What Do Casino Players Know?

CINDY: Okay, I am going to ask a question that all casino players should be able to answer. Maybe not perfectly, but at least enough to show they know what they are doing at the games they love to play.

ABBY: I’m ready. Speak on.

CINDY: How much do players know about the mathematics of the games they play?

ABBY: Huh? You mean how the math is figured?

CINDY: No, actually much simpler. What are the actual edges that the casino has over the player? And how are the casinos setting up their games to get those edges? I am now convinced that most players, the overwhelming majority of casino players, don’t know what the edges are; how they are arrived at and what they translate into money.

ABBY: You think most players play blindly?

CINDY: I think there are players who read about the games they play or at least how to play those games but do they know the real ins and outs about the games? I’m thinking most players don’t read about the games at all. I think, for example, that slot players have little or no idea how a slot machine actually works. What is the RNG? Do machines get hot or cold in a way that is predictable?
What are the actual edges or guessed upon edges on the machines the players play? Do they know any of that? I think most casino players don’t really read about the games in any involved way.

ABBY: Are people reading this site? I think they are.

CINDY: Oh, no doubt but how many overall? A few million, maybe? There are some seventy million people who go to casinos in the United States and Canada, probably even more than that. How about Europe and other areas of the world? I am guessing that the numbers are staggering.

ABBY: Boil this down to something understandable.

CINDY: Take craps. There are an amazing number of bets at the game. Do people who make the Hardways bets know what the house edge is at those bets? There is no information on the table about the edges the players face when they make any of the bets at the table. What about betting the 7? House edge? There might be something about what a bet pays off on some of the side bets but no information about what edge a player faces. What edge does the Fire bet have?

ABBY: Okay, good points. Players throw out their money and don’t know how the house edge is eating away at it. Or devouring it on some of the really bad bets. The Fire Bet is between 20 and 25 percent.

CINDY: Casinos make their money in two ways, generally two ways. They short change payoffs on winning bets. A bet that in a fair game would pay 37-to-one, the casino might pay out at 35-to-one. That's a roulette bet. Or the casino can set up a bet where the number of wins favors the house. In blackjack, the house wins about 52 percent of the time and the player wins about 48 percent of the time, not counting ties in this.

ABBY: The casino is then able to offer special hands that pay back more than one to one. That brings the game closer between player and casino. Ask a blackjack player what house edge he or she plays against and they might invent a number but they probably don’t know the number. This would be especially true of blackjack players who invent their own basic strategy on some or many hands.

CINDY: I ask myself the question: Do casino players owe it to themselves to at least analyze the games? I think a lot of money could be saved if players knew what games or what bets are truly bad to make.

ABBY: Maybe you could start a revolution?

CINDY: No thanks. Too much effort.

ABBY: And that is your answer. Getting too deeply into the bets and the games is more like work than like a leisurely time fun activity.

CINDY: Good point.

This article is provided by the Frank Scoblete Network. Melissa A. Kaplan is the network's managing editor. If you would like to use this article on your website, please contact Casino City Press, the exclusive web syndication outlet for the Frank Scoblete Network. To contact Frank, please e-mail him at fscobe@optonline.net.