Until recently Las Vegas was known as a value town. Any visitor, and especially a gambling visitor, never paid full price for anything. Casinos are getting stingier everyday with their comps and coupons. Despite this there are still ways to save money and even earn money during a Las Vegas visit using coupon promotions.

Here I'm going to examine a few ways to extend your bankroll and save money on casino expenses using coupons. The techniques discussed here can be applied to most casino city destinations.

How to Get Casino Coupons

Coupons can come from a third party who has made arrangements with a particular casino to print and distribute them or from the casino themselves, either by mailers or by email.

In the technology age, you can find them with QR codes to scan or download to your mobile device. Some examples may be point multipliers, two-for-one dining coupons, two-for-one cocktails, two-for-one show tickets, or a total discount percentage off a purchase. 

To get the casino-provided coupons, a player needs to have a player's card. These are free. Just visit the player's club and ask. A valid photo identification will be required. Expect to be asked to present your player’s card when redeeming any third party coupon or a coupon received directly from the casino.

By providing mailing and email addresses, offers can be sent to you. Provide your cell phone number and offers can be sent via text messages when you arrive on property.

Having Fun with Fun Books

Some properties offer "fun books." These are literally small books with the pages stapled together. The "pages" are coupons with tear-out perforations.

Many Boyd Gaming properties such as The Orleans, still offer them. Generally you must be a hotel guest to receive a fun book and they are provided at hotel registration during check-in. It also doesn't hurt to ask if they have a fun book.

Additional Ways Casino Coupons Work

Match play coupons are one of the most valuable. A match play allows you to make a bet on a table game by placing the coupon along with your betting chips in the circle. If you win, the casino matches the amount of your payout when you wager $10 on any even-money bet at any table game.

The dealer pays you $10 for your winning bet, then "matches" that amount by giving you an additional $10 for a total payout of $20. Match plays can be used once – win or lose. These coupons turn an even-money bet into a +140 bet. Unfortunately, I don't see many of these coupons any more. 

Several years ago the Las Vegas Hilton, now the Westgate, offered $10 match bet coupons on the back of any of the property’s show tickets.  Most people were not aware of the coupons and would just throw the tickets on the floor of the venue or casino.

My team would collect approx 200 tickets a night and run the play.  200 tickets times $10 bets is $2,000 in total action. You win half of the bets and you net 800 dollars on the action. Of course you have to spread the play over several games and times, but it was worth it.

Hitting the Buffet and Other Coupons

Another coupon I use frequently is the two-for-one or 50% off at the buffet. These are self-explanatory and often referred to as "buy one, get one free." Some casinos even offer a discount when you pay with your casino points.  This type of player information is found in the players’ club pamphlet when you sign up for your players’ card. How steep the discount often depends on the tier status you hold.

Most of the coupons I mention are self-explanatory. It’s a good idea to read the fine print at the bottom or on the back of the coupon. Many coupons exclude holidays and special events.  The percentage-off coupons require a minimum purchase amount.

For example, 25% off on purchases over $100 means just that. If you spend $120, you can redeem the amount and pay $90 – that's 25% off.  Another example is a coupon that offers $10 off on purchases of $20 or more. This is a flat dollar amount, but you have to spend the required amount.

Other gaming coupons you may come across are point multipliers and point bonuses. Here you present the coupon at the player's club and they activate the multiplier. If you don't know the casino's policy, ask before playing. Some require you to present the coupon first to gain the multiplier on your play that has yet to occur. Others will adjust at the end of the night after you have completed your play for that day.

Bonus tier points require a certain number of points to be earned during the allotted time frame. Once the minimum is met, redeem the coupon and the points are added directly to your account. Caesars is notorious for doing this.

There are also coupons for $5 or $10 of free slot play with no strings attached. If you are an infrequent gambler or visitor to that casino, play these. You are free rolling here and any winnings are pure profit.  Don’t play beyond the free play, simply take the money and run. 

Another version of the free slot play (you can generally use these at video poker also) requires you to play $10 in coin-in, then the free play credits are added to your account. Check with the slot club first before playing. Sometimes you play first and then redeem the coupon and also the other way where you redeem first, play the required amount, and the credits are then available at your machine.

The "never play for comps" rule is one that should be followed.  Play what is needed and collect what is owed you, but don't play simply to try to earn a comp.  It's not worth it and anything can happen in the short run. 

Where Can I Get Casino Coupons?

My number one source for casino coupons is the Las Vegas Advisor Member Rewards coupon book. This is available to members of Anthony's Curtis' Las Vegas Advisor (LVA) newsletter. The annual membership (subscription) will cost you somewhere between $37 and $55. The membership cost can be recouped by simply using a few of the dining or entertainment coupons. 

Another great source for casino coupons that I mentioned above is the American Casino Guide (ACG).It has a great collection of coupons similar to those offered in the LVA book. There is a lot of regional casino information and some basic articles about casino games in this book. ACG is also a good resource for casino information in various markets across the United States.

Other resources for Las Vegas coupons are the free tourist publications found in your hotel room or at the concierge desk. These include:

• Today
• What's On
• Las Vegas Pocket Guide

Coupons can sometimes be found in weekly periodicals such as The Sunday. Kiosks with individual coupons for discounts on Las Vegas activities such as food, shopping, and shows can be found at the airport, car rental center, retail outlets, and some casinos (often downtown). Direct mail or marketing offers from the casino based on your player's club information and casino fun books are also part of the mix.

The Coupon Run

The first step in any coupon run is collecting the coupons.  You should organize their use in the most efficient way.  This can be by using them in a sectored way.

“Use this coupon while on the Las Vegas Strip on Saturday and use these coupons on Fremont Street on Sunday.” Organization and planning is the key to maximize the EV you can exercise from the coupons. 

Putting It All Together

Here I explained some common casino coupons such as match plays, bonus points, two-for-ones and more. I have shared some of my experiences on how to redeem them and shown how to be creative with coupons.

I listed some sources namely the LVA and ACG.  I listed some secondary sources that should be readily available to most Las Vegas visitors as well.

Making a plan will maximize your individual experience. Coupon values, like comps, are diminishing. Some casino decision makers view coupons as advertising and worth the cost; while others see them only as lost profits. So get out there and use them while you still can. If you are efficient with your time and win your fair share, even the small amount of free plays and match plays can add up over the course of a trip. 

Video poker is a great game. It generally has a low house edge and allows players to select which cards to hold or discard, thereby making them active participants in the game Knowledgeable players can: 

• Determine the game/pay table combination’s average return
• Determine the volatility of the game/pay table
• Develop a playing strategy for the game/pay table that produces the highest possible average return

Novice players can do reasonably well if they have some poker experience. Many players, especially the more inexperienced, will save a sure winner if it is dealt. This is not always the best (meaning most profitable) move. This article covers a couple of instances where it is better to break up the sure winner in order to have a shot at a larger win and improve the overall return.

