Winning Directory

Video: Texas Hold'em Tournament Tips and Strategies (1 hour 30 min.)

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Sat, 16 Dec 2006 07:02:00 +0000

Learn the secrets of No Limit Texas Hold'em

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Reporting gambling winnings, deducting losses

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 01:00:00 +0000

Lady Luck must be Uncle Sam's cousin, because taxes must be paid on all gambling winnings.

Here's a look at the federal tax forms you'll need to share your good fortune with the Internal Revenue Service. And if you lost a few rounds before your numbers came up, there's a way you can turn those losses to your tax advantage.

Winning amounts matter

Requirements for reporting and withholding from a winning bet depend on the type of gambling, the amount won and the ratio of the winnings to the wager. When you pocket $600 or more (and that amount is 300 times your bet) at a horse track, win $1,200 at a slot machine or bingo game, or take $1,500-plus in keno winnings, the payer must get your Social Security number and let the IRS know that you came into the extra income.

And if you're lucky enough to rake in $5,000 or more on a gambling transaction, you're probably not going to walk away with all the cash you won.

In addition to telling Uncle Sam that you were a winner and how much, the payer in these situations generally will reduce your payout by withholding federal taxes at the 25-percent rate. If you try to shortchange the IRS by refusing to furnish your Social Security number, the payer could take as much as 28 percent of your winnings right off the top to send to the tax collector.

In either instance, you'll get a Form W-2G showing the amount you won and, if applicable, how much in taxes you paid on it upfront.

When you have to report it

Even if you didn't win enough to trigger W-2G filing, you do want to be a diligent taxpayer and report those gambling winnings, right? The casino, track or lottery agent might not have reported that $25 you won, but it's still taxable income. It's ultimately the taxpayer's responsibility to tell Uncle Sam about his good fortune.

You report your winnings -- from the W-2G or those smaller jackpots -- on line 21, Other Income, of Form 1040. In addition to gambling proceeds, this is where you'd report any prizes or awards (cash or the cash value of merchandise) you won. All this money goes toward your total income amount.

However, you don't have to pay taxes on all your earnings, regardless of how you got them. You can reduce the amount of money the IRS will tax by reporting your losses as part of your overall itemized deductions. Check out line 27, Other Miscellaneous Deductions, on Schedule A. That's where you report any gambling losses. You can claim up to the total amount of winnings you entered on your 1040, effectively wiping out any taxable gambling income.

But make sure that this deduction, along with your other itemizations, is more than the standard amount. You always want to use the method that will provide you a bigger deduction.

Even though technically you might be able to avoid taxes on $3,000 you won by claiming $3,000 in bad bets, that's still less than the standard deduction of $5,000 allowed a single taxpayer. If you have no other deductions to itemize, it doesn't make sense to forfeit the standard deduction's other $2,000 just because you can claim gambling losses. If, however, your wagering losses are large enough to help boost your already substantial itemized deductions, then fill out the Schedule A.

Keep track of your gaming losses

When you do claim your gambling losses on your tax return, it's a good idea to keep a record of them. While you don't have to send your loss data in with your return, documentation could come in handy if the IRS ever questions the claim.

Acceptable gambling-loss recordkeeping could include a written log detailing the date of your wagers, the location, amount bet, type of gaming, and wins and losses. You should also hang on to losing lottery tickets or bingo cards.

The good thing about deducting gambling losses is that, unlike some other deductions, you don't have to meet a certain level before you can claim them. But then again, they aren't completely unlimited.

You can only count as much in losses as you won. So if you spent $100 on lottery tickets and won $75, you can only deduct $75. The other $25 is just part of the price of playing the game.

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The Secret to Converting Come Bets in Craps

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Fri, 15 Dec 2006 00:42:00 +0000

From: Read Bet Go!

Pssst...! Wanna know a secret? How about the secret of converting come bets at the craps table?

Most of us were taught to play the pass line with odds, and have two come bets up.

Come bets are favored by many players because they represent the hot numbers.

By betting the come, many people believe that they can take advantage of a hot streak or a "monster roll". In addition, come bettors often take double (or more) odds, both on the pass and come lines, to maximize their wins.

The come bet, however, does have some disadvantages. Let us say you have a come bet on the six and eight, nine was the point, and the point was made. You now have a six and eight working on the come-out, with odds. If the seven hits now, you would win your new pass line bet, but lose the flat portion of your "left over" come bets.

Another disadvantage is that the payoffs for come bets are not much higher, and in many cases lower, than equal place bets.

For example, a $10 come bet on the six with $25 odds returns $30 for the odds plus $10 on the flat portion, a total of $40. However, if you bet $36 on the six as a place bet, you would win back $42. In addition, you cannot take down a come bet.

If you stay on the come line with every roll eventually you will lose all of the flat portions of your bets.

Do you wanna know the secret that craps pros use to "convert" their come bets?
Let's find out with the information provided below.

Craps pros know that a number has to hit twice for a come bet to win, compared to once for a place bet. Instead of having your come bet poised to follow the trend of the table, it is easier and more profitable just to make what is called a converted come bet.

A converted come bet is a place bet that is made instead of the corresponding come bet. For example, if the first roll is say, a four and the next two rolls are 5 and 6, you might normally have come bets of $10 with odds on the 5 and 6 - $20 odds on the five and $25 on the six.

Therefore, you now have a total of $65 in play - $30 on the five and $35 on the six.. Betting the come bets and winning, you would have won $40 on the five and $40 on the six, a total of $80.

Instead of betting on the come, you could just place $30 on the five and $36 on the six, giving you $66 in play. You would win $42 on the five and $42 on the six, for a total of $84.

You can then take your bets down so you do not have to worry about the come out seven (if the point was made), or the 2, 3, or 12 (while in the come box).

The next time you want to make a come bet, try a converted come bet instead!
Pssst...! Now you know the secrets of converting come bets!

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Video: Truth behind Online Gambling Ban

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 23:22:00 +0000

Hypocritical congressmen exposed for kickbacks and special interest politics. The truth behind online gambling ban.

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Learn More: Online Gambling
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Counting Cards in Comp City

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 18:40:00 +0000

From: Blackjack Forum Online

By Max Rubin
Do you know how to count cards and win? If the answer is yes, then you, my friend, have the absolute nuts from this day forward. Think about it. If the casino pit bosses ignore you all night long, you can combine comp counting with card counting and win the equivalent of two bets an hour (one in money, one in stuff). If there's heat, cut your bet spread down to a level that's breakeven, and you'll still earn great comps. If you want deep cover, how's this? You can pound booze and never look at anyone else's cards all night long and still be an overall favorite because of the comps. Meanwhile, no one on that shift will ever suspect you're a counter, and you'll be welcome forever. This book was written to show basic-strategy-level blackjack players how to crush casinos by earning comps valued at ten times their gambling losses. Every tactic portrayed in Comp City can also be used by an accomplished card counter, and you won't even have to fade the losses.

Although I've played my share of winning blackjack, I don't pretend to be a world-class blackjack player on a level with the legendary counters who earn hundreds of thousands a year. But based on my extensive experience on both sides of the table, I believe I have some insight worth discussing here. Some of these tips you'll be familiar with and some may be new to you. A few of them threw me off when I was working the floor. If they're not already in your repertoire, incorporating them might gain you years of card-counting longevity.

Laying Cover

You know all about cover, while most bosses don't even know what it means. But that's not to imply that you should underestimate the enemy. A few bosses in every casino have read the books and a handful of them can actually play a winning game. Although their numbers are few, you should assume that at least one sharp boss lurks in every joint.

This is paramount. Don't take your money back when the dealer shuffles. You're giving up a little, but pulling the money back confirms all of the boss's worst suspicions, especially if the shuffle was prompted by your big bet.

Watching the Pit Boss

If a boss catches you looking at him, smile and call him over. Ask him for something-a comp, directions, a recommendation for a show, anything, but don't ever let him see you divert your eyes away from his. It's a dead giveaway that you're up to something.

Tipping

Tip the dealers. You should budget at least 5% of your expected win for the dealers. If you're a big player with a high hourly return, it's almost imperative that you give the dealers at least 10% of your expectation. So what if your profit is reduced by a little blood money? I've had hundreds of conversations in pits about counters and 90% of the bosses believe that counters don't tip. Tipping will buy you years of playing time.

By the same token, if you're betting more than $100 a hand, tip the cocktail waitress $5, no matter what. The bosses will think you're a sport and they know that counters are anything but.

Cover Bets

If a boss is watching, you want to look like a sucker. When you win a hand and he's watching, bet it up no matter what. If you lose, you can go up or down. (If the count's good, bet it up. If it's bad, bet it down.) A boss only has to see you do this two or three times in a session to be convinced that you're a negative-progression or money-management player, not a counter. It will reduce your expected win by a few bucks. But I see it as a valid expense of doing business. Unless you're the type who plays till you're barred, it's the only way to go. There are people in this country who play solo, live in penthouse casino suites, and make half a million dollars a year because they're not afraid to tip and lay cover. Some of these guys lay $500 in cover during a $1,000 session. Guess what the net result is here? $500 an hour, after hour, after hour, after hour.

Sucker Plays That Work

If you want to get a boss thinking you're a stone sucker, slam that first shot of whiskey and bet a quarter for yourself and a quarter for the dealer on the first hand.

Take insurance when you have a natural. You might even insure your twenties when the boss is watching. Do it with conviction and without hesitation (you know you have to protect those good hands). It'll come up infrequently so it won't cost too much overall, but it leaves a lasting impression with the bosses. A move with similar value is not hitting a soft 18 against a nine, ten, or ace. The word is out on this play; hitting the 18 identifies you as a player in the know.

