We submitted this question to Jean Scott, whose upcoming book is the Frugal Video Poker. Here's her response.
Chapter 19 of Frugal Video Poker, "Becoming a Good Casino Scout," tackles this issue. I've changed it a bit to answer the question, but the answer gives you a pretty good sneak preview of the kinds of topics I cover in the book.
Scouting for good video poker games used to be easier to do, back in the good ol’ days just 15 years ago or so. You could walk briskly up and down the aisles of a casino, quickly scan the names of the video poker machines, and look at the paytable right there on the glass front. Often there'd be a whole row of the same game with the same name and the same paytable. The hardest part was peering over the shoulders of the drinkers who were hunkered down over the bar top games.
Even when casinos began springing up on riverboats all over the country and new variations of video poker were being developed for these new markets, there still weren't that many different games. As late as 1993, Lenny Frome, the grandfather of expert video poker play, published the comprehensive (at the time) book, Winning Strategies for Video Poker, which included just 55 different pay schedules. Since many of those were specific to riverboats or to a particular state, it was still a pretty easy task to scout out a Nevada or Atlantic City casino and see what video poker machines they had to offer. Well, as they say, "That was then and this is now."
Today there are more than 600 different VP paytables — and new games are appearing all the time.
It started with Draw Poker, which was followed up by Bonus Poker, and then Double Bonus. After that came Bonus Poker Deluxe, Bonus Poker Plus, Triple Bonus, Triple Double Bonus, even Ultra Bonus Poker.
The classic Deuces Wild begat Loose Deuces, Bonus Deuces, and then Double Bonus Deuces Wild. Yes, all four words on the glass as one game name. Hmm, I wondered, tongue in cheek, if I could just merge my Double Bonus and Deuces Wild strategy cards to play that one!
Then there was a rash of games whose names contained the word "Aces": Royal Aces, Super Aces, Double Aces, and Aces Bonus. Everyone knows aces are great cards, but let's make them better by adding some other good cards, coming up with Aces and Faces. Hey, they were on a roll, so then they introduced Double Aces and Faces. And why stop there? Let's have Double Double Aces and Faces, Faces Pay the Aces, even Super Double Triple Only Aces Pay. (Okay, so I made up that last one. But you get my point.)
At the turn of the century, the manufacturers decided that the year 2000 should be the beginning of the Multi Millennium — multi-line, multi-game, multi-denomination. First three lines, then five, then ten, then fifty, and now a hundred play! And why should good casino customers have the choice of playing only one game on one machine? Why couldn't they just press buttons and go from Red, White and Blue to Keno Plus and Super Double Bonus Plus? Oh, and another terrific space-saver: They could play each game with a choice of denomination, from perhaps pennies to dollars.
The fact is, despite all the superlative-sounding names and the multitude of choices, it seems as though the more adjectives used to describe a game, the lower the payback.
For a long time, machine manufacturers have felt free to keep the same name on a game and change the paytable — usually downward, of course. Jacks or Better could pay 9/6 for the full house/flush, or 8/5, or even 6/5. But then the public became savvier and noticed these pocket-emptying downgrades. So the game designers and casinos decided to play the word game to see if they could make the VP-playing population feel better about lower-paying games.
And that's the answer to your question: It's to the casinos' and game manufacturers' benefit to keep the video poker players on their toes, sucking as many of the less savvy ones into low-paying variations through whatever tricks of the trade they can use -- one of which, as you say, is a new name every time your turn around.
