Take a relaxing walking trip around the casino. Come on, this won’t take too long I promise you.
Look at the table games of blackjack, craps, roulette, mini-baccarat, Pai Gow Poker and all the other table games that you will pass. Check out all of the bets you can make at all of these games. Each and every bet. Give them some thought.
Go by the slot machines, epic ones that pay out millions and multi-millions, and those smaller ones that pay out small amounts, and, oh yes, check out the video poker machines too. Note all the payouts. Each and every payout.
Now I have a question for you. Okay, what have you not been able to see in your scouring of the casino games? Give it some thought. I’ll give you a moment. What have you NOT been able to see, anywhere?
There is something curiously missing from all the signs hawking the casinos’ games.
In no game does the casino tell you how to play it or give you some clue as to what the return is if you play the machines or the table games correctly. No advice whatsoever.
What is the house edge? And what does that edge mean? Nothing.
In days past some slot aisles would proclaim something such as this: The machines in this bank will return about 98%. Great, but what did that really mean? Basically, not much. There was no way to get an edge at these games. You could only beat the machines by some form of luck and luck was and is an ephemeral item.
Some casinos may still hawk machines in this way. Paying back 98% means that the machine keeps two cents out of every dollar wagered over time – on average.
Checking Out Those Table Games
In craps, a game with so many different bets, it is hard to keep track of them all. Craps players are in the habit of betting more than one or two bets. Some will have a half dozen or more bets working at the game at the same time.
Yes, it is rare that a craps player will only make one or at most two bets at the game. Their concept of play is “the more bets the better!”
They are under the opinion that the more bets they make the more money they will make because with so many bets one or two can hit so that means more money is coming in to the player. Not so. So many bets can hit, yes. But there are so many misses that the losses craps players experience can be sky high, even if they have a winning night now and again.
What is the edge on all those craps bets? The casino might tell you the payout is 30 to 1, but it never tells you the percentage edge the house has over you when you make that bet. It never tells you what your losing expectation is.
Here is something to know if you love playing craps. The casino will not pay the true value of any bet you place on a number. I’ll explain this fact in the roulette section of this article. It’s called, for lack of a simpler word, short-changing. Keep that in mind.
Look over at blackjack, the most popular table-game in the casino ever since the mid-1960s, and nowhere does it tell you what the house edge is if you play the game with the correct basic strategy.
Basic strategy isn’t even mentioned in the signage at the table. That strategy is the only way to play the game to garner a one-half percent house edge over you.
[Please note: Unless you are a card counter there is no better way to play the game of blackjack than basic strategy but that is, of course, a whole different story.]
At roulette, do you want to know how the casinos get their edges over the players? It is simple; really simple. Ridiculously simple.
The casino always short changes the winning player! You don’t get paid what the bet is really worth.
When a player wins, he or she does not get paid the full value of the bet. On the double-zero wheel, the payout for a direct hit is 35-to-1. The true value of the bet should pay 37-to-1 since there are 38 pockets for the ball to settle into.
Take 38 players, each betting a different number straight up on the double-zero wheel (0, 00), and you have 38 bets on the layout. Yes, one bet must win. The players will lose 37 times but one player will win once and be paid that 35-to-1. In such a game, the casino will be ahead after every spin of the wheel. It can’t lose.
You do, of course, have roulette wheels with more or fewer numbers than the traditional American double-zero wheel. Let’s see how they fare for the players.
You have the best wheel, the single-zero European-French wheel (0) that has only 37 pockets but the payout is still that 35-to-1 instead of 36 to 1. Or you have the new wheel, the triple-zero “yuck” wheel with a 0, a 00, and a 000. There are 39 pockets but the payout for a winning hit is still that same 35-to-1, not 38-to-1.
Roulette goes from a decent game on the single-zero wheel to a rotten game on the triple-zero wheel. But the players (at least many of them) do not know this and some don’t actually care to know this. They just happily or unhappily play whatever wheel is in front of them.
No matter what bets you make at roulette, the casino will short change the winning player. Simple as that.
The short-changing of bets can be found at craps too. No place bet on the layout pays true odds except the “odds” bet. But to get the true payout on the “odds” bet at craps you have to have a pass line or come bet or a don’t pass line and a don’t come bet working. Those bets come with house edges too!
