I doubt many video poker players even consider this question. They head to the casino (or play online) hoping their luck will bring them riches – or at least buy them some decent time playing their favorite video poker game.

Serious video poker players – those who learn and practice perfect video poker playing strategy for the specific game and pay table they will play are betting on the game being random. Each line of playing strategy assumes that video poker games are random. If the game is not random, the strategy is flawed and perhaps worthless.

So, what is the truth? Are video poker machines actually random? Will playing strategy based on a random game have the desired results? This article addresses these topics.

Contents

1. How video poker machines work – the RNG
2. What is random when it comes to video poker machine certification?
3. Do video poker strategies work on today’s video poker games?
4. Summary

How do video poker games work – the RNG

The engine producing “randomness” in video poker is called a Random Number Generator or RNG. It is a routine that generates a series of numbers very quickly based on some starting “seed” number. Given the same seed number, the RNG will produce the same sequence of numbers.

That does not sound very random, does it? Technically it is not random. Because of this, RNG’s are said to produce “pseudo-random” numbers. 

Here is how the RNG works in a video poker machine. When the machine is first powered up the RNG begins generating numbers. It continuously generates thousands of numbers a second in the background whether the machine is being played or not.

Whenever a player hits either the deal or draw button, a series of numbers produced at that instant is captured. These numbers are then translated into the recognizable cards with a suit and rank based on the captured numbers. 

Previous versions of video poker machines (they are now antiques), would capture and translate 10 numbers into cards. The first five would be the initial deal and the second five would replace any of the original cards that were discarded.

Current versions capture only the initial five numbers for translation into the original hand. When the player hits the draw button, additional numbers are captured and translated into the positions of the discards.

Keep in mind that the RNG is constantly working, generating thousands of numbers every second.

What is random when it comes to video poker machine certification?

The gaming control boards or commissions of each gaming jurisdiction certify video poker machines. They are responsible for certifying the “fairness” (randomness) of each game that is installed on a casino gaming floor. 

They are well aware that these casino games could be rigged to unlawfully skew the results and therefore give the house an unlawful advantage. 

Rigorous tests are performed to determine that over time, the results are well within the expectations. The results must match the mathematically produced frequencies dictated by a random game.

The results may not exactly match the mathematical results, but they must be very, very close. If they are not, the approval is rejected.

Do video poker strategies work on today’s video poker games?

The short answer is yes – as long as the game is certified. Keep in mind that video poker strategy is based an infinite number of hands. Certified games will necessarily be based on a finite, though very large Sampling.

The machine may be off by a very tiny amount. A certified game is only certified to be close enough to random to be considered random.

As a side note, there have been some strong doubters that video poker games are random.

In an effort to prove that games were not random, one such individual took data during actual play. The number of hands played and the number of selected winning hands such as full house, and/or flush were noted. The “proof” was the number of these select winning hands did not match the frequency from a random game. This could be anecdotal proof, but from the numbers I saw, there were nowhere near enough hands in the sampling to make the results meaningful.

I decided to do my own test. For seven years, with a total of over 450,000 hands, I tracked the number of full houses, straight flushes, four of a kinds, royal flushes and number of hands containing four of a flush that became a flush.

During those years I played exclusively at one casino. As far as I know, I played perfect or very nearly perfect strategy as witnessed by my practice sessions at home.

I kept track of the information by machine number and game. There were 12 different machines. The frequencies initially were all over the place. As more hands were added, however, the frequencies settled into something very near that of random. 

Even though each of these machines had a computer generated RNG, the results appeared to mimic those of a random game.

Summary 

• Video poker games are powered by a computer routine called a random number generator (RNG).
• Because it is a programmed routine, by definition, it cannot be called random. Instead, it is called a pseudo random game.
• RNGs generate many thousands of numbers every second.
• Capturing some of these generated numbers at the instant the player presses a button adds a random variable to the cards these captured numbers are translated into.
• This combination of circumstances makes video poker games close enough to random to be considered random.

One important part of video poker strategy has nothing to do with what cards to hold or discard. Optimal play starts with being able to tell the higher-paying games at a glance.

That means comparison shopping to find games with the highest paybacks on winning hands. The most common way for a casino to raise or lower the payback percentage if offers video poker players is to change the returns on full houses and flushes.

But be aware that changes also can be found elsewhere on the pay table. As a rule, changes on more common hands that rank low on the pay table have the biggest effects on your overall return.

With that in mind, let's look at pay table variations that have the biggest impact on payback percentage and your shot to win in non-wild card games. 

Two Pairs

Ever wonder how a game such as Double Double Bonus Poker can pay at least 50-for-1 on four of a kind with jackpots up to 400-for-1 on four Aces with a 2, 3 or 4 as the fifth card? For a five-coin bet, that's a whopping 2,000-coin bonanza, while Jacks or Better pays only 25-for-1, or 125 for five coins, on any quads.

Some players think four of a kind must be rarer in Double Double Bonus than in Jacks or Better, but that's not it at all. Nothing in the composition of the deck or the frequency of cards dealt is changed at all.

The difference is in the payoff on two pairs. Jacks or Better pays 2-for-1, or 10 coins for a five-coin bet. Double Double Bonus reduces the two-pair pay to 1-for-1, or 5 for a 5-coin wager. That's enough to cover all the bigger payoffs on four of a kind hands.

In 9-6 Jacks or Better – with the "9-6" standing for a 9-for-1 pay on full houses and 6-for-1 on flushes – the average return with expert play is 99.5%. If the two-pair return was dropped to 1-for-1 with no other payoff changes, that average return would plummet all the way to 86.7%. 

A fall of 12.8% drop in payback is enormous, plenty to pay for bigger four of a kind returns. In 9-6 Double Double Bonus Poker, the paybacks on all winning hands except two pairs and four of a kind are the same as in Jacks or Better. Two pairs drop to 1-for-1. Four 5s through Kings rise from 25-for-1 to 50-for-1, four 2s, 3s or 4s to 80-for-1, four Aces with most fifth cards to 160-for-1 and four Aces with the low-card kicker to 400-for-1.

Offset those huge quad paybacks with the reduced two-pair pay, and 9-6 Double Double Bonus returns 98.98% with expert play.

Jacks or Better and Bonus Poker are the only standard games that pay 2-for-1 on two pairs. There are many games that reduce the return to 1-for-1, including Double Bonus Poker, Super Bonus Poker, Bonus Poker Deluxe, Super Aces and White Hot Aces. All have big increases in quad pays, and the smaller return on two pairs makes those increases possible.

Full Houses & Flushes

Let's take these two together since full houses and flushes are the most common pays changed when casinos raise or lower payback percentages. Players in the know refer to games by returns on those hands, with a number for the full house return followed by the flush return. A 9-6 Double Double Poker game pays more than an 8-5 version of the same game, and 8-5 Bonus Poker pays better than 7-5 Bonus Poker. 

You can find multiple versions of each game online, and sometimes in live casinos you can find higher and lower paying versions on different machines on the same casino floor.

Neither has as profound an effect as the two-pair reduction. Each unit changed in payback on a full house or flush raises or lowers the overall return by a little more than 1 percent. 

If you started with 9-6 Jacks or Better with its 99.5% average return to experts and dropped the full house payback to 8-for-1, the resulting 8-5 JB game would drop to 98.4%. Then if you drop the flush by a unit, the resulting 8-5 Jacks or Better would offer experts an average return of 97.3%.

Though the payback change isn't a steep as on two pairs, full houses and flushes are important because variations are so common. Virtually every wild card game is available with a many full house-flush payback combinations. 

It's the first place you should look when comparison shopping among non-wild card games. If all other paybacks are the same, a Jacks or Better game with higher returns on full houses and flushes will average a higher overall return than those with lower paybacks. The same goes for Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, Bonus Poker Deluxe or any other game. Look first at those hands, then compare the rest of the pay tables.

