Posted: 15.05.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark, You answered a question by stating that the most popular number played on a roulette wheel was 17 and reasoned that this was so because it was located in the center of the layout and everyone could reach it. I guess my point is that it is likely that other factors add to the £appeal£ of 17 for the masses. I suggest that its popularity is based somewhat on the James Bond films where he bets £17 Black.£ Just a hunch, but I know many players who bet this way. Jimmy H.

Correct you are, Jimmy. James Bond enjoys both baccarat and roulette as a way to relax and unwind after saving the world. And yes, players drinking martinis, shaken not stirred, tend to follow his pattern of play. Besides birthday and anniversary dates, many players choose numbers used in the movies, from record LPs (the Beatles; number 9, number 9, number 9), even after a player£s favorite athlete. Popular in northern Nevada when I dealt the game was 16 Red, Joe Montana£s jersey number and color. Getting back to Her Majesty£s favorite secret agent: The most popular number in the movies is not 17, even if it was a favorite of Ian Fleming£s Bond, but 22. You£ll see it played at pivotal points in £Casablanca,£ £The Sting£ and £Lost in America.£ Also of little note, 22, my personal favorite, was the first number called at Bill's Casino at south Lake Tahoe when it officially opened on July 1, 2026 at 7:01 p.m. And who (brag mode ON) called that first number? Yours truly (brag mode OFF). One player had a $25 chip on it and won $875.

Dear Mark, I am having a minor dispute with a friend about £jack£s or better£ five card draw. Is there usually (obviously house rules vary from place to place, but in general) a requirement to prove you have a pair of jacks or better to open? When I learned this game, there was no such requirement and you could actually bluff the open. My friend now tells me that this is not the case and penalties like matching the pot are usually imposed if the opener does bluff. What is your experience on this issue? John K.

When I was growing up, John, if I misplayed a hand in pinochle, fraudulently or not, the chastening was not only getting the heave-ho from the game but castigated for piss-poor play and an additional penalty of washing all the dishes. This is how I learned that honesty prevails in card play. But I£m writing about a friendly, or in my case, a hostile game environment at the kitchen table where local rules apply. In casino poker rooms, they don£t offer a jack£s or better game for one simple reason. SHOW ME THE MONEY! Casinos can£t pay the lighting bills on the many dead hands that a Jack£s or better game would create. You can£t £rake£ a pot that isn£t there. The rake, the money that the card room charges, is usually a percentage or flat fee taken from the pot after each round of betting. Every time a dealer pitches out a hand, your miserly casino owner wants a piece of the action. As for home rules, I£ve heard of everything from matching the pot to forfeiting the hand, and in a worst case senerio, the bucking up for all the booze and burgers. So in the future, John, let whoever is gracious enough to let you spill beer and chip dip all over their carpet make the rules of the house.

Posted: 15.05.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark, I enjoy going to Las Vegas not only to gamble but to feast on all the different buffets. Why do you think they don£t offer buffets with the same fanfare in the Midwest casinos as they do in Las Vegas? Chuck M.

On those days, Chuck, when you have to try as hard as you can to keep up with the losers, your only salvation is to get up from a losing table and enjoy the comfort cuisine of a rich bounty buffet. Casinos here have long realized that the formula for success in a casino is to attract as many people as possible, with the least amount of marketing costs, and keep them in their facility for as long as they have money in their pocket. A buffet is one of the best ways of doing that. The Rio Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas is a perfect example of a casino whose tremendous success is rooted in its Carnival World Buffet. Why the chow-line dining experience hasn£t caught on at all the heartland casinos, where eating quantity over quality has always prevailed, is beyond my grasp.

Dear Mark, When making a bet on the £bank hand£ in baccarat, why do they charge a 5% commission? Wouldn£t this make it an inferior wager compared to a £player hand£ bet? Bradley G.

Based on the mathematics of baccarat, the player hand should win 44.6% of the time, the bank hand 45.8% and the tie 9.6%. If we discount ties, the player hand statistically will win 49.3% of the time and the bank hand 50.7%. Because the bank hand wins more than 50% of the time, the casino neutralizes this edge you would have over the house by charging a 5% commission every time you win a bank hand bet. By charging this hidden tax, the casino£s advantage is now 1.17% for bank hand and 1.36% for the player hand. But even with the commission added, you can see that the bank hand is still a slightly better bet than the player wager. By the way, Bradley, the above wagers are some of the best bets you can make in a casino, but the tie bet should always be avoided: house edge, 14.1%.

Dear Mark, I understand most of the logic behind basic strategy, but one play always makes me nervous and that is doubling down on a 10 against a dealer£s 10. If I assume the dealer has a total of 20, then only a ten card or ace will allow me to win. Am I right to assume that there are more chances I'll draw a 2-9 card than a 10 or ace? If so, why double my bet in such a risky situation? Allen H.

Blackjack is a game in which the proper hit, stand, splitting and doubling decisions are necessary to cut the house edge down to a minimum. These proper decisions are called basic strategy and have been arrived at by computer simulations of millions of hands. Your case in point, doubling down on a 10 against a dealer 10 is NOT one of those times. Basic strategy dictates you hit your hand, not double down. This stratagem is the same for both single and multiple deck games.

Dear Mark, You have mentioned in previous columns both your favorite books and movies on gambling. Do you have any favorite songs on gambling? Stathis Z.

Hmmm. A beloved song on gambling. Yes I do. Two actually. Theres A Place in the World for A Gambler by pop singer Dan Fogelberg and Luck be a Lady by Frank Sinatra. There£s a place in the world for a gambler There£s a burden that only he can bare There£s a place in the world for a gambler And he sees Oh yes he sees.

Posted: 14.05.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark,

My friend and I are long-time day trippers to Atlantic City. We have a couple of sandwiches riding on the outcome of this wager. As you can tell were not big bettors. Our question is - who was the first player to make a wager in Atlantic City? I believe it was Frank Sinatra, whereas my friend thinks it was another member of the Rat Pack, Dean Martin. Who£s right? Marvin K.

Neither of you wins the light repast. It was a $10 pass line bet by Steve Lawrence that made Atlantic City gambling history on Memorial Day, 2026. Incidentally, Did you know that the Invention of sandwich is directly related to gambling? No kidding! The next time youre enjoying a bacon sandwich, thank the Earl of Sandwich (1718-1792). He loved to gamble so much he had his cortege bring him meats, bread and cheese so he wouldnt have to abandon the gambling parlors. Hence, the sandwich.

Dear Mark,

Is blackjack still the number one game in Las Vegas? It seems I£m seeing fewer and fewer 21 tables and more and more slots. Grant G.

If I could be £Gambling Czar£ for just one day, collecting casino profits on just one game, it would not be the casino win at blackjack but of the 25£ slot machine. Yes, the quarter machine takes in more in net profit for the casino ($2.6 billion in Nevada) than blackjack, baccarat, craps, roulette, keno and the sports books combined. Yes, Grant, you are astute in you observations. Vegas is becoming an adult pinball palace.

Dear Mark,

When you have a 16 in blackjack, would you advise surrendering against a face card? Also could you please explain the difference between early and late surrender? Sara G.

Surrender is an option in which the casinos allow players to £surrender£ half their original bet total after they have examined their first two cards and have viewed the dealer up card. If the casino£s blackjack rules permit surrender, jump on their offer. Let£s face it, Sara, a 16 is a garbage hand faced off against a 10. The best move when dealt dealer debris is to relinquish half your bet. Never, Sara, think of surrender as giving up half your wager, just getting back half your probable loss. Early surrender permits a player to relinquish half her wager even if the dealer has a blackjack. With late surrender, if the dealer possesses a blackjack, the player loses her complete bet.

Dear Mark,

With all the different types of video poker machines to select from, how£s a customer to choose which machine to play? Gerry B.