The player can’t create a betting formula that he or she can create to win at craps. There are no super betting systems. None.
Man, Do Tell Me More About Slot Machines
The slot machines are ubiquitous losers for those slot players who don’t even pretend that they can get even close to an edge at them. The machines were once called, the “one-armed bandits.” Well, they certainly deserved that name.
In the good old days, the slots had to pay out in gifts: “Harry just won a cigar!” You’ll note that some machines had winning rectangles – those rectangles stood for cigars. There were multiple fruit images too. You could win a boat load of fruit but more than likely what you won were just lemons.
How Slot Machines Work
It is simple formula. More money goes into the machines than comes out of them. It is not a hard formula to understand. Money goes into to the machines. Less money comes out of the machines; casinos therefore win, players therefore lose. All is right with the world from the casinos’ viewpoint, that is.
Machines just used to be mechanical devices; now they are computerized marvels. Over the last 150 years they went from simple devices to space-age magic. But they always did the same thing; take the players’ money. That was and is their goal in life; winning money. And that they do quite well.
Today’s machines are run by computers. The new computer program is called the RNG which is short for the random number generator (actually it should be called the “almost random number generator” as humans can’t really set up randomness in its randiest sense). But the RNG is so close to random that there is no reason not to call it random. No slot player will argue that fact.
The basic principle is the same as the basic principle has always been. More money goes into the machines than comes out of the machines. Most players don’t even question this fact because it is a fact of casino life and, as such, is accepted.
In short, you are expected to lose at every game you play!
Now What About Comps?
By the way, as an aside, your losing expectation is what opens the door to comps. You don’t get comps because the casino hosts like you. He or she may like you or may not like you, but that has nothing to do with how you earn comps. You earn comps by paying for them. Except a lot of players don’t realize the fact that the casino has a payment formula for comps. A very detailed one.
You get them because the casino can figure out what you are economically worth to them. Exactly what you are worth to them over a time period and they will return a certain amount of your expected losses in the form of “free” comps.
Your comps can mean “free” rooms, “free” meals, “free” transportation, “free” shows, “free” shopping sprees, “free” sporting events, and everything that the casino can tell you is “free” – but all of this is based on your expected losses at the games you play.
The player has to show the casino that he or she is willing to depart with their hard-earned money to pay for the “free” givebacks the casinos will initiate. Indeed, there is no “free lunch” in the casinos’ eyes. No free lunch at all.
How the Casinos Calculate Your Freebees
There are many formulas that the casinos use in order to calculate what a player is worth to them. It is not based on a player’s losses over time, but what the math says that player is expected to lose playing the way he or she plays.
That takes into consideration how much the player bets on average per decision and how long the player plays at his or her chosen games. The casino will then come up with a comp profile of the player and comp the player based on this profile.
The player who complains that he or she is losing and has lost a lot of money will (rarely) nudge the casino to give more in comps because of those losses.
It is pretty much an open and shut case for the casino. “Your expected loss is thus and such and we give you about 30% of those losses back in the form of comps and that, my friend, is that. You can win, you can lose, but we are basing everything on your potential losses over time playing how you play. Not on any immediate results.”
Low rollers walk a fine line when it comes to comps – after all, while their money means a lot to them, their value as individuals to the casino is not great in the scheme of things. Their value is great overall in the low-roller whirlpool but not as an individual. So, while the casino doesn’t want to alienate them, they can’t be catered to the way a high roller can be catered to. Those are the facts of casino life.
Most low rollers are aware of where they sit in the casino scheme of things. How could they not?
How the Casinos Judge Worth
The casinos have charts explaining what certain play at certain games means to them. Slot machines have the same formula – except different. The slot machine keeps track of the player’s play and based on its handy-dandy formula doles out the comp points.
Most players know there is some kind of formula for judging them but they are not exactly sure what that formula is.
Your play at the different games gives the casino insight into how much you will lose over a decent length of time. If the casino has a 5% edge over you then you can expect to lose 5% of all the money you bet. Based on those losses, the casino will reward you with a comp of up to about 30% (maybe 40%) of the expected loss.
Five percent of a thousand dollar-player is worth more comps than 5% of a $10 player.
All the best in and out of the casino!