Contents

1. Dealt hands that are sure winners

Note: Due to the nature of wild card video poker games, they are not included in this article.

There are many dealt hands in video poker that are sure winners. They include:

• High pair
• Two pairs
• Three of a kind
• Straight
• Flush
• Full house
• Four of a kind
• Straight flush

2. The game and pay table combination makes a difference

It would be great if there was a list of all the sure winner hands that should be broken up in order to attempt a larger win. However, that will not work. 

As is the case with so many other things in video poker, the game and pay table determine which sure winner hands should or should not be held. 

For example, a jacks or better game where all four of a kinds pay the same would have different holds than a double-double bonus game where four aces pay significantly more than four 5s through kings. 

Even within a game, pay tables can make a difference. The following section gives an example of a double-double bonus game where a difference in the pay table changes the hold from holding a sure winner to discarding one of the cards in the hopes of getting a straight flush.

3. Specific sure winner hands that are not smart holds

Now, let us look at specific hands where the proper move is to break up a sure winner. The first game is full-pay (9/6) jacks or better. Assume you are dealt the following hand:

Ac Kc Qc Jc 7c (Ace of clubs, King of clubs, Queen of clubs, Jack of clubs, 7 of clubs)

This hand is a sure winner (a flush). Holding this flush will pay 30-for-5. However, this hand also contains four cards of a royal flush. A royal flush pays 4,000-for-5. Is that enough to warrant discarding the 7 of clubs?

Yes, it is.

Holding the flush will always pay 30-for-5. Discarding the 7 opens a 1-in-47 possibility of a royal flush that pays 4000-for-5. Also, out of 47 possible outcomes from the hold, seven flushes paying the same as the original hand, three straights paying 20-for-5 and 12 high pairs paying 5-for-5 are possible. 

The overall average return from holding the four cards of a royal flush is 92.1277-for-5 – over three times the return from holding the sure winner flush.

Now let us consider a hand in a double-double bonus game. 

One of the common pay tables for double-double bonus pays 9-for-1 for a full house, 6-for-1 for a flush and 4-for-1 for a straight. 

Using this pay table, you are dealt the following sure winner hand.
3c 4c 5c 6c 7d (3 of clubs, 4 of clubs, 5 of clubs, 6 of clubs, 7 of diamonds)

Is holding this sure winner the proper move? 

Yes, it is. This hold returns 20-for-5. Discarding the 7 of diamonds and going for a straight flush returns 17.2340-for-5 on average.

However, what happens if the pay table is slightly different. Assume a straight pays 3-for-1, not 4-for-1. Is holding the straight still the proper move?

4. Summary 

While it may seem proper to hold a sure winner rather than break it up and hold for a possible larger win, that is not always the situation.

Successful video poker play demands holding for the highest overall average return. Depending on the game and pay table, this might be the sure winner. However, many times it is not.

To maximize your video poker winnings, make sure you play the proper strategy for the game and pay table you are playing. Do not rely on what seems proper. Use a strategy chart to make sure you are playing the most profitable game possible.

Slot machines are by far the most popular casino game and are easy to play – just make your bet and hit the spin button.

The broad category of slot machines includes video poker. Video poker requires more effort and knowledge to play than standard slot machines. Once the bet is made, the player must decide which cards in the dealt hand to hold and which to discard.

For this reason, video poker does not have the broad appeal of standard slots.

But, because of the added complexity, video poker players can determine a great deal about each game and pay table. 

• The overall average return of the game/pay table combination
• The average frequency of each winning hand
• The proper playing strategy for each game and pay table

This article covers the differences between standard, high, and frequent jackpot games.

Contents

1. Video poker types – standard, frequent jackpot, and high jackpot

While all video poker machines may look alike, they can be significantly different. 

The original video poker game was called, simply, Draw Poker. It ultimately became Jacks or Better. This game (and other variants of it) has only one jackpot – the royal flush. It normally pays 4000-for-5. This was the original standard and is considered a standard jackpot game today.

After a while, players became bored with the standard jackpot games. They wanted more action. They wanted more frequent jackpot hits.

Video game manufacturers answered players’ requests by introducing “bonus” video poker games. These include Double Bonus Poker, Double-Double Bonus Poker, Triple Bonus Poker and other similar names. These games paid bonuses for four of a kind hands. 

Depending on the game, a four of a kind pays two times the normal 25-for-1 up to 4000-for-5 and even more. Since four of a kind hands appear much more often than a royal flush, players of these games hit a jackpot more often.

2. Standard video poker games

As mentioned in the previous section, standard video poker games include mostly games that are based on the original Draw Poker game. Games such as Jacks or Better, Bonus Poker, Bonus Poker Deluxe are in this group. The royal flush is the only jackpot sized hand in all these games.

3. Frequent jackpot video poker games

This group includes jacks or better based games such as Double Bonus, Double-Double Bonus, Triple Bonus, Triple Double Bonus and others of a similar nature.

Each of these games dramatically increases the pays for many four of a kind hands. They can be as high as 4000-for-5 – the same as a royal flush. These added opportunities for jackpot sized hands are just what action-oriented video poker players are looking for. 

Naturally, the casino is not going to raise the pays for certain hands without compensating for it somewhere else – and they do. All these games pay just 1-for-1 for a hand containing two pairs – the same pay as a single high pair. This may not sound like a big difference, but hands with two pairs occur in roughly one in eight hands. Cutting the pay in half takes a big bite out of the overall average return.

Many of these games, also suffer a reduction in the pays for other hands such as a straight, flush, or full house. All of these changes are necessary for the casino to maintain its house edge.

Quite often the overall return from these frequent jackpot games is even less than the return from standard video poker games.

4. High jackpot video poker games

With the exception of fairly rare video poker games such as Pick’em or Pick-a-Pair Poker (where a straight flush can pay 1000-for-5 and a royal flush can pay 10,000-for-5), progressive games are the only video poker games that can offer very high jackpots.

Almost any video poker game can be offered as a progressive. The pays for one or more of the top paying hands slowly increases as players play the games. There can be a progressive jackpot for any royal flush. Or there can be a separate progressive jackpot for a royal flush in each suit. Sometimes there is a progressive jackpot for other infrequent hands such as a straight flush or certain four of a kind hands.