Four of a Kind

Video poker developed a loyal following from the moment Jacks or Better hit casino floors in the 1980s. But interest went through the roof when huge paybacks on four of a kind came into vogue, edging that way with Bonus Poker in the late 1980s, then really taking off with Double Bonus Poker, Double Double Bonus Poker and more in the 1990s.

Big returns on quads, and especially on four Aces, made players feel like there were attainable hands that could make a big winning session.

Nearly all common video poker casino games pay a big jackpot on royal flushes, usually 250-for-1 but jumping to a 4,000-coin windfall for a five-coin wager. On a 25-cent game, that's $1,000 making for a great day in the casino. But royals occur only once in about 40,000 hands, with the exact amount depending on game and drawing strategy.

Next on the Jacks or Better pay table is straight flushes, paying 50-for-1 – 250 coins for a five-coin bet that amounts to $62.50 on a 25-cent game. That's not an overwhelming return and it comes up less than once per 9,000 hands.

Four of a kinds occur a little less often than once per 400 hands. Given that most experienced players get in more than 500 hands per hour, a majority of sessions will include quads. But in Jacks or Better, they pay only 25-for-1, 125-for-5, or $31.25 in a quarter game. That'll keep you going for a while, but it won't send you home feeling like a big winner.

Video poker needed an attainable secondary jackpot to go with the royals. Four of a kind did the trick. Bonus Poker was a start. It raised four 2s, 3s or 4s to 40-for-1 and four Aces to 80-for-1, $100 for a five-coin bet on a 25-cent game. Then Double Bonus Poker doubled all quad payoffs, upping four Aces to 160-for-1, or $200 for five coins on quarter machine.

That did the trick, catching interest from players who hadn't caught video poker mania. Other games upped the voltage, such as Double Double Bonus Poker paying 2,000 coins for a five-coin bet – $500 on a quarter game – when four Aces are accompanied by a 2, 3 or 4. 

Quads are attainable, but not so common that a small increase on the pay table with make a big impact on the payback percentage. Four of a kind returns have to be huge to offset the effect of reducing the two-pair return. 

So the quad returns are enormous on many games, drawing in players with jackpots other than royals that can make your day.

Minor Changes

Two pairs, full houses, flushes and four of a kinds have common pay table variations that make a big impact on our shot to win.

Returns on straights and three of a kind are less commonly changed, but are important to their specific game.

Original versions of Double Bonus Poker paid 5-for-1 on straights instead of the 4-for-1 common to other games. That's important enough that players refer to Double Bonus games by three numbers instead of just the full house and flush returns.

The first release of Double Bonus was a 10-7-5 game, paying 10-for-1 on full houses, 7-for-1 on flushes and 5-for-1 on straights. That's rare today, though sometimes seen in Nevada. The best you're likely to find in most of the U.S. and online is 9-7-5, and even that's not everywhere.

Watch out when the pay table goes lower. A 9-6-5 Double Bonus game has an average return with optimal play of 97.8%. Many casinos drop the straight payback to 4-for-1, reducing the overall return to 96.4%. If you're going play Double Bonus, look for that 5-for-1 return on straights.

Increasingly popular is Triple Double Bonus Poker, a roller coaster of a game that pays 4,000 coins for a five-coin bet on four Aces with a 2, 3 or 4 as the fifth card. 

With other enhanced quad paybacks, it takes more than just the usual reduced two-pair return to offset the quad bonanzas. So three of a kind is reduced to 2-for-1 instead of the usual 2-for-1. That reduces overall return by a little more than 5%, enough to offset the jumbo four of a kind pays.

But the straight and three of a kind changes are special cases. The others are the bedrock of video poker variation. Look for those changes and choose wisely whenever you play.

Check out more of 88casino's video poker tips.

People have a tendency to catalog other people, places, and things as greats or not-so greats. This must be a part of our emotional constitution to define everything and everyone. 

Fighting? Muhammad Ali versus Joe Louis? Who would win? Ali versus Marciano? Ali versus any name you want to put here. Ali versus Tyson; the young Tyson? Sometimes these debates can turn, well, brutal. I rarely take part in them. But I am certainly aware of them.

What’s the greatest building in the world? The tallest? The widest? The prettiest? Is a pyramid better than the original Taj Mahal? What mud hut has the best design in the Amazon jungle?

The world of gambling has its greats too. I’ve met some of them. In fact, I have been helped by some of them. In fact, one of them is my mentor – or was my mentor. 

Ken Uston versus anyone? Paul Kean? The one and only "Arm"? The very Captain himself?

Poker? Who was the greatest poker player? Who won the most money at roulette? I wish I had the answers to all these questions. I don’t. But I do have some answers to some questions.

Here we go.

The Greatest Dice Controllers of All Time? 

Yes, some players through training or innate talent can control the landing of the dice at craps. They can have consistent winning rolls.

'The Arm'

I would put "the Arm" right at the top. I have never before or since seen anyone with dice control the way she had it. Interestingly enough she was not a gambler! She was a part of the Captain’s crew composed of about 22 or so players who frequented Atlantic City in the 1970s, '80s, and early '90s.

The Captain would ask her to roll the dice. He’d put up a pass line bet for her and that was that. 

The Arm then rolled. She was not perfect; no shooter is but her sense of the game was beyond amazing. There were nights when the Captain’s crew were taking a licking and the Arm would pull them out of it. Often.

When she entered a casino (I swear) the other players would open up an area in front of her and let her through – like Moses parting the Red Sea. They were anticipating a miracle and often they got it. 

Her craps throw was unique. I could never duplicate it. Trust me I tried. No one I ever met could duplicate it either. It was geared to her body I guess. It certainly wasn’t geared to mine. Or anyone else that I ever met. 

I don’t even know how she set the dice. At the time I met her, I was in awe and I didn’t ask her any questions. I was always in awe. Yes, that was stupid of me but what can you do? It would have been presumptuous of me to ask. You don’t question a goddess. 

How old was she at the time I met her? Probably 70-something or so. 

I am guessing that the glorious Captain and his crew are playing craps in the afterlife. And right there with them is the Arm; a one-of-a-kind shooter.

The Captain

At one time he held the world record for the longest roll – nearly 150 numbers in a row. 

The Captain had the most profound effect on me. He taught me everything I know about casino gambling. Although he was a craps player, he had a strong penchant for understanding the human psyche of the typical gambler. And he taught me about it. He taught me how to avoid the pitfalls of gambling.

He taught me how to manage my money and how to make sure I had enough funds to make it through the rough patches in my play.

The Captain understood that most players often had no idea of what those house edges they faced meant and what those edges meant for their money. His belief was simple; players thought they could win but they were counting on luck and luck was fickle. I saw this all the time. Someone got hot but that never lasted a long time. Then they got cold and cold could last almost forever.

Indeed, when I taught courses in dice control I was disappointed, then aghast, at players who continued to bet stupidly after the class. They were told that these bets would do them in … yet they continued to make them. And then (believe it or not) some of the teachers encouraged them to make these bets as well. I left teaching the subject when I realized that nothing I taught was getting through. 

I was wasting my time. These players were gamblers. Could some students actually learn dice control? Indeed, they could, if they gave up the gambler’s idea that bets with ludicrous house edges could be beaten.

Interestingly, the Captain never pushed his ideas on anyone. Some of his crew were wild gamblers – that was their choice the Captain would say. Even some of his crew played the slot machines!

But the Captain stuck with his method of play and his method of shooting. He influenced Jimmy P., who became a good shooter when he reined in his inner gambler. And there was the Arm too. And me. And a few others.

I would say without question that the Captain was the greatest player I ever met. He’s long gone now, as are all the members of his crew. If there is an afterlife, these folks are waiting for the Arm to appear to get them out of their holes.

Those were the days.

Jerry “Stickman”

At the table, Jerry would remove his hearing aides (both of them) and the noise of the casino would disappear into a stillness and a kind of calm quiet. Then he would shoot those cubes. 

He was (and still is) a great shooter. He only made the best bets and he never showed off or bragged. He was the consummate professional. You don’t meet many people like him.

He is also six-foot-four. And skinny. With long arms; a body especially made for dice control. When he bent over the table his arm could go past the real stickman.

