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 "seagulling" 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,
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,
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,
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,
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 pay tables needing
distinct playing strategies.
I recommend learning and limiting your play to two, like my favorites,
Deuces Wild and Jacks or Better.