As with the frequent jackpot games, this extra payout must come from somewhere. Rather than simply lowering the pays for hands with two pairs, most progressive games reduce the pays for one or more other winning hands. Generally, the returns from progressive games when the jackpots are at their reset value are at least 2% lower than their standard counterparts.

The good thing about progressive games is players can determine the overall return and determine when the game becomes a viable option to play.

5. Summary 

There are three general types of video poker games: standard, frequent jackpot, and very high jackpot.

Just because jackpots are more frequent or very high does not mean that the return of the game is higher. In fact, in many cases the return for these games is lower than that of the standard games.

Players of the frequent and very high jackpot video poker games may see more jackpots or snag a very high jackpot, but they pay for them with (sometimes very) high volatility and many times with a lower overall average return.

Make sure you understand your cost for playing these games.
 

Today I am going to tackle some casino gaming questions that are frequently asked of me. This will be a multi-part article.

I will discuss some of the history of the games, how to properly play the games, which games the players might be able to get an edge at. I will cover the basic and most popular games to be found in today’s casinos and online. Usually, the online casino strategies are the same as the in-house strategies.

ROULETTE (meaning “little wheel”)

QUESTION: Ever since I started going to casinos, I have found that roulette has a steady and large number of people who like to play it. Can you explain the fascination that some players, actually many players, have with the game? I mean it is just a ball spinning around a wheel after all.

ANSWER:  Don’t frown on roulette players as roulette could be the oldest of the casino games. It was developed by mathematician and philosopher Blaise Pascal, in the 1600s, perhaps while he was looking for a perpetual-motion machine – which no one has ever developed.

The game became a favorite of the aristocrats of those times (which cost many of them dearly) and right up until the present day roulette has hundreds of thousands of fans – no, make that millions of fans. 

QUESTION: I don’t get this idea about the wheel. What is the big deal about a wheel? Why would that attract a player to the game?

ANSWER: Ah, remember the “music of the spheres?” I guess not. The wheel was considered the ultimate structure, no beginning, no end. It was often thought of as a symbol for the ultimate reality of the universe. 

Today’s flat-earth believers deny the power of the circle or wheel or sphere but they are in a distinct minority – if they even have a couple of thousand adherents during our present day. 

Pascal thought the wheel could be used to gain energy without ever failing; in short, eternal energy. He was wrong but that thought led him to discover a way to create a gambling game which has, over the centuries, brought an amazing amount of money for the casinos that offered the game. Casinos might call roulette the “never-ending” money-wheel to their vaults! The eternal money machines.

You will note as you study the history of thought that wheels play a big part in our philosophies of life and existence. We even speak of the wheel of life. Perhaps, our fascination with roulette can be traced to these philosophical origins.

QUESTION: I know there are a lot of bets at the game but can any of them actually be beaten by a player?

ANSWER: Well, you can bet directly on a number or many numbers individually. The payoff for a single number hitting is 35-to-1. You can spread your money out on those bets individually or you can bet categories of numbers. One bet can cover many numbers. There are even single bets that can cover 18 of the 37 or 38 numbers. There are bets called dozens and columns,m n and bets called even-money bets that pay even money if hit.

QUESTION: Are there different types of roulette games? You just said 37 or 38 numbers? What’s that?

ANSWER: There are two basic roulette games found in today’s casinos. The American game that has 38 numbers, 1 through 36 and a 0 and a 00. The other is the European or French game which has 37 numbers, 1 through 36 and one 0. The payouts at both games are the same, 35-to-one on an individual hit.

If the games have the same minimums, then the European game is the superior one with a house edge of 2.7% while the American game has a house edge of 5.2%. However, if both games are offered in a casino, the European game will usually have higher minimum bets to make up for the better house edge.

QUESTION: Can you answer whether there is a way to beat the game? I mean to get a real edge?

ANSWER: In the past there were roulette wheels that were “off.” That is, certain pockets seemed to come up more than other pockets. A player would have to record and analyze the wheel to find these pockets but this could be done – in the past that is. Some players won fortunes in Monte Carlo and in Vegas by finding such wheels. These were sometimes called “unbalanced or biased wheels.” 

QUESTION: And today?

ANSWER: Today? No such luck for the players I’m afraid. Today’s wheels are almost perfect. They are checked constantly. They are computer controlled. It would be really, really a long shot to discover a biased wheel in a modern casino. It might happen, maybe, but it would be so rare the chances it would be you at the game is as remote as learning how to fly without a plane, balloon or other device.

[Please note: My wife the Beautiful AP and I did discover a biased wheel in the early 1990s in Las Vegas. It was a find, like a gold mine for a prospector. We never saw anything like this again.]

There has been questioning recently, I mean in the last 50 years, about whether some dealers could control their spin of the ball to land on certain groups of numbers. This is highly doubtful but who knows? Maybe there are, or were, dealers who could do this feat. I don’t know. The dealers I’ve asked highly doubt this ever really occurred.

QUESTION: So how would you play the game then? 

ANSWER: How you play is mostly a matter of temperament. If you go up on one number then you have 37 ways to lose (or 36 ways to lose) so you could be in for a long losing streak. If you hit early that’s great. If not, it will be something of a slog.

I prefer betting some of the proposition bets where you can bet much less but have a better chance of your bet winning. 

My favorite bets are the even-money bets of red/black, high/low or odd/even. These pay 1-for-1 but you probably won’t have massive losing streaks.

The house edge on all the bets remains the same no matter what you wager but how that money is won and lost, the pattern of wins and losses, changes the nature of the contest.

The even-money bets also have an interesting twist to them in some select casinos. If the 0 or 00 shows up, those bets only lose one half their worth. That brings the house edge down to 2.63% on the American game and 1.35% on the European game. Now that is some benefit!

BLACKJACK  (Slang: monkey for monarchy, which are picture cards)
 
QUESTION: When and why did blackjack become the number-one table game?

ANSWER: Craps was the number-one table game from World War II through the early 1960s, then something startling happened. Edward O. Thorp wrote his now-famous book in 1962 about blackjack titled Beat the Dealer: A Winning Strategy for the Game of Twenty-One which introduced the public to a method for actually getting a real mathematical edge at the game of blackjack.

Thorp’s book was a slow explosion over about a two-year period that brought many casino players, those craps players, poker players, roulette players and non-casino players, to the casinos to try their hand at beating the house. Many came, yes, but not too many conquered as Thorp’s counting system was somewhat difficult to execute.

That didn’t matter. The game of blackjack exploded with eager players. And management took notice and panicked, fearing that savvy players would drain the casino of their funds; funds they won from craps, roulette and slot machines.

The casinos ushered in multiple-deck games and changed the rules to make the game harder to beat. Even today the casinos are lowering the quality of the blackjack games for the players due to the casinos’ need to make money as casino gaming has become a multi-billion-dollar industry. 

