Casino story: When the probabilities and odds took the night off

[Pengwuino]

Wooo :D I had a sweet night at the casino tonight.

I put in $2 on this quarter machine and on my last 2 credits, won't $38!
Then on a $1 machine, i put in $40 and at the last 3 coins, i hit something good and got up to 70 credits and after 3 more spins, i hit this weird bonus round and won $122!
Then on the same machine! Well, same type, 3 machines over, i put in $30 and on my last 3 coins again, $433 jackpot! Ok this one I am thinken it wasnt my last 3 coins because whatever it was, i had $433 handed to me by the attendant :D

Came out with $662 and walked in with $122.

 

[hypatia]

What are you going to do with this lucky money?

 

[Pengwuino]

bank account

 

[enigma]

By law, casinos have to pay out a surprising amount of money for every dollar they take in. IIRC it's greater than $0.95

If you consider how many people go to LV and end up losing what they came with, it's not super surprising a bunch of people come out with extra.

... but playing the slots? Putting money into a machine that's designed to take your money?

Blackjack for me thanks.

Congrats, btw!

 

[Moonbear]

I've noticed a bit of a pattern in casinos I've played at, both in Atlantic City and some of the riverboat casinos in various states. I generally do very well on the slots in the afternoon. Maybe not huge winnings, but not losing either. The ones that have bonus rounds and stuff are fun because it's more like an arcade game than just a slot machine to me, so even if you lose, I figure it's no worse than throwing quarters into an arcade game (though you do get a much shorter play time for your quarter). Anyway, this seems to keep you around for the dinner hour, so you can then go spend some of your earnings in the casino's restaurants. Keep playing through the dinner hour and into the evening, and you'll notice a dramatic turn of "luck." The casinos don't like it if you quit while you're ahead, but then they also figure if you have a few good experiences like that, then you'll find gambling is fun to do, so you'll go back again to lose your money next time.

 

[Pengwuino]

I know i know... slots... horrible odds but like i said, statistics and probabilities took the night off for me :D Of course I am already in the circle of life for the casino and am at that stage where i almost want to go back adn blow the rest of my winnings

 

[gravenewworld]

I used to play black jack--I could count cards but I got sick of that game. Even with non extremely complex card counting techniques the house still have has an advantage over the player since they can set the rules for the black jack games. I have now moved onto poker. I went to AC last weekend, bought in for $100 and won $373 dollars.



Casinos also have armies of the best psychologists and mathematicians in the world. There is a good article in US news and world report last week about casinos. They let people win on purpose, after all if no one won no one would come back. Losing is not fun. In the long run the casino always wins at every game.

 

[BobG]

By law, casinos have to pay out a surprising amount of money for every dollar they take in. IIRC it's greater than $0.95

If you consider how many people go to LV and end up losing what they came with, it's not super surprising a bunch of people come out with extra.

... but playing the slots? Putting money into a machine that's designed to take your money?

Blackjack for me thanks.

Congrats, btw!

It sounds like a surprising amount of money paid out for every dollar taken in. But is that really an average of $0.95 taken out of the casino by customers or is that $0.95 out every $1.00 regardless of what happens to that money afterward - whether the pay out is put back in the casino via additional wagers or taken home by the customers.

A fun night for the average customer would be to walk in with $100, have winnings of $1900 and losings of $2000, resulting in them walking out with nothing at the end of the night.

And, yeah, I think the exact number is higher than $.95, but it works by instant repeat customers - when they win, they gamble their winnings.

It can still be fun, although I don't find Vegas type games that much fun. More fun are horse races and dog races. I used to bet win, place, or show on who I thought would win and the specials (daily double, etc) and would usually reach the last race slightly ahead, but who wants to go home and say they won $17.43 on the horse races. Anything left going into the last race always went on the longest shot - hey, who knows? I was basically tossing anything I won right back into the track, but, had the long shot ever come in for me, it would have been a spectacular finish to something I was doing mostly because the races were exciting - a lot more exciting than sitting in front of a machine pulling a lever.

 

[Pengwuino]

Its a variable rate based on what game you play. Some even are above 100%! (Taking real advantage of the idea that you want people to stay in YOUR casino as oppose dto leaving). The $ number spoken of is that statistically, if a person comes in with say, $99 on a $1 machine with the 3 coin option and he uses the 3 coin option every time; statistically if he spins 33 times, the machine will pay out about $94. Of course, the trick ot all this is that you don't limit yourself to 33 spins, you will continue to play and play and play and statistically, your $99 will widdle down to $94 down to $90 to $85 until your broke. But of course, these odds and probabilities are loooooooooooooooooooooooooong time (months i bet) odds. To keep the odds working, for every one that hits that big $100,000 jackpot... a thousand people are going to put in $50 or $100 and never hit a thing!

The slot machine i was playing was kinda fun however. The thing that gave me the $433 was a machine that had this bonus round to it. You hit 3 of htese lil "Stampede" symbols and hte machine starts rumbling and it spins itself 5 times for free and it counts up how many of these specific symbols comes up. Then you get paid based on how many of these symbols came up in those 5 spins. Fun or not, $433!