There are other plays. It's fun to use Stanford Wong's Blackjack Count Analyzer software program to discover those that cost you only a few dollars in expectation for hundreds of dollars worth of cover. If you're a comp counter first, and only use card counting to defray your over-the-table losses, these moves are inexpensive indeed.

Appearance

I never trusted a guy who looked like he woke up just to play blackjack. Don't come in on graveyard shift between 4:00 and 7:00 am rubbing the sleep out of your eyes. No true degenerate gambler (which is what you want them to think you are) ever had to set an alarm clock to tell him when it was time to play. Most graveyard bosses are on the lookout for the ghouls nesting upstairs who descend on the tables before sunrise. If you're playing the graveyard shift, stay up all night or make your plays later in the morning when you can wake up naturally.

Don't drink mineral water. Don't ask me why, but an inordinate number of counters drink mineral water. Get juice, coffee, tea, Dr. Pepper, but stay away from the bottled waters. As far as the bosses are concerned, anyone sitting in a casino drinking anything that smacks of health is not to be trusted.

Conduct

Introduce yourself to the boss and give him your VIP card. Talk to him. A lot. If you want to enlist a co-conspirator for the weekend, buy your favorite floorman a $25 three-teamer for Sunday's games (Monday if you're staying that long). The boss will be your buddy for the next couple of days. If you win big, yuck it up. Until you've established a pattern of winning (five or more sessions), if your cover is good enough, there's no way they'll throw you out of the casino for counting. When they like you, some bosses will even warn you if the heat is on upstairs.

Hiding Chips

As a pro, you know you're doing well if you win an average of one big bet an hour. All you have to do is hide one big bet an hour and you'll be doing great in terms of preserving your welcome. Unless you're playing head up, where the boss can determine exactly how many chips are missing from the rack, you can swing with up to two bets an hour and you'll look like a loser forever. Most places are reluctant to bar "losers," unless they're blatant scufflers.

Buying In

If you're a cash player, don't ever buy in with a lot of currency. Don't buy in for $500 and make $15 bets, for example; gamblers don't do it that way. If your eventual big bets will be $100, buy in for $100 and start by playing quarters. Win or lose, you'll be able to move your bets into your normal spread within a few minutes. If you're losing, it looks natural for you to come out of your pocket, especially when you want to bet big. If you're winning, it looks like you're making a parlay play, also very natural. If you bet $5 for the dealer and $25 for yourself early on, you'll look real easy!

When you come out of pocket, let the money play. I haven't seen five counters in my life who let money play (unless they were trying to get around Regulation 6-A).

Drinking

Buy an O'Douls or a Sharps at the bar. Pour it in a glass. Take it to the table with you. When the waitress comes by, ask for a shot of whiskey, making sure the boss hears you. Slug it down when the boss is watching. Then chug the O'Douls. The next time the waitress comes by, order a real beer and sip it slowly. Time for a break. Take the beer and get rid of it. Buy another fake beer, pour it into a glass, mosey back to the table, and chug it while you're talking to the boss. Order another real beer. Then you sip again. When it's a quarter gone (half an hour or so), order another cold one. By now you'll have to go to the bathroom again and, yep, go get some more fake stuff. In a two-hour session you'll consume the equivalent of a drink and a half and look like you're getting smashed. It works.

Wonging

Start your play with the best of it. Wong into a rich shoe and make those important big bets when you have a big edge. If you're good, you can back count the game next to you (make sure you're in a position to watch the other layout) and pop into that one when it gets juicy. Just let the boss know you're moving.

Getting Rid of Bosses

If a boss is hawking your game, get in his face. Be nice, but bombard him with requests. Ask him for reservations for the show. He'll have to do it, even if he doesn't want to. If he comes back to your game, ask him for reservations for dinner. If he comes back again, ask him for a comp for the coffee shop. Keep this up long enough and he'll stay as far away from your game as he can get. The problem is, he'll also get mad, which will probably have an adverse effect on your rating. If you are playing primarily for the comps, you'll have to tolerate a boss's scrutiny.

Comp City Outtakes: Beat the Heat

How can you tell when there's heat? It's pretty simple. If a floorman who's been gunning your game gets on the phone, and another boss comes over to watch your play (and they both talk while trying not to move their lips), it's getting warm. If either of them picks up the phone after that, you got heat!

Sometimes the second boss will go over to the computer terminal and pull up your "profile." The first thing he looks for is a history: how long you've played (lifetime!), how much they should have won, how much they have won, and the difference between the two.

It you're somewhere within the normal range, they'll surmise that you may not be that dangerous a blackjack player.

Theoretical Casino Win	$10,000
Actual Casino Win	$ 8,000
Difference	$ 2,000

If they see that you're only losing about 10% of what is expected, their radar switches on and they'll surely tell the eye to watch what you're doing.

Theoretical Casino Win	$10,000
Actual Casino Win	$ 1,000
Difference	$ 9,000

What you don't want them to see, although it's sometimes impossible not to if you book an extraordinary winner, is any kind of winner at all, especially if you have 100+ hours of play.

Theoretical Casino Win	$10,000
Actual Casino Win	($ 1,000)
Difference	($11,000)

They know they should have won $10K, but they've lost $1K. What does that mean to them? Something's wrong, no doubt. What does that mean to you? If you want to play over a long period of time in one particular house for comps, monetary profit, or both you'd better learn to hide two units per hour. But the issue here is heat detection and what to do about it. Most card counters really sweat the boss's scrutiny, but they don't need to. If a floorman is standing over your game and watching every hand, he probably suspects that you're counting, but it's highly unlikely that you're already being watched from upstairs. You still have time to implement some damage control. If you keep moving your money, and he goes to the phone, it's time to go on red alert. (Floormen can't order a surveillance check. The order must come from a pit boss or higher.) Here's what happens in most places:

: Floorman agitated, calls bigger boss ==>
: Big boss watches you and/or pulls up your computer file ==>
: Big boss notifies surveillance ==>
: Floorman "gives you air." (Acts disinterested so the "eye" has time to evaluate your play.) ==>
: Eye tries to match your face to mugs in Griffin Book. If no match, they do a "skills check" (30-60 minutes). Reports to management. ==>
: If you are labeled as "counting," you will be barred and possibly photographed. If you are labeled as "not counting," your name is logged as such, and you have a free pass (until you win a lot of money).

So what do you do when you know you're under the microscope? At this point you have three options: leave, keep counting, or lay some cover.

Leave - If you beat a hasty retreat, every time a pit clerk calls up your computer file (marker, rating input, comp request, etc.), SKILLS CHECK! flashes on the screen. That means you'll be branded as a potential counter for at least the duration of this trip and maybe for a whole lot longer. Your counting life expectancy in that joint has just been reduced.

Keep Counting (and moving the money) - Sure, it takes anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour for a good surveillance expert to tag you properly. You should be able to win at least a piece of a big bet before they take your picture, post it in the security office, give it to Griffin, pass it around to other casinos, bar you for life and terminate your comps. Nice move.

Play Like a Chump - If not for the rest of the trip, at least for the next couple of hours. You'll still get your comps and you'll still be a slight favorite, but you can't move your money with the count, unless it's real, real natural. What you must do is keep moving your money randomly, with no consideration of the count. If all of a sudden you turn into a flat bettor, you're going to embarrass the boss who alerted surveillance, and he's going to follow you like a dog in heat forever.

I know this play's going to crumble your corks, but the heatiest play you can ever make is not insuring a natural. It'll cost you about eight bucks every time you do it (assuming a $100 bet), but if you have a snapper and don't insure, the other players will get bug-eyed, the dealer will stop the game and ask you why you didn't, and the boss will head straight to the phone and put Big Brother on your butt, especially if the dealer doesn't have the ten. You'll only get a natural against a dealer's ace once every four or five hours, so give up the two bucks an hour and you'll live to play another day (or swing).

If you choose to play like a chump, you can decide for yourself how to alter your play depending on how much you're willing to give up in expectation. Here are some examples. None of these plays will cost you more than $4. (The following were derived using Stanford Wong's Blackjack Count Analyzer, assuming a $100 bet on a six-deck shoe.)

Player	Dealer Up-Card	Cover Play	Cost

14	4	hit	$0.40
14	6	hit	$1.80
12	3	stand	$1.80
11	A	double	$3.10
A7	10	stand	$3.50
10	10	double	$3.60
12	2	stand	$3.90
13	3	hit	$4.00

Index Plays

The real savvy guys upstairs know the index plays. If you suspect you're being watched, don't use them. Either stick to basic with a few cover moves or vary from them on things that look natural, like standing on 16 vs. 10, etc. Do not hit stiffs against stiffs when you should. It's a dead giveaway.

Spotters

If you get spooked by someone on your game who appears to have a keen interest in what you're doing, remember this: spotters do not sit on blackjack games. Period. They stand behind or beside the game. They try to remain invisible, but they can't. If you want to spot one (or freak him out) stand up when you play. If you suspect he's trying to see your cards, move your body so he has to move his. Very few disinterested game watchers will contort themselves to watch your cards. If he's squirming like the snake that he is, he's a spotter. Gaming agents and coppers are a different matter (they will play on a game), but if you're just counting, you don't have to worry about them.

Counter Catchers

Most clubs have a designated "counter catcher" (who's called to confirm the suspicions of spotters, other bosses, etc.). They usually work in the pits or upstairs. The technology they use to catch counters is getting more sophisticated every day. Suffice it to say (and it's always been this way): It's much more important to have a world-class cover than a world-class card counting system. The only way they'll catch you is if they suspect something in the first place. Don't let them think that you're smart. Don't be a stiff. Don't be a nerd. And don't move your bets up and down precisely according to published guidelines (counter catchers read the same books). If you play with a casual and relaxed style, bosses aren't compelled to surveille you.

