Month: February 2020

Casino players who play online are used to seeing the lowest and highest betting limits when playing any online casino game. Let’s take the example of Roulette odds; when playing Roulette, you will notice that there are minimum bets and the maximum bets.

The lowest amount that is required to make a bet or place a wager on any particular game is called the minimum bet. The minimum bets are imposed by the casino that you are playing at. And they are placed to ensure profits for the casinos owning the game, that is used to cover for overhead costs like software licensing, employee wages and so on.

But you must have thought that if this is a reason, then there should be no limit on the highest bet you can place. Because the more the player bets, the more profit goes to the casino. But there are reasons why online casinos put a limit on maximum bets, even with the roulette odds. Let’s learn them: – 

Limiting the Risk

To prevent the possibility of many colossal winners, who win huge sums and may put the casino finances at risk, it is important for the casinos to put a limit on the maximum bet. This is to ensure there are no unforeseen incidents that may jeopardize the financial viability of the casino.

Even though the house has the house edge long-term, in every game, there could be any case where a big bet may give some players a winning streak, even with the roulette odds, and they may end up winning huge sums. That would be a disaster for the casino, and they will have to shut shop. Although the possibility of this happening is negligible, it is still better to be safe.

So by placing limits on maximum bets, casinos limit their risk while also earning and generating steady profits. 

Limiting the Martingale System

The Martingale System is a system that is popular among many gamers. What happens is that every time a player loses their bet, he doubles the bet in the hope of recovering his losses. Unless there is a betting limit, they stand a good chance of earning back what they lost. This could be bad for the casino’s finances.

Let’s learn this with an example. If you bet £10 initially but suffer six losses in a row, your next bet would be equal to £640. This is a large sum of money for most people, one that would probably make most players nervous after they lose it, but if a player can afford this loss, he could play and win the next bet. This will recuperate all his losses and earn him more than the total bets he made. In this way, many players can even beat the Roulette odds. 

For reasons that are obvious, casinos avoid this type of incident from happening by placing maximum bet limits on every player. This also limits the effectiveness of the Martingale system and reduces the possibility of loss for the casino and keeps the profits coming in for them. 

Reducing the Effect of Advantage Play

There are some players who have such great skill at a particular game, and they know the game so well that they can minimize the house edge substantially, at the worst, and eliminate it altogether at their best. These players are known as advantage players.

Many of these players flaunt their card skills at Blackjack or control the Roulette odds by knowing the Roulette wheel bias strategies. There are skilled players online too. They are smart and can learn many techniques or tricks to gain an advantage. 

Many players take advantage of favourable houses. Some players look for games that give the possibility of eliminating the house advantage completely. But no matter the strategy, casinos watch their players closely and always come to know about ant trick eventually. Then they put limits on the player or the game. They can limit the number of winnings or maximum bets, for example, on Roulette odds, and so on. 

While it is not possible for most players to get even close to betting the maximum, these limits exist to protect and safeguard the casino’s interests and ensure that they stay in business and continue to be profitable. 

The casino gaming industry is a pretty big business in the US. It generates billions of dollars in revenue and gives employment to millions. But what keeps casinos afloat financially is not the classics like Blackjack or Roulette. It’s the slot machine that generates the biggest portion of revenue for the casinos.

Slot machine revenue can be as high as 89 per cent of the total revenue. They leave other table games like Blackjack or the Video Poker machines far behind.

What makes the slot machine so popular? Are they easy? Or is it just a myth? One thing is true, though; they are big-time earners for the casinos. 

Price of a slot

The important fact to notice about the slot machine is that most players do not know the true value of their wagers. You cannot calculate the odds of winning or what you are putting at stake.

Casinos usually use the house edge in place of the actual price of the wager. Each player has an idea of the house edge on his bet. All the earnings from the slot machine are based on keeping the players for a longer duration. For a newcomer, the price is very different compared to a seasoned player.

Take an example of a slot machine that gives a 10 per cent house edge to the casino. This means that over a long period, the game will earn the casino 10 percent of all the bets that have been made on it. If total wager over a long period comes out to be $100,000, then, $10,000 of it would go to the casino that owns the game, and the rest $90,000 will go back to the players in the form of payouts.

The actual price of the bet, however, depends on the payout. If a player bets $5 and wins nothing, the price is $5, not 50 cents, as he calculates as 10% of $5. The mobile casino uk gives, in the form of house-edge, the necessary information to the player. But in order to find the actual useful information i.e., the price of the bet, he has to make the calculation. Most players do not. Casinos take advantage of this fact.