I met him when I was teaching the dice control classes and when I quit he soon left too. I became great friends with him and for years we would both meet up in Atlantic City and shoot craps. Now our interests have become far broader.

I’ve lost most of my interest in beating the games, although I still enjoy the casinos and Stickman, my wife the Beautiful AP, and I continue to travel together. (And here this is our loving nod to Stickman’s deceased wife.)

My Blackjack Life 

The best blackjack game I ever played was at the Maxim Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas in the early 1990s. Every card except one was dealt from a single deck. When the cards ran out, the dealer grabbed the cards that already had been played, shuffled, and then dealt them.

The game had the best rules. You could surrender your hand; you could double any first two cards; you could split pairs and double after splits.

Even a basic strategy player had an edge on this game and my wife and I had a huge edge. We were $5 players back then. We were just learning how to count cards. We literally stumbled on this game as we were staying in this hotel.

We were going to stay in Vegas for a week but with this game? We stayed eight weeks; playing two hands each and playing for about eight hours a day. Oh, and if you got a blackjack while betting $5 you received a token that could be used anywhere in the casino – including at the gourmet restaurant.

At night, I practiced my dice control technique. And this game brought Paul Kean to our attention.

Paul Kean

I went to the Gambler’s Book Club and asked the manager Howard Schwartz if he knew someone who could teach me some tricks at this amazing game. He introduced me to someone who worked in the store, Paul Kean.

“He’s the best blackjack player in the world,” said Howard.

So why was he working in a book store? Best in the world?

Here is his story, edited, and made as short as possible which was always Paul’s wish. He learned card counting in the 1970s. He even taught Ken Uston, the flamboyant "King of Blackjack" way back when. 

He was working the bookstore now because all the casinos in Vegas had banned him or gave him the option of betting no more than $15 on any hand. (He had some friends in the casinos.) 

I told Paul about the game and invited him to dinner with my wife the Beautiful AP.  He knew the game and a free meal? Why not.

“I can show you a method almost no one knows about,” he said. “It’s called end play.”

There was a time in Las Vegas when some casinos offered this type of blackjack game. End play was the method wise players used when the cards were about to be reshuffled. What would the count be at that time? Would you have an edge? How did you maintain an edge if the cards were taken from the discard rack, shuffled and replayed? How should you bet?

We went to our room and Paul gave us a detailed lesson on end play. Paul accepted the invitation(s) to dinner and we worked together on this “end play” and on other aspects of blackjack. End play was actually pretty easy.

The other things? As they say in Brooklyn (where I grew up) “forgetaboutit.” I couldn’t get a handle on any of these things. Follow clumps of cards in the shoe game? Couldn’t do it. Cut the cards so that the aces would come out right away. What?  I was no Ken Uston but I didn’t have to be. Not really.

I was going through a divorce from my first wife and I was broke and $40,000 in debt. 

How would I recover? The Beautiful AP told me this as we sat on the beach at Cape May in New Jersey: “You are going to become a famous writer. Money? You’ll have no money worries at all.”

She was right. The Beautiful AP and I were $5 players when we started our blackjack life. We’d range our bets from $5 to maybe $25 in high counts. By the time we left the Maxim? We were betting a hundred dollars and we’d move up to a thousand in high counts. And the casino was pleasant about this too. Remember, we played four hands! And had free gourmet dinners every night thanks to plenty of blackjacks!

When we were getting ready to leave to go back to teaching, one of the bosses said to me, “Frank, how can you afford to leave this game?” I thought he was going to have me arrested. “I, uh, haven’t lost too much …”

“Frank, Frank, how can you afford to leave this game. We’ll be closing it down soon.” Then I understood. He knew what we had done in our weeks at the Maxim.

“I miss my kids,” I told him truthfully. “And I’ve got to get back to teaching.”

“Say hello to Paul, if you see him,” he said.

“Sure,” I said. I never met Paul Kean again. 

Sadly, I don’t know what happened to Paul Kean but I do know about End Play in blackjack. The Maxim was the only time I got to use it in a casino. But that game and then meeting the Captain started me on my path to where I am now. 

I write. 

I enjoy my life.

And my wife, the Beautiful AP was right about my future writing career. It is great to have a smart wife who loves you unconditionally. 

… and my kids? They are pushing 50 now. Hard to believe. They will never know some of the greats that I have known and from whom I’ve learned.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

There are casino games where you win more bets than you lose and games where you lose more bets than you win. The total game’s results may be a loser for the player but this bet or that bet can go for the player more often than not.

There are games where the players’ losing streaks can go on and on. Take traditional roulette for example. If you are betting on one number, the ball can land in 37 or 38 or 39 different pockets – and that means you can go on a massive losing streak.

[Please note: The casino world now has three roulette games. You have the most popular American double-zero wheel, with a usually green 0 and 00; or the European/French single-zero wheel, with one usually green 0; or the new game of the triple-zero wheel, with the 0, 00, and 000 generally in green. 

The payout for a winning single number is always 35 to 1 on all games. Yes, that triple-zero wheel is a killer when it comes to losing streaks because you have so many more pockets where the ball can possibly land! And the house edge is massive too. Deep breath: 7.69%! While the double-zero game comes in at 5.26% and the single-zero game comes in at 2.7%. 

Oh, a little note here: the triple-zero game was created in a church! A church!]

Roulette Bets

Let us say, oh, you decide to bet all the numbers. Hey, why not splurge? Every spin will be a win! Hurrah! But every spin will also be a loss of either 36, 37, or 38 numbers depending on the wheel you are playing. Yuck! So, that’s a lot of losses for a single win. Yuck again.

Is there a way to make roulette more of a 50-50 game? Almost but not quite. 

You can choose to bet the even-money bets of red/black, or odd/even, or high/low. Sadly, these even-money bets will pay even-money but they are not 50/50 propositions. You will win fewer times than you lose but betting this way can forestall very long losing streaks. 

Sadly, no roulette game offers you the possibility of winning more bets over time than losing more bets over time. Still, some methods of betting are somewhat close contests in terms of winning or losing your individual bets. The even-money bets are decent wagers if your goal is to hang in there without being quickly wiped out.

Remember that roulette was James Bond’s favorite game but even Agent 007 couldn’t beat it.

Blackjack: The Most Popular Game

Yes! Yes! Yes! A game where you win more than you lose. Hurrah! Hurray! Hu-uuu-uum (cough, cough, cough).

No, no, sorry. Not so. You do not win more hands than you lose. I don’t know where you got that idea. You actually lose more hands than you win. 

Players win about 44 hands, lose about 48 hands, and tie the rest of them. (These are approximate numbers but you get the idea.)

You see blackjack is a close contest where the house has about a half percent edge over a basic strategy player, but how that house edge is created has to do with premier or bonus hands. Here are some examples: 

• The player receives a blackjack and is paid 3 to 2. (Some blackjack games have reduced this pay out to 6 to 5. Avoid those. That’s a big hit on your bankroll. No one needs that. If no one plays those 6-to-5 games, the casino will remove them … maybe.)
• The player can double down on certain hands. Which means putting up a separate bet on your hand and getting only one card. It is advantageous to double down correctly.
•  The players can split pairs. The player can double down on some splits.

These hands bring the player more money if played correctly. You want to win more money in such favorable situations. This is where the players can overcome the high number of hands the casino wins at the game. More money is leaving the game than coming into the game.

Okay, so how do you play blackjack correctly? You learn the correct basic strategy for the blackjack games you wish to play. This strategy is the absolute perfect way to play your hands.

Now, if you are going to learn blackjack correctly don’t make the mistake of throwing in with “gamblers” who decry basic strategy as wrong based on their individual “eccentric” opinions. Basic strategy is the computer-derived proper play of every hand versus the dealer’s up-card. Period. Follow it and play the game correctly. Don’t follow it and your losses will be magnified.

If you have trouble memorizing the correct basic strategy most casinos will allow you to bring a basic strategy card to the table. Do so.