Slowly, more counting systems were developed; much easier counting systems that dedicated players could learn with some effort and discipline. I have written three books on blackjack, each with examinations of relatively easy counting systems that can beat the house. But – and this is an important “but” – today’s games are scrutinized carefully because the house still fears the few card counters that are actually competent at beating the game. The higher a player bets, the more the casino will scrutinize that player.

Are there many card counters out there that can beat the house? Not really. Card counters are more like insects splattered on the windshields of speeding cars. More try it than can do it. 

QUESTION: What does It take to really give the casino a run for its money at blackjack?

ANSWER: The expert blackjack player must know the basic strategy which is the computer-derived play of every player’s hand against every dealer’s up-card and know some variations of play based on the count of the cards at any given time.

There are different basic strategies for the different blackjack games but most of these only influence the edge a player gets by a few tenths (of tenths) of a percent or so. Still, most card counters look for any edge here and there that they can get.

Next the expert player must decide which card-counting system they wish to use. Very few counters use Thorp’s system as there are stronger systems that have been developed.

And to make a long story a little shorter; craps left the limelight, as did roulette, and blackjack took their places.

QUESTION: Is there a strategy for non-card counters to give players a decent game against blackjack?

ANSWER: Yes. Basic blackjack strategies that card counters use are also the best playing strategies for the play of one’s hands against the dealer’s up-card. These are strong strategies that can keep the house edge at around one-half percent, which means an expected loss of 50 cents for every $100 wagered. That is a very, very low house edge. 

The only caution is that some dealers like to deal fast so playing blackjack at crowded tables is the best strategy for the average blackjack player. The fewer decisions, the better it is for the player. For card counters, by the way, the more decisions the better since the counter has an edge. 

Use the following as your words of wisdom: If you have the edge, you want more decisions. If the casino has the edge, you want fewer decisions.  

QUESTION: Do all blackjack players play the basic strategies for the game?

ANSWER: Sadly, no. Too many blackjack players play their own “logical” strategies, which are wrong as they are based on an incorrect understanding of the game.

QUESTION: Can you give us an example or two of these?

ANSWER: Players are supposed to split 8:8 at all times. Now, 16 is a losing hand and splitting the 8s seems like a stupid thing to do, especially against a dealer’s 10 face-up card. The rub is that when you split those 8:8 hands the player will lose less money overall than just standing or hitting the 8:8. This may not seem “logical” but splitting is the right move.

Another hand is a player having a blackjack and the dealer shows an ace as his or her up-card. 

The logical thing, according to players whose logic is wrong, is to insure the blackjack and win even-money, no matter what the dealer has as his or her hole card. It’s a guaranteed win. It’s a guaranteed win because the dealer will usually not have a blackjack and because all those other non-blackjack hands will not bring the player with a blackjack a 3-to-2 payoff. That player merely gets a 1-to-1 payoff on all the dealer’s hands.

In short, insuring a blackjack against the dealer’s ace costs the player money and increases the house edge over the player. Here superficial logic again fails.

Most blackjack players who only use their own logic or the logic of supposedly expert writers are asking for trouble. And they get trouble by losing more money than they otherwise would lose.

You can’t use poor logic to combat the real math of the game. I wish everyone knew that. 

All the best in and out of the casinos!
 

The random number generator (or RNG) is the heart and brains of all modern electronic casino games. 

This article explains how the random number generator works. It also tries to clear up some myths and misconceptions.

Read on to learn more about this simple yet complex piece of slot machines, video poker, and keno games in every casino. 

Contents

1. Random Number Generator (RNG) defined

A random number generator is a computer algorithm contained on a microchip inside a slot machine or video poker or keno machine. It has the simple function of generating a number between 0 and about 4 billion (4,000,000,000). 

It does this continuously, hundreds of times a second. It functions 24 hours a day, seven days a week as long as there is power.

Because the RNG is programmed it technically is not random. Rather it is a “pseudo-random number generator” (PRNG). This is because the series of numbers must start somewhere and is actually predetermined.

However, due to the sheer volume of numbers generated (about 4 billion, several hundreds of times a second) they mimic true randomness closely enough to be considered random for the purposes of gambling.

As you know, none of the games on the casino floor has approximately four billion possible outcomes. The reels on slot machines have somewhere between 20 and 100 different stops. 

2. How the RNG functions in slot machines

As was mentioned above, the RNG is constantly in motion, cycling numbers between zero and about four billion. 

At the instant the lever is pulled or the spin button is pressed, the current number from the RNG is mapped into the possible positions on the reels and the reels start spinning. They stop at the positions determined by the RNG. 

Some slot machines have a button that will stop the reels. Even when this button is pressed, the reels will stop at the positions determined by the mapping of the number that was generated when the spin button was pressed (or the lever pulled). 

Pressing the stop button will not change the results. It can speed up play, however.

3. How the RNG functions in video poker machines

Like a slot machine, the RNG in a video poker game is constantly cycling through numbers. 

When the player hits the button to deal the cards, the number generated by the RNG at that instant is mapped into the possible cards and those cards are displayed on the screen.

The RNG continues cycling until the player holds the desired cards and hits the “Draw” button. At that instant the number generated by the RNG is mapped into the remaining cards and the results are displayed.

Note: Older video poker machines (several decades older) would map 10 cards on the initial deal – five for the original hand and five replacements should the played not hold some of the originals.

4. How the RNG functions in keno games

5. Myths and misconceptions

• While there are winning and losing streaks, they are a function of randomness and nothing a player does will necessarily change that. The play will continue to be random.
• Hitting the button to stop reels from spinning does not alter the results. Whatever was determined by the RNG will still be the result.
• If a player leaves a machine and another player sits down and immediately wins a jackpot, that jackpot would not have occurred for the first player. It is virtually impossible to hit the play button at the exact instant required to produce that jackpot.
• After video poker machines changed from mapping 10 numbers on the initial deal, it is impossible to determine what cards will appear on the draw since the RNG is continuously cycling between the deal and the draw.

6. Summary 

• Every gambling machine on a casino floor has an RNG. Slot machines, video poker, video keno, video blackjack, and all other games that require random selection have RNGs.
• The RNG cycles continuously while power is present.
• The RNG generates numbers between 0 and about four billion and it does this hundreds of times a second.
• While an RNG is technically not random (it is pseudo random), it acts close enough to random to be allowed in casino games.
• There may be winning and losing streaks, due to the functions of the RNG, there is no way to determine when they start or end. There is no way to predict when a game is “due.”
• Because of the incredible range of numbers and the speed at which they are generated, it is impossible to affect the outcome in any meaningful way.
• Also due to the range and speed of RNG number generation, if someone else gets a jackpot on a machine a player just left, the original player would not have gotten the jackpot.
   

