporting contests, flips of a coin – even digital representations of any of the above.

Blackjack is a lot of fun – and it’s even more fun if you’re winning. In a typical game, you have less than a 50% chance of winning, so it’s no surprise that skilled players employ various strategies to gain an edge.

It’s 1:00 a.m., Las Vegas time, and you’ve been hammering at the casino all day and all night. Blackjacks drop as if you have control over the cards. Instantly seven-ing out at the craps table is something that happens to other people. You’re not controlling the dice but you may as well be.

Every game in a casino is one of probability. While certain bets you make and actions you take are under your control, the outcome is always dictated to some degree by chance.

Whether you gamble online for fun or as a profession, there’s no doubt that it’s an exciting way to pass the time and make money. However, there are a number of surprises that you’d never have expected before you started playing...

The glitz and the glamour of the red carpet returns to Hollywood this Sunday, as the 88th annual Academy Awards rolls into LA. Held at the Dolby Theatre in the heart of Tinseltown, the Oscars gives the film industry its opportunity to showcase its finest talents – from actors and actresses, to make-up artists and special effects experts.

There's just something so romantic about the underdog winning isn’t there? The history of sport has thrown up some almighty upsets over the years, crowning the most unsuspecting of champions and seeing the unfancied beating the odds-on favourites.

It’s not everybody who happily bets enormous sums of money in some of the ritziest casinos on earth – and gets asked to stop playing. This happened to Don Johnson and, along the way, he became a gambling-world legend.

Ocean’s Eleven was one of the biggest grossing movies of the 21st century, and while most patrons went to watch George Clooney, Matt Damon and Julia Roberts, it left plenty of others wondering what security is really like in large casinos.

Playing smarter in a casino does not necessarily require a lot of math knowledge and special skills. It is very helpful, of course, to study the games and learn about mathematical odds, but what if you don’t want to go to "gambler’s school".

Online gaming is not a new concept. Since the earliest days of the internet, players have been engaging opponents in a wide variety of titles, with the earliest examples being competitive matches of traditional games like chess and checkers.

You drop your coin in and pull the handle, the wheels spin and finally settle, and sadly you don’t win the jackpot. But instead of the game being over, an icon appears and says “click to win a prize”.

Are there good casino players and bad casino players? Or are all the games just dumb luck with no way to distinguish a hierarchy among those who plod the casino playing field and those who run through it? Is Jimbo (who plays loads of money on all the Crazy Crapper bets such as the Any Seven and the Hardways) as smart a player as Joe (who plays small on the Pass Line with maximum odds)?