There are more than a hundred different video poker machines to choose from. Games like Joker Poker, Louisiana Jacks, Gator Poker, etc., offer you a supermarket selection, but all have different paytables needing distinct playing strategies. I recommend learning and limiting your play to two, like my favorites, Deuces Wild and Jacks-or-Better.

Dear Mark,

What are your thoughts regarding those shuffling machines found on blackjack games? Carrie C.

No aficionado of shuffling machines here, in spite of these shuffle mechanisms finding wide acceptance by casino operators and players alike. With a Shufflemaster, a leading industry shuffle machine, dealers do not have to waste time manually shuffling cards. From the casino perspective, time is money. The more hands per hour the better. From a player£s perspective speed kills in a casino environment. The more time you are exposed to the house advantage, the more it will wreak havoc on your bankroll. I recommend finding a table with the fewest decks possible. This forces the dealer to constantly shuffle and not expose you to any casino edge while shuffling.

Posted: 14.05.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark, Since I don£t gamble very often and chances of losing eight in a row are very remote, don£t you think it£s logical to double my wager every time I lose? Albert M.

I see your logic, if you call it logic, but it isn£t. What you are describing is called The Martingale System, a historic name for doubling up after every loss. In essence, you the gambler double your previous bet (after a loss) to recoup that loss plus win back your initial wager. It is no, IT IS the worst money management system you can use. You would think, logically, this form of betting is foolproof because you have to win sooner or later. The problem is, you dont have an inexhaustible bankroll , and our friends who own the casinos will limit the maximum size of your also, ask any gambler you know if six or eight losses in a row is not unusual. I£m experiencing it now with a computer program that picks the pros in football. But Albert, I really want you to think this through. Here£s you. You bet $2 and lose, then $4 to recoup your losses. Then $8, $16, $32, $64, $128, $256, $512. Ka-ching, Kaa-ching, you invested $1,020 just to get your measly two bucks back. Oops, but you were playing on a game that had a table limit of $200. A string of six defeats and the casino automatically protects itself plus sets your loss limit at $252. Wiped out, Albert, in less than three minutes. The Martingale system is not logical, it£s downright lethal. It£s so obvious, Albert. No more, please.

Dear Mark, What is a hardway number on a crap game and is it a good bet? Steve. R. A hardway wager is a 4-6-8-10, but only paired up as a 2-2, 3-3, 4-4, 5-5 combination. For example; if you have a hard six wager, a pair of 3-3s would have to roll for you to win. Not a 2-4 or 5-1 dice roll. Is it a good bet? No! House advantage on a hardway 6 or 8 is 9.1 percent. A hardway 4 or 10 has an 11.1 percent casino edge. Readers of Deal Me In only make wagers that have a house advantage of two percent or less. Steve, say adios to this wager.

Dear Mark, On my last two trips to Las Vegas I have found slots ($1 machines at the Stratosphere) advertising a return of 98%. I didn£t seem to get a decent return on them. Shouldn£t the casino, in such a regulated business like gambling, at least pay back the percentage they advertise? Dottie C.

When a casino advertises that its slot machines return 98 percent, it means the machine is pre-programmed £over the long run£ to return 98£ of every dollar played. Don£t come to expect that for each dollar inserted you will automatically get 98£ dribbling back into the tray. The operative phrase here is £over the long run.£ A £long run£ could mean weeks, months, and even years on any given machine. But let£s assume the machine you were playing was paying off 98£ for each and every dollar bet. Using a liberal definition of the word £good£ machine, we£ll allow the casino a measly 2% edge. Well, Dottie, if you were to insert $60 per minute into a 98% payback slot machine (not difficult on a dollar machine at $3 a whack using a credit button), you will lose about $72 an hour. Multiply that by eight hours of play and you will come up $576 short in the purse. Even on those advertised high payback machines, the casino still has a way of grinding away at your gambling capital. The way you avoid this $576 grind is to behave more conservatively by playing on smaller denomination machines (25£), for shorter increments of time. Casino operators know all to well that such cautious behavior has negative implications on the casino win for the house. They would much prefer you ante-up silver slugs and play all day. Oh, by the way, Dottie, all too often players like you believe that the casino is in the gambling business. Wrong! They are in the math business. On pre-programmed slot machines that give the house a certain percentage return, you are the only one doing the gambling here.

Posted: 14.05.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Getting bent out of shape Dear Mark, I was listening to a radio talk show about casino gambling when a caller claimed he does well in blackjack by looking for warps. Well, the guest on the show didn£t give a response because the host went to a commercial and they didn£t come back to the subject. So, Mark, what is a warp? Rhonda A.

In the casino industry, we call it a £dealer tell,£ meaning, a dealer who gives away information that the casino believes players shouldn£t possess. In this case, when a dealer checks the hole card under tens or aces, some inexperienced dealers will unknowingly bend those cards upwards. This will cause the tens and aces to have a different shape than the rest of the cards in the deck. With this information, the sharp-eyed player believes he knows the dealer£s hole card by its disfigured state£which is known as £playing the warps.£ But believe me, Rhonda, pit bosses who aren£t asleep standing up are always on the lookout for dealers who hack their cards to death, and they£ll correct this transgression. How effective is this type of play? Well, if you knew the hole card, it could be very lucrative, but it still comes down to casino management£s ability to monitor their pit.

Dear Mark, Besides card counters, have any other players ever been barred from playing blackjack based on certain strategies? Melvin D.

I really can£t answer for every casino on why, or if, they would heave-ho a player based on playing strategies, Melvin, but how about being banned for having too much capital? It happened when Australian billionaire Kerry Packer beat the MGM in Las Vegas out of $26 million, most of it while playing blackjack. The casino finally barred him, not because he was a card counter but because he was more capitalized than the casino. When you put together a lucky streak and a player with more financial resources than the house, you£ve got a possibility of casino closure£permanently.

Dear Mark,

What is the worst move a player can make with a hand while playing blackjack? Susan L.

Getting ridiculous here, Susan, it£s Actions like doubling down on a natural blackjack. Actually Ive seen this done once with a $200 wager where alcohol got the best of this party animal. Now for the average player in the casino, its standing on a pair of eights versus a dealer upcard of 7 instead of splitting them. A player making this basic strategy error will lose 70% of the time. Susan, you are the type of player who always plays perfect basic strategy, right?

Dear Mark,

Last year when I went to see the dolphin exhibit at the Mirage in Las Vegas and it was just $3. Now they are asking more than triple that. What gives? Henry P.

I£ve got a sneaky suspicion that Steve Wynn, owner of Mirage Resorts, recently changed toothpaste£s to one that contains those extra whitening ingredients. You need a cunning pearly white smile when you dupe patrons who once paid $3 to view the hotel's captive dolphins to now fork over ten bucks£although he threw in a few white tigers as a bonus. Whoopee!

The point I£m trying to make here is that if you£re coming to Las Vegas, you better be prepared to spend moocho dinero. Bargain lodging and $2.49 prison chow buffets are becoming an endangered genera. With more than 40% of the total revenues on the Strip now coming from non-casino sources£and growing five times as fast as the casino take£plan on casino operators reaching into your wallet for any, and every, thing they can.

Posted: 13.05.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark, On the weekends, do casinos make adjustments on their video poker machines to make more money? Sam K.

Do you mean do casinos take a screwdriver to their slots on the weekends to tighten them up? No way. It is not cost effective for the casino to continually alter the payouts on their machines. To alter the percentage return in their favor on a video game, the casino must, by law, make a hardware change. You do this by swapping out an internal component, the ROM portion of the microprocessor chip. ROM, or read only memory, is a chip the slot manufacturer provides the casino. This is the chip that tells the video poker machine to pay 9 coins for a full house, 6 coins for a flush. Additionally, they would have to physically change the glass payout schedule on their machines. What you could see is a seasonal wholesale change to improve their theoretical hold by making all 9/6 machines to 8/5 bandits. By changing to all 8/5 machines, the house holds an additional 3% edge on each and every machine.

