Which is the Better Place?

I received an email asking which of two casinos was the better choice for this player.

Casino A had 9/6 Jacks or Better with a 0.1% slot club with no multiple points ever. Casino B had 8/5 Bonus Poker with a 0.25% slot club, and he only played when there were triple points. He said the food comps at Casino A were better, but he wasn’t there for eating. He was there for making money.

He told me he played both games perfectly. This is extremely unlikely. Although 9/6 Jacks or Better is one of the easiest video poker games to memorize, 8/5 Bonus Poker isn’t. I would estimate fewer than one in a thousand 8/5 Bonus Poker players play the game perfectly. But letting that assumption slide, let’s see what we have, assuming perfect play.

Casino A:      9/6 Jacks                   99.54%

Slot Club                   00.10%

Total                           99.64%

Casino B:      8/5 Bonus                  99.17%

Slot Club                   00.75%

Total                           99.92%

The obvious answer, then, is that Casino B is considerably better. For a dollar player who plays 600 hands per hour, Casino A is $8.40 per hour more expensive than Casino B.

The obvious answer is incorrect, however. For this player, it is not the case that Casino B is better. Why not? Because his stated goal is to make money and that means that both casinos are TOTALLY unacceptable. Not less acceptable; TOTALLY unacceptable.

A return of 99.92% is not “close enough.” It’s impossible to end up a long-term winner when the casino has any advantage at all.

If the casinos had other promotions, however, that could change things. Perhaps one or both send periodic checks in the mail on the order of “come in during the first two weeks of the month and we’ll give you $50 just for showing up.” Or perhaps they have regular drawings and the player has a decent shot at winning something valuable. Either or both of these promotions could make the casinos potentially profitable. But without such promotions, the house has the edge.

For most players, this would not be an insurmountable problem. Few players demand that casinos be potentially profitable. (No slot player, for example, has any realistic expectation of being an overall winner. They hope to win THIS TIME, but they know that in the long run the casino will most likely win from them.)

Many players value the gambling experience and count the free meals and rooms as part of the deal. For players like that, both casinos offer an excellent gamble which is better for the player than can be found in many casinos. Which casino is better might well depend on how much better the food is at the casino with the lesser game and how important that is to the player. To some people having a quality meal is extremely important. Others don’t care that much.

Or perhaps how nice the rooms are. Or maybe how smoky the casino is. Or possibly “easier to get to.” All kinds of solid reasons exist for choosing one place over another.

What should this particular player do then? The choice is between either not playing, or lowering his expectations about whether or not this game will be profitable. It would not be terrible should he decide to play anyway because he really enjoys it. After all, people pay to do many pleasurable things. And if gambling is pleasurable, it’s okay to pay for that too. But I encourage you to be realistic about whether you are playing for profit or playing for pleasure.

In similar cases, I ALWAYS choose not to play. I’ve played video poker for close to 25 years and it’s isn’t a “special treat” to me. I enjoy it. But I can go without playing if the odds aren’t there.