The player thinks that even if he loses the bet, he can recover if he plays for a longer duration. The player may or may not win, but the casino always wins in the long-term.

In order to understand the workings of the slot machine, let’s take an example. If a man who has $100 to spend inside an hour on a slot machine, there are just 3 outcomes possible: he may lose almost everything, he may hit the jackpot, or he may lose or win a small amount and walk away with almost the same money he had in the first place.

The most common outcome is the first one i.e. total loss. And it is important for a slot machine because without many losers there is no single winner. The small amount of money lost by all the losers is what is paid out to the jackpot winner. There is no other source of money. And of all these losses of players, the casino company takes away a fixed percentage.

So talking about the most probable case, most players are going to lose money. Another important fact is that long-term players are a small percentage. It rarely happens that a newcomer happens to win a jackpot on a slot machine. When a long-term player wins a jackpot, he is technically only winning back what he has lost. But the promise of winning the jackpot early is what keeps them playing.

Raising the price

Another reason for the big revenue from a slot machine is due to the variance in the slot machine’s paytable. The list contains all the winning combinations and the credits awarded for every combination. The paytable is visible to the player, but the probability of winning for that combination remains hidden. Probabilities are important in making a smart, calculated risk and without that players have no realistic way to predict.

Compliance

Another reason is that even though casino players claim to refrain from increasing house edge, saying players can detect it, even the seasoned players do not mind a slight increase in the house edge. The slight increases from time to time thus making a big increase over a long-term.

The movie ‘Casino’ was directed by Martin Scorcese. It is the greatest and the most popular casino film about Las Vegas and its casinos. The movie came out in 1995. It was a story of two friends who decide to create their very own casino empire. This casino film is based on a true story, and that’s what makes it exciting and thrilling. In the film, Robert Deniro plays the character of Frank “Lefty” Rosenthal (named Sam Rothstein in the movie), and the character of his friend and mobster Tony Spilotro is played by Joe Pesci. But there are more interesting and amazing facts about the movie. Find out here. 

• Robert DeNiro met Frank Rosenthal in-person, to prepare for his character.
• The casino in the movie was called Tangiers, and it really didn’t exist. The film was shot in a real casino named Riviera.
• Frank Rosenthal used to run the Stardust. He was a former executive at that casino. This fact was documented in history books. So, Martin Scorsese highlights the fact via the soundtrack. The track “Stardust” can be heard three times in the film.
• Sam Rothstein’s cigarettes always appear to burn at the same length throughout the movie. This is because Robert De Niro’s character was a chain smoker; he always had to hold the cigarettes the same distance from the lit end in order to deal with the continuity issues in the film.
• Frank Rosenthal hated the scene of the casino where his character Sam was shown juggling. Because he claimed that he actually never juggled, and the scene made him look like an idiot.
• The actress Claudia Haro who played the character of Trudy, was Joe Pesci’s wife in real life.
• The gold and brown gown worn by Sharon Stone when she makes an appearance in the casino games actually weighed 45 pounds.
• There were a total of 7,000 extras in the movie. Out of these, 120 had lines to speak.
• Sam Rothstein’s attorney, Oscar Goodman, is also a lawyer in real life who has defended many mobsters in Las Vegas.
• The costume budget of the movie Casino was about $1 million. Rober DeNiro was found to be wearing 70 different costumes throughout the movie. Sharon Stone was wearing 40 different costumes.
• Most dialogues between Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci were not according to the script but improvised right during the shoot.

Bonus facts about the movie ‘Casino’

• Joe Pesci broke the same rib again that broke during his shooting of ‘Raging Bull’ 15 years earlier.
• James Wood so badly wanted to be a part of the film that was being made by Scorcese that as soon as he heard he was being considered, he went to meet Scorcese instantly and told him that he was ready to work anytime, anyplace and at any salary.
• Martin Scorcese turned down Sharon Stone twice without seeing her audition. When she was called a third time, she decided to skip it for dinner with her friend, and Scorcese had to personally meet her there to convince her to audition one more time.
• It was so rare for the crew to find people who would share secrets about how to cheat the casinos that they considered it was the most difficult part of making the movie.