Dear Mark, Is there a way that the casino can program a video poker machine so that a royal flush never appears? Shanon B.

Can, yes. Would? Never! What you have described is called secondary decision programming. A good programmer could write code that allows the computer within to stop a hand that is about to be dealt in favor of a different hand. This would prevent big winning hands like royal flushes from appearing their theoretical number of times. In a highly regulated industry like casinos, it is safe to assume honesty in programming.

Dear Mark,

When I am dealt the first five cards on a video poker machine, are the draw cards already sitting behind the cards I want to discard, or are they dealt from the top of the deck? Ed. P.

It depends, Ed, on the company who produced the slot or how old the machine is. In the past, the majority of video poker machines operated using parallel dealing. This is where all 10 cards are dealt simultaneously, meaning, you are dealt both the display cards and their draw replacements. Discard that dreadful four of clubs and the seven of diamonds, which you didn£t need, was sitting behind it all along. Today, the new machines employ serial dealing. Here replacement cards are dealt right from the top of the deck£similar to a live poker game. Because the cards are shuffled and displayed randomly, neither way has any effect on the outcome.

Dear Mark,

What are the chances of hitting the lottery twice in one lifetime. Has it ever happened? Milton G.

In a perfect world we all would win the lottery once, shoot scratch golf and drive a Mercedes. But that wasn£t perfect enough for divorced convenience-store manager Evelyn Marie Adams of New Jersey when she won her state£s lottery twice within a four-month span in 2026. The odds against Ms. Adams winning the double bonanza were 15 trillion to one. Fifteen trillion, Milton, is three thousand times the number of people on this planet. Since then, seven others have joined the elite fraternity of repeat lottery winners.

Dear Mark, How much edge does the casino have in blackjack? Bert B.

It strictly depends on the skill level of each individual player. Against the average Joe the casino has about a two percent edge. A hunch or superstitious player can easily give back eight percent. Depending on the rules of a particular casino, a Deal Me In reader who uses perfect basic strategy has only a half of a percent disadvantage. They also get rated and work the casino over for comps. Because many casinos give back between 20 to 40 percent of the expected win£not the actual win£in player gratuities, the Deal Me In player actually shows a positive expectation when playing blackjack.

Posted: 13.05.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark, Horrific as it sounds, it seems that the only game I'm able to win at lately is bingo. The thing is, for a comparatively small amount of money I can get a pretty good return. It also makes a nice relaxing change of pace if I'm on a losing streak and need to slow down my losses but I just don't want to leave the casino yet. Agree? Rick M.

Most players don't realize it, but bingo is one game the casino offers that generally operates as a loss-leader for the house. Casinos can actually show a net loss by paying out more in guaranteed prizes than they take in. Now for those who think $5 is a hefty price for a buy-in, try a special non-cash game£yes, FREE£that casinos occasionally advertise. Rick, you answered your own question correctly. Bingo does offer a great return and is a nice, relaxing change of pace if you're on a losing streak and need to slow down your losses.

Dear Mark, I am planning my first trip to Las Vegas. The only game I play is Video Poker. Any recommendations on where to play? Annie C.

One of the great things about playing video poker, Annie, is that the casino actually tells you which machines are better than others. How? Just by reading the paytable displayed on the machine£s faceplate. So who has the best paytables in Las Vegas? Have your cabby drop you off at the Stratosphere. By offering £certified£ 100+ payouts on quarter machines, the Stratosphere may very well be, according to their claim, £the best place to gamble on the planet.£ My personal favorites are their 10/6 and 9/7 Jacks or Better machines. With perfect play, the 10/6 machine will return 100.7 percent and the 9/7 machine 100.8 percent. Throw in some slot club card perks, Annie, and the Stratosphere is actually paying you to gamble.

Dear Mark, How do you judge one casino as being better than another? Missy D.

Tastes will always vary, Missy, but when I£m asked which is £the best£ casino to play in, I£m particular. Yes, a casino offering a 99£ breakfast special is enticing, a $3.49 prime rib buffet tempting, a comp to a Broadway musical is worth kissing up to a pit boss for, but my answer will always remain the same. I judge a casino £the best£ by where gaming rules maximize a players chances of winning. Examples: Single versus double zeros on a roulette table; blackjack dealt from a single deck with liberal rules like doubling on anything, resplitting and surrender; a crap game offering five or ten times odds in lieu of two-times odds; a mini-baccarat table with low limits; casinos that advertise 98.5% paybacks on their slot machines, then tell you which machines those are when you ask; and finally, my favorite, 9/6 video poker machines. The other casinos? They can keep their 49£ hot dogs and free coffee mugs. I suggest that if you£re willing to find £the best£ casino my way, you will have a much better chance of winning. And isn£t that what we£re really there for?

Dear Mark, Who has the best shrimp in Las Vegas? Tom T.

I£m partial to a joint downtown called the Golden Gate. They£re cheap£99££have no filler (generally 50 percent celery), and the servings are huge. You£ll find these bargain shrimp cocktails in the deli near the rear of the casino. I£ll be in Las Vegas next month to field-test these denizens of the deep, again, for the tenth time, to make sure I£m not giving out erroneous information.

Posted: 13.05.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

In the past, individuals have written you asking specific questions about Caribbean Stud Poker. Could you please give a brief explanation of how the game is played, its downside and is it really as popular as everyone says? Donald B.

The basic objective of this five card stud poker game is to beat the dealers hand. To play you must first place an ante bet in the circle. Let£s use a $5 ante wager as our example. You then receive five cards dealt face down, and the dealer gets four cards face down and one card exposed. If you feel your 5 cards can beat the dealer£s hand, you then place an additional bet equaling twice your ante ($10). Otherwise, you fold and lose your original $5. All that remains is beating the dealer£s hand and you win! Well, not so fast my friend.

If the dealer doesn£t have at least a king plus an ace to open, all you win is even money on your $5 ante wager. True, there is a bonus payout schedule for hands ranging from one pair to a royal flush when the dealer£s hand is in play, but when I£ve got 15 buckaroos on the table at risk, I want a $15 payoff if the dealer is forced to fold. There, Donald, is your downside.

As for its popularity, Donald, no argument from me that Caribbean Stud is one of the fastest growing table games today. Many players believe the attractive payback percentage and the added thrill of a progressive jackpot is just too hard to resist. But smart gamblers£those who stick with wagers that have less than a 2% house advantage£realize the house wins two ways: off the basic game percentage (5.3%) and as a percentage return (48%) of the popular progressive bet.

My mother and I just discovered the joys of playing bingo at an Indian reservation. Our problem is that if we play more than two cards at one time, we£re overwhelmed. Any suggestions? Marion E.

Save the mind labor, Marion, and join the cybernetic age. Most Indian reservation bingo parlors rent out computers (for a nominal price) that automatically track up to 12 bingo cards at one time. When a number is called, you one-touch a video bingo screen, and a computer searches for the number on all your cards, then imprints the correct spot for the game theme or pattern you are playing. For the laggards like yours truly, it£s heaven sent.

Dear Mark, I can£t wait for gambling to come to Detroit. Do you think with just three casinos, there will be enough competition to benefit the player? Benny D.

