I was having dinner with two winning slot\/video poker players when one of them, \u201cAl,\u201d asked, \u201cWhat was the first AP movie you watched?\u201d I knew he said AP to mean \u201cAdvantage Player,\u201d but I wasn\u2019t exactly sure what kind of movie he meant? \u201cDo you mean like \u2018Rounders?\u2019\u201d This 1998 movie starred Matt Damon and Edward Norton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
That was exactly what Al was talking about, and that particular movie was the first AP movie he saw. I\u2019m almost 35 years older than he is and remember the 1965 Steve McQueen, Edgar G. Robinson movie, \u201cThe Cincinnati Kid,\u201d which Al had never heard about. The third player, \u201cBo,\u201d played pool in his youth and remembered seeing \u201cThe Hustler,\u201d the Paul Newman, Jackie Gleason movie that came out in 1961.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A number of other movies were mentioned, and eventually I mentioned \u201cThe Sting,\u201d the 1973 movie starring Paul Newman and Robert Redford. \u201cAbsolutely not!\u201d declared Al. \u201cThat movie centers around a con, and there are a number of dishonest activities portrayed. Being an AP means you win by your wits without cheating!\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I wasn\u2019t particularly surprised by Al\u2019s point of view. Al is a deeply religious man who lives his life with integrity. If he thinks an action is even a little bit sketchy, he\u2019ll avoid it. While I don\u2019t agree with all of his decisions, I highly respect them.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, I consider myself an honorable person, but I do take some \u201cshortcuts\u201d along the way. One of the problems with the idea of avoiding cheating is that the definition of cheating is vague. It\u2019s a bit like what Supreme Court Justice Potter wrote in 1964 about a very dissimilar situation, \u201cI can\u2019t define it, but I know it when I see it.\u201d Except what you conclude and I conclude can be different. Some matters haven\u2019t been decided by the courts. Sometimes good lawyers can convince the courts that something is legal while the casinos wish it had been decided the other way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For example: I play many games. While I have most of them mastered, I have many of the \u201csemi-memorized.\u201d On my cell phone, I have a Word document that lists the correct strategies for these games. I sometimes look at this strategy during play. Officially, in Nevada, this just may break the device law, while looking at the same strategy written on a piece of paper does not. This doesn\u2019t make sense to me, but it might be the law. I use the argument, \u201cCasinos aren\u2019t likely to prosecute this,\u201d to give me license to do it. Is this cheating? Not to me, but others disagree. Bob Nersesian, the best-known attorney for player-casino disputes has said if I did this and the casino took action against me, he would refuse to defend me. \u201cThe law is clear about this,\u201d he has said.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Assume a casino allowed its players in the top tier to have one day a month of 5x points, where the player got to choose which day was most convenient for her. Also assume a husband-and-wife team were both members of this tier. On one day a month they\u2019d both play on his card, and on another day that month they\u2019d both play on her card. To me, this is a smart, AP move. It certainly isn\u2019t what the casino intended. Is it actually cheating? Al would probably think so, but I\u2019m not sure. He is an unmarried 40-year-old (he can\u2019t find a woman he likes who is as spiritual as himself, and this is his number one criterion). He\u2019s played right next to me when I\u2019ve hit a jackpot on Bonnie\u2019s card, and he heard me explain the situation to the slot attendant. (Usually it\u2019s no problem, but if a casino tells me not to do that in the future, I obey.) Al has never said a reproving word to me about this and he still considers me a good friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Now look at the players who have cards from 30 different players and basically live in that casino, playing with 5x points on a different card every day. To me this is clearly cheating. What\u2019s the exact line between doing it on a spouse\u2019s card and doing it on cards from \u201cbusiness partners?\u201d I can\u2019t tell you, but it\u2019s something I feel strongly about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s say I have $1,000 in free play to pick up at a casino, but I won\u2019t be in town during the time period the free play is active. I have a trusted friend who would be happy to play quarter video poker for an hour to redeem this in exchange for a $100 fee. Even if the casino has no better than 6\/5 Bonus Poker (worth about 96.9%), the cost of playing $1,000 through is only a little more than $30 in expected value which is dwarfed by the size of the bonus. Before discussing whether I would do this or not, also consider a second case where it\u2019s the same situation but this time I have $5 in free play to pick up. Also assume the casino would not be happy if it discovered somebody else was playing on my card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Morally speaking, it makes no difference whether it\u2019s $1,000 or $5 we\u2019re talking about. It\u2019s breaking the casino\u2019s rules. Al would avoid this in both cases. For $5, though, I\u2019d give that up without a qualm and for $1,000 I\u2019d at least think about it pretty hard. Historically I have sometimes hired people to collect free play for me. Not always, but more than once.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My thoughts on this general subject have evolved over the years. Since I\u2019ve been publishing my thoughts for close to 30 years, someone interested in proving that what I\u2019m saying now conflicts with something I said a number of years ago could find evidence to support his view. I\u2019m more interested in telling it like it is for me now than worrying about always being consistent with every thought I\u2019ve had in the past.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I was having dinner with two winning slot\/video poker players when one of them, \u201cAl,\u201d asked, \u201cWhat was the first AP movie you watched?\u201d I knew he said AP to mean \u201cAdvantage Player,\u201d but I wasn\u2019t exactly sure what kind of movie he meant? \u201cDo you mean like \u2018Rounders?\u2019\u201d This 1998 movie starred Matt Damon […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":843442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[601,557],"tags":[561,585],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/spinach-2.png?fit=500%2C300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884319"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=884319"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884319\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":884322,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/884319\/revisions\/884322"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=884319"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=884319"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=884319"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}