Part 1 of 2: You cannot beat the casinos.
The idea of suddenly striking it rich has crossed just about everyone’s mind at some point. While lottery sales soar and more lotteries become legal in new states, casinos continue to be cash generating machines. Few areas of entertainment are as fascinating as casinos and Steve Wynn’s $2.7 billion (yes billion!) hotel-casino in Las Vegas is evidence that there is no slowing down. In fact, Las Vegas is the fastest growing city in the United States. So as tourists continue to flock to sin city, the question that should be asked is: can you beat the casino? The answer is, well, no and yes. This is part 1 (of 2) on beating the casinos.
You Cannot Beat the Casino
Casinos offer a variety of games which admittedly can be fun. These games are there for different levels of skill, interest, and experience, and they have different maximum payouts depending on the game. Regardless of your choice, there is one major commonality between all casino games: If you play by the house’s rules, you cannot win. Casinos are in the business of making money and a lot of it at that.
The reason that governments are increasingly changing their laws to accommodate casinos is that it’s just so easy for them to take your money when you don’t think of it as a form of taxation. In fact, government-run casinos are essentially tax-dollar-generating entities. You have fun while giving your money away but the bottom line is that you are giving it away!
How Slot Machines Take ALL of Your Money
Every single game in the casino is very carefully designed for you to lose money and for the gaming house to win. Slot machines are among the most common and recognizable games in a casino. Here’s an example of how a slot machine takes your money.
Suppose you walk into a casino with $1 to spend and sit in front of a slot machine that offers a 97% payout. You would know their rate of payout is 97 cents on the dollar because some casinos tell you. That’s right, they actually state how much you are going to lose and people STILL play!
So you put that precious $1 in the machine’s slot and pull the level (or press the button, depending on how lazy you are). You will get 97 cents back, having lost 3 cents on the spin. You then take your 97 cents and put it back into the slot. You will get 94.1 cents back (97 cents x 97% payout = 94.1 cents). Since you haven’t smartened up, you put your 94.1 cents in and get 91.3 cents back and so on, until all of your moolah is gone.
Now suppose you actually won 50 cents on the next pull of the ol’ one armed bandit. You’d have 141.3 cents or $1.41. The psychological impact is that you think you’re becoming a winner! A few more of these and a new mansion in Beverly Hills can’t be far behind, you’re thinking. However, as soon as you put that dollar and forty one cents back into the machine, the 97% payback takes control and your winnings decrease.
The more you play, the great the 97% payout will affect you. Eventually, regardless of the ups and downs, the slot machine will take all of your money (unless you stop playing, of course). So if you walk into a casino with $1, spend it on a slot machine and win $100 on the first try, quit while you are ahead because the games are sure to suck it back up! Never gamble what you can’t afford to lose so if it’s worth the entertainment value of gambling away that $100, then go for it!
The truth is that if you ask a problem gambler what a good day is, he/she will tell you it’s those days that you walk in with $50 and it allows you to play all day, versus losing it all in one shot soon after entering the casino. The bottom line here is that even gambling addicts know that the loss of cash is inevitable.
Casinos are in Business to Make Money, Not Make you a Zillionaire
It’s rare that a casino is so unprofitable that it closes. They do everything they can to get you into their establishment. For example, as you stroll down the boardwalk in Atlantic city, you see many hotel-casinos with their unique gimmicks that try to lure you in. They know that once you’re in, they will be making money off of you.
That’s why casinos offer tons of freebies. It all looks free but you are simply paying for it in different ways. High rollers are the big spenders, spending tens of thousands to millions of dollars in casinos. These walking banks usually have more money than they know what to do with, probably mixed with some form of gambling addiction, an addictive personality, or a competitive disposition.
In any case, these people get “comped” meaning that the casinos offer everything to them for free. They get flown in for the night, tickets to the hottest shows in Las Vegas, stay at the best hotels, sleep in the richest suites, and get their meals taken care of. It feels good to get everything on a complimentary basis but always remember how much these people spend before they get to that level.
Casinos Track You
Aside from the security issues, casinos have a vested interest in tracking you. It’s peculiar that many people try so hard to protect their personal information and keep it away from telemarketers and such, yet they will galdly use a comp-card which they insert into a slot as they play games at the casino. That way the casino knows how much money was spent and how long the person played. If someone does enough of both, they get comped with VIP status, depending on the amounts in question.
Funny Stuff
Every once in a while I get a good laugh when someone claims to know somebody who is a professional gambler. “What’s so professional about what he does,” I typically ask, “is he an expert at losing money?”
If anyone tells you they are a professional gambler, take my word for it, they most likely don’t know what they are talking about. Playing by the rules you cannot beat casinos.
Beat Casinos: Continued
Now that you’ve read about how you can’t beat a casino, go ahead and read “You can beat the casinos – the MIT Blackjack Team – MIT Card Counting Team” which is part 2 of this article.
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