Some helpful hints for maximizing your chances of winning:

• Play at full tables. The fewer hands you play the better your chances of winning. The more hands you play the better the chance you will be behind. The fewer hands you play, the better the chance you will be ahead. This falls into a simple saying: The more money you bet on different hands, the better chance you will be behind.
• Go to the bathroom when the dealer is actually dealing and not while he or she is shuffling. There is no casino law that says you have to wait to go to the bathroom. You’ll generally get credit for your time even when you are in the bathroom if the casino is crowded. 
• Do not play more than one hand. You are simply throwing more money into the casino house edge when you play more than one hand. Just lost a couple of hands in a row? Sit out the next hand.
• Take your time deciding what to do with your hand – even if you already know what to do! It is important to slow the game down as much as you can. A slow game will have you play fewer hands. The dealer's job is to deal fast and some dealers take that seriously; the player’s job is to slow it all down. Few players take that seriously.

Blackjack is a great game but you have to be careful with your playing decisions. A great game can become a bad game if you do not play correctly. Playing correctly is totally in your court.

Craps: The Exciting Game

World War II was the time craps ascended to become the favorite game of soldiers around the world (at least allied soldiers). 

The game originated “down south” along the Mississippi River. It was a street game in the cities as it moved North. Have an alley near you? Great. The exact right place to play a game of craps. 

The original name for the game was “crabs” but as the game moved North, northerners started calling the game craps since “crabs” sounded like craps to northern ears.

In the years of the great war, the game flourished. You had poker and craps, the two favorite gambling games. When the war ended, craps became the favorite table game in the casinos until blackjack deposed it due to the card counting revolution. 

Craps is still in second place. By the way, if you check out a craps game you will discover that the game is a “man’s game” as most tables rarely have women players. When I learned the game, you would rarely (rarely, rarely) see a woman playing.

My first experiences with craps came when I met the late Captain, an Atlantic City legend. He had a “crew” of 22 high rollers and these folks were in the casino almost every weekend.

I was studying to do the lead role in a play, "The Only Game in Town" by Frank Gilroy, and I met the Captain in Atlantic City one night. Boy did I learn about craps and casino gambling from the man! 

My entire gambling career began when I met the man. I dumped acting, directing and producing and teaching for the excitement of challenging the casinos. That’s a whole other story of how my wife the Beautiful AP and I tackled “chance and circumstance” and many of my books and television shows reference the Captain. It is rare in life that one person has so much influence over another but in my case, the Captain did.

The best way to play craps? Make one or two bets These can be the pass line and come bets with odds – forget the worse bets which is almost all of them and forget the darkside – why be hated? Also place the 6 or 8; all this after finishing the Five-Count. (In a future article I will write about the Five-Count.)

Mini-Baccarat: A Good Game Ruined by Speed

Two things you should be aware of when you play mini-baccarat: the speed of the game (when I say speed I mean SPEED) and the superstitions of some very superstitious players. Most superstitious players are quietly superstitious, right? But not in mini-baccarat. If they are superstitious they can be loudly superstitious.

You will note that the seat for number 4 usually has a number 5 as its number. Why is that? Superstitious players have requested that the casinos eliminate that position on the table – the number of that position that is – because the sound of that number reminds them (I think it reminds them) of death. 

The casino didn’t want to kill anyone so they changed the number of the seat. They also want those players, many of them high rollers of the highest order, to play at their tables. Can you blame them?

The original game of baccarat used to be played on an extra-long table that had several dealers – males in suits or tuxedos; females in evening dresses. The game was expensive but it was also leisurely. Those long tables are now mostly gone; replaced by a somewhat large blackjack-styled table.

One of the fun parts of the game was the fact that players could deal the cards. Could such a rule have any impact on the game? Not at all but it was fun. Players no longer deal the cards. There is just one dealer, in a typical casino uniform who now deals.

Mini-baccarat has three bets: the bank, the player, and the tie. The bank’s house edge is a tiny 1.06%; the player has a somewhat larger house edge at 1.24% and the tie bet? A waste of your money! The bank pays even money but a commission of 5% is taken from a win since the bank bet actually wins more than 50% of the time; the player bet also is paid 1 to 1; while the tie bet – forget about it.

If mini-baccarat were played at the same speed as normal baccarat then, other than comfort, there is no harm done. But mini-baccarat is fast – so fast that its speed can go over 160 hands per hour! And the players are expected to bet fast and maybe even faster than that.

The tables usually have a host of side bets that they can make – usually crummy bets. These bets just suck the money from the players’ bankroll. You can almost hear the vacuuming sound as the money is sucked from the table. Woosh!

The low house edges on the bank and player hands are great; the speed of the game is not great and the side bets are awful. This is, sadly, a formerly terrific game, now ruined by the incorporation of speed.

HOWEVER, if you can cut your play down to playing only half the hands, then you should be okay. Add that to cutting out all bonus hands and all ties and (oh what the heck) all “player” hands and you still have a decent game. Try to slow down the game even more if you can by going to the bathroom during game time and not during shuffles.

Summary

Players love to gamble. That’s why they go to casinos. But there are better and worse bets. Make the better bets? You have a decent chance to win. Make the worse bets? Forget about it. You might get lucky tonight but over time? Seriously, you know the answer to that question.

All the best in and out of the casinos!

Though new slot machines pop up all the time and it can sometimes seem like they grow on trees, as if each one is some kind of a natural resource. Of course, in reality, that is not the case. Technology, creativity and an understanding of gaming regulations are all behind the appearances of the most popular slot machines. 

One that people find impossible to turn away from, at the moment, is Rome: Fight for Gold – Deluxe 20000X. Themed around the Roman Empire and its legions of leather-clad soldiers, the game is designed to put players right into the thick of things as they capitalize on the collect feature, bonus feature and boost features.

Inside Game Development

This game is the brainchild of Foxium. Based in the Northern European nation of Estonia, Foxium lives up to its sly-sounding name by devising games that feature strong story-telling components.

The company was founded by Daniil Sanders and Ake Andre in 2015, with the mission of creating innovative video slots with groundbreaking features and narratives that make playing a game as engaging as watching a movie. 

The appealing part for players who come across a Foxium game on 888casino – besides Rome: Fight for Gold, the company’s hit titles include Lucky Bakery and Adelia – is that they can be entertained and still have a chance of winning money. The combination is irresistible.

An up-and-coming producer in the world of cool slot machines is an outfit called Dream Spin Studios. The company, founded in 2023, recently dropped its first game Buzz Thrill. If you play it on 888, you’ll see that it is out of this world in every sense of the word. The game is set in outer space with re-spins that go up to 46,656.

Founded by Josh Green, James Rosen and William Barnes – all of whom, according to Green, “are passionate gamblers at heart” – Dream Spin Studios is particularly interesting for the fact that it ranks among the few companies to transition from being a slots streaming firm to being a full-on boutique games studio.

Now engaging in the creation of cool slot machines, it has the advantage of being run by guys who are astonishingly well educated on what makes a good slot. 

“We can proudly claim to have played nearly every type of slot, old and new, more than anyone else involved in a game studio,” Green stated in Casino Beats. “If we don’t understand what makes a good slot, it’s doubtful anyone does. 

As put by Green, “We are extremely excited to turn our ideas and visions for thrilling game play into reality.”

Having gotten our first taste of the fantastic Buzz Thrill, we at 888 can’t wait to see what they will come up with next.

More on the Horizon

One of the tastier options out there, when it comes to cutting edge slot machines, is a company called Gameburger Studios. In operation since 2019, the company promises to offer slots that are “going to be as juicy and delicious as the best hamburgers.”

Even the website plays off the name, promising offerings that are “fresh and right off the grill.”

Humorous as all of that may be, Gameburger is serious about putting out online slot machines that players find difficult to turn away from before filling up on action.

Capitalizing on years of experience in designing land-based games, the company’s employees and managers focus on reconfiguring and improving Microgaming titles so that they work in the digital environment. Included in the company’s roster of hits: 9 Masks of Fire, 9 Pots of Gold, 11 Champions, Break Da Bank Again Respin, Playboy and 12 Masks of Fire Drums. 

