Here are useful tips for casino visitors
BY John G. Brokopp The Gambler
GRAND VICTORIA ELGIN: Club Victoria members earn both points and comp dollars for tracked slot play. With holiday shopping a priority at this time of year, players are invited to shop with their comp dollars by logging on to www.grandvictoriagifts.com. You can browse the selection of gifts online and place orders at the casino by using gifts kiosks.
HOLLYWOOD AURORA: The Bad Beat jackpot is available on Texas Hold’em games in the casino’s poker room. One dollar is collected from the first blind after the dealer button before dealing. Each dollar goes into a jackpot that may only be won if a losing hand contains aces full of kings or higher. Visit the poker room or call 630-801-7471.
HARRAH’S JOLIET: Tonight from 7 until 10:30 p.m., swipe your Total Rewards player’s club card in the promotions area to activate entries earned in the casino’s Rock Star Giveaway. At 11 p.m., five winners will be chosen to win cash prizes up to $5,000 or a VIP trip for six to Las Vegas for a New Year’s Eve party.
EMPRESS JOLIET: More than $100,000 in cash and prizes will be given away in the casino’s “No Shopping Required” promotion on Fridays and Saturdays through Dec. 18. Empress Club Hollywood members who have their card properly inserted in any slot machine will be eligible to be among the 10 winners randomly selected at 5, 8, and 11 p.m. drawings on promotion days. Gifts include iPads, Bose Sound Docks, and $1,000 gift cards.
The built-in house advantage that casinos wield over all the games they offer is relentless, a virtual guarantee to wear down every gambler’s bankroll over the long haul.
But did you know the speed at which people play the games has a direct impact on how hard the house edge will hit them?
Because you can play a slot machine faster than any table game, it is important to play at a slower pace. Spinning the reels every few seconds during any given playing session translates into a major investment, every dollar of which gets hammered by the house edge.
By slowing down the speed at which you play slots you give yourself a fighting chance of staying in the game longer.
Video poker has a legion of fans who are attracted to the game because every hand you are dealt and every card you draw is as random as a computer program will allow.
This makes the game as close as humanly possible to playing with your own 52-card deck at the kitchen table. A virtual deck of cards is constantly being shuffled between plays in the game’s computer program.
When you make a bet and hit the deal button, the shuffling stops and five cards are dealt off the top popping up left to right on the screen. The shuffling of the remaining virtual cards continues until you make a decision on what to hold.
When you hit draw, the number of cards you need to fill your hand pop up in the vacated spaces.
Of all the wagers you can make in a casino there is one in which the odds aren’t stacked against you. That wager is called “free odds” and it’s found at the craps tables. The odds are free because the house takes no edge on them.
Payoffs are made at true mathematical odds. Here’s what you should know. Once you make a line bet and a point is established, you have the option of making an additional bet that the point will be made.
Playing free odds is essential to taking advantage of the opportunities at the dice table and in doing so you’re also trimming even further the low house edge that the casino takes on line bets. It’s really the best bet you can make on any casino game and makes learning how to play craps well worth the effort.
Building up playing credits on slot and video poker machines carries seeds of destruction for recreational gaming enthusiasts. When you are playing with electronically metered credits instead of cold, hard cash, it is easy for your money to lose its value. Always be aware of exactly how much money you have on the machine in credits no matter what denomination you are playing. With the increase in the number of low-denomination slot games, it’s easy to forget that pennies add up to dollars. Don’t make the mistake of squandering away any good fortune by neglecting to pause to figure out just how much money those credits add up to. Winning doesn’t come easy.
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