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Casino Pictures
A good rule to paste in your hat is never to play for money with one-way cards, i.e., cards whose backs bear pictures or designs that are not symmetrical from top to bottom. During play, a cheat can arrange such a deck so that high cards are right side up, low cards upside down. I know it sounds obvious, but card cheats know from experience that the obvious device is sometimes the one least likely to be suspected. Most players dismiss this idea, if it does occur to them, as too obvious and primitive a device to be used. Therefore the cheat, well aware of this, sometimes uses it; and a quick shuffle, after turning half the pack end for end, will destroy the arrangement and the evidence if anyone shows any sign of suspicion.
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Lose on Machine
An Impossible-to Lose-on Machine
When you hit a hand-pay jackpot, some casinos “salt” the machine by betting the first five coins (using their money) on the next hand. For low-stakes games, this is a nice touch and not a significant amount of money to either the or the player. After all, an extra five coins every time you hit a royal doesn’t add up very quickly.
But on high-stakes machines, it can add up fast due to frequent “” at or above the $1,200 W-2G limit. On a $10 Jacks or Better machine, for example, this policy adds a quarter of a percent for the player, who’s earning an extra five coins ($50) for every 4-of-a-kind, straight flush, and royal.
On one occasion, Sunset Station put in a $100 machine with a horrible pay schedule it might have been 7/5 Jacks or Better. This game returns 96.15%, which means it costs about $19 to play one hand. But if you throw in a generous salting policy, this game gets real good real fast. Due to this policy at Sunset Station, players were getting an extra $500 for every 3- of-a-kind, straight, flush, full house, 4-of-a-kind, straight flush, or royal flush, making it one of the most lucrative games ever a 107%+ return worth more than $35 per hand. If you could get 30 or more hands an hour (the low number is due to the frequent hand-pays), the hourly return exceeded $1,000!
Professional Casino Players
Three professional players discovered the game and recognized the opportunity. To finance the $500-per-hand play, each chipped in $5,000 for the first try. One of the players sat down and started to play and the machine turned cold. He played 10 hands, made a high pair twice and two pair once, and was down $3,000. He invested $500 more and his dealt low pair turned into 3-of-a-kind. This is normally worth $1,500, but when the casino put in five coins to start the new hand, it was actually worth $2,000.
When the player was paid, the floorman who inserted the five coins into the machine commented that a $500 bonus “seemed like on awful lot." The machine continued to eat money, but eventually the player made a straight. This is a $2,000 payoff plus the $500 bonus. This time the floorman muttered a little louder. The player tipped him generously, hoping to keep the muttering under wraps. Apparently, though, the floorman made a phone call, because on the fourth hand-pay, the shut down the machine. The player received the $500 bonus the first three times. On the fourth jackpot, he received his normal $1,500 for the 3-of-a-kind and was told the machine was out of service.
All told, playing an impossible-to-lose-on machine, the group lost $3,000. They made no flushes or higher in the 40-or-so hands they played. Oh well. It happens. Hod the casino kept the machine going the players certainly would have won big. But the casino wised up in time and the players lost. Losing a grand apiece wasn’t terrible, but when you compare the result to the expectation, the disappointment was.
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