A disturbing trend I've noticed in some casinos is eliminating some machnines from eligibility for earning slot club points. The first time I saw this was at the Gold Coast, maybe a year and a half ago. Labels were placed on the 100 percent-plus payback machines saying something like "This machine does not award slot club points." Soon after that, the machines were gone. A while back player at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut told me that casino had stopped awarding points for play on the full-pay pick 'em poker machines, which return just under 100 percent. We discussed the situation and decided he would try to find out if no points meant no comps at all. He spoke with his host and learned that the casino would still track his play if he used a players' club card, and he would still get free play and other offers. This has turned out to be true, and the benefits have proven to be fairly substantial.
I recently noticed that the virtual blackjack games at Casino Monte Lago at Lake Las Vegas were labeled as not awarding points. Previously, craps and roulette machines at that casino had such labels. I was told that the reason was that offsetting bets could be made on those machines, allowing players to amass lots of points with minimal risk. That's not possible with blackjack, but the house edge on the games offered is slight enough that the casino couldn't offer points and make the profit it expected from those machines. I was told by a casino executive, however, that the casino would still track rated play on the blackjack machines and award appropriate benefits through players' mailers.
Not being able to earn points is a big deal. At Monte Lago, unmultiplied points at 0.25 percent to the return of the game. The casino awards double points several days a month, which made the blackjack game a hair over break-even for a perfect basic strategy player, not counting the mailer and promotions. It's possible but unlikely this game will be worth more than 100 percent without points.
One of the advantages of points is that they're easy to put a value on. It's not always possible to predict how much free play a casino will give you for a particular amount of play, so that benefit, though real, can be hard to figure in. The value of other benefits, such as drawing entries, can be even more difficult to pin down. The bottom line is, if you're looking to get the most value for your gambling dollars, figure out as best you can the total return of the games you're interested in and play the one that offers the best total return, regardless of whether players' club points are part of that return.
Showing posts with label craps. Show all posts
Showing posts with label craps. Show all posts
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Monday, February 27, 2012
Some questions about a new game
On a recent visit to the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino -- formerly the Las Vegas Hilton -- I couldn't help but notice a new game just inside the entrance to the race and sports book (I also saw this game downtown at the Four Queens). Called "Triple Towers Greyhound Racing," It's a two-sided big-screen TV surrounded by betting stations. Every few minutes an animated dog race is run on the TV. It's fun to watch, but I wouldn't think of playing unless I had the answers to these questions:
How is the order in which the dogs finish each race determined? If it's random, how is randomization achieved? If it's not random,what factors are involved? The game designates some dogs as favorites or underdogs, based on the results of their past five races. But if the race results are random, this information means nothing.
What is the casino's takout from the bets made? In other words, what is the average percentage return on each bet to the players? How does this compare with what actual dog tracks take out?
Triple Towers is an offshoot of the trend toward electronic table games, including blackjack, roulette, craps and three-card poker. Judging by their increased presence on casino floors, these games appear to be popular with players, possibly in part because of their usually lower minimum bets than their real-like counterparts. But do these games offer players a good value?
My concern in this regard, which also applies to the greyhound race game, is that the house edge (or track takeout) on the "real" games (or race bets) reflects the cost of operating those games, particularly paying the dealers, pit clerks, supervisors and other employees involved. These costs should be much less for the electronic versions, so the odds should be better for the players, right?
I haven't done any systematic study, but my casual observation suggests that this is not usually the case. The craps and roulette set-ups I've seen offer the same payouts as their real-life counterparts. In the case of roulette, this means a double-zero game (exception: some upright slot-like rouletter machines I've seen are single-zero). The blackjack games have varying rules, some paying 6-to-5 for blackjack, which is to be avoided in all manifestations of the game. Some of the blackjack games have very good rules, including surrender. The one downside is that they cannot accommodate re-splitting of hands, so players are limited to splitting each hand once.
Another downside is that at some casinos craps and roulette machines don't take players' cards, meaning no comps for playing these games. One casino worker explained to me that this is to prevent people from making offsetting bets such as both black and red on roulette and racking up lots of points while losing little money.
On the other hand, there is no dealer to tip, which saves some players money.
At one small casino, Monte Lago at Lake Las Vegas in Henderson, what had been a live table games pit under previous ownership now consists entirely of electronic games. I don't expect to see this happen soon at larger casinos, but the electronic versions are likely to replace some of the lower-limit (and less profitable) table games.
Particularly with the blackjack games, players should review the rules carefully before playing. And they should play the other games only if they're willing to give the house the same edge its gets on the live versions. In most cases, that's too much for me.
How is the order in which the dogs finish each race determined? If it's random, how is randomization achieved? If it's not random,what factors are involved? The game designates some dogs as favorites or underdogs, based on the results of their past five races. But if the race results are random, this information means nothing.
What is the casino's takout from the bets made? In other words, what is the average percentage return on each bet to the players? How does this compare with what actual dog tracks take out?
Triple Towers is an offshoot of the trend toward electronic table games, including blackjack, roulette, craps and three-card poker. Judging by their increased presence on casino floors, these games appear to be popular with players, possibly in part because of their usually lower minimum bets than their real-like counterparts. But do these games offer players a good value?
My concern in this regard, which also applies to the greyhound race game, is that the house edge (or track takeout) on the "real" games (or race bets) reflects the cost of operating those games, particularly paying the dealers, pit clerks, supervisors and other employees involved. These costs should be much less for the electronic versions, so the odds should be better for the players, right?
I haven't done any systematic study, but my casual observation suggests that this is not usually the case. The craps and roulette set-ups I've seen offer the same payouts as their real-life counterparts. In the case of roulette, this means a double-zero game (exception: some upright slot-like rouletter machines I've seen are single-zero). The blackjack games have varying rules, some paying 6-to-5 for blackjack, which is to be avoided in all manifestations of the game. Some of the blackjack games have very good rules, including surrender. The one downside is that they cannot accommodate re-splitting of hands, so players are limited to splitting each hand once.
Another downside is that at some casinos craps and roulette machines don't take players' cards, meaning no comps for playing these games. One casino worker explained to me that this is to prevent people from making offsetting bets such as both black and red on roulette and racking up lots of points while losing little money.
On the other hand, there is no dealer to tip, which saves some players money.
At one small casino, Monte Lago at Lake Las Vegas in Henderson, what had been a live table games pit under previous ownership now consists entirely of electronic games. I don't expect to see this happen soon at larger casinos, but the electronic versions are likely to replace some of the lower-limit (and less profitable) table games.
Particularly with the blackjack games, players should review the rules carefully before playing. And they should play the other games only if they're willing to give the house the same edge its gets on the live versions. In most cases, that's too much for me.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
