Dear Mark,
In roulette, if red came
up five times in a row, would you advise switching over to the black
since streaks do not last forever? Rich K.
One thing a player who has been around
gambling for any length of time knows is that the streaks can and will
happen. It is one of the many life lessons you learn in the casino.
Gambling, like life, is loaded with streaks. Many gamblers bet streaks
so they won't get emotionally involved in bucking a trend. And when you
are on one, Rich, oh the joys of telling your friends and family.
But along with the above advice comes
this caveat. For a gambling analogy, note the agate type at the bottom
of a mutual-fund advertisement. "Past performance is no guarantee of
future results." In other words, just because red appeared five times in
a row, that does not mean it will happen again. Assuming you are playing
on an unbiased wheel, the ball has no memory, and red can appear again
or not for the next 20 spins.
Dear Mark,
NASCAR is one of the
fastest growing spectator sports. We can bet on football, baseball and
basketball, but how about betting my favorite driver, Jeff Gordon, to
win? Jimmy B.
You can bet Jeff's #24 Dupont car not
only to win, but to place or show. Also available are quinellas, exactas
and even some prop bets. My personal favorite is betting individual
drivers against each other. An example of this would be Geoff Bodine in
the QVC Ford finishing higher in the race standings than Ward Burton's
MBNA Pontiac. The reason I love this wager is not my knowledge of the
sport, the drivers or the teams, but some sports books post the odds
prior to the finish of Saturday's time trials. Then they don't change
them. For those of us, Jimmy, who follow racing, this can be a license
to print money.
Gentleman, start your wagers.
Dear Mark,
I have been told that
before putting your first coin in a video poker machine, it already
knows what hand you will be dealt. True or false? Denise C.
Video poker machines work like this,
Denise. When they are sitting in an idle mode, the machine is constantly
crunching numbers waiting for the next sucker-I mean gambler. When a
participant walks over and inserts a coin the machine is triggered into
knowing it has a live gambler on the hook. The random number generator
(RGN) crunching numbers stops, then picks the combination of cards you
will see on the screen.
Dear Mark,
I have an amusing (at
least to me) anecdote about losing in a casino. I had been playing
blackjack and lost about $400. I then went up to my room and my wife
asked me to get her a soda. I went down the hall to the soda machine and
inserted my dollar. The machine wouldn't give me a soda or my money
back. I was grumbling about this all the way down to the hotel's
convenience store until I realized I was more upset about that one
dollar than all the money I had lost all day.
Now here's my question
for you: Does the casino have more than a 2% advantage on the soda
machine? Andrew R.
Haven't you heard the saying, Andrew?
"Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine." Actually, I would
guesstimate your average vending machine holds about 5.26%, the same as
most of the bets on a double zero roulette table.