As casinos move more and more toward automation gaming I’d like to review how the stadium version of Blackjack works.  Here we will go over how this variant of the game works and more importantly how the community cards are utilized to settle the hands.

First we will review and summarize the rules of Stadium Blackjack. I'll go through a sample hand and show you how the community cards are dealt and utilized by the players' and the dealer. Rule 5 and 6 are particularly important. The key points have been bolded and put in italics.

Stadium Blackjack Rules

Stadium Blackjack is the variant of Blackjack where each player places a wager on their own electronic terminal.  The result of each players’ game is determined by a live dealer utilizing community cards to reconcile player decisions.

1. The (live) dealer will begin the betting round by pressing "New Game" on the dealer terminal touch screen. 
2. Each player places a wager on the main betting location, various side-bet can be added by the casino and the player can bet them. 
3. When the countdown timer expires, the dealer will deal one card on the layout to the "Player" location, one to the "Dealer" location, and a second card to the "Player" location. 
4. The players will then be able to make their decisions based on their two cards vs. the dealer's one card. 
   1. Each player terminal makes an independent decision on that hand. 
5. After all player decisions have been made, the dealer terminal prompts the dealer to draw a card and place it in the "Community" location on the layout. 
   1. For players that hit their original hand, this card becomes their hit card. 
   2. For Players that split their original hand, this (same) card becomes the next card on the first split hand. 
   3. For players that Doubled Down, this (same) card becomes their double down card. 
   4. For players that stood their original hand, this (same) card becomes the dealers' second card. 
6. For players who have split or hit, additional decisions continue and the dealer will continue to draw cards as prompted to the "Community" location on the layout until such time that all active player hands have been reconciled in addition to the resulting dealer hands that occur based on the decisions made.
7. The Dealer then presses "Confirm" to end the round. Pays and Takes are done automatically by the system. 

If Player A asks for a hit and receives Community Card No. 2, the latter will not be dealt to the dealer's hand that is competing against Player A's hand. This will become clear as we through a sample hand.

Below is an example of a hand.

Sample Hand 

• Players’ Hand is 8-8
• Dealers’ up-card is a 10
• There are three active players.

After the dealer deals the two cards to the Player's Hand and one card for their hand, they wait until all the players have independently made their playing decisions before dealing the first Community Card. In Stadium Blackjack, every player starts with the same hand, in this example a pair of 8s, and then independently each player decides how they want to play the hand against the dealer's up-card, in this example the card has a 10 value.

Suppose that the three active players make the following playing decisions:

• Player A Stands on the 8-8
• Player B Hits his 8-8 and 
• Player C Split the 8s. 

Here are how the player's hands, and subsequently the dealer's hand are reconciled. The table below summarizes the cards in each hand.

A look at the Community Cards

After each player decides how to play their hand, the dealer will draw one card from the Continuous Shuffle machine and place it in the area labeled Community Cards. Let's assume the first community card was a 5. This is in the second column in the table below. Here's how the hands will settle:

• For Player A (who stood on 16), the 5 becomes a draw card to the dealer's 10, giving a dealer's hand a 15 against Player A. 
• For Player B, the same Community Card (5) becomes a draw card to his 16 (because he hit), giving him a hand that totals 21 (16 + 5 = 21). Player B then indicates on his console he wants to stand. (The dealer's hand for Player B is still a 10.)
• For Player C (who decided to split his 8s), the same Community Card (5) becomes a draw card to his first split hand. Player C's first split hand now totals 13 (8 + 5 = 13).
• The dealer deals a 2nd Community Card and it is an Ace. This card becomes:
  1. A draw card to the dealer's hand against Player A. (Dealer now has 16: 10 + 5 + A = 16).
  2. A draw card for the dealer's hand against Player B, giving the dealer a blackjack (10 + A = BJ).
  3. A draw card to Player C's first split hand, giving him a total of 14 (8 + 5 + A = 14).
      
• The dealer deals a third Community Card and it is a 7. This card becomes:
  1. Another draw card for the dealer's hand against Player A, giving the dealer a 23 (10 + 5 + A = 7 = 23). The dealer's hand against Player A busts; therefore, Player A wins (standing on 16).
  2. The 7 becomes another draw card for the first split hand for Player C, giving him 21 (8 + 5 + A + 7 = 21). Player C stands with 21 on the first split and hits the second split.
      
• The dealer deals a fourth Community Card and it's a 10. This card becomes:
  1. A draw card for Player's C second split, giving him 18 (8 + 10 = 18). Player C stands with 18 on the second split hand.
      
  2. The dealer deals a fifth Community Card and it's a 5. This card becomes:
     1. A draw card for the dealer's hand against Player C, giving the dealer a 15 (10 + 5 = 15).
         
  3. The dealer deals a sixth Community Card and it's an 8. This card becomes:
     1. Another draw card for the dealer's hand against Player C, giving the dealer a total of 23 (10 + 5 =8 = 23). Dealer busts.

Final result

• Player A, who stood with 16, won because the dealer busted.
• Player B, who had a 21, lost to a dealer's blackjack.
• Player C, who split and wound up with 21 on one split and 18 on the other split, won both split hands because the dealer busted.

From the same starting hand (pair of 8s against a dealer 10), each player ended up with a different final hand against a different dealer's hand (except in this example, the A and C dealer's hand happened to be the same). This is what makes Stadium Blackjack different and some say more confusing than traditional Blackjack.

Important considerations

Some other points about Stadium Blackjack to remember:

1. If a player splits or doubles and the dealer subsequently has a blackjack, the player only loses his original wager (the second bet made in splitting or doubling is returned to the player).
2. The game uses a continuous shuffler in most cases but can also be dealt from a shoe.
3. Casinos have a lot of flexibility in choosing the parameters offered – they can determine the number of decks of cards, the dealer drawing rules, the payoff for a blackjack, and the minimum and maximums of each bet offered, among other things. 
4. Currently, there are Stadium Blackjack installations at various casinos around the country: 
   1. The Venetian pays 6-5 for a player blackjack. At Barona, Creek, and Mohegan Sun the blackjack pays 3-2. (Note: The blackjack payout is configurable by the casino. Therefore, the Venetian installation decided to pay only 6-5 whereas other properties pay 3-2.)
   2. Players can use the same basic playing strategy to play their hand as they would on a traditional blackjack game – nothing in the game differs from a live table, and all the rules are configurable by the casino with most or all of them being the same as found at a live game.