Comp Notes for Team Players

If you're calling plays for a BP, always get rated, but not necessarily with the same name every time. You'll be amazed how much money you'll save the team's bankroll if you keep expenses down by getting free rooms and food.

If you're calling plays and the BP scores a big gourmet room comp, you can't go. How would you like for your (un)favorite shift boss to saunter in to say hello to the BP and see you, a measly $25 bettor, swilling $100 wine with him? You wouldn't. If you want to feast together, do it with room service. The same goes for other members of your teams. If you want to party together, do it when you make bank. And do it in a joint other than where you went over the top.

For the same reasons, don't ever use a BP's gourmet comp for yourself in a Las Vegas casino. The shift bosses often cruise the big rooms at least once a night. They look at the maitre 'ds comp log and then exchange pleasantries with the RFB customers. You might wind up exchanging blows if you're the wrong guy in the wrong chair

Learn More: Blackjack
Learn More: Las Vegas

Bingo Strategy

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 18:08:00 +0000

From: Gambling Planet

Bingo, as we've said before, is a game of chance; so, ultimately, winning depends on luck more than anything else. Yet, it'd be wrong and foolish to say that there aren't ways to improve one's chances of winning through smart decisions.

What we've compiled below are some basic and common bingo strategies that could go a long way towards improving your bingo success rate and your overall enjoyment of the game. More experienced players are probably already familiar with most of these concepts and suggestions, but a refresher never hurt anyone and beginners should find the information quite useful. Some tips are more obvious and/or useful than others, but they're worth repeating here nonetheless.

Check back often as we update ourBingo-Strategy' section.
Popular Strategies

Use theAuto-Daub' Function
We know it takes away the onlyskill' involved in the game in the first place, but consistent use of theauto-daub' feature, if available, is perhaps the most strategic decision you can make. Yes, it removes some of the excitement and mental aspect of the game, but it also eliminates the possibility for errors!

Play More than 1 card
Yes, it costs more, but playing several cards is perhaps the most sure-fire way of improving your odds of being able to yell outBingo' and collect some of those prizes. Choosing how many cards depends on 1) the number of players involved 2) the cost of each card, and 3) the prize money at stake. Experts suggest four cards as the optimal number, but this can vary depending on the number of opponents you're facing and the total prize money for which you are competing.

When playing with more than 1 card, pick cards which differ as much as possible
According to thisstrategy', if you're playing with more than one card, it's best to make sure that each card has different numbers which aren't duplicated on other cards. The theory here is that if a number that you have on more than one card doesn't come up, you've compromised the value of more than one card. In other words, spreading out the numbers spreads out the risk and keeps you in the game longer!

When playing with more than 1 card, pick cards which are as similar as possible
The opposite of the more conservativespread the numbers/risk' strategy above, this strategy is also known as the numbers-concentration method. The idea here is that if you select cards with as many duplicate numbers as possible - which is easily done online - you can double or triple up each time you hit a number! Essentially, you're maximizing the benefit of each lucky strike.

Choose games with Fewer Players
While a game with fewer players means smaller prizes, it also means that you have a better chance of victory than at larger games with more players. We know it sounds obvious, but seriously, you'll improve your chances of winning if you follow this guideline. To achieve this, try signing-on to sites duringdown' hours when less players are logged in and playing.

Go After the Big Prizes
We know this flies in the face of our other strategy tip (`Choose games with Fewer Players`) but each suggestion has its merits. By going after the big jackpots and prizes, yeah, you're probably then choosing to play games with more players (=less chance of winning). However, you're also making sure that when you do win, it's a BIG win! So big, perhaps, that it covers your losses from several previous exits.

Chat Room Games
To supplement your winnings or make up some of your losses, try playing in any number of the chat room games online. Often, these games, which play while the normal game is running, can feature some nice bonus dollars and can be a lot of fun.

Learn More: Bingo

Spotting Online Poker Tells

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 17:22:00 +0000

From: Online Poker Center

By Greg Sullivan
A tell is any sign from a player that gives away his strategy or his hand. For example, in a live game, you may notice that certain players avoid looking into your eyes when they are bluffing.

The ability to read your opponent's tells is a crucial poker skill. Unfortunately, many players mistakenly believe that it is impossible to read tells in the virtual world. While you cannot stare into an opponent's eyes while playing online, this does not mean online players do not have tells.

The tells are there, you just have to know how to spot them.

Betting Speed Tells

You can tell a lot about your opponent's hand strength based on how fast he makes his bets. Here are some of the most obvious betting speed tells:

The Quick Check

A quick check by a player usually indicates a weak hand. If you are on the button and all the players before you checked quickly, you can probably take down the pot with a strong bet.

However, be very careful if a player re-raises after checking quickly. In this situation, your opponent's early quick check was probably an attempt to trap you into betting into his strong hand.

Pause and Check

A player who pause a long time before checking is trying to scare others into checking as well. The “pause and check” player hopes the pause will convince others that he is holding a monster hand, and that he is taking his time to decide whether he should bet or check-raise. In reality, this player has a drawing hand and is using the pause to get a free card.

Pause and Bet

A player who thinks for a long time before betting usually has a monster hand. He hopes other players will read the pause as weakness and bet into him.

Quick Raise or Re-Raise on the River

A player who raises quickly on the river generally has a good hand. He thinks you will interpret his raise as a last desperate bluff.

A Note on Pre-Action Buttons

To speed things up, most games offer pre-action buttons that allow you to pre-select your bet before your turn.

For example, you may select the “check” button before your turn. When it is your turn to bet, you will check instantaneously. Some of the most popular pre-action buttons include “fold to any bet,” “check,” “call any bet,” and “raise pot.”

A player who pre-selects the check button probably has a weak hand; if he selects the call any bet button, most likely he has a good hand; and if he selects the raise pot button he is probably holding a monster.

Moreover, players who use pre-action buttons are most likely not paying attention to the game. They are either playing on multiple tables or doing something else on their computer. These players will only bet if they have good hands, and are less likely to employ fancy tactics like bluffing or check-raising.

A Warning About Betting Speed Tells

Betting speed tells are not always accurate. You have to use some common sense. For example, if a player has been disconnected several times during the game, his slow betting is merely a sign of a bad connection. Similarly, if a player is playing on more than one table, don't read too much into his betting speed, because his betting speed is influenced by the demands of his other table.

Table Chat Tells

Some players like to disable player chat because they find the chatting distracting. This is a huge mistake. You can learn a lot about your opponent's personality and state of mind by reading their chat messages. For example:

The Chatter Box

Generally, if a player who has been very chatty suddenly becomes quiet, he probably just flopped a monster hand. He is afraid of accidentally revealing the strength of his hand, so he decides to shut up.

The Tilting Player

It is not hard to spot a player on tilt. After a bad beat, a tilting players will become extremely sarcastic or abusive. He will start calling other players “amateurs” and declare that he is “playing with a bunch of morons.” Most likely he will start making ridiculously aggressive bets to relieve his anger. If you have decent cards, you can clean out this guy pretty quickly.

The “Honest” Player

Some players will flat out tell you what cards he is holding. Believe it or not, if the pot size is small, these players are most likely telling the truth. The honest player's strategy is to candidly reveal his cards if the pot size is small.

When the other player's guards are down, the honest player will use his honest table image as an advantage to win the big pots.

The Professor

There is a know-it-all at every table. This player will give unsolicited advice on every hand. Most likely this guy just finished reading a poker book from cover-to-cover and feels he has to share his knowledge.

Instead of telling this guy to shut up, you should feed his ego and ask him for advice. Happy to be recognized, he will reveal his entire strategy to you without hesitation.

The Short Stack

A player with less than half of his buy in is either on tilt, desperate, or both. A short stacked player feels he has to make a move, and cards like A J suddenly look like a good all in opportunity.

Waiting for the Big Blind

When you sit down at a Hold'em table, you have the option of waiting for the big blind to get to you, or you can post a matching big blind and start playing immediately.

A player who does not wait for the big blind is probably an impatient player. He is probably more interested in having fun than playing serious poker. You can expect him to play a lot of bad starting hands.

On the other hand, a player who waits for the big blind is probably a tight and cautious player. He is more selective about his starting hands and will not bet a lot of money unless he has a monster hand.

How to Spot Specific Tells

Some players take a break when they are not involved in a hand. That is a shame because every hand reveals a wealth of information about your opponents. You should meticulously record what type of starting hands they play; how much they are willing to pay for certain hands; their demeanor when they have a great hand; and the type of plays that will set him on tilt.

Avoid Giving Off Tells

Since most tells are based on a player's betting speed, there are two simple ways to confound your opponents. One way is to randomly mix up your betting speed. This method is not 100% reliable, because even when you think you are betting randomly, you may still be subconsciously betting in a pattern.

The better option is to always bet at the same speed. Regardless of whether I am holding rags or pocket aces, I always count to five Mississippi before I make a bet. Not only does this eliminate my tells, it also forces me to think about my bets before I make them.

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Italy, Spain usher in new gambling regs

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 16:45:00 +0000

From: Casino City Times

By Bradley Vallerius
Gaming regulators in Italy and Spain have passed legislation to liberalize land-based and Internet betting, prompting a deluge of license applications from foreign operators.

In Italy, the government is auctioning off 17,000 licenses for sports and horse racing betting at shops and other outlets. Companies have been invited to bid for the number of outlets for which they want licenses. Sports wagering will also be permitted online.

Remote casino gaming and brick-and-mortar casinos are also being regulated by Italy. More than 30 companies-- many of them bookmakers, including Betfair, William Hill and Unibet-— have already received licenses to offer remote gaming. Remote wagering on skill games and person-to-person betting exchanges is also being regulated.

