Gambling Blog Online

Archive for October, 2009

Yes, there ARE a few gambling secrets that can help you beat the casino. In the nine years I worked at the Leelanau Sands Casino near Suttons Bay, Michigan, I saw a lot of hopeful schemes and ideas. Some of them even worked. Here are a couple examples.

Card Counting Secrets

Card counting is a technique for beating the house at the blackjack tables. If the deck is “rich” enough in face cards (10,J,Q,K), the odds tilt slightly in favor of the player. This has been proven statistically. The idea then, is to monitor the cards as they come out, and when the deck has many face cards left in it, bet more. If you bet less when the house has the edge, and more when you do, you can make money in the long run.

This is a simple explanation, and you need to study a good counting book (and practice) to make this work. Your play needs to be precise to really have the edge. One gentleman I dealt to for years would sit at the table for hours, almost always betting the $2 minimum. I watched as he shifted chips from one hand to another, his way of tracking the “plus or minus count.” Then, when the shoe (five decks of cards) happened to be rich enough in face cards, he would suddenly be betting two hands at $20 each.

I am fairly certain that he made money, but not much. Depending on how well you do it, and how many decks are used, you may only get a 1.5% edge on the casino overall. If between your minimum bets and the others you average $8 per hand, and the dealer deals 75 hands per hour, you’ll make about $9 per hour. That assumes you can tolerate alternating losing and winning days and hours of concentration. Betting more brings that hourly rate up, of course, along with the risk of bigger losing days.

Roulette Secrets

For years I watched people foolishly writing down the numbers that came up on the roulette wheel. I say foolishly, because their their theories were mostly nonsense. Most casinos will always welcome these players and even hand them the pen and paper.

There was one player, however, who was actually scientific about it. He found a bias in the wheel, after “charting” it for 5,000 spins. This means he simply wrote down every number that came up during that time.

Once he identified the bias, he made thousands betting on just one or two numbers. When a number comes up (the ball lands in that pocket), it pays 35 to 1. In this case, one of the numbers, because of manufacturing imperfections or whatever, was coming up 1 in 27 spins, instead of the average 1 in 38 spins (There are 38 numbers on most American wheels).

This guy bet $10 a spin, and he profited $90 for every 27 spins of the wheel in the long run (a $350 win minus 26 losing bets of $10 each). When I ran the wheel, I often was doing over 50 spins per hour, so if you can do the math you can see he was doing well. The ups and downs are dramatic though, so this isn’t for the faint-hearted. I watched this player lose $700 some nights, but he later confided that he profited over $80,000 before the casino changed the wheel.

Promotional Gambling Secrets

Learn to figure the odds. Casinos often give the edge away for various promotional reasons. If you know when the odds are in your favor, you can take advantage of these promotions. For example, one man made thousands betting the “money wheel,” which is normally the worst bet in the house. However, in this case the casino was selling $20 in tokens for $10, with no limit on purchases. The man played the tokens once each as required, then repeatedly cashed in the real chips he was paid with, and bought another $20 for $10. When the odds are in your favor, it’s investing, not gambling, and that may be the most important of these gambling secrets.

Learning the “lingo” used in American Roulette will help make you familiar with the game and therefore give you a more comfortable level of play. Here is a basic glossary for terms used in American Roulette:

Black: An even-money bet on the ball to land on any black number.

Block bet: A type of bet where you place your chips on the intersection of four different numbers, therefore betting on all four numbers at once.

Column bet: A type of bet in roulette where you are betting on one of the bets within a particular column to win. The payout varies according to which bet won.

Double zero: Bet placed on the green 00 number. It is quite hard to win, but pays 35:1 if you do hit on it.

Dozens bet: Bet where you predict that the ball will fall on one of a dozen numbers in a sequential column- 1 to 12, 13 to 24 or 25 to 36. The odds are 2:1 if you win.

Evens: An even-money bet on the ball to land on any one of the even numbers on the table.

Green: Refers to one of two numbers on the wheel that are green- either the 0 or 00.

High: A bet on one of the ‘high’ numbers on the table to win. High numbers are 19-36.

Inside bet: Name for a particular set of bets. All inside bets are located on the inside of the table that include the boxes for the number bets. The odds vary according to which bet ultimately wins.

Line bet: A 5:1 odds bet that the ball will land on any set of six neighboring numbers on the table.

Low: A roulette bet on all of the ‘low’ numbers on the table. The word ‘low’ refers to the numbers 1-28 on the table.

Odd: Name for a bet that the ball will land on any one of the odd numbers on the wheel.

Outside bet: Opposite of the inside bet, this means that you predict that one of the bets on the outside of the table will win. The bets vary and therefore so do the payouts.

Red: A bet that the ball will land on any one of the numbers in red on the wheel.

Six-line bet: A bet for a set of six particular numbers on the table all at once.

Special line bet: A bet on either zero, one two or three to win. It involves putting your chips on the intersecting line of these numbers so that you can bet on all of them at once.

Split bet: A bet on two neighboring numbers on the table. You put your chips on the line between the two so that you can bet on both at once.

Wheel checks: The chips that are used specifically for roulette tables only. There is a different color for each player at the table. They have a value according to what the player wants, and must be bough and cashed out right at the table.

Gambling in Atlantic City, first legalized in 1978, has given a tremendous boost to the economy. As a result of this, Atlantic City has now become a major tourist industry, with millions of visitors each year spending billions of dollars on entertainment. This alone has greatly contributed to the increasing demand for new hotels, restaurants, and retail services, providing much-needed employment for over one-third of its population.

When you think of gambling in Atlantic City, you’ll more than likely think of poker. Over 50 million people play poker at least once a month and Atlantic City offers some of the best casino poker rooms in the country. The majority of these are located along the Boardwalk and in the Marina area. Bally’s, Harrah’s, and the Sands are relatively small in comparison to some of the other gambling casinos, but they offer many low-limit poker games and daily tournaments in Texas Hold’Em, 7-Card Stud, and Omaha poker.

The poker rooms at the Sands, Bally’s Wild Wild West, and most of the other casinos have a large number of non-smoking tables for poker players. The Tropicana has a low-limit poker room, as well, with televised sports events, viewable from every table. The Tropicana also features the Trop Poker Club, open 24 hours, 7 days a week, where its members can earn anywhere from 50 cents to $2.00 an hour for each live poker game they play. This money may be used for room, food, or beverage credit and are just another incentive to play poker.

Gambling in Atlantic City is often closely identified with the very popular Trump Taj Majal, which introduced the first non-smoking poker room. There are over 70 tables, where you can play many kinds of poker, including 7-Card Stud, Texas Hold-em, and Omaha, for a low entry of $1 up to $600. Daily tournaments, Hi-Lo poker games, and two annual tournaments, including the U.S. Poker Championship and the Trump Classic, are held each year. The Taj Majal, along with several other casinos, offers free poker lessons for the beginner. If you’re gambling in Atlantic City and seeking luxury and elegance, you should consider the Borgata Hotel Casino and Spa and Caesar’s. Casinos in Atlantic City are primarily smoke free and food and beverage service are readily available.

Gambling in Atlantic City has brought new life to what was once a fading city. Discover gambling in Atlantic City; it’s exciting and fun.