Stadium Blackjack is the same but different from traditional Blackjack.  At the very least it’s more complicated than the traditional version of the game.  So whether the game is good or bad for the player is a matter of opinion. In my opinion any game that uses a 6:5 payout as well as a continuous shuffle machine is always bad for the player.
 

It’s one thing to go on a magnificent rush at the blackjack table, resulting in a six-figure score over the course of multiple hands. Don Johnson, the MIT team and Rob Reitzen, they’ve all done it plenty of times.

But what about short-cutting gamblers who board the express train to fortune? Through some crazy side bets and card-running jiu-jitsu, they manage to take down six figure returns over the course of just a single hand. Yes, it often involves making some longshot bet that would cause the James Grosjean of the advantage play (AP) world to roll their eyes at and mutter, “Civilian…”

But lucky winners don’t sweat such derision. They simply head to the cage and negotiate mega cash-outs. Here are six of our favorite quick-hit champions.

Seventh Heaven

Getting triple 7s is far from unheard of in a poker game. And it might not even win the hand. At the blackjack table, however, with a wager on the Blazing 7s, progressive bonus, those cards could lead to a life-changing victory. 

Such was the case in January 2022 when a woman from Alaska chose the perfect time to try her luck at Planet Hollywood Resort in Las Vegas. She was dealt two 7s of diamonds and the dealer had a 7 of diamonds to match. That made for a big win at an odds-defying 0.000004%. 

Much to everyone’s amazement, she took down $111,801 – proving that diamonds really are a girl’s best friend. Asked what she planned on doing with her big score, the woman showed herself to have a heart of gold. She’ll be using a portion of the windfall to pay off her father’s medical expenses.

Five is Fine

Outdoing the lass from Alaska, a gambler by the name of Kevin Lin had risked just $5 on the Blazing 7s progressive at the aptly named Live! Casino in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

His diamonds came up this past October and he took down $311,406. Amazing as it sounds, those wins are far from unheard of at Live!. The casino opened in November 2020. Since then, a bunch of jackpots have resulted in payouts of more than $43 million.

When Packer Got Packed In

Precise details here are a little sketchy, but the tale of Kerry Packer, the Australian media tycoon who loved to gamble, is too good to not include. 

Rumor has it, according to the Las Vegas Advisor, that Packer once made a $20 million bet at the blackjack tables in the London VIP room at the old Aladdin Casino (since reconfigured as the less evocative-sounding Planet Hollywood).

The always reliable Advisor expresses doubt that Packer would have been permitted to wager such a mind-boggling sum on a single hand, figuring that he would have normally been capped at $200,000 to $250,000.

More certain: in 1995 Packer swung a deal with MGM Grand to wager $250,000 on each of eight spots. That worked out to $2 million per round, which is nothing to sneeze at. The high-flying risk paid off big-time. In less than one hour, the Aussie press tycoon won some $40 million before the bosses at MGM cried uncle, telling him to take his winnings and clear away from the table.

A Cripping Win

The buffalo were stampeding last summer when a 32-year-old man from Kansas defied savage odds to earn $100,000 in a single hand of blackjack. He was playing Wildwood Casino in Cripple Creek, Colorado, and wagering on a 21 iteration known as Buffalo Blackjack.

It comes with two potential side-bets. One is called Bust Bonus, which allows players to bet on the dealer busting. The other is 21+3, which adds an element of three-card poker to the base game of blackjack. Players wager their cash and get paid off when their two cards plus the dealer’s up-card form a straight or better.

In the case of the luckbox from Kansas, he went for the latter and was dealt a pair of Aces alongside the dealer’s Ace. Casino manager Matt Andrighetti maintains that the odds of hitting it are 250,000 to 1.

Whatever the man from Kansas wagered, that would make it a bit of a sucker bet (to be even-money, it would have to pay off at $250,000 for every dollar put up by the player). But, surely, he is not complaining.

Seven-Figure Windfall

Luis Rodriguez Gomez, playing blackjack alongside his brother, was down to the last of his gambling money – until, suddenly, he wasn’t.

The 21-year-old told ABC News in Arizona that he made what he thought would be his last wager of the night, placing $15 in the betting circle and another $5 in the progressive circle.

The latter was for a gamble known as the King of Cards Table Games Progressive. It all went down at Gila River Resorts & Casinos – Lone Butte in Chandler, Arizona. As per the rules of the wager, Gomez won his hand and then spun a virtual wheel for the second bet. Miraculously, it landed on a jackpot spot that yielded $1.1 million. 

Some people would scream upon winning such a large sum. Others would pump a fist in the air. Gomez had his own way of celebrating: “I immediately jumped on top of my brother.”

Quick Change Artist

Sometimes it pays to have a change of heart. Such was the case for a British taxi driver by the name of Goksel Selay. 

A casino habitue who considered roulette to be his game of choice, he was not having much luck in betting on where the little ball would land. Hoping to stymie his rotten fortune, Selay anted up for a hand of blackjack plus the Blackjack Aces’ jackpot at Genting Club in Western Esplanade, England.

It’s a progressive jackpot that links 35 casinos in the UK and provides a juicy payout. Selay got lucky as the dealer dealt himself two Aces that matched the one in Selay’s hand. 

A score of some $100,000 would be enough to shock anyone. But Selay claims to have received advance notice about the possibility.

“A few days earlier, I had a dream of winning big money,” he said after the Aces fortuitously landed along with the six-figure payout. “I thought I would try my luck because I had the dream. And it came true.”
 

Craps may not be the most popular table-game in the casino – that distinction seems to hold by blackjack – but it is the most exciting. Walk past a busy craps table on any given night and there will be a palpable sense of money-grabbing energy in the air.

It almost feels like the table, and all those around it, are levitating as gamblers call out for points to be hit and 7s to be avoided – except, of course, on the come-out rolls, when 7s and 11s are automatic winners.

But if the dice do land on the right numbers, look out, because the sheer intensity emanating from around the table will feel strong enough to knock you off your feet. I’ve experienced it from a distance. From up close and personal, to the point that the energy translates into cash lining my pockets? Not so much.

History and hitting the tables

I won’t lie. I’ve basically avoided the venerable game – which supposedly dates back to the 12th century when it was created in Arabia and brought to Europe by the country’s traveling merchants.

According to the more fanciful origin story, it was dreamed up by Roman soldiers who used pig-knuckles as dice and armor shields as tables – knowing all too well that the best craps bet is also the most boring: making a pass line wager before the first round of dice rolling begins and then taking odds (which pays out with no advantage to the casino when and if the point hits).