A resounding NO, and here£s why. The precipitous price for those three casino licensees will have to be absorbed by the unwilling and unknowing player. For starters, a state gaming tax of 18 percent of the casino profits was set by Michigan£s Proposition E referendum. Next, add an additional $25 million a year to the Michigan Gaming Control Board, plus $5 million for compulsive gambling. State legislators also enacted laws that require each licensee to pay more than $8 million in annual fees. As the Consumer Price Index increases, so do the service fees. The casinos must also pay an additional annual municipal fee of 1.25 percent of the adjusted gross receipts, or $4 million, whichever is greater. Now if you think the Lords of Chance will be footing the bill for the price of a casino license£the highest amount extracted yet from any casino operator£lose the tears. They£ll sulk like a 10-year-old when they have to fork over so much money, but whose pocket will they really take it out of? YOURS. How? By oppressive rules in blackjack, sky-high limits at table games, tight video poker machines and even tighter cybernetic one-armed bandits. Welcome, Detroit, my hometown, to what I believe will be some of the highest table limits and toughest odds nationwide. For the customers£ sake, I hope I£m wrong and will have to digest these words.

Posted: 13.05.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark, I received an advertisement in the mail that offered a book of coupons that I can use on my next trip to Las Vegas. They wanted $4.95 for $200 worth of coupons. Is that a good deal? Terry C.

Save your money, Terry. Not only is Las Vegas the hot dog and shrimp cocktail capital of the world, but for the coupon clipper, Las Vegas is the £half-off£ city. Everywhere you look, or go, newsstands will be loaded with, and hawkers passing out, coupons with the latest bargains in Las Vegas. The favorite of many who journey to Vegas is What£s On in Las Vegas. With a 130,000-per-issue circulation, you will find this FREE, coupon-laden publication everywhere. I£ll be forthcoming here, Terry. I£m a big time tightwad. I won£t, nor should you, pay full price for anything.

Dear Mark, I have two blackjack questions for you. First, what is the house advantage, if any, if I use a never-bust system against the dealer? Also, is it better to play on a blackjack game where the dealer hits a soft 17 or stands? Thomas D.

Over the years I£ve seen many losing players employ this never-bust strategy. Right off the top, they£re giving the house a 5% edge. Strict basic strategy, which obviously recommends hitting plenty of stiff hands, cuts the house edge to a half of one percent on the six-or eight-deck games that you£ll find in the Chicago area. Use it, or plan on losing it£all.

When you play a game in which the dealer hits a soft 17, you give the house an additional two-tenths of one percent. With a soft 17 showing, an Ace, 2, 3 or 4 improves the dealer£s hand and a 10, Jack, Queen or King leaves it of equivalent value. Eight of every 13 cards, Thomas, either improves the dealers hand or it stays the same. If any of the other five cards are drawn, the dealer still has a chance to convalesce his hand with another draw. For the above reason, Thomas, basic strategy dictates that you the player should always hit a soft 17, or double down against a dealer who£s showing a 3, 4, 5, 6.

Dear Mark, Could you please give a brief description of the rules for Let It Ride? Hugh G.

Let It Ride is based on the all-American game of five-card stud poker. The game begins with every player placing three equal wagers on their individual betting circles. The object of the game is to get a winning poker hand (10s or better) using your three cards plus the dealers two community cards. Your three cards are dealt face down, and the two community cards are placed face down in front of the dealer. After looking at your three cards, you may ask to have your bet returned or £let it ride,£ depending on whether your cards show the possibility of a winning hand. Then the dealer£s first community card is turned over, and again you can ask for your bet back or let it ride. Finally, the second community card is turned over, completing both the player£s poker hand and the game. Your third bet, a contract wager, is committed to play and can£t be returned. The dealer then pays all the winning hands according to a payout schedule. The higher the rank hand, the greater the payoff, with a royal flush paying 1,000 to one. The game is fairly simple, Hugh, but because 70% of the hands are outright losers, the house edge (3.5%) is well above my recommended maximum of 2%. I recommend you stick with some of the better bets that the casino has on offer.

Posted: 13.05.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark, I have always been a bit suspicious of casinos and especially their ability to cheat players. Come clean, Mark. Do the casinos tell the dealers to cheat the customer? Ron T.

If you follow my column regularly, Ron, you will notice my commentary ordinarily puts me on the side of the player. With machete in hand, I am always willing to slash through the green felt jungle for my readers. Most would call me a casino adversary/player advocate. Thank you. In the case of a casino cheating a player, Ron, I would be remiss if I didn£t say with 100 percent conviction that the casinos are in no way out to cheat you. There are two key reasons why casinos dont play the game of deception. First, most casinos are publicly traded companies and not interested in exposing their gaming license to loss with any inkling of cheating going on. Also, you wont find a more regulated industry chock-full of rules that would close a casino down for defrauding the public.

A second, if not even more significant reason, is the way casinos reap their profits£paying players less than the true odds. Meaning, every game offered to the player is mathematically in the casino£s favor. Example: When you flip a coin there is a 50/50 chance of your winning. But instead of getting even money for every dollar you wager, you are paid 99£, or 83£ or maybe even 75£. This in a nutshell is how casinos operate their license to print money, paying you less than even money on every bet you make.

Now, if every single wager placed in the casino is based on that principle, why, Ron, would they ever want to swindle you? That£s not to say that a rogue employee on his own never tries to manipulate the cards in the casino£s favor. That is why the casino manager watches the shift manager, who watches the pit bosses, who watches the floorman, who watches the dealers£with the eye in the sky (camera in the ceiling) watching everybody. It doesn£t take long for a dishonest employee to be weeded out.

I would also note that in 17 years of casino employment, working in seven different casinos, I have never been asked to do even the slightest thing that borders on fraud. I have been asked to speed up my hands per hour dealing blackjack or pick up the pace on a crap game, but that£s to get the math to work in the casino£s favor£never to cheat. So, Ron, I would be more suspicious of the wagers you make, not the casino. Let me ask you this: Are you getting back 75£ (keno) for every dollar bet, or 99£, (perfect basic strategy in blackjack)?

Follow up: This past week I was deluged with calls and e-mail about an investigative report by ABC-TV£s PrimeTime regarding slot machines in Nevada that are preprogrammed for £near-miss£ read-outs, which entice gamblers to play longer. The theme of the discourse was £I knew all along they were cheating us.£

PrimeTime£s main source; a former Nevada Gaming Control Board computer whiz and convicted felon named Ron Harris, who prior to sentencing found religion. Sorry, but I£ll stick with my biased conviction that because casinos have the percentages working for them on each and every slot, there is little chance they would conspire, in this case with a slot manufacturer, to cheat a patron. All pulls of the slot handle produce random results£albeit results that, based on the slot pay table, generally create losers. Besides, near-miss technology is not only illegal in Nevada, but tampering with a computer chip can easily be detected with the right equipment, even by a low-level computer nerd like me. Chips are not only tested before leaving the factory but randomly checked for integrity on the casino floor.

Coincidentally, another TV news magazine program, to which I promised confidentiality for both the show£s name and content, wanted my opinion about an upcoming investigative report they were doing regarding a highly sensitive casino issue. Because my take on the subject matter wasn£t the sensationalist spin that would improve their ratings, my viewpoint will find it£s way to the cutting room£s floor. Why should they use me? In the gambling industry they can easily find someone with limited credentials willing to say off camera or in silhouette, £Yeah, that£s the norm, happens all the time.£ Sounds very similar to the PrimeTime investigative piece above.

Posted: 15.07.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark,

I find horse racing one of the most enjoyable forms of casino gambling. For just $2 I can sit in an air conditioned race book and watch simulcast races from all across America. Wow! Any advice for a newbie horse player? Robert A.

I£m with you, Robert. A splash of stimulation and a $2 wager on a long-shot equine overdue for the glue factory can be an inexpensive diversion from a $25 minimum blackjack game. At $2 that is. But with Nevada£s race books offering only pari-mutuel wagering, Robert, the house does hold an 18-22% edge on any straight bet you make at the sports book window.

That said, pony players in the know£not me, I go by the horse£s biorhythms£believe the following factors are essential to your chances of picking winners.