The Spanish federal government has enacted legislation allowing sports betting in shops, retail outlets and online, and regional governments were given the ability to impose conditions as they see fit. Madrid's regional government published regulations outlining its licensing conditions last month. Unlike Italy, Madrid has established a fixed license fee and a limited number of licenses. But license holders can open as many shops and outlets as they please.

Britain's largest betting operators appear well-placed to take advantage of the opening markets. Gala Coral already operates an Italian-language Internet site and a betting shop in Genoa. Ladbrokes entered into a joint venture agreement with Italian firm Pianeta Scommesse in August and bought three betting shops in Turin last month. And William Hill is finalizing a joint venture with Spanish firm Codere after the European Commission announced last week that it would not oppose such a partnership.

"Essentially, this is a case of creating a new market or converting an illegal market into a legal market," said Nilay Patel, corporate finance manager for William Hill. "We don't have the facts, figures and information on which to make sensible estimates of the potential size of the opportunity.

"Until we actually have a couple years of operating experience in these markets, we really don't know how they're going to develop," he continued.

Italy had, until recently, resisted the notion of allowing foreign companies to offer Internet betting and gaming products to its citizens. The Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance had gone so far as to order the country's Internet Service Providers to block access to the websites of foreign betting operators in February. But when foreign betting operators complained Italy's policies violated European Union free trade laws, the country became one of nine Member States against whom the European Commission launched infringement proceedings.

Taking over in April, new prime minister Romano Prodi's government is ushering in far-reaching economic measures, including an early mini-budget intended to cut the country's deficit by more than 11.2 billion Euros. The gambling and betting industries are among the most substantially affected.

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Video: Caribbean Stud Poker –Learn How to Play this HOT Poker Game

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 16:24:00 +0000

Players World teaches you to play Caribbean Stud Poker one of the most popular games on the casino floor.

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Strategies for Beating the Roulette Wheel

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:56:00 +0000

From: Ready Bet Go!

The various systems that we covered in the previous sections may be fun to play, but they don’t do anything to change the casino’s advantage. If you play roulette using one of those system, or another betting scheme, or you just make random wagers, your bankroll will begin to shrink sooner or later. The only way to slow this process (or prevent it altogether) is to lower or eliminate the house edge.

Play like the French

One way to squeeze the casino is to play a European-style single-zero wheel. This cuts the house edge from 5.26 percent down to 2.7 percent. That’s a considerable chunk.

Happily, you don’t have to visit Monte Carlo to play a European wheel. Many American casinos and gambling websites have them. But sometimes it’s with a catch. The European wheel will have a higher table minimum than a double-zero version at the same casino. No problem if you were planning to risk the extra money, but don’t play for higher stakes just to get a lower house edge.
Surrender and En Prison

Some American casinos (primarily those in Atlantic City) offer a modified version of the European rule en prison; it’s called surrender. When surrender is allowed, a 1:1 bet that loses to zero or double-zero is only half-lost. You can leave the bet on the layout and hope for a push or take half back. Surrender cuts the house edge on 1:1 bets down to 2.63%.

As I mentioned previously, en prison on a European wheel drops the house edge on 1:1 bets down to 1.35%. The extra spin is mandatory in Europe, which is why they say “en prison.”

Avoid the Five-Number Bet

A five-number bet (zero, double-zero, one, two, and three) is available only on American wheels. The house edge is a hefty 7.89%. It’s a bad bet; don’t make it. If you truly have a vision that one of those numbers will win, then bet it straight up or make a street or split bet. That will cut the house edge by more than two percent and will return between two to six times more than a five-number bet.

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Is Craps Dying?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:33:00 +0000

From: RTG Online

by Mr. Frank Scoblete
World War II was the glory time for the game of craps. Sailors and soldiers and private citizens in the cities of America loved the game. From South to North, young men played it with abandon. It became the most popular game in the casinos after World War II as well since all the vets wanted to play a game they were intimately familiar with. Craps was king and all the big rollers and big shots played the game when they went to Las Vegas.

Slot machines were for women; card games like blackjack for less than real men. If you were a real casino gambler, then craps was your game.

Boy, have times changed.

Today, slot machines rule the casinos. According to Harrah's extensive study of casino gamblers "A Day in the Life of a Casino Gambler," fully 74 percent of all casino players are slot players. A staggering 81 percent of all women casino gamblers play the slots and a hefty 67 percent of all men do too. Blackjack comes in second with 9 percent of the total take and craps and roulette are tied for third with 2 percent each. That two percent translates into about 1.2 million players.

In truth those 1.2 million craps players are a rather large contingent and probably compose more craps players than ever existed at any time in the United States history after World War II. Still, with 53 million casino gamblers in the United States, craps is now a low-end priority.

And we are starting to see the consequences. Many Las Vegas casinos have decided to save money on craps by eliminating their box personnel. Craps is a labor-intensive game. You have two dealers, a stick person, and a boxman (sometimes you have two boxmen). That's a lot of salary for maintaining a game. Cut back on the salary and craps will make more money. That's how the reasoning goes.

I have even heard talk in the back rooms that the stick person's job will be the next to go and that each dealer will have a stick to take care of the dice when they are thrown at their end. We have not yet seen this development in any casinos as of yet but if it's in the air, it could easily wind up on the tables.

So why are the casinos ripping away at arguably the most exciting game ever to be played in the casinos? Obviously, in corporate America a property must show an increase in profit each and every year. Casinos are no longer mom and pop operations; they now have shareholders who expect to see the value of their shares increase year after year after year.

You will note that many casinos have now started to use the 6-to-5 blackjack games in place of the normal 3-to-2 blackjack games. [These figures refer to the payout for a two-hand 21 - a natural.] By doing this, the house has about a 1.5 percent edge on good blackjack players. It has about a 2- to 3-percent edge on most of the rest. That is triple what the normal blackjack game has. It makes three times as much money for the house. It also means the players are losing three times as much money.

By changing the rules of blackjack, the blackjack players are being socked. Fewer players are actually playing the game but these players are losing more than enough to make up for the reduction of blackjack players. For now that is.

By eliminating the box personnel, the casinos will also show a greater profit at craps - that is, until players get annoyed with the slowness of payoffs in crowded games and the failure of the dealers to be able to resolve disputes.

My basic philosophy of gaming is that change is bad. Most of the changes I have seen in the casino industry have not been good for the players. Slot machines are hungrier, table minimums are higher, and pit personnel have become far less personable with players who are not high rollers. I think all this has to do with the corporatization of the gaming industry. The results in my perspective are hurting the games I love to play.

Let me give you a prime example of what I mean. For many years the very best craps game in Las Vegas was at Treasure Island. While it had the typical 3X-4X-5X odds on their line bets, the dealers and pit crews were the friendliest and most professional I had run across. There was a time when every single dealer and pit person could have been up for a reward as "the best" in their areas. They had six to eight craps tables, they were always filled, and the action was fast, fun, and delightful. They had the best double-deck blackjack games, too.

A trip to Treasure Island was a trip into a gambler's paradise.

Today, the place has declined. It is now a part of the MGM-Mirage Corporation. And what has the corporation done to the formerly great Treasure Island? First, they changed the name. It's now called TI. Then they changed its look. It is now a "happening" place for younger patrons - drinkers, partiers, and girl and guy pursuers. They changed the pirate show outside the casino to make it sexier. It's boring as can be. Oh, and they ruined their games, that's the greatest sin. All the multiple-deck games are dealt from a continuous-shuffle machine; there are only two double-deck games left for $100 minimums; and those awful 6-to-5 blackjack games abound.

And craps? Four tables, with one usually opened in the morning and two opened in the afternoon. The action is anything but fast and furious. In fact, some of the current dealers will not win any rewards anytime soon.

Will Treasure Island's fate signal the fate of other corporate-owned casinos? It's hard to say. But craps seems to be taking a hit as the boxmen are replaced. It might just be my morbid imagination but - it is possible that craps might be in its first stages of dying. God, I hope not.

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Playing Online Poker

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 14:19:00 +0000

From: Ready Bet Go!

Online poker has grown and there are actually many advantages to playing poker online. Whether you are a brand new player trying the game for the first time, a seasoned pro or a player somewhere in between you can find a game to your liking online. I would like to go over some of the advantages to playing poker online.

No Traveling

You can play online poker from your home without having to travel to the cardroom. Many players live in States with no cardrooms and can only play when they go away on vacation or they must drive log distances to the card room. Online poker sites are open 24/7 and the games are only a mouse click away. You are not bound by any time constraints. If you only have a half hour to play, you can still jump into a game.
Wider Game Selection

Online cardrooms can offer a wider game selection because they are not limited by space required to accommodate the poker tables. They also don’t have to staff them with live dealers. Game selection is an important factor and often makes the difference between winning and losing. There is an old saying that you don’t have to be the best player in the world, just be better than the other players at the table. Because online rooms offer many games at the same limits, you can pick one that you can beat. Online you can change tables very easily or even play in two games at the same time.
Lower Limits
Most poker sites also offer free games for players who want to learn the mechanics of the game before they risk real money. Playing low limit tournaments online can be a great way to gain experience and many sites offer Freeroll tournaments where you can play for free and win real money.
Lower Rakes and No tipping.

In poker, you are playing against the other players not the house. Most cardrooms make their money by taking a percentage of the each pot. This is known as the rake. One of the reasons it is difficult to beat the low limit games is because you have to win enough to cover the rake. In a low limit $2/4 Texas Hold’em game the cardrooms may have a maximum rake of $4 it will take out of the pot. This same game online may have a maximum rake of $1.