Among the hallmarks of these games: Higher RTP percentages (that is, money returned to players), great visuals, memorable audio effects and HTML5 technology. That last bit means that the games can be played on laptops, desktops or mobile devices, all with the same great experience. Whatever is employed, the quality will be consistently strong. 

That has not gone unnoticed by influential folks in the gaming world. In 2023 at the International Gaming Awards, Gameburger snagged nominations for game of the year and rising star of the year.

As far as players are concerned, they’re bound to go wild for 12 Masks of Fire Drums, the newest Gameburger offering, which dropped on July 30. What makes the game so good? Besides the strong graphics for which Gameburger is justifiably famous, this slot machine has 96% RTP, high volatility (which makes the payoffs more exciting) and 20 paylines. 

Promised by promotional material for this epic game: “Feel the beat of the African heat.” No doubt, players will feel it as they push hard for ever-escalating bonuses. 

Vegas Vibes

While playing online, it is easy to forget about the shimmering allure of Las Vegas, the gambling capital of the world and the place where it all began. Anton Kuhlman and Serena Petersen, co-founders of AreaVegas are making efforts to keep online game players enjoying the vibe of Vegas and all that it has to offer. 

They founded AreaVegas in 2022 and, as is made clear on their website, the company is “inspired by the glitz, the glam and the games of Las Vegas.”

The pair’s goal is to provide online players with optimal experiences that are every bit as good as what they can enjoy in favorite brick and mortar casinos on the famous Vegas Strip. 

Proof of that can be gleaned via AreaVegas’s just released, fabulous, debut game called Phoenix. Loaded up with compelling features, the game offers fireballs that lead to the hatching of eggs, which, in turn, jack up money that can be won and lead to re-spins that can go up to 5X on each spin.

Make your way to valuable eggs of the phoenix herself and there is the potential of 5,000x. Phoenix provides a visit to a mythical land where players want to be. We predict that this game serves as a harbinger of what’s to come to come from the very promising AreaVegas. 

Committed to quality, the people at the core of AreaVegas vow to create winners, “both in our games and players.”

Casino players like to win often. They also like to win a lot of money. The two goals sometimes are in conflict. Winning more often is not always the best thing for your bankroll. That's as true for online players as for those who play in live casinos.

Roulette is no exception. There's a built-in tension between winning more often and winning more money just as there is in blackjack, video poker and many other casino games.

In blackjack, taking the "even money" form of insurance will guarantee a win anytime you have a blackjack and the dealer has an Ace face up. But you'll win more money if you skip the insurance on games with the traditional 3-2 pays on blackjacks. If the dealer also has blackjack, you'll have to settle for a push, but the 3-2 pays come often enough that you win more money by declining insurance and winning a little less often.

In Jacks or Better video poker, if your hand includes a Jack or higher along with a low pair, you'll win more often by holding the high card and discarding the rest. That yields the best chance at a high pair that wins five coins for a five-coin bet. But if you hold the pair instead and discard the others, a greater proportion of wins will bring bigger payoffs. You win more money while winning less often. 

Roulette involves no decision-making as complex as that in blackjack or video poker. The only way a roulette player has of increasing win frequency is to bet on more numbers.

The problem is that with rare exceptions, betting on more numbers does not decrease the house edge. Average results bring losses at the same percentage of your wagers whether you bet one number, all of them, or anything in between.

And on American double-zero wheels, there is one way to bet more numbers that actually increases the house edge compared to other wagers. Before tackling the exceptions, let's check out the basics.

COVERING ALL THE NUMBERS

Imagine you cover all the numbers so you have a winner on every spin of the wheel.

There are several ways to do it. One is to make single number bets on every number, including 0 as well as 1-36 on a single-zero wheel as is common in Europe, or 0 and 00 on the double-zero wheels common in the United States. Online roulette players can find both European and American roulette games.

Covering all the numbers for $1 each requires $37 in wagers on a single-zero wheel or $38 on a double-zero wheel.

On each spin, you are guaranteed to have one winner, and single-number winners pay at 35-1 odds. That would earn you $35 in winnings and you'd keep the $1 wager for a total of $36.

Problem is, that doesn't cover all your bets. It leaves a net loss of $1 on a single-zero wheel  for a house edge of 2.7% or $2 on a double-zero wheel for a house edge of 5.62%.

Those are the same house edges as on most other bets. If you made just one single-number bet or one four-number corner bet or one 12-number column, the house edges still would be 2.7% on the European wheel or 5.62% on the American.

Worse, by covering all numbers with single-number bets, you guarantee an overall loss for the spin. At $1 per number including the zeroes, your total wager is $37 with one zero or $38 on a double-zero wheel. Your one winning number would leave you with $36, smaller than your total wager. You win on every spin, but never make a profit.

The guaranteed loss of $1 per $37 wagered means the house keeps 2.7% of your bets. That reflects the house edge of 2.7%. On a double-zero wheel, covering all numbers with single-number bets brings a loss of $2 per $38 wagered. That's 5.26%, the same as the house edge on almost all bets on that kind of wheel.

OTHER COMBINATIONS

Winning on every spin but never making a profit is self-defeating, so on one plays that way. Instead players seek combinations that will win a majority of the time and can bring a profit.

One simple way is to bet on two of the 12-number columns. That gives you winners on 24 numbers, leaving 13 losing numbers on a single-zero wheel and 14 losers with both 0 and 00.

If you bet $5 on each of two dozens, you risk $10 per spin. If the ball lands on any of your 24 numbers, you win a 2-1 payoff on one of the columns. That's a $10 payoff, plus you keep the winning $5 bet giving you $15. You have a $5 profit on the spin.

The problem is that if the ball lands on any of the other numbers, you lose both bets for a $10 loss. On a single-zero wheel, there are 13 $10 losses for every 24 $5 profits, or $130 in losses offsetting $120 in profits. That net loss is 2.7% of your total wagers, equal to the house edge.

On a double-zero wheel, there are 14 losing spins, so your $120 in profits on the winning spin are offset by $140 worth of losses per 38 spins. The average result per 38 spins is $20 in losses, or 5.26% of total wagers.  Again, the average loss is equal to the house edge.

You can show a profit if winners come up just a little more often than usual. On a single-number roulette wheel, if numbers in your dozens come up 25 times in 37 spins instead of 24, then you show a $5 profit for the sequence. 

That's what keeps combination players going: the chance that for a short time, their chosen numbers will come up just a little more often than average.

There are many such combinations, usually more complex that betting a couple of columns.  All win more often than choosing a bet on the layout, and some win much more often than they lose. 

The downside is that any losing spin costs more money than any winning spin gains, and single losers usually wipe out multiple wins. In the end, average results will lead to the house keeping 2.7 percent of money wagered on single-zero wheels and 5.26 percent on double-zero wheels.

You win more often with these combos, but in the long run you don't win more money.

THE BASKET TRAP

One bet available on double-zero wheels but not in single-zero games extracts a toll for those trying to win more often by covering more numbers.

That's the five-number basket bet on 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3. If you bet $5 on the basket, for 38 spins you risk $190. On any of the winners, you're paid 6-1, so you win $30 and keep the $5 bet. That happens an average of five times per 38 spins, leaving $175 in your stacks. 

Since you've risked $190, that's a $15 average net loss. Instead of losing 5.26% of your total as on other bets at double-zero roulette, you lose 7.89%.

You may win more often betting the basket than betting on a single number, two-number split, three-number street or four-number corner, but you lose more money. And any combination that includes the basket faces a higher house edge than combinations that leave it out.

Never bet the basket. If you want those numbers, cover them with different wagers.

THE EXCEPTIONS

There are ways to win more often and lower the house edge in some French and Atlantic City roulette games. 

Special rules in those games cut the house edge in half on bets with even-money payouts: odd or even, 1-18 or 19-36, and red or black.