1. knowledge of breeding 2. physical specifications of the race track (length, turns, surface, drainage, etc.) 3. track bias in the horse£s previous starts 4. jockey skills 5. trainer skills 6. current form of the horse 7. how the horse likes track conditions 8. horse£s ability at today's distance 9. predicted pace of the race 10. how to read a program or a Daily Racing Form 11. etc., etc., etc.

It was our beloved first president, George Washington, himself a racehorse owner who once said, £Horse racing is the child of avarice, the brother of iniquity, and the father of mischief.£

Gitty up!

Dear Mark,

I like to plunk down bets on the £Big 6,£ that carnival type wheel you will find in most casinos. What are the house odds on that game? Gary R.

You do realize, Gary, that you plunk and the dealer snatches. All six wagers on the Big 6 carry a steep house edge. That casino advantage is as follows: 11.1 percent on the $1 spot, 16.6% on the $2, 22.2% on the $5, 18.5% on the $10, 22.2% on the $20, and 24% on either joker.

By betting a steady diet of Big 6 wagers, Gary, you will run out of air speed and altitude quickly.

Dear Mark,

If, like you say, the house has only a 1.4% advantage on a pass line bet, how can the casino make any money by offering that wager? Jordan P.

It doesn£t matter who wins this one bet but who ends up with all the money. The casino realizes few players are sophisticated enough to restrict their craps betting to just smart wagers.

But let£s look at the bet in question, Jordan: a pass line wager. If you were to play 100 bets on the pass line, you can expect to win about 49 times and lose the other 51. The casino will gladly take this itty-bitty 49/51 ratio and multiply it by thousands of decisions daily, weekly and yearly, and guarantee themselves a generous long-term profit.

Dear Mark, Does the Megabucks machine pay back the same as regular $1 slot machines? Mary K.

Notta chance, Mary. By offering the player a shot at slot immortality, Megabucks shakes you down on the smaller payoffs. It is Megabuck£s progressive bonus that allows you to fantasize champagne wishes and caviar dreams. On average, Megabucks returns slightly less than a 90% payback while the typical $1 machine in Nevada averages more than 95%.

Dear Mark,

When I hear cheering coming from a crap game, does that mean it£s a hot game ready for me to dive right in? Bruce T.

Not necessarily, Bruce. The dice might have been sizzling before you come aboard, but that doesn£t mean they will stay heated because you£re now there. The reason is that your dice timeline£the period you£re on the game£is different from the earlier players. Understand, Bruce, when you join a game in progress, you initiate your own personal sequence of rolls, with the dice possibly going cold from that moment on.

Posted: 15.07.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark, You always say check your machine for credits before you leave. Is it true that if I went to play a machine and there were credits left on it by someone I could get in trouble with the casino? Beri W.

Called £sea gulling£ in gambling lingo, it is illegal to specifically circle the casino looking for credits on a slot machine. Not even change on the floor. I£ve seen player impostors given the heave ho (the dreadful permanent 86) for making a full-time occupation of floating the casino looking for easy pickings. Fortunately I have never heard of an unsuspecting patron walking up to a machine with credits, playing them, and being shown the door. Nevertheless, Beri, before you walk away from any slot machine, don't forget to press the cash-out button. Millions are lost each year by gamblers forgetting their stored credits (winnings).

Dear Mark, Though this question is not technically gambling related, I figured you might know the answer. In sweepstakes and contests, do you stand the same chance of winning even if you do not purchase the product (magazines) the company is trying to sell? Sally C.

Sweepstakes, like casinos, by nature tap into the dark heart of the American Dream. Something for nothing! And because sweepstakes entries reach 8 in 10 households, with an estimated 108 million sweepstakes entries received from more than 80 million U.S. households last year, it makes for an excellent question.

Many people believe that if they buy merchandise with their entry they have a better chance of winning a sweepstakes. Not so, states the Direct Marketing Association, the Magazine Publishers of America and the Promotion Marketing Association. All legitimate sweepstakes entries have an equal chance of winning. Federal law requires that no purchase is necessary to win a sweepstakes prize, and legitimate sweepstakes never require any

purchase or £deposit£ to play or win. This policy is stated on every sweepstakes mailing from law-abiding companies.

Also note, Sally, that approximately four out of five sweepstakes entries are sent in without any purchase. Correspondingly, four out of five sweepstakes winners last year came from contestants who didn£t purchase a product. But, Sally, I can£t state enough that the operative word here is £legitimate.£ Fraudulent, illegal sweepstakes often require a payment or purchase. These lawless rip-off artists often use names similar to legitimate companies to confuse the consumer. Machiavellian or not, expect to find most sweepstakes entries inferring in large type that you£re a £guaranteed winner,£ small type showing insurmountable odds and computer-generated language that sounds as if you were receiving a personal letter. That, Sally, is the nature of the beast.

Taking into account that your typical sweepstakes odds are a tougher beat than your state lottery, the only way you can avoid both crooked companies and exposing your Visa Platinum to solicited charges is to religiously follow this one cardinal rule. Enter, never purchase.

Dear Mark, I don£t quite understand what is meant by a pay cycle on a slot machine. Does it mean that over one pay cycle, every possible combination on the reel will appear? Melvin V.

Not quite, Melvin. The term £pay cycle£ is a theoretic expression used to describe the number of plays required for the machine to display all the possible winning and non-winning combinations. But, because each and every spin is a random event, a machine won£t hit all the possible combinations through any one specific cycle.

Dear Mark, In our office football pool, I place near the bottom almost every week. Any advice on what I can blame my continuous losses? Randy V.

Sports betting is a combination of both skill and luck. Your wins, Randy, come from your superb handicapping abilities. Just blame your losses on a late game interception or fumble.

Dear Mark, I really enjoy your column on the internet, but I have yet to see a discussion on two new table games on the floor: Let it Ride and Caribbean Stud Poker. Obviously, if they have a house advantage above your recommended two percent, I£m not interested. So exactly how high is the house edge on these new games? Dan C.

First, Dan, I must commend you for being the rare breed of gambler who looks at the casino advantage before making a wager. The house edge for Let it Ride is 3.5% and 5.3% for Caribbean Stud Poker. As for the progressive bonus side bets, the house advantage is 46 an 48 percent respectively.

Posted: 15.07.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark, It seems to me that in blackjack the less you know the more right your decisions are. When it comes to splitting pairs, doubling, even hitting certain hands, I take a chance and generally go against common wisdom. Therefore, my thoughts are that it is not worth the extra trouble to learn the correct strategy. Rory B.

Someone once said: £the first rules of holes is when you are in one, stop digging.£ Rory, You£ve got one big shovel. In blackjack, or any casino game for that matter, the less you know the more you should deride the analysis of anyone who has the knowledge and takes the trouble to study the subject from a mathematical perspective. Depending on how you play blackjack, you can gain the designation of professional player all the way down to a £sucker on a stool.£ Using guesswork, your playing style doesn£t put you in the professional category; more like a £dupe in action.£

Dear Mark, Recently on a blackjack game I was ahead by more than $400. The pit boss after a brief introduction comped me a pass to the casino buffet. After eating a so-so meal I came back and proceed to give back all my winnings. In hindsight, isn£t the meal offering a way of making me play longer? Buddy C.

Yes, because Nevada Revised Statute176.387 does not allow casinos to use Crazy Glue on casino stools to keep players in bondage until they lose all their winnings. Seriously, Buddy, free buffets are used by casino management primarily to encourage additional gambling. FREE and FOOD are subtle weapons that give the casinos an added firearm in reclaiming what they believe is still their money. The pit boss is simply treating you to a buffet so you feel obligated to play longer. Long enough so that the buffet will cost you $400. It is much better to learn to win and walk, not stay and suffer (money loss and abdominal duress).

Dear Mark, Your columns illustrate a biased position when it comes to playing keno. I enjoy gambling while eating and keno is the only game that affords this. I£ve always liked the fact that for a dollar you could win $25,000. Why are you so anti keno? Doris F.