This reduction of the rake adds three dollars to your profit. It is also customary to tip the dealer when you win a pot in the cardrooms. Many players will throw the dealer 50 cents or a dollar. This also cuts into your profits when you play in a cardroom but there is no tipping online so you keep more of you win play online.
No Intimidation

Sitting down at a table with nine strangers can be very intimidating to the newer player. Playing online is like sitting down at a video game because you are looking at a monitor instead of into the face of your opponents. You can interact with the other players via the chat box or choose to just play your own game without having to talk or socialize. Nobody can see you and if your hands are shaking because of nerves, nobody can tell.
Keeping Notes

In a live game, you may not know another player’s name, but online each player’s user name is displayed on the screen. It’s easy to keep accurate notes about the players you meet online. In fact, most winning players keep a notebook by their computer and make notations about the types of hands played by their opponents and whether the player is passive, aggressive, tight or loose. Nobody can see you writing so you can be as detailed as you want to be. If you meet a player a week or even months later you can just look them up in your book. Some sites even offer a way for you to take notes online while you play.
Pot Odds Displayed

Making your decision to continue with a hand based on the pot odds you are getting is very important concept of poker. In a cardroom, you will have to keep tack of the bets and figure out the amount of money in the pot to use in making your decision. When you play online, the amount of money in the pot is displayed on the screen. You can even have a chart showing the percentages for making a hand sitting next to you so you can easily figure if you are getting the correct pot odds to call a hand.
Free Money

One of the best reasons to play online is the fact that most Poker sites offer you free money in the way of a sign up bonus. This can be somewhere between ten and fifty percent, depending on the site you choose. This sign up bonus can cover your rake for quite awhile allowing the skilled player to make more money.
Bad Players

There are probably more bad players playing online because of the lower limits sheer volume of players trying online poker for the first time. This presents a good opportunity for the skilled player who takes the time to study and learns to play the game correctly. For the skilled players online poker can be fun and profitable.

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Video: Poker Chips Tricks and Techniques- Shuffle, Pop, Spin

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 04:01:00 +0000

Poker Chips Tricks- Shuffle, Pop, Spin, Tricks and Secret Poker Chips Techniques. Players Network’s Denise and The Hux teach you chip ... ... all » all » tricks like the chip shuffle, the chip spin and the drop and stack.

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New technology coming to the slots

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 03:40:00 +0000

From: The Detorit News

As revolutions in gaming go, Mr. Monopoly walking his dog down a video screen might not sound like it’s on the cutting edge

After all, we've had popular video slot machines for nearly a decade now, ever since WMS Gaming started to hook customers with Reel 'Em In in 1997.

But this was different. Mr. Monopoly --- the board game icon those of us of a certain age remember as Rich Uncle Pennybags before the character was renamed several years ago --- was walking his dog down the street on the fringes of the slot machine glass. At the center were three reels. Good old mechanical slot machine reels, the kind that used to dominate slot floors before the great video takeover. Real reels, as it were.

What Waukegan-based WMS Gaming was showing at its booth at the annual Global Gaming Expo, Nov. 14-16 at the Las Vegas Convention Center, was something new, different and, yes, revolutionary. WMS calls it Transmissive Reels, one of a triad of innovations that claimed center stage at the booths.

The game was Monopoly Super Money Grab, the first of what WMS expects to become a long line of Transmissive Reels game. Had it merely been a matter of adding a little cool animated scenery on the glass in front of the reels, it would have been a nice touch, but hardly revolutionary. But what's transmissive about this glass is its ability to transmit to the viewer/player full animation to bring bonus rounds to reel-spinning stepper slots.

In Monopoly Super Money Grab, when the player advances to the bonus round, the reels darken, and the glass becomes a full video touch screen, with rich graphics and fully interactive for bonus play.

Slot manufacturers have made other attempts to layer the bonus experience onto reel-spinning games. The rise of bonus games started in the mid-1990s when Anchor Gaming devised Wheel of Gold, which put a tower with a bonus wheel atop regular slant-top reel-spinners. International Game Technology licensed Wheel of Gold, and morphed it into the ever-popular Wheel of Fortune slots. WMS put bonus events on reel-spinning games with its orange Dotmation screens in games such as Piggy Bankin' and the original Jackpot Party. Other manufacturers, notably Bally Technologies, have melded the video bonus and three-reel play experiences by adding a full video screen in the top box, above the spinning reels.

But with Transmissive Reels, WMS melds the reel-spinning and video bonus experiences into one cohesive, interactive package. That's something that would not have been possible until WMS started down a new technological road five years ago. There were problems with its old gaming platform --- a programming flaw allowed a few players in the know to force pays and build credits on some games. WMS moved to rebuild confidence in its product and expand what it could do with the.

The result was the CPU-NXT2 game platform, a technologically advanced system that supports graphics and sound far beyond what most could have dreamed five years ago.

At G2E, WMS was proud to emphasize its tri-innovations made possible by the high-tech boost. In addition to Transmissive Reels, Community Gaming and Sensory Immersion Gaming took their places as part of the coming out party for all the behind-the-scenes work.

For those who can remember all the way back to a year ago, I wrote about the intial Community Gaming and Sensory Immersion products after G2E 2005. Back then, Monopoly Big Event (Community Gaming) and Top Gun (Sensory Immersion) were in an inner circle booth within a booth, accessible only to those guided by WMS. This time both products were front and center, ready for the world to see.

Monopoly Big Event, which has already reached casino floors in Nevada, is a win-together play experience, with all eligible players at a bank of machines taking a trip around the Monopoly game board overhead when the community bonus comes up. All win the same base amounts, but there is a multiplier based on bet size, speed of play and length of play --- making a minimum bet per line, I moved up to a double bonus with fast, steady play.

Top Gun, of course, is based on the 1986 film starring Tom Cruise. It is a true sensory immersion with Bose speakers in the back of the special chair. As you pilot the fighter jet in the bonus round, soaring, turning, doing barrel rolls to target bonus amounts, the screen shakes and the jets' roars swirl around you. There have been upgrades since the test version I reviewed last year --- in a bonus round within a bonus round, you can find yourself going one-on-one with another fighter.

Plans are afoot to extend the new high-tech lines. Top Gun should be out within two months, to be followed by “The Wizard of Oz.” In the Transmissive Reels world, John Wayne's image has been licensed for Duke It Out, still more than a year down the road. And Press Your Luck, based on the TV show, is next in Community Gaming. Expect the titles to grow with operator interest and player excitement. With WMS three innovative lines, this journey starts with three steps.

Listen to John Grochowskz’s “Beat the Odds” tips Saturdays at 6:20 a.m., 2:50 p.m. and 7:41 p.m. and Sundays at 8:20 a.m., 2:50 p.m. and 10:42 p.m. on WBBM-AM, News Radio 780 in Chicago, streaming online at www.wbbm780.com, and to his casino talk show from 7 to 8 p.m. Saturday on WCKG-FM (105.9), streaming at http://1059freefm.com.

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Caribbean Stud Poker Probabilities

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 03:30:00 +0000

From: Gambling Planet

Here we`ll attempt to explain the numbers that you so often hear about, particularly the odds you face when playing the game. We`ll try to keep it as simple as possible, so don't worry!

The first thing you should consider is the chances of being dealt the following hands from a fresh deck. Below you will find the hand, the number of possible ways of attaining that hand, and the corresponding odds.

Hand	Number of Ways To Make the Hand	Odds
Royal Flush	4	1 in 649,740
Straight Flush	36	1 in 72,193
Four of a Kind	624	1 in 4,165
Full House	3,744	1 in 694
Flush	5,108	1 in 509
Straight	10,200	1 in 254.80
Three of a Kind	54,912	1 in 47.32
Two Pairs	123,552	1 in 21.03
One Pair	1,098,240	1 in 2.36
No Pair Hand	1,302,540	1 in 1.99

Now that you have the probabilities of getting the hands, have a look at the payouts for each winning hand.

Royal Flush	100 to 1
Straight Flush	50 to 1
Four of a Kind	20 to 1
Full House	7 to 1
Flush	5 to 1
Straight	4 to 1
Three of a Kind	3 to 1
Two Pair	2 to 1
One Pair	1 to 1
Ace-King	1 to 1

You`ll most likely notice the payouts don't necessarily reflect the odds of attaining the hands, but unlike other games there is a distinction between simply winning, with say, two pairs, and with winning in style, with a royal flush!! Nice!

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Video: Star Wars Slot Machine

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 02:52:00 +0000

Star Wars Slot Machine, Yoda, Darth, Vader, Luke, Death Star, Boba, Stormtrooper. If you love Star Wars you'll ... all » love the sights ... all » and sounds of this exiciting new slot machine from IGT. When you win you'll definitely feel the force!

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Don't stick a fork in Internet gambling

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 01:40:00 +0000

From: nwitimes.com

BY JOHN G. BROKOPP
When President Bush signed the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act in October, many reports gave the impression it sounded the death knell for the multibillion dollar Web-based gambling industry.

On the contrary, all it did was strictly regulate the process by which funds are transferred from users of the sites to the offshore companies which own and operate them. The practice itself wasn't declared illegal.

Reputable foreign companies, which had conducted business with citizens of the United States, halted operations immediately, leaving the shady fly-by-night operators to look for ways to circumvent the system. The climate is ripe for them to create an underworld business similar to what existed in this country during Prohibition.

The legality of online gambling has yet to be addressed. The major stumbling block is it continues to be discussed in context with the 1961 Wire Act which prohibits sports betting over telephone lines.

Forty-five years ago the Internet wasn't even a glint in technology's eye and, during the last decade, regulators and legislators have looked the other way while online gambling was allowed to grow into a multibillion dollar industry.

