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An empire falls

ESPN Bet was supposed to be the salvation of Penn Entertainment. Now it is looking like its downfall. Penn’s venture into online gambling has had very mixed results. iGaming has brought with it great success. Sports betting, however, has been an unmitigated disaster. After PR and stock-price debacle Barstool Sports turned turtle, irresponsible Penn CEO Jay Snowden sold it back to Dave Portnoy for $1. (That’s not a typo.) Throwing good money after bad, Snowden doubled down with ESPN Bet. At first it looked like a potential winner. But it has lost money hand over fist, with no end to the red ink in sight.

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GOING A DIFFERENT DIRECTION: CRAPS ON THE DARKSIDE

This post is syndicated by the Las Vegas Advisor for the 888 casino group. Anthony Curtis comments on the 888 article introduced and linked to on this page.

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

A.C. says:

In craps there’s a do side and a don’t side for betting, designated on the layout as pass/come and don’t pass/don’t come. Despite the fact that the don’t pass bet has a casino edge of 1.36% compared to the pass line’s 1.41%, players overwhelmingly bet pass, because of the social aspects of the game. Accordingly, many describe betting the don’t pass as playing the “dark side.” The reality is, don’t bettors do not affect the results in any way, but since they’re opposite the bets of the majority of players, they’re sometimes viewed as the enemy. In this article, long time crap player Frank Scoblete offers advice for playing the don’t without ruffling too many feathers, along with some general rules of etiquette to follow while playing craps.

GOING A DIFFERENT DIRECTION: CRAPS ON THE DARKSIDE

I have written so many articles and books on craps that I have decided to start this article by looking at the often deliberately-overlooked area of the game. Many gambling writers shy away from the darkside because it is uncomfortable to write about and thus they give short shrift to it and its devoted but usually quiet players.

That’s right. I am going to lead some of you, maybe many of you, into the darkest corner of the most exciting game in the casino…

Continue Reading…

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A Supreme stumble

By choosing to do nothing regarding the Seminole Tribe‘s controversial compact with Florida, the U.S. Supreme Court did A Very Big Thing indeed. The high court declined to re-hear West Flagler Associates‘ challenge to the compact, effectively putting it into law. Subplots to this mean that both Jeffrey Soffer and Donald Trump can proceed with their Miami-area casino plans, which are juiced in by the compact. But both men have much bigger fish to fry right now. All attention will instead be on the Seminoles and what they do with their USDA-approved monopoly on iGaming and online sports betting (OSB) in the Sunshine State.

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Getting Greedy

Bob Dancer

Often, I’ve heard players tell a video poker story of a time when their score was positive on a given day, but then they “got greedy” and ended up with a negative result. The phrase is usually accompanied by some self-loathing. Perhaps, “Why did I let myself do that again. I know better!”

I almost never say that, although I’ve certainly had my share of experiences where my score went south after I was ahead for a while. Today I want to look at that term.

I’m not going Gordon Gekko on you and proclaiming, “Greed is good!” As I’m using it today, greed is a negative trait.

Let’s also accept in general that winning is good and losing is bad. Then losing intentionally would be a bad thing. One more premise we must accept is that gambling scores go up and down. We can all recount what happened over the last half hour. None of us can accurately predict what swings will happen in the next half hour.

To my mind then, so long as I am playing a game that exceeds 100% in theoretical return, and playing to the best of my ability, when I lose, it’s just a circumstance I cannot control. I know it’s going to happen sometimes. Frequently, even. I just don’t know if it is going to happen today or not. 

If I hated myself after each loss, then I’d be in a psychologically unhealthy profession. Losing is just part of the game.

Most players, of course, aren’t playing games where they have the advantage. They either can’t find good games, don’t know how to play them well, or possibly are in the mood to play and don’t really care whether or not they have the advantage. For players like this, if they’re just thinking about the royal flush without accurately considering the cost to get it, then yes, perhaps that could be said to be “greedy.” But that’s not the way most players use the term.

As best as I can tell, some players who use the term simply mean they lost and aren’t happy about it. Perhaps they’re telling what poker players refer to as a bad beat story. If that’s the case, no big deal.

Others, perhaps, are justifying their loss by admitting to a “personality defect” (i.e., greed) which has the effect of saying that this is not really their fault. They are still good people who have occasional lapses.

But the fact is that they are going to be losing again and again and again — interspersed by wins sometimes. Every gambler goes through this. Even winning ones. It isn’t that you’re greedy. It’s that you’re playing a game with ups and downs.

Perhaps they use the term because they are poor losers. While nobody likes to lose, getting really, really upset about it probably suggests you should consider not gambling. Knowing you’re going to get upset over and over again because that’s the nature of the game isn’t the healthiest way to lead your life.

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Atlantic City rebounds

Casinos on the Boardwalk enjoyed a 5% bounce last month, recording $239 million in winnings. That’s 7% above 2019 numbers despite Covid-19 having ineradicably changed players’ habits—and Big Gaming was only to happy to cash in with OSB and Internet casinos, never mind what they say today. Four casinos were revenue-negative and three of them had one other thing in common: They are all owned by Caesars Entertainment. The Roman Empire really needs to look to its laurels in Atlantic City because it clearly has a problem there.

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THE COST OF PLAYING SIMILAR – BUT WRONG – VIDEO POKER STRATEGY

This post is syndicated by the Las Vegas Advisor for the 888 casino group. Anthony Curtis comments on the 888 article introduced and linked to on this page.

This article was written by Jerry Stich in association with 888Casino.

