Question of the Day - 27 March 2021

...is whether the Double Up bet counts for slot club points. If so, it can be used to effectively double your slot club return, simply by making that bet after every hand. That in turn would reduce the house advantage overall on your total action.

Do ties push?

How can we locate VP machines equipped with the Double Up feature??  Our only answer over the decades has been to journey to the casino floor and ask slot attendants there.  We have found little help from VPFree2, phone calls to casinos or even players club booths. 
Any suggestions?
We have favored DoubleUp ever since my wife first encountered the feature on a $1JOB machine on a Christmastime casino boat out of Pt Isabel, TX, back in late 80's.  She emptied the hopper twice. What a gift!!

I remember double up existing back then but quickly disappeared.  Never knew why but suspected a couple of reasons number one being what your wife did.  Casinos don't like giving away too much money.  So if they are making a comeback there must be some rule changes that limit how much can be won. They will be computerized instead of mechanical and most likely only allow one round of double up as the old mechanical ones would go on as long as you had the courage to risk it all.  So don't get too excited about their return.

Dave_Miller_DJTB I second Dave question if Ties do not push and go to the casino then the casino has an advantage. Does anyone know how a tie is delt with. 

I believe a tie is treated as a push, which keeps the bet at a zero house edge.

Yes, ties push.  I've seen incredibly lucky players take minor wins and turn them into 1,000+ coin payouts by continuing to double up.  However, I think the feature helps the house in the long run.  Since their bankroll is larger than yours they can afford to take more risk.  Eventually a double up player will loose and they keep all of the money wagered--including your original win!  Thus, it is rare for a player to walk away a double up winner in the long run!  

If I remember correctly.
Ties gave you the option to take your poker win and quit double up OR try again.

Here's the problem I've always had with "double-up". It can only be used when you have won. Basically the casino is saying "Give us a chance to get our money back". And if you lose, your result is as if you lost, not won, the hand originally. On the other hand, if you lost the original hand, they don't give you a chance  to get YOUR money back. So, all in all, you are just giving the casino more chances to take your money.

I have a Game King machine at home and the Double Up is a feature that can be enabled/disabled by the operator.  I don’t think it was a popular option and a lot of casinos just left it turned off.  It was also the source of a fairly major software bug that cost some casinos many thousands of dollars.

Used to be you could ask an attendant to activate the Double Up feature if it wasn't showing.  Some players would ask for it to be turned OFF!  Ask an attendant if your machine has it and can she/he turn it on. I suspect many still have it, just not showing.  The attendant can turn it on with her key, like they can turn off a machine's sound effects.  You'd have to ask.

At Horseshoe Tunica, decades ago, I watched a lady Double Up to $3200, try for it again and lose it all.  She acted as if it was no big deal.

I was told the machines there would let you keep on doubling up to...way farther up than that.  That's the highest I ever witnessed.

She was playing a dollar machine, don't recall the game or her original win from which she got up to $3200.

Kevin, what I remember is it didn't cost anything to Double Up.  Just a sucker bet.  Most times you lost after one or two tries.  

I never saw a machine that limited the player to one Double Up try, though.

Candy

If you result in a value of $1,200 or more and you elect to stop doubling and collect your winnings, do you receive a W-2G?

Oh well, guess we'll just keep asking when we reach the floor.  Now we'll also ask if machines can be "double up enabled."  Thank you for the info.
Yes, ties push, repeatedly sometimes.
Dont know if hand-pays & W2G's are triggered on double up machine single plays.  When wife won close to $1800 on one machine over a few hours, she never won more than 400 on a single play with series of double-ups. 
And lastly, MSS had several 25cent double-up October 2019,among the 5-machine banks in front of Boar's Head Bar. October 2020 MSS was closed, but we found a few machines at the Fremont, but they not as conveniently located near a TV for gametime.