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Trying to Find a Way to Beat the Casinos at Roulette

This post is part of a syndication deal with the 888 casino group. Part of the agreement allows Anthony Curtis to comment on the information presented in each submission.

A.C. says: The title of this article is reasonable. It doesn’t purport to provide a way to beat roulette; it talks about ways that players “try” to win. No, the methods described here won’t provide you with an advantage—and that point is made clear within—but they’re reasonable ways to play when the emphasis is on entertainment. Mixed in is good advice on playing games with better rules, e.g., a single-zero game (-2.70%) is better than a double-zero (-5.26%). Not mentioned here is the trend toward triple-zero wheels (-7.69%). No bueno!

This post was written by Frank Scoblete in association with 888Casino.

This article is for you even if you have played roulette for a long time or are just picking it up now or in a few hours.

I have gathered some roulette players, each with his or her own ideas of how to play and how to manage their finances. 

But just a few words from me as we begin. 

These are players who know themselves and understand the game. I have avoided the wild players who just throw their money around with no sense or concept of what the game they are playing is all about. The big drinkers I have not bothered with because with a little booze comes too much of a lack of inhibition. Some inhibition is good for players.

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Texas casinos pitched; Gaming snubs economy

We’ll shortly see if newly reelected Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) was sincere about being willing to “take a look” at casino gambling in the Lone Star State or if he was stringing Dr. Miriam Adelson along for her money. (We kinda think it was the latter.) Legislation freshly filed by state Sen. Carol Alvarado would authorize a constitutional amendment to permit sports betting and casinos. Sounds good to us … except that it would permit greyhound racing, a pestilence that has been eradicated in most of the United States.

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Comparing Two Different Games at Dotty’s — Part Two of Two

The story from last week continues. If you didn’t catch last week’s blog, you need to read that one first for context. Last week was more about my decision process. This week is more about the actual results when I went to play at my local Dotty’s for $150 a hand.

My first $3,000 was lost in about five minutes. It took a full eight minutes to lose the next $3,000. A half-hour later, still with no W-2Gs, I was down $15,000. This was not the way I envisioned the game!

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Wynn cools Massachusetts; China: “Dance, monkey, dance!”

Casinos in Massachusetts mostly did well last month, especially by pre-pandemic standards (+24%). Unfortunately, none of that lift came from Encore Boston Harbor, which had a disappointing October, down 1% and grossing $62 million. By contrast, MGM Springfield (above) impressed with a 7% increase to $23 million. Also not doing badly, not least by its own standards, was Plainridge Park, which hopped 5% to $12.5 million. As a consequence of the Wynn Resorts underperformance, gross gaming revenues ($97 million) were up just 1.5% from last year.

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Indiana, what’s up?; Shuberts take on Caesars in NYC

Gaming revenue in Indiana cooled somewhat last month, as casinos banked $207.5 million, a 3% drop from last year, albeit still 16% higher than 2019. (No elaborate 2019 comparisons will be drawn because that year saw two Majestic Star boats in operations and no Hard Rock, so it’s apples and oranges.) No fiscal worries for Hard Rock Northern Indiana, way out in front with $36 million, a 12% leap. Closest competitor Horseshoe Hammond ceded 8% to finish with a still-robust $29 million, while Ameristar East Chicago tumbled 23.5% to $16 million. Blue Chip rounded out the northern tier with $11 million, a 12% drop. Horseshoe Indianapolis had an excellent month, up 2.5% to $28 million, while Harrah’s Hoosier Downs slipped 7% to $20 million.

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Atlantic City slideshow & sideshow; Mega-Jottings

Something different today from the Boardwalk: A first glimpse of new-look Caesars Atlantic City. That $400 million in capex reinvestment didn’t go to waste. There’s now a Nobu (above) and a Hell’s Kitchen (below), “both high-quality work and high prices,” says our East Coast photojournalist. Wild Wild West is all but completely gutted, its next iteration as yet unknown—something less rinky-dink, we hope.

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Wynn impresses; Curse of the Mummy’s Tomb; Culinary bombs

Wall Street analysts were across-the-board upbeat on Wynn Resorts‘ 3Q22 performance, as high-end casinos in Las Vegas continue to flourish. Although he categorized himself as “neutral,” given the evolving situation in Macao, analyst Joseph Greff of J.P. Morgan encapsulated third-quarter sentiment with “Upside in Las Vegas and smaller than forecasted losses in Macau.” Sounds pretty good to us. More specifically, Wynn beat expectations, largely on the strength of Sin City, backstopped by Boston. Interestingly, as Greff said, in Macao the company’s casinos—absent the junket middlemen—picked up a solid amount of direct VIP play during Golden Week, better even than in 2019. (Its retail component recovered to three-fourths of pre-Covid business.)

Greff was dismissive of the significance of Tilman Fertitta‘s big buy-in of WYNN shares, writing, “we think this relates more to an industry person seeing value in the stock rather than eventually angling for a transaction or M&A.” Wynn CEO Craig Billings agreed, telling investors, “What I can say is kudos to him, because he’s done quite well since it appears he has started acquiring during the second quarter when the stock was excessively cheap. It’s actually right around when we were buying back stock as well. It’s a great recognition of the value of our equity.”

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Election Special: Gaming, tribes lose big

Although only 41% of all precincts have reported, it’s clear that both tribal and private-sector gaming suffered a stunning defeat in California last night. Both the tribes’ Proposition 26 and Big Gaming’s Proposition 27 are losing—and by wider margins than expected. 70% of Californians voted “no” on Prop 26 and 83% nixed Prop 27. The only clear winners in this scenario are the Golden State’s card rooms, which surely would have been litigated out of existence had Prop 26 passed (due to some fine print in the ballot measure).

Prop 27’s backers are now spinning that this was just a dry run for 2024. Before anybody files another ballot initiative, we urge both sides to come to the table and try to hammer out their differences. This would include A) tribal-private partnerships, B) a lower cost of entry, unlike Prop 27’s minimum of $10 million, C) a reasonable tax rate such as Prop 26’s 10% and D) no more dissembling about what your proposition is about, like ending homelessness. It’s about sports betting—and voters saw clear through you. Oh, and ixnay the hundreds of millions of dollars in attack ads; it’s a surefire path to defeat.

In other news …

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Comparing Two Different Games at Dotty’s — Part One of Two

Today I’m going to discuss a play that is of limited interest to most of my readers. It includes, however, a “how did I figure it out” discussion that could be useful to many of you.

Long-time readers of mine know I sometimes play at Dotty’s. Dotty’s has numerous (more than 100) locations in Nevada which are mostly 15-machine locations. It does have a few full-blown casinos with several hundred machines each, and at least one intermediate-sized location (at Sunset and Green Valley Parkway) with about 50 machines in it.

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Bread and circuses

Christians throw themselves to this lion.

Inflation or no, there is one quantifiable, incontestable fact about the American consumer. He or she is spending more—way more—on gambling than before Covid-19 and more than last year, when they had stimulus money to burn. So if there are fewer presents under the Christmas tree, maybe the economy isn’t to blame. Big Gaming’s poster child for its current prosperity has to be Maryland, where last month’s gambling losses were 37.5% higher than 2021 and 48% over pre-pandemic 2019 for a total haul of $213 million. That may be peanuts by Las Vegas standards but it’s the biggest casino month in the history of the Free State.

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