Whereas persuasive arguments can be made against betting online on pure games of chance, such as slots, at issue here is poker which, because it requires an element of skill, has been regarded in some circles as a recreational pursuit that extends beyond the boundaries of gambling.

Handicapping horse races certainly resides in a similar area of gray, but the recent legislation stipulates unlawful internet gambling "shall not include any activity that is allowed under the Interstate Horseracing Act." That act, signed into law in 1978 and amended in 2000, sanctions the transfer of pari-mutuel wagers between states via telephone or other electronic means.

Greg Avioli, acting chief executive of the National Thoroughbred Racing Association (NTRA) and Breeder's Cup Ltd., had this to say at the annual International Simulcast Conference held earlier this year in Philadelphia: "The industry is squandering an opportunity as the only legal provider of Internet gaming. We have a golden opportunity in our hands."

Avioli's suggestion was for the industry to get together and create a single online site to bet the races, which is something the giant American-based casino companies would aspire to do with online gambling, in particular poker, if politicians ever get serious about taming the beast and using it as a legal source of tax revenues instead of allowing it to run unregulated.

There is much at stake for legal companies with vested interests in poker, including Harrah's Entertainment and its successful World Series of Poker, and a large percentage of participants who have ties in some way, shape or form to Internet poker sites.

The opinions expressed solely are those of the writer. He can be reached at jbrokopp@comcast.net.

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German states set to ban Internet gambling

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 01:32:00 +0000

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany's federal states plan to ban Internet gambling, according to draft documents to be discussed by the country's state premiers on Wednesday, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.sed by the country's state premiers on Wednesday, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.

Despite pressure from the
European Commission to open up Europe's gambling market to competition, ministers from most states want to sign off on new rules aimed at protecting their lucrative monopoly as lottery operators, said Handelsblatt.

It also reported that the mainly private firms, such as Tipp24 and Fluxx, would be granted a one-year transition period.

The ministers will meet in Berlin on Wednesday morning.

The state of Saxony and two other states imposed a ban earlier this year on commercial betting. That was directed mainly at Austrian Internet betting firm bwin.com whose German unit is the country's biggest commercial bookmaker.

Bwin and its peers are facing increasingly stringent regulations in the United States and Europe, where governments are curbing Internet gambling to protect customers and state-run lotteries.

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14 arrested at anticasino rally in Harrisburg PA

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 01:23:00 +0000

From: Philadelphia Inquirer

They went to Harrisburg to protest plans - and lack of public input - for five casinos in the city.

By Joseph A. Gambardello
Inquirer Staff Writer

HARRISBURG - Fourteen anticasino activists from Philadelphia have vowed to fight in court charges they blocked the entrance of the state Gaming Control Board during a noisy protest yesterday.

The action - during which the demonstrators attempted to execute what they called citizens search warrants and were charged with disorderly conduct - was staged to demand the release of documents about the possible impact five proposed casino projects would have on their surrounding neighborhoods.

Doug Harbach, a board spokesman, said that with the exception of proprietary business information supplied by the applicants, the information sought by the activists already is available online or at the board's offices.

But the demonstration also clearly was aimed at delaying a Dec. 20 decision by the board to award contracts to two of the casinos.

On that score, City Councilman Frank DiCicco, whose riverfront districts includes four of the proposed projects, called for a six-month delay in issuing the licenses and invited state legislators to join him in signing a petition to the board at a ceremony tomorrow.

Echoing the activists, DiCicco complained that casino developers have "significantly" altered plans since the public comment period ended June 2.

"But while they continue to make changes and address the Board's concerns, my constituents and I have not had the opportunity to comment for the record," he said in a statement. "This lack of public input creates a flawed process and will result in a flawed product."

Besides the riverfront casinos planned for Pennsport, Fishtown, Northern Liberties and Kensington-Port Richmond, a fifth is planned for East Falls-Nicetown.

The arrested activists were among 50 demonstrators who traveled in two buses from Philadelphia and rallied in a park outside the Statehouse. DiCicco donated $1,000 for the bus rental.

One of those who spoke was Lori McCole, the mother of a 13-year-old girl from Port Richmond, who is concerned about the traffic, noise and social problems associated with gambling.

In an interview before the rally, she wondered about how many drunken gamblers will get behind the wheels of their cars and drive through her neighborhood, possibly when her daughter was walking to or from school.

"This is going to bring more problems," she said. "They say you can't fight City Hall. Why can't we?"

"We don't want these casinos in our neighborhoods," the Rev. Jesse Brown, who lives near the East Falls-Nicetown site, told the rally. "We don't want what casinos bring."

After the rally, the protesters, carrying signs, colored flags and two giant papier-mache magnifying glasses marched across the street to the gaming board offices and massed in the entranceway, where activists read from their warrants and asked to be allowed in.

"Let them in. Let them in," the crowd shouted.

Police arrested 11 protesters and took them to a nearby station, where they were issued summonses for disorderly conduct and released. Two women in wheelchairs and a third protester were issued summonses at the scene.

Before boarding their buses home, the 14 agreed they would plead not guilty and fight their charges.

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Video: Making Millions the Easy Way - The MIT Blackjack Team

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 14 Dec 2006 00:44:00 +0000

In the mid-1990s, a team of American science students took on the might of the Las Vegas casinos, and came home with millions of dollars. ... all » Hardworking engineering students during the week, they became high-rolling gamblers by the weekend and proved that, in one game at least, the house doesn't always win.

The game was blackjack, and the students were from the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). Their audacious winnings marked the climax of an arms race between casino and player that began 40 years earlier with maths professor Edward Thorp. He realised that the one feature of blackjack that made it different from other casino games also made it possible to beat.

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Blackjack Insurance: Should you make this bet?

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 23:43:00 +0000

From: Casino Player

by Stephen W. Custer, PhD
The count was high and I had two $90 bets out. I was dealt 20 on the first hand, 14 on the second and the dealer showed an ace.

She started to check her hole card.

“Wait a minute. I want insurance,” I said.

“I didn’t think you took insurance,” she said.

“Only when I have a big bet.” She nodded as if this made sense. I pushed the two stacks of chips, one green and four red, in front of my original bets.

“Insuring the fourteen too?”

“Yep, both of them.”

Insurance is a side bet offered by most casinos. As with all side bets, it’s a house bet. It’s strictly a bet for novices and the faint of heart. Experienced players know not to take it. That’s why the dealer was surprised when I asked for it. The opportunity had presented itself several times earlier and I had turned it down.

It is simply a side bet on whether the dealer has a 10 in the hole. If she does, the bet pays 2-to-1. It is only offered when the dealer shows an ace.

The casino allows you to bet up to half your original bet. That way, if the dealer has a 10, the insurance pays 2-to-1, but you lose your original bet. The net is break-even. It is called “insurance” because most players think of it as a way of insuring that they don’t lose money on a good hand. It is common to hear a player say, “I only insure nineteen or twenty.”

As with much blackjack wisdom, this is wrongheaded. Whether insurance is a good or a bad bet has nothing to do with the value of your hand. It makes just as much, or just as little, sense to insure a 14 as it does a 20. Whether you win or lose depends on what the dealer has in the hole; it has nothing to do with your hand.

Think about what happens when you take insurance. If the dealer doesn’t have a 10, you lose the bet and the games go on just the same as if you hadn’t taken insurance. If she has a 10, she pays your insurance bet, and the game goes on just the same as if you hadn’t taken insurance. In either case, winning or losing the insurance bet has nothing to do with your cards. Your hand plays out the same whether or not you took insurance.

You could argue that all insurance works this way. Homeowner’s insurance doesn’t keep your house from burning down, any more than health insurance keeps you healthy or life insurance keeps you alive; it just pays you (or your beneficiaries) if the worst does happen. We know that from a strictly statistical point of view, insurance is a bad bet. If it wasn’t, insurance companies couldn’t build all those big buildings in Connecticut and buy all those politicians in Washington. That is, it’s a bad bet if we use a linear model for money. But for most of us the value of money is only linear up to a point. Twenty dollars may be twice as much as $10, but in terms of what it means to our life, $20 million isn’t twice as much as $10 million. With most insurance we pay an affordable premium to avoid an unaffordable loss. This is where the blackjack insurance differs from other types of insurance. If your initial bet is an unaffordable loss, you have bigger problems than worrying about insuring it.

There is the psychological factor that it feels worse to have a good hand beaten by a dealer’s blackjack than a poor hand. But this is strictly psychological; it makes no difference to your bank account. A beat’s a beat.

Let’s do the numbers to see why insurance is normally a bad bet, and why I chose to take it on this hand. Remember, it’s nothing more or less than a side bet on whether the dealer has a 10 in the hole. With a full deck, four of every 13 cards are 10s. Let’s say you place a $10 insurance bet. If you did this 13 times, on average you would win four of the bets and lose the other nine. The nine you lose cost $90. And, since the side bet pays 2-to-1, the four times you win pays $80. A net gain for the house of $10, or 7.7 percent.

The opportunity to place an insurance bet on average occurs once in 13 hands; at 80 hands per hour, about six times an hour. Taking a $10 insurance bet every time it is offered will cost about $4.60 per hour. The player who insures only 19s and 20s will place about one insurance bet per hour. This gets the cost down to 77 cents per hour. Is the warm feeling from not letting the dealer’s blackjack beat you worth it? That’s up to you.

By the way, taking even money on a blackjack is exactly the same as taking insurance, and the same calculations apply.

Now why did I take this bad bet? Remember, the count was high, which meant the deck was 10-heavy. Suppose in the above calculation there were five instead of four 10s for each 13 cards remaining in the shoe. Now I would lose eight of my 13 bets for a loss of $80. But I would win five, for $100, a net gain of $20.