In the United States, you'll mainly find single-zero French roulette in online casinos. There are several optional rules. One prime example is called "en prison" – basically, if the ball lands in zero, your wager on an even-money option doesn't lose. It's held in prison for the next spin.

If the next spin is a winner for you, you get your bet back. If not, you lose.

Imagine you bet on red. If the ball lands on zero, your bet is held en prison. If the next spin is red, you get the bet back, but you lose it if the ball lands on black or zero. 

That drops the house edge all the way to 1.35%, half the usual 2.7% on single-zero roulette.

The Atlantic City half-back rules is mainly available on double-zero wheels in New Jersey. The house takes only half your money if the ball lands on one of the zeroes. Imagine you’ve wagered $10 on black. You lose $10 if the ball lands on a red numbers, but only $5 if the ball lands on 0 or 00.

That cuts the house edge on from 5.26% to 2.63% on double-zero wheels

When those rules are in play, your best bets are to stick with odd or even, 1-18 or 19-36, or red or black. You win more often by covering 18 numbers at once, and you slash the house edge. For a roulette player, that's the best of both worlds.

Most serious video poker players understand what elements define a good game. These elements include return, variance, and strategy complexity. For most serious players, return is the main element considered when choosing a video poker game to play.

Many video poker players understand what return is. Fewer understand how video poker return varies during play. Fewer still know how to calculate their actual return for a session, day, trip, or year. This article addresses these topics.

Contents

1. Return in video poker defined
2. Examples of typical video poker returns
3. How to calculate actual video poker return – short term and long term
4. Summary

1 – Return in video poker defined

Return is simply the amount of money that is returned to the player on average from the casino. It is expressed as a percentage. For example, a return of 95% means that on average for every $100 played through the game, $95 is returned to the player as winnings. The casino enjoys a 5% profit on this machine.

The short-term return can vary wildly. The player could hit a royal flush, skyrocketing the player’s return. The player could also go long periods of time without hitting any wins of consequence, plummeting the player’s return.

After long periods of play, however, the return should approach the mathematically calculated percentage which is based on an infinite number of hands.

2 – Examples of typical video poker returns

Video poker returns vary depending on the casino, casino location (in Las Vegas, the Strip, downtown, and locals’ casinos), specific video poker game, denomination, and even game location within a casino. Some typical returns: 

• Locals’ casinos – 97-99% and higher
• Downtown Las Vegas – 96-99% and higher
• Las Vegas Strip – 95-98%

Obviously, there are some casino games that are outside of these ranges, but these percentages are typical for the area specified.

3 – How to calculate actual video poker return – short term and long term

Many video poker players I know are not really worried about the return percentage. They only keep track of how much they brought to the casino and what they have left when they leave. Those figures alone are not enough.

To calculate return percentage, several pieces of information are required. They are:

• Amount inserted into the game(s)
• Amount cashed out
• Number of hands played
• Amount bet per hand

It is very difficult to keep track of hands played. One good method of doing this is keeping track of the number of player’s club points earned for the session and knowing the dollars required per point. Additional information to calculate number of hands played:

• Beginning player’s club points
• Ending player’s club points
• Amount required per point

Getting the amount inserted into the game and the amount cashed out is straightforward. Simply log the amount every time another bill or bills is/are inserted. Then log the amount of every cash-out.

The amount played per hand is also straightforward. This can be done by logging the bet per hand or by multiplying the denomination by the number of credits per hand (usually five).

What follows is a detailed explanation of how to calculate the actual return percentage from any amount of play.

1. Add up the total amount inserted.
2. Add up the total amount cashed out.
3. Subtract the total amount inserted from the total amount cashed out giving the amount won (positive result) or lost (negative result).

Next calculate the total amount played through the game. This is calculated by multiplying the amount bet per hand by the number of hands played.

• Amount bet per hand – use the amount logged or multiply the denomination by the credits played per hand (usually five).
• Number of hands played – if this number was counted and logged, use it. Otherwise, it must be calculated based on player’s club points.

1. Subtract the beginning player’s club points from the ending player’s club points giving the points earned for the session.
2. Multiply the points earned by the amount required per point giving the amount played through the game for the session.
3. Divide the amount played by the amount bet per hand giving the total hands played for the session.

All the information required to calculate the return percentage is now available. Multiply hands played by amount bet per hand giving the amount played.

Divide the amount won/lost by the amount played and multiply that by 100 to give the actual return percentage for the session.

Notice that when using player’s club points to calculate hands played, the amount played is an interim step, so if you do not care about the hands played, there is no need to do that calculation.

The exact same process is used to calculate actual return percentage for a day, visit, or year. Simply add up the amount won/lost, and the amount played for each session you want included in the final result, divide the total amount won/lost by the total amount played and multiply by 100 for the actual return percentage for the period being calculated. 

Here is the calculation in mathematical notation.

• amount played = number of hands played x amount per hand
• return percentage = amount won/lost/amount played x 100.

The calculations are simple. Getting all the required data can be a little more challenging.

For more information, check out 888poker's complete video poker strategy guide.

4 – Summary

The mathematical return percentage is based on an infinite number of plays. To calculate a short-term (session, day, trip, month, year, etc.) return percentage you need:

• Amount won (expressed as a positive value) or lost (negative value)
• Amount played through the game (number of hands played times amount bet per hand)

To get the total amount played requires multiplying the hands played by the amount bet per hand. Knowing the actual return percentage is not required for better play. It is an interesting side note for serious players.

Serious casino gamblers understand the concept of the return of casino games. Simply put, it is the amount of money bet while playing a casino game that is returned to the player. 

Most also understand that the return percentages given are mathematically calculated and are based on an infinite number of bets. They understand the short-term return percentages can vary significantly from the mathematically calculated long-term return percentages.

Few gamblers understand how the transition from short-term to long-term results works. Many gamblers, systems sellers, and pundits also do not understand this phenomenon. 

Is any casino game ever due? Read on to find out.

Contents

1. Why do people feel casino games are due?
2. Definition of random games
3. Definition of due
4. The fallacy of a casino game being due
5. Summary

Why do people feel casino games are due?

As explained in the introduction, return from casino games can, in the short-run, vary dramatically from the mathematically calculated return percentage. 

Take the simple example of flipping a coin. A player can bet on either heads or tails showing. A bet on the correct result pays even money. A coin can end up heads or tails. There is a mathematically calculated return of 100% in a fair flip since with an infinite number of flips both heads and tails should appear equally. The player wins one dollar on half the bets and loses one dollar on the other half the bets.

Here is an example. The player always bets one dollar on heads. If a head shows, the player wins one dollar. If a tail shows, the player loses one dollar. Here is a sample run.

• Heads – return is 100% (bets $1, wins $1, total win $1)
• Heads – return is 200% (bets $1, wins $1, total win $2)
• Heads – return is 300% (bets $1, wins $1, total win $3)
• Tails – return is 200% (bets $1, wins $1, total win $2)
• Heads – return is 300% (bets $1, wins $1, total win $3)

How about a more complex example? This is not a casino game but illustrates a point.

There are four red balls and one black ball ball in a bag. The player bets one dollar. A random ball is pulled out of the bag. If it is a red ball, and red was bet, the player wins one dollar. If it is a black ball and black was bet, the player wins four dollars since a red ball is four times as likely as a black ball. The calculated return on this game is also 100%. Here is a sample run. 

• Black – return is 400 percent (bets $1, wins $4, total win $4)
• Black – return is 800 percent (bets $1, wins $4, total win $8)
• Black – return is 1200 percent (bets $1, wins $4, total win $12)
• Black – return is 1600 percent (bets $1, wins $4, total win $16)

In both cases, the player is up more than the mathematical average. 

It seems logical that in the first case tails are due and in the second case red is due. This is the basis for the “due theory” in gambling. But, are tails or red truly due?

Definition of random games

Casino games are all classified as random games. This is accomplished by a randomizing method for table games, such as shuffling the card deck or randomly releasing a ball onto a spinning roulette wheel. On slot machines or video poker a computer software routine called a Random Number Generator or RNG is used. 