Because I£m resentful, invidious and jealous. I was one of those kids who never got a box of 64 Crayolas. Always a used eight pack; one broke, one missing. So any game that you mark with a crayon that carries a house percentage higher than the interest you pay on your Visa card, I£m illiberal about.

Dear Mark, What does the term £following the shoe£ mean in baccarat? Phillip H.

The term simply means whichever side (player or banker) won the last hand, your next bet would be the same. Consequently, if a streak occurs for either side (common in baccarat), you will be riding it for its full duration.

Dear Mark, My goal when I play craps is to win $1,000 with a $100 buy-in. Do you feel this is impractical? Skip R.

Bellying up to a crap table with $100 and expecting to win $1,000 is, at best, unrealistic. Personally, I believe it£s downright wacky. Odds-on you will lose your C-note long before you win a grand. Skip, you need to set reasonable win goals, like 50% of your original stake, not 1000% on your money. Far too many players keep upping the ante on what they want to win. This columnist recommends having predetermined loss limits and £realistic£ win goals. It takes internal fortitude to take a small win and run. I£m not asking you to quit while you are on an eventful winning streak, but true winners know how to quit when they are ahead. They don£t risk it all to achieve too lofty a reward.

Posted: 15.07.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark, Why is it that every time Im dealt one card short of the royal flush, when I draw I never get the card I need? Just yesterday I was dealt all but the queen of spades, and sure enough, I got the lousy three of hearts. It makes me believe the casino controls who and when someone hits a jackpot. Why cant that queen of spades show up just once? Katherine R.

What do you expect, Katherine? The queen of spades represents Athena, the Greek goddess of war. Pull out a deck of cards and look at her closely. She£s the only armed queen in the deck. Even Homer in the Illiad, described her as a fierce battle goddess who continually intervened on the side of the Greeks in the Trojan War. Expect her to arbitrate on behalf of the casino every time.

Seriously, Katherine, I could bore you to tears by trying to explain how the pseudo-random number generator determines the cards you will get, but instead, I£ll simply describe the difficulties you£re up against when fate blesses you with four of the five cards needed for a royal flush.

Because there are 2,598,960 possible poker hands using a 52-card deck, you£re going to feel pretty good when your hand is one card shy of gaming ecstasy. But although the big jackpot appears to be only one card away, your chances are really only one in 47 or just over two percent. Another way to visualize its difficulty is taking a thousand video poker players lucky enough to start with your proposed hand. A ten of spades, jack of spades, king of spades, ace of spades and a three of hearts. Naturally, all in my controlled group will discard the three of hearts, leaving only 21 mathematically hitting the royal flush, then 150 flushes, 128 straights, 191 high pair hands and 510 who think, like you, the big fix is on. Sorry, Katherine, it£s just not as easy as it seems, but keep trying. Someday Athena may look favorably on you.

Oh, yes, a final thought. In case you want to know what the remaining better halves of the kings represent? The queen of diamonds is Rachel, wife of Jacob and mother of the twelve sons who founded the twelve tribes of Israel. The queen of clubs is an anagram of Regina, signifying queen. The queen of hearts is Judith of Bavaria, daughter-in-law of Charlemagne. And of course, we£ve already met Athena.

Dear Mark, I would like to know a little about the four suits and their rank from highest to lowest. Does one suit on a video poker machine rank higher than another? Joe C.

Generally no, but occasionally a casino will have a promotion with designated video poker machines paying higher jackpots if certain straights, flushes or royals are in a particular suit. There are also a few video poker machines that pay a mega-jackpot if you hit a royal flush in a predetermined suit with cards in sequential order. (Example: 10 of Hearts, JH, QH, KH and Ace of Hearts.) And what are the possibilities of hitting a consecutive card royal in a prearranged suit? Let£s just say, Joe, it£s easier to hit your New York state lottery.

Now for some bar stool trivia. Though cards have existed since the earliest Asian civilizations, France had the greatest influence on the creation of the modern deck. They eliminated the major arcana and combined the knight and page, reduced the size of the deck to 52 cards and simplified the suit symbols to red diamonds and hearts, black spades and trefoils (clover leaves). They were produced in mass quantity after Johann Gutenberg invented the printing press in 1455, and the four suits reflect the structure of the medieval society. Hearts£priesthood; spades£nobility; clubs£peasantry; diamonds£the wealthy merchant class. .

By the way, after Gutenberg printed the 1,284-page Gutenberg Bible on the printing press, the second impressions made were of playing cards.

Posted: 15.07.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark, We are deciding to make a family trip to either Las Vegas or Disneyland. We have three children all under the age of eight. I would like to know your recommendations and experiences (good/bad). Elise G.

Elise, if you£re looking for total family entertainment, choose the latter and take your family to Disneyland. Don£t get me wrong, I LOVE Las Vegas£just not as a family destination. Because it£s only fair you get a second opinion, let me bring in my expert on such matters£the biggest Las Vegas promoter I know. No, not Steve Wynn, my 10-year-old son, Nick.

Mark: All right, Nick, tell my readers your choice of a vacation, Disneyland or Las Vegas?
Nick: Las Vegas! It£s rad.
Mark: Come on, it£s not for kids. We were there on a Tuesday during a school break and I could count all the families I saw on one hand. (Note: Before you write in and call me a numskull stating it£s during the school year, so don£t expect kids, we were at Disneyland the following two days and it was swarming with families.)
Nick: That just means we have the whole place to ourselves.
Mark: Okay, name some of the things you thought were £rad.£
Nick: The Luxor arcade. The coolest I£ve ever seen.
Mark: In two hours, you spent more in quarters than a Disneyland Passport costs for the day.
Nick: We both liked that pirate stuff at the Treasure Island Casino.
Mark: The pyrotechnics and the pirate ship battle were good, but don£t forget we waited for one hour so we could view it from the front, and you complained you were being squished to death. Plus it lasted only five minutes.
Nick: I£ve got something, big fella. I can£t wait to go on that roller-coaster on that tall building.
Mark: I£m drawing the line here, Nick. No way am I going to allow you to get on a roller coaster that£s 1,149 feet in the air. Wait till you£re 18, better yet, 21. Case closed.
Nick: Chicken!
Mark: And one further thing about the Stratosphere tower roller coaster....
Nick: Bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk, bawk.... Anyway, I thought the amusement park at the MGM was way cool.
Mark: We were there off season, not during the summer, when the temperatures rise to over 110 degrees, long lines and you£re limited to just 12 rides. Overpriced, no matter what they charge. (Currently, you must be over 48 inches tall to go on any of the rides.)
Nick: You have to admit, Dad, the MGM building is awesome. All the buildings are.
Mark: You mean I£ve got a future architect in the family? NOT! You just wanted a $20 souvenir from each location.
Nick: Well, they at least offer you something to do once you£re inside.
Mark: Whether it£s the boat ride on the Nile at the Luxor or viewing the Emerald Forest in the MGM, cha-ching, cha-ching, it cost bucks, very little is free. And all the walking to and from, I£ve got blisters....
Nick: Your whining!
Mark: True, but I don£t know what£s worse. Blisters from all the concrete afoot, or our taxi bill for two days: $148.
Nick: Well, I know something the big guy really liked£the buffets.
Mark: Guilty as charged.
Nick: And when I went on stage during Lance Burton£s Magic Show, not once, but twice!
Mark: Nick, you couldn£t find a prouder father. Of course, not everyone scores front row, center seats and has a son with the best £pick me£ handwave in his fourth grade class. Let£s take a break, Nick.