The decision comes down to this: If the remaining percentage of 10s in the shoe is less than 33.3 percent, then pass up insurance. But if the percentage is greater than 33.3 percent, it’s an advantage bet. Most of the time the percentage of 10s is less than 33.3 percent, so the noncounting player is better off not taking insurance.

The above is just a first-order calculation. I used the ratio of 10s in a full deck, 16/52 = 30.77 percent. In fact, we are not playing with a full deck. Maybe I should rephrase that. We know several cards are removed from the deck, the ace the dealer is showing and the two cards we have. If we do not have a 10, the ratio of 10s in the remaining deck is 16/49 = 32.65 percent if we are playing single deck, 32/101 = 31.68 percent in double deck and 96/309 = 31.07 percent with six decks. This makes insurance a little less of a bad bet, but still not up to the 33.3 percent we need. Ironically, this second-order calculation shows that the conventional wisdom of insuring good hands (19 or 20), but not poor hands, is worse than no wisdom. If you have 19 or 20, you have one or two of the 10s, making insurance an even worse bet than insuring a poor hand with no 10s.

The dealer checked her hole card, put the corner of her up-card under it and flipped the 10.

“Nice call,” she said, as she pushed my bets back to me.

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Top 10 SLOT MYTHS

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 23:23:00 +0000

From: Strictly Slots

No matter how much information is published about how slot machines work, these bits of misinformation persist
by Frank Legato

Slot machines have reached the outcomes of their individual spins in pretty much the same way for more than 20 years. In the early 1980s, Inga Telnaus invented the “virtual reel” system, which created a computerized method for slot machines to reach their outcomes. Numbers would henceforth be plugged into a slot machine’s program, each number corresponding to an individual reel result.

For high-paying symbols like a “7” or a doubling wild symbol, there would be a few numbers, or even only one number, corresponding in the program. A random number generator program would cycle through sets of those numbers corresponding to reel results, generating more than a hundred potential results per second. One set of numbers would be frozen when the spin button was touched.

That’s your reel result—picked with the randomness of one instant in time, but from a universe of numbers that already has influenced the law of averages toward lower payouts—creating the ever-present house edge. The way slots decide outcomes has not changed. The other thing that has not changed is the group of common misperceptions about slot machines that have persisted since the days of mechanical slot machines, and before. We’ve decided to pick the top 10.

These are the 10 myths that won’t go away. No matter how many books on slots are published, no matter how many experts write slot columns or run Q&A websites, players still believe these myths.

10 The bonus is always predetermined.

Myth: This myth involves the type of video bonus round that has the player choose from several objects on a screen to reveal hidden bonus amounts. Players have always assumed that the ultimate bonus awarded to the player is predetermined—that it will be the same regardless of which objects the player selects.

Truth: The truth is that the award in this style of bonus feature is not predetermined. When the triggering symbols appear on the reels, the RNG picks one of several pre-programmed collections of possible bonus awards. The theoretical payback percentage of the machine is based on the average in a range of possible bonus awards, and each screen includes several possible awards within that range. It’s up to the player to find the best of that collection. It does matter which one you pick.

9 How I play can affect the jackpot.

Myth: Many players believe that pushing the button or pulling the handle in a certain manner—using “body English,” or alternating between buttons and sot handles, etc.—will affect the spin of the reels or the outcome of the spin.

Truth: It does not matter how fast or slow you push that button. It does not matter whether you push the button or pull the handle. In fact, pushing the button and pulling the handle do the same thing—the handle is just for show these days. All it does is land on its own spin button. Either way, an instant signal is sent to the computer to select the number generated at that particular nanosecond as the reel result.

8 The attendant changed the payback.

Myth: We see this related in letters all the time. People are playing along, getting steady hits on a slot, and a slot attendant must open the door for some reason to do maintenance, to clear a jam, or whatever. Players are convinced that attendants sometimes do something to change the payback percentage of the machine and make them stop winning.

Truth: Slot attendants do not change the payback percentage on slot machines during routine maintenance. In the slot machines currently out on the floor in all commercial casino jurisdictions, changing the payback means changing out the game chip. In all commercial jurisdictions, it is illegal to change out a payback percentage chip without a regulatory official present.

7 This machine is due.

Myth: An attendant or other employee can tell you when some machines are “due” for a jackpot. Sometimes, you can tell by the machine’s behavior.

Truth: No one can tell you with accuracy when a slot machine is “due” to hit a jackpot. There are some cases in which the law of averages comes into play—such as a progressive jackpot in place a long time that is larger than it ever has been. However, even in these cases, nothing is for certain. Past performance is no indication of a slot’s future outcomes.

6 The loose machines are on the aisle.

Myth: Casinos place the loosest games (i.e., those with the highest payback percentages) on the aisles, so people can be seen winning.

Truth: This was how slot managers did it in the old days, so the myth actually has a basis in fact. However, that was when we were dealing with slot floors of a few hundred machines, rather than a few thousand. In today’s casino, slot managers purchase payback percentage programs according to company policy. If that policy says quarter machines should pay in the neighborhood of 92 percent, then the manager will purchase all his quarter-denomination programs at or around 92 percent. The truth is that these days, the payback percentage will be fairly consistent within any one denomination.

5 The symbols will tell me the odds.

Myth: Many people believe that the odds of a slot machine can be calculated by counting the symbols on the reels and plugging them into a mathematical formula involving the payback for each winning combination.

Truth: Before virtual reels, yes. You could calculate odds on the old electro-mechanical machines in this manner because what you saw was what you got. However, in the virtual reel system, several numbers will b assigned to the same reel spots. In other words, that one single bar may represent five “virtual” single bars in the program. What looks like a 22-stop (“stops” refer to a spot on the reel, either symbol or blank) game may actually be a 200-stop game or more—a simulation of giant reel strips, each with scores of single bars. This makes it impossible to calculate odds in the old way.

4 My slot card affects the payout.

Myth: Many think that inserting a player’s club card in the slot reader will make the game pay out less. Others think it will cause payouts to increase because the casino recognizes a “frequent player.”

Truth: The slot club card has absolutely no effect on the slot game program, including the payback percentage and hit frequencies. The card reader is on the face of the machine, far removed from the circuit board containing the game chip. It is there for the sole purpose of recording play—wins and losses—for the purpose of rewarding loyal players. That’s it. There is no reason not to use it.

3 If I wager more, I’ll get more jackpots.

Myth: It is a common belief that betting higher coin levels will result in a higher payback percentage.

Truth: The number of coins you wager per spin has no effect on the game’s payback percentage or hit frequency. It will, obviously, raise the amount of the jackpot proportionately, and “buy-a-pay” games are unique in that second or third coins are required to activate some winning combinations. Other than that, the machine does not care how much you wager. Multiline progressives do require that you wager enough to activate all the paylines. However, even on those games, the payback percentage and hit frequency are constant once all the lines are covered.

2 He stole my jackpot.

Myth: This is one of the most widely believed myths—the notion that if you are playing one machine for a while and get up, only to have the next player sit down and hit a jackpot, that the second player “stole your jackpot.”

Truth: You would not have gotten that jackpot. The RNG is cycling through hundreds of possible combinations every second. Because of the time it took for you to get up and another player to sit down, the RNG would have selected a completely different result had you remained seated.

1 The payout switch.

Myth: Yes, it is the number-one slot myth, the granddaddy of them all. It is the notion that casinos have a “payout switch,” and can instantly change payout percentages on the floor if a player is winning too much.

Truth: It does not happen. The machines out on the floor right now require a physical change of the game chip to change the percentage, and normally, that requires a regulatory official to be present. Even the central-server-based systems being tested now will require a machine to be idle for a period before a game program can be switched remotely. However, as far as the games in your casino right now, a “payout switch” is physically impossible.

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Examining Every Layer of the Poker Sandwich

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 23:00:00 +0000

From: Gambling Online Magazine

Being able to place your opponents’ chips in jeopardy by creating advantageous betting/raising sequences and avoiding situational traps will increase your overall profits. The poker sandwich — a caller positioned between two raisers — is one such betting pattern.

A poker sandwich can occur:
1) When two players are working together to whipsaw (squeeze) a player. This is a form of cheating (collusion).
2) Unintentionally, when a player is simply caught between two strong hands.
3) Proactively, when a player raises with a marginal hand after an opponent calls an opening raise. The reraiser’s intent is to take the lead and put maximum pressure on both the initial raiser and the sandwiched player.

Don’t Let Crime Pay

From the top, situation number one is cut and dry. If you suspect adversaries are conspiring, leave the game. If you are sure they are playing in cahoots, notify management and provide examples before you depart.

The Natural Sandwich

When you have a good (but not great) hand, you may find yourself caught between two strong hands. Fold. While one opponent might be bluffing, the probability that both are making moves is remote. For example, yesterday I was dealt 8c-8d in a $30-$60 limit hold’em game. The player under the gun (first to act) limped in for $30. After two players folded, I raised to $60. The button player called, as did the limper. The flop came As-6d-3h. The first player checked. I made a continuation bet of $30. The gentleman on the button raised. The first player immediately checkraised. I folded. Assuming I was trailing a pair of aces or better (a good assumption), my probability of winning this hand was less than 10%, thus I had an easy fold on the flop.