What is the definition of random? According to Merriam-Webster, random means lacking a definite plan, purpose, or pattern. In the case of casino games, random means there is no pattern. Outcomes cannot be predicted.

Definition of due

Merriam-Webster lists several definitions of the adverb, due.  “Required or expected in the prescribed, normal, or logical course of events: scheduled” applies to casino games.

The fallacy of a casino game being due

In both sample runs in section one, return percentage is skewed in favor of the player. The problem with thinking that something is due is the fact that by the very definitions of random (no pattern/cannot be predicted) and due (scheduled) nothing can be considered due in a casino game.

Almost every betting system touted by pundits and sold by systems sellers is based on the false assumption that something is due. One example is waiting until red has not appeared on a roulette table for 10 or 15 times, then bet red.

Because the specified event is random, it cannot be predicted. Black (or green) could appear for the next 20 or 25 spins of the wheel.

It works the other way also. In video poker, royal flushes occur once every 40,000 or so hands. But that does not mean that a player must wait 40,000 hands for the next royal flush. They can occur back-to-back … -to-back. It is unlikely, but possible in a random game.

Summary 

The feeling among gamblers that some event is due in a casino game is very common. When slot machine players feed bill after bill into the machine only to have it quickly gobbled up by the machine, it seems logical to feel that some wins are coming.

When someone touts a betting system based on a certain event either happening or not happening, it seems logical that the system should work. Most often those systems do work – for a while. Ultimately, however, even the most logical-sounding betting system will fail and cause substantial losses simply because players are betting on a random event.

Believing that something is due in a casino game is not bad – in itself. What is bad is taking action that causes you to bet more money chasing this (false) due event. 

Do not let logical-sounding but false ideas alter your normal, controlled play in the casino.

Walk through a brick-and-mortar casino or log on to 888casino and the slot machines are impossible to miss. Chinese themed Zodiac Lantern Rabbit, the enticing Cash Eruption and jewel-centric Sapphire Spin are all amazingly alluring. They’re the games you want to play for quick spurts of gambling satisfaction and potential cash payouts.

But what is inside these flashy sirens of the gambling world and how do they work?

Early Slots

Back in the day, before slot machines were computerized and when they truly lived up to their “one armed bandit” nickname, the machines were purely mechanical. Fittingly then, the first slot machine was fashioned by a San Francisco, California, auto mechanic named Charles Fey. 

Known as the Liberty Bell, it hit American barrooms in the late 1800s with three motorized reels and paid out 50 cents when three Liberty Bells stopped at the same time. Other images on the reels were hearts, diamonds and spades, just like in a deck of cards, which, no doubt, got the juices of gamblers flowing.

For decades to come, Fey’s invention served as the slot machine paradigm. Refinements – such as a mechanism for recognizing counterfeit coins and splashy glass fronts with themes that made the gambling devices all-the-more eye-catching – were implemented, but it was the insertion of video capabilities that changed everything and brought slot machines into the modern era.

Computers in Slots

That began in 1975 when a machine called Fortune Coin turned heads on casino floors. Gamblers lined up to play that first slot machine as it operated on a computer screen.

Twenty years later, the Odyssey machine had a mega-sized screen and made players feel like they were gambling on a high-tech TV. Sound and video cards inside the Odyssey models provided bells and whistles on the outside.

But it was the implementation of computer chips that made slot machine interiors come to resemble those of Mac Book Pros. Such upgrades allowed the games to step up to 21st century standards.

These days, the inner workings of your favorite slot machines are driven by the chips and circuit boards that allow the outsides to be visually compelling and a hell of a lot of fun to play.

Random Number Generator

Dominating the guts of every slot machine is the random number generator, also known as the RNG. It’s a nifty piece of technology that keeps the machine in line and makes players happy. The random number generator guarantees that the slot pays off exactly as it is supposed to.

Let’s say that a machine is promoted as having a 95% payout (or a 5% hold; i.e., the money that is kept by the casino), the RNG insures that it happens over time. This means that on average, over the course of millions of spins, the machine will keep 5 cents for every dollar put in.

In the short term, however, it can hold a lot more or a lot less. A strong desire for the latter, of course, is what keeps us playing.

The RNG is continually coming up with series of numbers that translate into the outcome of a slot machine play.

It does that many times per second and never stops. It’s complicated for a three-reel or five-reel machine and even more so when there are, say, 25 paylines, as is the case with Saved By The Bells. But the RNG never stops calculating and locks in as soon as the machine handle is pulled or the play button is pressed.

At that point the machine knows the outcome. But, via the deployment of sound and video, the information is revealed to players in exciting but efficient manners. Usually, it’s accented with shimmers of gleaming visual effects and synthesized audio to indicate a winner. For that we can thank the sound and video cards tucked inside the slot machine.

Money Matters

At brick-and-mortar casinos, money to facilitate the play is usually inserted via bill readers, like the ones that we use in supermarkets. This sucks in the cash and scans your Benjamins to make sure they are not counterfeit. Online, of course, the funds are kept on account and the process is all done digitally.

Hit a jackpot online and you get to celebrate at home in whatever manner best suits you. 

Hit one in a live casino, and, depending on the jurisdiction, the machine’s inner workings contain a program to do a few things. In Nevada, for example, if the win exceeds $1,200, the machine’s interior computer sets it into what is known as “jackpot lockdown.”

This means that the machine essentially freezes until a few things get sorted out. For starters, a casino employee comes over so that the win can be confirmed, the player’s identity can be verified and the all-important payoff can take place. Next, a tax form is filled out so that the US government gets its share of the windfall.

For more modest wins, machines that used to settle-up with showers of coins now do it the modern way. Inside the machine is a thermal printer, which spits out a receipt – not unlike what we get at the ATM – that can be redeemed for cash. 

All players hope to experience the thermal printer in action – it means that you won! – but what you won’t have to deal with are certain features inside the machine that are only for casino managers that oversee slots action.

Activated by a key inserted into the machine, there is a touchscreen that shows how much money has been gambled on the machine and how much has been paid off. In the event of a dispute over the outcome of a spin, there is also an interior program that can replay recent spins. They are used to settle any disagreements.

Looking Ahead

While there is no doubt that slot machines are state of the art and getting to be even more so – especially as they move up to their next level and become increasingly like video games of skill – there are some components that remain much like the games that were rigged up by ingenious Charles Fey back in the late 1800s. 

As one veteran slot machine designer put it during a gaming conference in Germany, “As long as you keep the essential slot machine DNA, you can create whatever experience your player needs to have.”

Surely, his fellow designers would agree with that line of thinking, and the inner workings of state-of-the-art slot machines, whether played in a Vegas gambling spot or online via 888casino, will bear that out with increasing complexity.

The famous fashionista Tim Gunn has a theory about why today’s civilized folks  aren’t quite so civilized after all. His theory can be filed under the heading of “the  slobbification” of our world. Or some such title. 

Today’s citizens of the United States and, perhaps, England, just don’t have a  fashion sense the way they used to. Even the poor had “Sunday, go to meeting  clothes.” Heck, Easter Sunday saw thousands of well-dressed folks frolicking down  Fifth Avenue in New York City – and many of these people, those taking part in  the parade, were not rich. They were, shall I say? All of us! 

Do you remember the movie scenes where they showed folks who were highly  dressed to participate in or to be involved in adult activities?  

In the casinos the players wore suits and ties and the rich folks wore gowns or  fashionable dresses; the men wore tuxedoes. Yes, now sing the following verse,  “those were the days my friends we thought they’d never end.” 

Check out film clips of baseball games or boxing matches or most other sports and  theatre and movies and you’ll see that most of the fans or attendees wore suits  and ties (no less) and, if they were women, they wore dresses.  

In short, you had to dress up to go out. That was considered proper for going out  on the town. “You didn’t,” as my mother said, “want to dress like a bum.” 

Sometime after World War II – maybe late 1950s – we started to see a slight  change in dressing decorum. Here and there would be men not wearing suits and  ties here and there and some women who wore (heaven help us!) pants. It was  beginning back then.  