Elise, the £Sin City£ element of Las Vegas is still alive and well, so don£t expect Vegas to be the £Orlando of the West.£ Example: I took a solitary walk between the Flamingo Hilton and the Luxur, estimation one mile, and 47 times I was approached and handed four color brochures of fantasy girls, willing and able, to make my visit to Las Vegas worth£use your imagination. Retreating with my wife and Nick in tow, discretion worked to a point, with only nine handbill distributors pushing their wares on me. I guess on the plus side, 38 respected the institution of the family, but the visual effects remain. Those circulars are scattered all over the sidewalk.

Nick: I£m back. Any other questions, snoop doggie Dad?
Mark: Sure, one more, Nick. Your final word on Las Vegas.
Nick: When can we go again?
Mark: My final thought, Elise. Baby strollers and high rollers don£t mix.

A final thought. The total expenditure for two days in Las Vegas was $739. Disneyland, $466. The following is directed to the gaming industry. Guess how much I gambled (total) when our family went to Las Vegas? $20. And when the £Nickster£ doesn£t go? Let£s just say, MORE! Your £family theme£ idea is way off the mark.

Posted: 15.07.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark, Every basic strategy card, blackjack book, and yes, you, recommend splitting eights against a dealer 10. Well, fear gets the better of me, and I depart from correct play and just hit instead of splitting the pair. So what should I do about a hand that always seems to haunt me? Hit, split or play the hunch? Scott N.

You£re right, Scott, eights against a 10 is a phantasmal hand that stalks most players like Marley's ghost.

As my readers know, blackjack is a game where the proper hit, stand, splitting and doubling decisions are necessary in order to cut the house edge down to a minimum. These proper decisions are called basic strategy and have been arrived at by computer simulations of millions of hands.

But fallacious logic tells you that splitting this hand creates two losers. Seems every time you split those eights you get, at best, two 10s. Then the dealer always has a nine or 10 in the hole, and bang, the jingling you hear is not Marley£s forged chains but all your money falling into the dealer£s tray.

So what happens to the average player? He starts deviating from basic strategy because FEAR sets in. The FEAR is actually False Evidence Appearing Real. FEAR camouflages the logic of computer studies. But according to basic strategy, the proper move is to split 8s if the game you£re playing doesn£t allow surrender. Why? Because you will lose more money in the long run if you hit instead of splitting. Mathematically, when you just hit the hand, you will lose $51 for every $100 wagered. However, if you split, you will lose $44 for every $100 bet. A seven dollar difference for every hundred dollars wagered. Granted, Scott, it£s a character builder to come out of pocket with additional money, but the key behind basic strategy is: Win more money not necessarily more hands.

Dear Mark, I£ve been around computers since 2026 and some folks even call me a computer genius. My new project is to develop a hand-held computer I can conceal in my pocket and try counting cards with much more accuracy. What are the risks/consequences if caught with a hand-held computing device in my possession in a casino? Anonymous

Dear Anonymous, allow me to let Beavis and Butthead spell it out for you: £Just because you own a computer doesn£t mean you still can£t be stupid.£

Dear Mark,

I have been following your advice and making casino bets that have less than a two percent house advantage. I now consider myself a reformed player. My blockhead brother on the other hand makes bets with no rhyme or reason. Since we both play craps, show me why my pass line bet versus his favorite bet, hardway sixes and eights, will always do better? Susan M.

Susan, by using a simple mathematical formula, I will prove that by playing smart, your play will generally outperform your brother£s.

Let£s first analyze your action, Susan. A pass line bet, with no odds, has a house advantage of 1.4%. With a $5 wager and 50 playing decisions per hour, your theoretical loss (all bets lose over time) is $5 X 50 X 0.014, or $3.50 per hour. Relatively cheap entertainment. In comparison, your brother£s bet, the hard six or eight, has a house advantage of 9.1%. The damage to his bankroll would be $5 X 50 X 0.091, or $22.75 in the same amount of time. Multiply that by 15 hours of play and you£ve got a sniveling, unhappy camper with a long car ride home.

Sibling rivalry aside, glad to see you£re reforming your play. Now let£s convert the blockhead.

Posted: 15.07.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark, When a pit boss approaches and introduces himself, then asks if there is anything I need, is that an appropriate time to ask for a comp? Danielle, M.

anytime pit bosses or casino hosts offer you anything, they are not going out of their way to be overly friendly, but your level of action probably warrants some casino perks. Meaning, your cash play deserves a comp, and since they're asking, you should start taking.

Your reply, Danielle, from this moment forward, should be immediate and direct. £As a matter of fact, there is,£ you should reply. £What are the chances of you comping me a dinner?£ Why do you have to be forceful? Because even though most floor personnel have some form of comping authority, you generally have to initiate the request. There are times that you£ll find your front-line pit boss can£t board you for the night or allow you to go on a champagne and escargot feeding frenzy in their gourmet restaurant, but a buffet or a show room pass is within their limits. If they balk, the standard £Maybe I should take my patronage next door£ always seems to work.

Strike when they ask, Danielle, because if your bankroll or bet size spirals downward, the casino£s gratuity will probably wane accordingly.

Dear Mark, I got in a beef with casino management in New Jersey over how rudely I was treated on a blackjack game. Not only did I decided not to play at this casino anymore, but I stopped payment on a $20 check that I had written there. Well, I think it has come back to haunt me because recently when I tried to cash a personal check in Las Vegas, the cashier refused. What£s the big deal? It was only $20. Anonymous

The £big deal,£ at least in the casino industry£s eyes, is that you stiffed them. And the penalty for your ingenuous act? Blackballing you from cashing checks in most casinos nationwide. When you tried to cash that check in Las Vegas, the cashier most likely ran you through Central Credit£the TRW of the gaming industry. Bingo, you came up hot. A little disagreement and $20 later, you£re an undesirable£according to a computer of course.

Solution£that is if you want to cash checks in a casino again£is to pay off the check, include a graceful apology, then, with knee pads on, appeal to the cage manager to get your indiscretion taken off Central Credit£s computers. Still peeved and won£t give in? You could always cash checks for $10 or less. Though casinos are required to comply with federal laws on credit approvals, some get around that by issuing credit for $10 or less without a Central Credit check. No, it£s not the appropriate way to handle your predicament, but then, I believe in betting only what you can afford to lose and avoid check cashing, and casino credit, altogether.

Dear Mark, Why is it that when so many dealers get halfway through the deck, they shuffle up? It really slows down the game. David V.

Because management has egg-shell nerves when it comes to players using their brains£card counters. This fallacious behavior is unjustified and to casino executives whose belief is that their quarterly reports are in jeopardy by cerebral thinkers I offer a personal challenge: Conduct time and motion studies of your blackjack games. What the stewards of gambling will find out is that blackjack becomes more profitable for the casino when the dealer£s shuffle points are deeper. By allowing additional deck penetration, the dealers will pitch more hands per hour and the action will more than make up for an occasional loss by a card sharpie. Besides, they employ pit bulls to run off the counters anyway.

Posted: 15.07.2026
By: Mar Pilarski

Dear Mark, Recently I got my first royal flush. That was the good news. The bad news is I only had two coins in it when it hit. Would I have still gotten a royal flush had I inserted the maximum amount of coins? Jennifer G.

No, but not for the reason you£re probably thinking. Many, many players believe that video poker machines are programmed to avoid a royal flush because the maximum amount of coins was inserted. As stated many times in this column, machines do not operate with artificial intelligence programmed to hit royals when you have less than the maximum amount of coins in the machine.

The reason you would have received a different hand, Jennifer, is because in the short amount of time it would have taken to insert the additional coins you didn£t play, the machine£s random number generator (RNG) would have cycled to another outcome. A video poker machines RNG will typically continue to crunch those 1s and 0s until you hit the deal button. As many as a million hands per minute. So unless you pushed the deal button at the correct millisecond, Jennifer, no, the proverbial royal flush with five coins inserted would not have appeared.

Dear Mark,

If black appeared six times in a row on a roulette table, which way should I wager on the seventh spin, black or red? Jim D.