AC says:

Different video poker games and paytables call for different playing strategies. That’s obvious. But how much does it cost if you don’t make those changes and use one strategy for different games? This article addresses that, pointing out that the cost varies depending on which games you’re switching to without adjustments. The numbers indicate that the strategies for Jacks or Better and Bonus Poker, though there are some differences, are essentially interchangeable. That’s not the case, however, when using JoB or BP strategies to play Double Bonus or Double Double Bonus. That results in a reduction in expectation that can exceed 1%, which is significant. The penalty is also about 1% for mixing strategies in the referenced versions of Deuces Wild. The takeaway is, except in the case of JoB and BP, you should avoid using non-specific strategies between games. Video poker learning tools, especially the availability of different strategy cards, emphasize this point.

THE COST OF PLAYING SIMILAR – BUT WRONG – VIDEO POKER STRATEGY

Video poker players who play the game regularly – or even not so regularly – tend to have a favorite game or few games. They tend to play these games exclusively. They play the same pay tables for these select games. 

The reason for this is these players have learned and practiced the proper playing strategy for the specific game (or games) and pay tables that they play. They do this to maximize the return from their video poker play. 

But what happens if they cannot find one of their games and pay tables, but there is a similar – but different – game/pay table available.

Continue Reading …

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The perils of Bally’s

That promised megaresort in Chicago is disappearing like a mirage. This week, Windy City Mayor Brandon Johnson (D) met with the editorial board of the Chicago Sun-Times and expressed doubts that $1.7 billion Bally’s Chicago will ever get built. It’s already lost the support of the pro-casino Chicago Tribune … and now Hizzoner appears to be slinking away. Said the mayor, “I know our team is working with ownership to figure it out like we figured out some of the other things that I’ve inherited. It just has to make absolute sense … I think that one’s still to be determined, to be perfectly frank with you.”

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Waking Up

Bob Dancer

I’ve read several authorities who claim that having regular sleep hours is the healthiest way to lead your life. Whether these experts are correct or not, I haven’t lived my life that way. For the past 30 years, my life has revolved around when and where the best video poker plays are.

If the point multiplier starts at midnight, I’ll be there. At 3 a.m.? That’d be okay. I’ll make it. An appointment at 8 a.m.? No problem. Another appointment at 1 p.m.? That’s okay. Meeting for dinner at 7 p.m.? Sounds good.

Obviously, I need to sleep some of the time. So, I sleep when I can, set the alarm as needed, and get to wherever I need to be. Friends and colleagues learn not to call me at such ungodly times as 10 a.m. or maybe 3 p.m. because I might be sleeping. It’s better to text me something like, “Call me when you’re awake.” Some days I take three different naps. And, because I’m a male senior citizen, sometimes I wake up more than once just to go to the bathroom.

I take a medication that makes me slightly drowsy. I’ve asked my doctor for a non-drowsy version, but he thinks the one he gives me is the perfect one for my health condition. So, I take it at night — just before I go to bed — but if I’m only sleeping three hours this particular night because of a promotion, the drug is still in my system — at least a little.

The net effect is that when my alarm goes off, my body doesn’t immediately become wide awake.. If I’m going to gamble intelligently (or do anything else intelligently, for that matter), I need to make sure I’m awake before I proceed.

My three methods of waking up are showers, physical exercise, and mental exercise — in any order, often in combination. Showers are self-explanatory. My go-to physical exercise for years was jumping jacks. When my hip joint deteriorated and eventually was replaced six months ago, that was out. Plus, now I’m going to need arthroscopic surgery on my left shoulder, so even though I can now jump up and down, sort of, swinging my arms over my head is painful and will possibly aggravate the tear in my rotator cuff that’s already there. Depending on the time of day, I often I suggest walking around a block or three with Bonnie — which is good for a number of reasons.

For mental exercise, I do a variety of things. If I’m going to be playing a video poker game for which I don’t believe my accuracy is at least 99.9%, I’m studying that game — both by looking at the strategy and practicing on the computer. I wish Video Poker for Winners still worked on my computer, but I make do with WinPoker. I select hard hands so as to review the hands that are the most difficult. Or, I start from particular cards so that I know all the exceptions. 

If I’m going to be making a slot run, I’ll review all of my strike numbers. I have numbers for more than 60 games. The ones I see every day I know by heart. But there are some games I only see occasionally — so I forget the numbers if I don’t review them.

If I’m playing a video poker game I know well, I might amuse myself on the website www.extremesudoku.info. It provides harder-than-average puzzles, and after I’ve done one or two, I’m awake.

I do drink coffee in the morning and take a slew of vitamins that I think are working, but there are those who say that vitamins are just a way to have expensive urine. I’m not sure.

If I’m driving to where I am going to play, I’ll often sing along to the songs I play. I don’t need my voice warmed up in order to play video poker well, but there’s something about waking up my voice that also wakes up my whole body.

And then I go to the casino — do my best — and take what I get.

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The Taxman Cometh; Maryland rebounds

Happy days are not here again for sports betting. Never mind the proliferating scandals in major league sports. An exponential hike in Illinois‘ sports betting tax was just signed into law by proponent Gov. J.B. Pritzker (D). That’s not Pritzker above but the great, irreplaceable Lee Marvin as Hickey in Eugene O’Neill‘s The Iceman Cometh. Like Hickey, Pritzker has come to deliver an unwelcome dose of truth to purveyors of OSB. They’re an inviting target and, having bellied up to New York State and its 51% tax rate, they’re now viewed as pigeons for ever-higher levies across the country. If they ever get into California, look out. Beware of what you wish more, OSB, because you just might get it.

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