In short, a new world was budding right before our eyes. Most of us (when young) didn’t notice it or pay it any mind. Our mothers saw to that. 

By the end of the 1960s, all hell broke loose. Boys in their teens and 20s were  wearing long, unkempt hair, earrings, nose rings, and the girls? Heaven forbid what you saw them in or out of – and you saw them not wearing “Sunday, go to  meeting clothes!” for sure. 

Adults still held the line … for a while. But in the 1980s, no one wore suits and ties  to ball games or the casinos and, heaven forfend, teachers often didn’t wear suits  and ties in their classrooms! 

Women wore pants everywhere; children started to become (how can I say this?)  somewhat deranged – they threw fits seemingly for no reason. The world of  parenting was becoming a world of “I’m friends with my children” and “isn’t he  cute throwing that fit?” What? What? My mother, and father, would belt me if I  behaved like that. 

The 1990s? This was obvious that the world I loved most – the world of the  casinos – had undergone a radical change. 

Dressing up? Nonsense. Rare to see someone in a tux – unless he was getting  married. Maybe not even then. She? It was hard to not try to catch a peek under  the wedding dress; it was that short. (Being a well-trained, good man, I  refrained ... well, mostly.) 

Tim Gunn has put the correct label on our age – it is the age of slobbification.  Everything that was nice, that was elegant, has been “slobbified” by, well, slobs. Each and every one of us who dresses down is a slob – period.  

Take the guy in the stained short-sleeved shirt coming over to the roulette table.  “What is your name sir?” “Bond, James Bond …”  

What the hell? That guy isn’t James Bond! Are you kidding? He’s just a slob! 

Ah, but he is James Bond; he’s all of today’s James Bonds. He is now entering the  casinos. What is special about this James Bond? Sadly, truly, nothing. He is not to  be held up as a role model for men – that’s for sure. His license to kill has expired. No secret service would want this guy working for them – would they? Seriously,  would they?

[Men: This is especially for you. Did you practice being Bond, “James” Bond? Yeah,  I did. Somewhere in my preteens, I’d stride into my bedroom and look in the mirror  and say, Scoblete, “Frank” Scoblete. 

I figured when I got old enough and I was wearing a tuxedo, and buying into a  roulette game, the girls would just melt in front of me if I could only get that  accent right – this was the real James Bond, mind you, meaning the one and only  Sean Connery. 

I was 11 or 12 way back then. And the girls? Uh, it never happened. They didn’t  flock to me when I was a teenager. Ah, the illusions of youth. James Bond; dressed  to the nines - which was a gambling term in the god old days; but I wasn’t that  man. His time was passing rather rapidly. Sad, sad. 

I didn’t realize it at the time because, well, I was a kid. Ah, the dreams of youth,  must to be destroyed by aging.]

The Pace of Today’s Roulette? 

James Bond’s roulette is not today’s roulette. Far from it. The game is far crasser. It’s also faster. And more and more players fit the slobbification definition; in fact,  in many of today’s casinos, you’d be lucky to see someone who merits  consideration for being well dressed by the past’s standards.  

Many of the players have little in the way of manners. They rush to get their chips  on the layout and time and time again as those chips scatter as they are knocked  over by other rushing players. Arguments occur not because the chips are  different but because … well, just because. 

You know something. Everyone seems a little or, worse, a lot edgy. Is that the  stress of modern life? Or just the fact that everyone seems really wired? What has  got them so wired? 

That guy over there smashing through the other players’ chips to get his bets out  faster than the superhero Flash could manage? Is he nuts? He has plenty of time.  What’s with him? And he should – after all – change his grimy short-sleeved shirt.

Some Tables 

Now, not all roulette tables are filled with rushing, pushing, aggressive and often  sweaty (smelly) players. Some tables are somewhat sedate – more like the tables  of the old movies. But those are in the distinct minority.  

There was a movie titled Speed about a bus that had been wired to keep going faster and faster until who knows? It seems to me that more and more roulette  players have been “sped up” until, well, who knows what? 

Playing fast isn’t necessarily going to make you win. In fact, the more decisions a  roulette player faces, the worse it will be for him or her as time at the tables  passes on. 

The casinos do not pay out the proper odds of the bet. And that’s the answer to  the question “how does the casino get its house edge?” 

The Truth Hurts 

There are now three roulette games in the world. The single-zero games (0); the  double-zero games (0, 00); and the abomination called the triple-zero games (0,  00, 000).  

The house edges on these games will go from 2.7% on the single-zero  game; to 5.26% on the double-zero game; and (yuck!) 7.69% on the  triple-zero game. 

A winning bet at the single-zero game pays 35 to 1. There are 37 pockets for the  ball to settle in. The odds or roulette are 36 to 1 for a given number to appear. A true payout  would therefore be 36 to 1. But the casino can’t make money by paying out the  true odds of the bet. So, it skimps and reduces the payout to 35 to 1. That creates  the 2.7% house edge on the single-zero game. 

Now, hold your stomachs friends because the payout for the double-zero wheel is  also 35 to 1! What? Yep!

The house edge now zooms up to 5.26%. You have 38 pockets for the ball to  settle into and the odds should be 37 to 1 for that to happen. But the casinos can’t  make any money if they paid out the true odds of the bet. So, they pay out the  same 35 to 1. 

It gets much worse with the triple-zero game. There are 39 pockets. That makes  38 times the ball will not fall in our selected pocket and one time it will fall into our selected pocket. If it does, what happens? Nothing much, except the casino  still pays you 35 to 1. Yikes! 

The house edge now zooms to 7.69%. Ouch! 

Let’s put these figures in terms of possible losing expectations, shall we? Your  expectation on the single-zero game is to lose $2.70 per $100 wagered; your  expectation on the double-zero game is to lose $5.26 per $100 wagered, and your expectation on the (yuck) triple-zero game is to lose $7.69 per $100 wagered. 

The new triple-zero game has become much (much, much, much) more difficult to  beat. And the more bets you make? The more you will lose when your number(s)  don’t come in. That’s the cold hard fact of the matter my friends. I wish it weren’t.  I really do. 

Now, the roulette games that James Bond played were all single-zero games. He  had a pretty decent chance of beating the house or, at the very least, losing a  reasonable amount of money for his fun. 

Maybe this is why today’s roulette players seem rushed? Edgy? Angry? They think, as I’ve said, that the faster they play, and the more they bet, the more money they  will make.  

No. 

On occasion this might be true but seriously that is rarely the case. The faster they  play, no matter what game or roulette strategy they are playing, they will be expected to lose more  and more than that and even more than that and on the triple-zero wheel they  will lose still more than even that. And that is the sad fact.

And the more bets they put out there, the worse it will be.

How Should You Play Roulette? 

I am going to share with you how I play roulette and what games I absolutely look  for at which to spend my playing time. I look for two things. 

I want both if I can get them. Get ready now. Here goes: 

• I look to play the single-zero game first.  
• I will manipulate my betting by taking the percentage off my bets that the single zero game might cost me. 
• If the single-zero game is a $50 minimum, I’ll go down to $25 per wager and that  means I will wager half as much by only betting every other spin of the wheel. This example works out to hold me susceptible to the same expected losses. 
• If I play the double-zero game I will manipulate my bets as I did above if the  minimums are less than I can afford. 
• Remember this: You do not have to bet on every spin of the wheel. You can figure  what you can afford to lose and bet a percentage that brings you in at that  amount. 
• I will play only the even-money bets of red/black, odd/even, or high/low. I prefer  betting the red or black. 

And now for my reward for you (maybe): On the single-zero game some casinos  have a situation where you only have to pay half a losing bet if the green zero comes  up. This is called en prison! This is only on the even-money bets. The casino will not take a losing bet. It will just keep your bet on the layout for the next spin of  the wheel. 

The house edge now falls to 1.35%! Now that is some reward!

On the double-zero game half the even-money bets will be taken if one of the zero  options hits. Yes, the house edge now falls to 2.63% if you make these bets.  Not bad, all things considered. 

All the best in and out of the casinos!