Many self-proclaimed experts believe they can find trends in roulette by watching the wheel. For that reason, over the years I£ve facetiously asked them the following question: Black has appeared on a non-biased roulette wheel 30 straight times. Which way should you place your next bet? Would you a) bet black because of the established streak, B) bet red because it£s way overdue or C) not wager.

Well, Jim, the first two answers are right as well as wrong. No amount of past history on a random non-biased wheel guarantees the outcome of the next spin. Each spin is an independent event, and the law of averages does not apply to any one desultory spin. But Deal Me In readers know the answer I£m looking for is C. They know that over the long run their losses will be 5.26%. This casino edge is a tad bit too high for the readership of this column.

Dear Mark, What are your thoughts about the blackjack game where you see the dealer£s hole card in advance? Vince R.

Stick with the old tried and true, Vince. This form of blackjack is not worth playing. Because you lose pushes and only receive even money on blackjacks, the house edge is 2% higher than normal blackjack.

Dear Mark, Which is a better wager on a crap game? An £any craps£ bet or a £craps-eleven£ bet? Gary A.

NEITHER, with one exception. Your dial-a-psychic is accurate 100% of the time. An £any craps£ bet is wagering that 2, 3, or 12 will be the result of the next roll. With a payoff of 7 to 1, the house edge is 11.1%. A £craps-eleven,£ or £horn£ bet as it£s typically called, is a bet on the next roll that the 2, 3, 11, or 12 will appear. If any other number rolls, you lose. Though the payoff varies from casino to casino, the house edge on a horn bet is always more than 12%. A piratical house advantage if ever there was one.

Posted: 15.07.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark, Any truth to the rumor that I will be able to gamble on a flight from Cleveland to Las Vegas? Laurie H.

You mean wager that your flight will arrive on time? Take the six-to-five against. No, Laurie, you won£t see the captain turning off the no-betting signs in preparation for your landing. Though some airlines have gambling systems tested and ready to go, don£t expect to lose more than your luggage on your next flight. A friendly wager in the sky only applies to international flights£not flights that take off or land in the United States. The 2026 Gorton Amendment bans gambling on flights by an international carrier that begins or ends in this country.

Laurie, I just cannot foresee even lobbied politicians of unsound mind allowing holiday travelers to arrive at their vacation destination pauperized.

Dear Mark, Twice in past columns you have stated unequivocally that casinos do not cheat customers. You also mentioned the possibility of a rogue dealer affecting my chances of winning. Could you please give me an example of something a dishonest dealer could do to change the odds in the casino£s favor? Billy T.

An example would be of an unscrupulous dealer who preferential shuffles. Here a dealer is counting the deck down (card counting) and is aware of all the cards that have been dealt. If a lot of high cards have been previously pitched, meaning the deck is now rich in small cards, creating an apparent disadvantage for the player, the rogue dealer keeps dealing. On the other hand, if many small cards have surfaced, allowing a positive expectation for the player, the dealer would shuffle.

By card counting, the unethical dealer now has total control over any favorable situation the player might have had.

Dear Mark, Nothing irks me more than when two pit bosses in the same casino interpret the rules differently. I had a pit boss allow me to replay my hand (I didn£t signal a hit and the dealer hit me anyway for a bust). Another pit boss instructed the dealer to take my wife£s money on an identical error one hour later. Don£t they play from the same rule book? David M.

Floormen, a.k.a. dealing referees, at times render contrary decisions. Calling a particular play differently ultimately confuses casino clientele. You, and yes, even the dealer, have a very legitimate gripe against management on inconsistent calls.

Casinos where customer service prevails always side with the player unless the mistake is illegal or egregious. Why lose a customer for life over a $10 error? They realize the math is always on the side of the casino.

Funny how it works, David. When the house lets you keep your mistake, they always seem to get it back on the next hand.

Dear Mark, There is a company in Europe selling devices that electronically jackpot slot machines. Is this legal in Nevada? What is the penalty for using it? Robert L.

Why waste your money, Robert? Try this instead. Hoist a sledgehammer in the air, angle it at 45 degrees, then bring it crashing down on the polished glass face of the paytable. That should trigger the hopper to release the coins. Either way, the penalty is the same. A ward of the state, AKA, PRISON! Good behavior should get you out in five.

Dear Mark, Is there a specific time when a gambler should get up and walk away from a table when winning? Wayne D.

The two hardest times to leave a casino are when you're ahead or when you're behind. That, Wayne, is why all gamblers should set loss limits and win goals. Though your question lacked precise information, like how much you bet, how long, which games, where, etc., setting specific win goals such as doubling your money, AND STICKING TO THEM, is the correct money management strategy when it comes to bidding your farewells.

Posted: 15.07.2026
By: Mark Pilarski

Dear Mark, Why has the term £odds£ been so closely associated with gambling? Terry K.

The laws of probability, Terry, on which odds are based, are as highly respected a branch of mathematics as geometry, trigonometry or differential calculus. Odds are used in business, science, military planning, mortality rates and virtually all human endeavors£including gambling.

Most gamblers don£t realize it, but every time they enter a casino the odds are 2 to 1 against them no matter which game they play. First, you go to war with the casino, which has an edge on each and every bet, and second, we all must do battle with the ultimate demon£ourselves. There is your 2 to 1 against.

Dear Mark, In blackjack, why is it that when the deck is rich in aces and face cards it favors the player? Gary C.

There are two reasons. First, blackjacks will appear more often when there is a higher proportion of aces in the deck, and as you know blackjacks pay the player 3 to 2. Second, the dealer will bust more when he has a £stiff£ (12 through 16). The player, given the same opportunity, would stand on stiffs, whereas the dealer is forced by the rules of the game to hit away and hopefully bust.

Dear Mark, My friend believes that all roulette tables operate on streaks and you should only wager on numbers that have recently appeared. I believe, and I am sure you will concur, that he is full of it. I could use some help convincing my friend. Steve B.

A streak is nothing more than a backward glimpse at probability and should not be taken into consideration in most, if not all, gaming situations. Roulette wheels, Steve, do not operate with artificial intelligence nor do they have any way of remembering which past numbers have hit. Each spin is an independent event that is not controlled by past spins. Your friend's theory has zero merit.

Dear Mark, Could you please explain how much the progressive meter rises on both your average slot and video poker machine? Jane B.

The rate at which the meter progresses upward is based on a pre-set percentage of all the money cycled through the machine. The meter rates will vary from machine to machine, casino to casino. If you are playing an individual progressive, expect an advance rate of five to 10 percent of the money played. Example: A dollar wagered, the jackpot goes up 10£. Machines that are tied together, like a bank (carousel) or networked slots like Megabucks or Quartermania, involve a much lower progressive rate. In return, you are provided a mega jackpot£a.k.a. big, big bucks. On your typical video poker machine, the meters rise on the average of between .25 and two percent with one percent being the industry average.

Dear Mark, If I may, a quick history question. Who invented the slot machine? Ted G.

The first mechanical slot machine, the Liberty Bell, was invented in 1895 by Charles Fey, a San Francisco mechanic. Fey£s machine housed three spinning reels, each decorated with diamonds, spades, hearts and one cracked Liberty Bell per reel. When the bells lined up, they produced your biggest payoff: 10 nickels. If you are ever in Reno, Ted, the original Liberty Bell is on display at the Liberty Belle Saloon & Restaurant, on 4250 S. Virginia.

Dear Mark,

The video poker card that comes with your Hooked on Winning audio cassette series states that a 2-card royal (Ace, no 10) is a more powerful hand than a 2-card royal (10, no Ace). Why is that? Barney G.

A two card royal with an ace (jack of hearts, ace of hearts) is a preferable hand because if you draw an additional ace, you will get your initial wager returned for the pair of aces. Whereas if you were to draw a second 10, zilch is your payoff.