But, again, that is absolutely no fun. Guys having all the fun are the ones spraying chips around the table, calling for boxcars and field bets and wagering on random numbers hitting – decent odds be damned.

My first time playing craps for real? I was doing a story in Tunica, Mississippi, on a female card counter who, amazingly (considering that she was all about finding an edge at blackjack), had a soft spot for dice.

We ran into a crew who swore that they could influence how the dice landed. It rarely worked out that way. I left the casino with pockets lighter. Luckily, her card counting skills helped to keep me more-or-less whole as 7s landed at all of the worst possible times.

Beating the dice

Not long after, I was in Las Vegas, having lunch with the great poker player and sports bettor Billy Baxter. Earlier that day, I had been tipped that another crew of guys, once again claiming to have a move for beating dice, were in town. In fact, they were at the Bellagio, the very place in which we were lunching.

I suggested that Baxter join me on a stroll to the craps tables, not more than two football fields away from the restaurant. He heard me out and said, “These casinos are so fucking paranoid that they’re not going to let a group of guys stand there and beat their dice game. I don’t believe it.”

I walked over solo and, a couple-hundred-dollars later, I had to figure that he was right. But, then, it didn’t have to be all bad – and, if you have a large enough bankroll, negotiate good discounts on losses from the casino and understand the mathematical thresholds, dice can be an advantage play. But honestly, my level of play does not qualify.

Nevertheless, there have been times when money could have been won but was, metaphorically speaking, left on the table due to my own timidity.

Most brutal of all? The time I was doing a story with George Maloof and his brothers, who, at the time, owned The Palms. They invited me to go out gambling with them. We went to the old Las Vegas Hilton and they pulled up to the dice table, greeted pit bosses by name, bought in with markers and instantly had piles of high denomination chips in front of them.
Based on past experiences, I was unenthusiastic about playing, but I also did not want to look like a complete stiff. So, fine, I bought in for $100 and threw some $5 chips on random numbers.

I was probably betting below table minimum, but the Maloofs were such high-rollers that a tight-fisted friend (i.e., me) was able to get away with less-than-min’ wagering.

On a heater

One of the brothers suggested that I be first to roll. That sounded reasonable. Little did I know that I would go on a once-in-a-lifetime heater and toss dice as if God himself was guiding my right hand.

I made points, I hit numbers, I rolled 7s on my come outs. Guys around the table were roaring. People pumped me on the back between rolls; a woman kissed my cheek and gave me a hug. I kept fortifying my wagers with red chips while the Maloofs were tossing out blacks and purples, betting hundreds of dollars at a time.

Eventually, of course, I crapped out, as everyone ultimately does, but the brothers won so much that one of them tossed me a yellow chip for the hell of it. It was worth $1,000 and I protested that his gesture was over the top.

But he insisted I take it and I felt like a million bucks (albeit, also like the character played by Sharon Stone in Casino, but, whatever…). Never mind that his tip probably left me ahead by $1,500 when I should have had 10 or 20 times that.

Dice control to comedian gambler

A similarly lost opportunity hit when I did a story on the gambling theoretician, an advantage player in his own right, Stanford Wong. He had just published a book about dice control and he wanted to show me what he could do.

The first night was a bust, with Wong insisting that the table was too flat. Next morning, though, we convened at the old Las Vegas Club (since torn down and reborn as Circa). 

There, he put on a dice rolling clinic, winning so much that croupiers were sweating, fills were called in, and gamblers joked about seeing dust at the bottoms of emptied chip trays. Could I have cleaned up on the ways of Wong? Yes. Did I? Uhm, no. Once again, I was done in by timidity.

By the time I found myself doing a story on the late comedian Norm Macdonald, famous for being a wild card of a gambler, I had little stomach for betting on dice. I didn’t. And that was all for the good.

Standing alongside Norm, I watched his so-called “pensioner’s system,” which had him betting the don’t (wagering with the house), decimating half of his $40,000 bankroll (blackjack and sports-betting did in the rest).

Less than 48 hours later, he begged me to loan him $10,000 so that he could continue gambling and I ponied up $1,000, which quickly went to the house. Honorable man that he was, Norm paid me back with a timely check and a note that read, “Better sorry than safe.”

Cashing in at the craps table

I had given up on craps when a call came from a man who ranks as one of the world’s most highly regarded advantage players. He was in the midst of a craps play and needed a guy to do the betting.

Would I be interested in joining him and his crew? Of course. In fact, I hastily booked my flight to a middle-of-nowhere city in the Midwest, close to where the gambit was going down. Though the game was craps, it was played with cards instead of dice, and the AP had a legit system for beating it.

After nine days, I managed to leave with a tidy five-figure profit. It was sweet and made up for all of my crappy craps experiences. So, now, in the wake of that, where do I stand with the game?

Let’s just say I’m happy to let the dice grow cold as I wait for my phone to ring with said AP on the line.
 

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I was a kid, maybe 7 years old. The year was 1953. And the movie was on television. It was, of course, a black and white movie and a horror story, made sometime in the 1930s (I think).

It was about a doctor, a mad doctor played by (I believe) George Zucco, who was a doctor seriously out of his mind played by an actor who seemed seriously out of his mind as well. He was a terrifying man, at least to a young kid such as me.

Now, in those days I didn’t exactly know what a man being out-of-mind meant. Today I do. Zucco’s character was really scary. He was a mesmerizer. He could put people “under” and these people would do naughty things such as killing other people and the like. I also didn’t quite understand what “under” meant.

In retrospect one of my neighbors in the building across Third Avenue was out-of-his-mind too. He used to talk to the lamppost every night. I could see him from my room which overlooked the avenue and the lamppost. I thought for a while that this man may have been mesmerized too. 

Well, Zucco’s character developed a circular contraption that he would spin which could mesmerize people who stared at it and then he could get these people to do all sorts of horrible things, even yelling and hitting lampposts like the guy from across Third Avenue. 

What the doctor was doing was mesmerizing people. I think mesmerism was a precursor to hypnosis. It was a great tool to get people to become evil. Again, I didn’t quite know what mesmerizing was but it sure changed nice, loveable people into savages.

The movie’s events took place in England, which was always a dark place in those old-time black-and-white movies. The cities had so much fog. It was a wonder anyone could see. 

So many people were killed in their big city called London. I wondered if all of the murderers were mesmerized too. I put it into my mind to avoid ever going to England. That stuck until enough color movies showed that England wasn’t so bad and it wasn’t always foggy. 

And what was mesmerism? It was some kind of altered state of consciousness – not your everyday consciousness. For my 7-year-old brain that just meant they went crazy and killed people. Those mesmerized went into this altered state of consciousness and when they were done with what they had done, they really didn’t remember much about what they thought or did while they were mesmerized.