Richard Lee Builds A Sandwich

Good players recognize that creating dead money (chips donated to a pot by a player who subsequently folds) is a winning strategy. Sandwiching a caller, who will likely fold to pressure, is a great way to beef up pots by generating dead money. Here’s an example from the 2006 World Series of Poker no-limit hold’em championship (captured by Jamie Gold). On the second hand of final table play, Doug Kim raised to $480,000. Rhett Butler called from the cutoff seat (one to the right of the button). After 27 seconds, Richard Lee re-raised to $1,980,000 from the button. Professional player, author and analyst Phil Gordon was the color commentator for ESPN’s Pay Per View telecast. He stated, “I love this play by Richard Lee. He’s sandwiching Rhett Butler who has only called the pre-flop raise. Butler can’t have that great a hand. Lee only has to get by Doug Kim and he’ll win a big pot because Butler won’t call. It’s very unlikely that Butler would be trapping in this situation with the blinds yet to act.” After Lee folded, Gordon continued, “There’s just no way Butler is going to call this raise. This was a very good play by Richard Lee and he’s going to win a big pot here.” As Phil predicted, Butler folded.

The ingredients

I recommend initiating sandwich plays in no-limit cash games and no-limit tournaments. Your raises will present a greater threat to opponents than they will in limit structures. Furthermore, a loose opponent is best utilized as the first (bottom) piece of bread in your sandwich. When a loose player throws in a raise, a potential caller (the meat) is more likely to enter the pot with a marginal hand (such as K-J or 6-6) than when a tight player raises.

Here’s an example. You sit down with $500 in a no-limit cash game with $5- $10 blinds. Your opponents’ stack sizes range from $350 to $880. After folding three hands, you pick up 9-8 suited in the cutoff seat. The first two opponents fold. The next player raises to $40. The following player calls. After the player to your right folds, you make a pot sized raise to $190. All fold to the loose player who opened the pot with a raise to $40. He realizes that he can’t close the preflop betting (the original caller is left to act behind him). The opening raiser also should be aware that, if he calls your reraise, he will be out of position for the next three betting streets. He finds himself in an awkward position, thus releases his A-10. The caller, as Phil Gordon pointed out, will rarely be slowplaying, thus will almost always fold. The reasoning: he didn’t have a hand that was strong enough to reraise with in the first place, thus he almost certainly shouldn’t call, especially out of position. Remember, unless faced with extraordinarily good pot odds, you need a very strong hand to call a reraiser.

Note: even if the original raiser called your raise, you would be in position, and there would be $435 in the pot, thus you would be getting 2.3-to-1 on your reraise money, an overlay since you are only a 1.4-to-1 underdog. (You will prevail more than 41 percent of the time when the hand is played to the river.)

Always try to be the top piece of bread in a poker sandwich, not the meat.

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New draw: Video poker with a guarantee

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 22:52:00 +0000

From: Las Vegas Sun

By Liz Benston
Like an anthropologist studying a foreign culture, Connecticut inventor Jay Walker has spent nearly a decade examining the gaming industry. By absorbing casino trade shows, he has studied gaming's evolution from technological backwater to high-tech innovator - and he has contributed to that progress by crafting applications to help casinos make more money.

And now he has come up with his first casino product - one that is raising eyebrows for how it baits players to drop money into it. It is a video poker machine that essentially promises the gambler a certain amount of play time no matter how bad his luck.

The video poker slot machine is called "Guaranteed Play." It was conceived not in the back room of a casino or at a slot machine laboratory, but at Walker's office in Stamford, Conn. The devices, which are expected to be offered in Las Vegas casinos within six months, seem counterintuitive to the very act of gambling.

The machine allows players to buy a certain number of video poker hands up front for a set price, unlike the conventional video poker machines that may provide fewer or more hands for the money, based on the luck of the play and the gambler's decision to return any winnings to play more hands.

For example, Walker's games can offer 150 hands of "Jacks or Better" for $20 and 400 hands for $40. Those hands could take more than 20 minutes to an hour to play. Games would offer more or less hands for the money based on the type of video poker game and the odds that apply to that game.

The gambler should assume that he will lose his money - but that he will have enjoyed playing a guaranteed number of games in the meantime.

"At the movies you know you're getting about an hour and a half plus some popcorn," Walker said. "You don't have that in a casino. We can assure customers that even before they leave their house, they know they're going to be on a game for a while."

The idea of paying for gambling the way consumers pay for dinner and a movie seems to remove the ancient allure of gambling, which involves taking risks and shedding inhibitions.

Not so, Walker says.

"Human behavior is not rocket science," Walker said. "Consumers like packages. They like a bargain."

They also like security, he said. Many players are casual gamblers who throw a few bucks into a machine because they happen to be walking through a casino, he said. Other players are intimidated by gambling or are regulars who want more control over their gambling budget, Walker said.

"This industry has been selling entertainment by the minute," he said. "You're buying entertainment and not seven-second hands.

"Casinos want people to have a good time. I don't have to win to have a good time. But if I lose my money quickly and have to leave, is that fun?"

The devices represent a breakthrough opportunity for casinos to cultivate new players, said Anthony Curtis, publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor newsletter for gamblers.

Casinos could offer a hotel guest attending a convention $20 of video poker with the assurance that most people - even those with little to no experience or prior interest in gambling - would give it a shot, he said. Some players will end up buying more after trying out the games once or twice, he said.

"I think people are looking for ways to justify activities they want to try but think they shouldn't," Curtis said.

Walker began working with slot maker International Game Technology a few years ago to design the game. IGT also has a stake in Walker Digital Gaming, a Walker company that owns several hundred casino-related patents that are expected to be developed into IGT products over the next several years. Like Walker Digital, IGT is a prolific cultivator of patents and has more patented technology than any other gaming company.

A relative unknown in the casino world, Walker is a celebrity of sorts in the high-tech world of business patents. His biggest success is Priceline.com, a Web site and a billion-dollar business that lets customers name their price for airline tickets and other merchandise.

Walker is not an inventor of gadgets, nor does he fit the stereotype of the shy scientist tinkering away in a lab. He is a marketer and a salesman, a persuasive man who is as adept at pitching his ideas as he is in coming up with them.

That Walker patents concepts rather than gizmos has made him a controversial figure.

His company, Walker Digital, has been accused of patenting ideas that are obvious or already on the market.

That's unlikely to happen with Guaranteed Play, which offers players a simple yet unusual choice on the welcome screen: "Dozens of hands, one low price" or "Buy games one at a time."

IGT has been testing the machines at some local casinos. For many players, the opportunity to gamble for a certain amount of time is more attractive than chasing the off chance that a smaller initial bet can last several hours - or yield a big jackpot.

In focus group tests, players have said they like the ability to see where their money is going, said John Daley, IGT's director of video poker.

"Our biggest challenge has been players who say it's too good to be true," Daley said. "They're looking for the catch."

That catch may be as simple as giving up $20 or $40 rather than $3 every few minutes. While there's always the chance for a win, the house edge is against players in the long run. Many players don't keep track of their losses and feel they have "won" if they make back a fraction of what they put into a slot machine.

The games will allow casinos to create value packages that bundle gambling time with other items such as spa treatments, show tickets and gourmet dinners, Walker said.

Casino managers can pitch their games to bargain-hunters by selling more hands per dollar during the week when casino floors are slower or the same number of hands for less money, he said.

The gaming industry presents a particularly rich vein for patent developers to mine, Walker said.

"It's a young, highly regulated industry" where regulations are just catching up to high-tech developments on the horizon, he said.
Liz Benston can be reached at 259-4077 or at benston@lasvegassun.com.

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New Congress will be asked to deal with online poker ban

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Wed, 13 Dec 2006 22:46:00 +0000

From: Las Vegas Sun

By Lisa Mascaro

WASHINGTON - They like to think of it as the green felt revolution - the upset defeat of Iowa Rep. Jim Leach, father of the Internet gambling ban, in last month's congressional election.

Leach had been in online gamblers' sights ever since Congress passed the ban as one of its final acts before the Nov. 7 election. Stunned by the new law, the Poker Players Alliance rallied members to take their outrage to the polls and cast ballots against those who voted for the ban.

Now, the group plans to use Leach's experience as an example.

A postelection poll commissioned by the poker players suggests that gambling may have helped do in the 15-term Republican congressman. The poll of 1,000 voters by RT Strategies showed that, among voters for whom the gambling subject was a pivotal issue, Leach's Democratic challenger, David Loebsack, enjoyed a 5 percentage point edge. Leach lost by 3 percentage points.

As the group starts introducing itself to the new Congress that takes over in January, the poker players plan to highlight the poll as part of its lobbying effort.

The group wants Congress to exempt poker players from the ban and study ways of legalizing online play as a legitimate licensed and taxed business.

"It's not a warning," said Michael Bolcerek, president of the group that counts 125,000 members. "It's that people care strongly about this issue and will consider that in their voting decisions."

Online poker playing, he said, is an issue that members of Congress "need to deal with."

Bolcerek said the group also urged its members to support poker-friendly members of Congress, including Nevada's Republican Rep. Jon Porter and Democratic Rep. Shelley Berkley, who authored legislation to study regulating online gaming.

Berkley was re-elected by a landslide in which the online issue likely was relatively inconsequential. And though Porter won by a narrow margin, the group did not poll to see whether the green felt revolution helped sweep them to victory.

• • •

Holiday season has begun at the White House and the Bush family pets have prominent roles in the production.

President and first lady Laura Bush's famous pooches, Barney and Miss Beazley, have their images crafted in ivy topiary on the ground floor corridor. Same with first cat Willie. They're all apparently down the hall from Rudolph and company.

Barney and Miss Beazley, both black Scottish terriers, also are on the dessert menu - as cutout cookies.

The first lady showed off this year's White House holiday decor, which includes no less than 17 Christmas trees. The White House expects 45,000 visitors during the holiday season.
Lisa Mascaro can be reached at (202) 662-7436 or at lisa.mascaro@lasvegassun.com.

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