edges that are much
greater than the table games? The usual answer is
that slots are relaxing. You don’t have any
pressure to play a certain way at a certain speed.
Often people with jobs that cause them to deal with
the public will say: “I love to play the slots
because I don’t have to deal with people.”
Others state: “I play because it is the only
chance you have for a big win with a small investment.”
Whatever the individual reason a person gives for
playing the machines, one thing is certain across
the country -- slots are king! From Vegas, where
they represent almost 65 percent of the gross revenue
to Mississippi where they represent over 85 percent,
more people pull those handles and press those buttons
than roll them bones at craps and tap for hits at
blackjack.
Assumption #17: If you tip the dealers at blackjack,
they’ll give you better cards.
If you were a dealer and you could control what
cards came out of a deck or shoe would you be hustling
tips from the likes of you? Or would you tell your
relatives and friends to come to the casino tonight
to clean up! Of course, if you had larceny in your
heart, every relative you have (that you liked)
and every friend, would belly up to your table and
bet the table max until they wiped out the casino,
or until the casino fired you. Unfortunately (or
fortunately), dealers can’t control what happens
to the cards. In the bad old days of bent-nosed
casino owners and baseball-bat justice, some of
the unscrupulous casinos hired card mechanics who
could indeed control what came out the deck. Those
days are done. Very few dealers today have an interest
in cards per se. They are just doing their jobs.
Luck controls the fall of the cards. Tips just control
the possibility of a smile or a “thank you”
from an appreciative dealer.
Assumption #18:
Senior citizens are spending their social security
money on gambling and not saving it.
This is not so, since most seniors have budgeted
their money wisely. But if the assumption were correct,
that seniors are taking some, part or all of their
social security checks and blowing it in the casinos
instead of saving it for their offsprings’
inheritance ...so what? Aren’t you tired of
the busybodies in the government and the press telling
us what to do with our money? I remember when Michael
Jordan took a side trip to Atlantic City during
the playoffs to play a little blackjack, the media
were aghast at the amounts he bet. Listen, if I
made 100 million a year and, after taking care of
my family obligations, I decided to gamble the other
99 million -- that’s my business. It’s
my money. We have begun to treat our senior citizens
not as the generation that survived the Depression,
not as the generation that defeated Hitler and Mussolini,
not as the generation that faced down Communism,
but as this melange of drooling idiots who shouldn’t
be allowed to make decisions for themselves.
Assumption #19:
Most dealers are problem gamblers.
Most dealers don’t gamble at all. The percentage
that do usually do so only when friends or relatives
come to town. The percentage of problem gamblers
among dealers is probably what it is in the general
population -- minuscule.
Assumption #20:
Progressive jackpots are programmed to hit on weekends
and not midweek.
More money is won, and lost, on slot machines during
the weekend than during any similar time span during
the week. In fact, more progressives, big and small,
are probably hit during the weekend than at any
time during the week. But it has nothing to do with
the programming of the machines. It has more to
do with a very simple fact: More people go to casinos
during the weekends and more people in the casinos
means more spins of those reels, and more spins
equal more jackpot winners.
Good
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