The mesmerized seemed somewhat awake because they were ambulatory but in reality, they really weren’t in our reality any more.

That was my 7-year-old understanding. 

Mesmerism and Casino Games

Can casino players become mesmerized by the games they play? 

[Please note: I am jumping out of the movie right now, into our world, the world of the unmesmerized and I am no longer 7. You and I are meeting now in the real world but that real world has its secrets too. It might not be all that far away from my 7-year-old world. We now know that there are many states of consciousness and one of them is a meditative state.]  

About 25 years ago I researched an article about slot players who felt that they were transported into a meditative state while playing the machines. Time seemed to slow down or even stop for them as they went into a reverie of slot play. They didn’t win or lose more money than regular slot players but their mental states during their playing time were quite different from their fellow slot players.

Was this a common phenomenon among the slot players I interviewed? Did they all go into altered states? Not really. But it did happen to a select few players. I didn’t notice much of a difference between men and women who experienced this new state of mind while playing the once-called “one-armed bandits.” 

I thought that indeed it was an altered state of consciousness for these players. The world they knew had disappeared and the slot world consumed them to the extent that they had no other thoughts or no thoughts at all so to speak. 

They played and played, in a comfortable, relaxed, new state of consciousness, an altered state at that. Most of them didn’t really know as time passed whether they were winning or losing. 

The slot play put them elsewhere is the way to look at it. Yes, indeed, at a certain point they would stop playing and go back into the regular world, our world, not really giving too much thought to what had happened to them when they played. The aftereffects? Pleasant feelings.

Dropping It

I didn’t follow up on any of this over the decades. Heck, a small number of slot players getting all-the-way into their machines? Sure, why not? Some slot players love their machines. That was no secret. Maybe these were the ones who went all in when they played and actually changed the course of their consciousness. 

Most of the slot players actually laughed when I asked them questions about becoming “mesmerized” by their machines. Some looked at me as if I were mesmerized.  

One woman had actually seen that movie with George Zucco. She thought that maybe I had become “off” by writing about the casinos and their games. She thought I should get “some fresh air” and drop the subject of mesmerism because “there was no such thing. It was just a movie, young man.”

One guy in Vegas thought the machines were tools of Satan. I don’t know if he was just teasing me or if he really believed what he was saying. I didn’t really pursue a discussion with this guy. He kind of looked out of his mind to tell you the truth.

Okay, now I am back to the topic. Can some casino players get into an altered state of consciousness – not drinking or on drugs either?

How It Happened

A player I have called Roulette Ralph in some past articles said to me in one conversation that he believed that roulette put some players “under.” He thought that they didn’t really play the game “in a focused way. They didn’t seem out of it but they did seem really into it, if you know what I mean.”

He thought that the players who bet the numbers “straight up” did not have this happening to them because they had to maneuver about and around the other players betting directly on the numbers. That meant they had to be aware of who was around them and what was happening. A player couldn’t be drifting off. 

“It’s the player who is betting the even-money bets that will go under. They seem to be elsewhere, if that makes any sense,” he said. “Maybe you should look into that. It might make a good article. I think something is happening to them. They aren’t as agitated as the other players. Not as charged up.”

Okay, Roulette Ralph, I am looking into it. Are there altered states when playing roulette?

Roulette and Altered States of Consciousness

How do I do this? I can’t hook up players to a “brain-wave machine” of some kind. They are in the casinos to have fun and I don’t have their addresses so that I can take the “brain-wave machine” to their houses.

I used the simplest method available, I asked them. The straight-up players had no consciousness change. They were into the roulette game, yes, but they didn’t have what are called oceanic feelings as do some people experiencing meditative states.

Most of the even-money players thought I was nuts to ask them such questions as: 

• When you play do you start to feel that your mind is going into a sort of trance state?
• Does your sense of time change from moments to moments or do you lose your sense of time in any way? 
• Are you as into the game in terms of wins and losses as many other players are or do you just experience the flow of the game, but don’t highlight your winning and losing?
• Do you carry on conversations with other players or the dealers or floor people, or are you basically silent and play your game?
• Can you describe your mental roulette playing experience in total? 
• Do you think you experience the game in a somewhat different manner than other roulette players?

When the players would answer one or more of these questions, I would follow up to see what they meant by what they were saying. It was an interesting few days during several trips to the casinos. I picked casinos where there were a lot of roulette tables so that I had many players I could question.

What the Players Said

Paulie D: “Man, I give myself a certain amount of money and I play for a couple of hours at a clip. After a few spins of the wheel, I just stick to betting the even-money bets. Same bet by the way. I bet black each and every spin. I don’t think about it at all. 

“When the dealer says place your bets, my hand just pushes the bet onto the black area. Oh, obviously, I do sit right in front of the even-money bets. I don’t want the hassle of barging into a crowd to place my bets. Some roulette players are very aggressive. That’s not me. I am cool and laid-back. I don’t want to think when I play.

“Am I in a different state of consciousness when I play? Maybe. I never thought of that before. I do feel really relaxed when I call it a session whether I win or lose. Interesting. I’d have to give this more thought.”

Marge F: “I tell my friends that the even-money bets are the best ones to make because the game feels different by doing this. Not one of them listens to me. They are adamant that they want big wins and they put up with the losses. Okay, they drink and have a good time. That’s their thing.

“That’s not for me. I don’t want to drink or cheer or anything but place my bets and take my wins when they come.

“I don’t want to think when I pick which proposition that I am going to bet on. Whatever came up in terms of color on the spin is what I bet on the next spin. I do not think about this at all.

“I will take my win and I will place the next bet. I find that I go into a kind of, I don’t know what you would call it, maybe a dream-like state. When I am finished with my playing session, win or lose, I feel actually refreshed. My friends seem exhausted. I am the exact opposite. Now I could go out for a few drinks but my friends all want to go to bed.”

Dinah T: “I watch the wheel spin and the ball go around and around. I do kind of lose my mind because I really have nothing going on but the spin or the wheel and the ball going around and around and then hopping into a pocket.

“I play Odd or Even and I don’t jump from this to that bet. I actually try not to think. I spend my working life thinking all the time. My roulette play is to take me out of my normal world and put me into a special world.

“You said an ‘altered state of consciousness.’ I do not know about that but I am not in my regular consciousness. Time is kind of irrelevant. I don’t lose sight of my wins and losses and at a certain point I do stop playing, but during my play you could say my mind is free from everything else.”

Okay, these are three examples of what players told me. What can I make of this? I guess I might have to call up George Zucco to find out if these players were in any way mesmerized.

All the best in and out of the casinos!