For lovers of casino films, Scorcese’s Casino is not the only great movie about the Las Vegas gambling scene. You can also watch the following amazing movies below:

• ‘Ocean’s Eleven’: It is another very popular movie about casinos starring George Clooney, Brad Pitt, and Matt Damon. It features a plot to steal money from 3 casinos in Las Vegas.
• ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’: Directed by Terry Gilliam, this is another very popular choice that has reached the status of a cult-movie now.
• ‘Casino Royale’ (2006): Starring Daniel Craig as James Bond, this movie features a new style of casinos, i.e., mobile casinos. An amazing fact about the movie is that Daniel Craig lost two of his teeth while filming the fight scene in Prague. 

Casinos have always been a favorite subject for moviemakers from around the world and it is quite common to have several casino-related movies releasing every year. They, in fact, reveal some interesting facts about casinos which you might otherwise don’t know. 

Every gaming fanatic has been in a situation at least once, where he tried his luck on scratch cards. However, scratch cards are not limited to only gambling or don’t always come with high stakes. Such cards can be found at the departmental or local chain stores – sold by companies as a game for the buyers. 

The prizes for such scratch cards can range anywhere from a small amount, possibly the cost of the card itself to large lottery amounts. The task of determining such scratch card odds and buying accordingly can really be a master move in order to win bigger prizes. 

Every now and then, many companies announce new gambles and lottery games. Both freshers and experienced players purchase the scratch cards for such games, hoping to win the grand prize with better scratch card odds. But, luck cannot be the sole measure to rely upon when you look forward to winning a prize. Certain steps can be taken to gain an edge over others and improve the scratch card odds. These areas are as under – 

Know the price and prize

The first and foremost thing you should consider is the cost of the scratch cards or lottery tickets. Generally, a nominal price is to be paid for the lottery tickets. Although it might depend upon the place where you are buying those, scratch cards do not tend to cost a bomb. You can surely afford to pay a regular price for scratch cards. On the other hand, it is necessary to check out the gifts or prizes at the end. Oftentimes, multiple prizes are declared by the company to lure the buyers and convince them to purchase the tickets. Thus, the variety of such prizes should be considered before stepping in the game. 

Check for availability of bigger prizes

An important step you might want to take before even buying the scratch cards is to acknowledge the availability of the grand prize. If the biggest lottery prize on those cards has already been claimed, there is no use of wasting money on such tickets if the other prizes are not significantly high. Of course, if the grand prize has been won by somebody, the stores would automatically stop selling the tickets of that game, but that doesn’t mean you should not look out for smaller prizes. Remember that only one ticket is eligible to win the grand prize. In the sea of thousands of such tickets, the probability of you winning a prize is negligible. Therefore, you should try to focus on winning the second or third-tier prizes in case the big jackpot has been struck by another lucky individual.

Check the fine print

One big mistake many people often commit is ignoring the fine print on scratch cards. Such fine print or small-sized texts are usually found on the bottom of the back of a lottery ticket. At times, they disclose certain important information or the terms and conditions of winning the prize including scratch card odds, as levied by the company. There is a massive possibility that you might not pay heed to the negligible texts or prints and end up in a wrong situation due to the same reason. The expiration of the lottery ticket, expiration of the game itself and odds of winning the prize are often mentioned in such smaller prints that can be of high usefulness to anyone. Therefore, make sure that you read the fine print very carefully. 

Buy multiple tickets

The more, the merrier! Right? Well, in the case of winning a lottery, this is definitely the motto to go by. If you buy a certain number of tickets, larger than the average, your chances of winning increase naturally. The typical score of winning is one in a few hundred or even thousands – on the basis of a number of scratch cards released by the company for a particular prize. But, in all circumstances, it can be predicted that if you buy more than just one or two scratch cards, you definitely secure your chances of winning at least something from the whole contest. 

Keep the older tickets

The concept of preserving the older lottery tickets and used scratch cards does not sound very appealing to a large number of people. Whereas, it is actually a very smart idea. Scratch card odds can change at any random point. There might be a chance where no person has purchased the actual winning ticket, or maybe the winner has not been able to claim the prize. In either case, when the game does not end up with a winner before time runs out, the company can decide to pick out a random winner amongst those tickets which have been sold. If your luck turns in your favor, you might end up winning a grand prize even past the expiry date of the contest. In such situations, it is advisable to keep the old tickets rather than throwing them out. 

By following these tips, you can easily improve your scratch card odds and get a better chance at winning the grand prize.