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Why Are Gambling Machines Popular?Blackjack Promotions in Brick and Mortar Casinos
When most people think about gambling machines, they often times think of slot machines.

But gambling machines includes all of the video gambling machines found in the casino. Besides slots, there are also video poker games, which are as popular among gamblers as their slot counterparts.

In fact, I?ve seen video poker machines referred to as being more popular compared to the Beatles! But why are gambling machines so popular?

This post examines the key reason why there?s a continuing rise in popularity for machines that allow players to gamble for real cash.

The Gambling Machine Zone
I?ve read accounts and interviews with various gamblers in a variety of books. In Addiction by Design by Natasha Dow Sch�ll, the writer asked one gambling why she keeps playing slot machines.

Her answer was illustrative:

?To keep playing ? to stay in the device zone where nothing else matters.?

Indeed, casino managers and slot machine game designers spend a lot of thought and time measuring various statistics related to the profitability of their games and gambling machines in particular. One of those measurements is ?time on device,? which actually is the very best predictor of a game?s profitability.

It?s more important even than the theoretical return for the game or, its cousin, the house edge.

Newer gambling machines are specifically made to tickle the senses with techniques that keep players in that zone and increase time on advice.

Quite simply, brain chemistry is the main driver of slot machines? popularity, and slot machine designers are becoming experts at using sensory stimuli to control gamblers? brain chemistry.

How Slot Machines Have Changed Since Their Invention
Slots were invented in 1891 and have changed a lot since then. Originally, slot machines were literally just machines ? these were mechanical instead of electronic in nature. They used coin slots to take your money, gears and springs to power the spinning reels, and levers to activate those reels.

They had a few working parts, sure, but not many compared to modern real money slot machine game games, which has over 1,200 individual components. Designing a modern slot machine may take as much as 300 individuals. A number of them are surprising.

Story-based slot machine game games involve script writers. Graphic artists create unique artwork for the modern slot machine. Mathematicians come up with the PAR sheets that determine the overall game?s profitability per spin.

And that?s just some of the people working on the main game components. Additional designers work on accessories to the main machine?the touchscreens, the bill acceptors, and the actual physical cabinets that hold the machinery.

Gambling Machines

Slot machines used to be as simple or simpler than any other game in the casino. You put in a predetermined amount of cash, spin the reels ? which had a limited number of symbols on then ? and won money when you prearranged three symbols across the payline in the center of the machine?s display.

Modern gamers offer a seemingly infinite amount of variety related to all these experiences. It is possible to play a single machine for anywhere from a penny per spin up to $100 (or more) per spin. It is possible to choose to play for just one coin or multiple coins. Today?s slots might have five or even seven spinning reels instead of just three.

These reels aren?t limited by the 20 roughly symbols a mechanical reel might be limited to, however they can also manipulate the probability of a reel landing on a particular symbol. With a physical machine, each stop has a 1/X probability of landing. The X may be the final number of stops on the reel.

On a modern slot machine, some symbols come up 1/10 of that time period, some 1/20 of that time period, and some 1/40 of that time period. It all depends upon what?s been programmed into the software determining the outcome (the random number generator, or ?RNG? for short)

You?re also not limited to what?s showing on the reels for your gameplay. Most slots now offer bonus games that are randomly triggered. These bonus games can be as simple as a randomly generated number of free spins, guessing games resulting in more prizes, and even skill-based games that are more like video games than anything else.

How and just why Gambling in Casinos Changed Through the 1980s
Until the middle of the 1980s, blackjack and craps were the most used games in the casinos. They?re simple games using cards and dice played on tables with green felt covering them. The slot machines were found to the sides of where the ?real gamblers? played. They were thought of as games for the wives of the real gamblers.

Over the decade and a half following, the slot machines in casinos had taken over the casino floor and were generating $2 for each and every $1 being generated by the table games in the casino. Industry figures started using another expression to spell it out slot machines. They called them ?cash cows.?

Now, gambling machines drive around 85% of the gains in the casino industry. In a few jurisdictions, casinos are just allowed to offer slot machine game gambling.

One reason behind the rising popularity of slot machines is they don?t look like just as much of a ?sin? as traditional gambling. They resemble arcade games, and so they don?t have the connotation of traditional casino table games. Elderly people and women are more likely to play games that don?t involve that seedy connotation.

In fact, the entire gambling industry made a subtle change from what they call their industry. You?ll observe that they?re no longer calling themselves the gambling industry at all. They now make reference to themselves as the ?gaming? industry.

This shift has also resulted in the general public being more accepting of casino gambling generally. At one time, you had to go to Atlantic City, NEVADA, or Reno to gamble in a casino.

But states have legalized gambling and launched casinos at an instant pace over the last 50 years. The rise in acceptable gambling mirrors the rise in the popularity of state lotteries.

That rise in popularity is really a tide that?s lifting all boats, and something of the reason why for that rising tide is the immense popularity of the slot machine game.

Where IS IT POSSIBLE TO Play SLOTS Now?
As of 2012, at the very least 41 states had some kind of gambling machine available to play. Some states were considering legalizing slots, too, so the numbers might have grown since then. In the mid-1990s, half a million slot machines were available to play throughout the USA. By 2008, you had over 870k machines to pick from.

And those are just the legal gambling machines.

There are several establishments known as ?game rooms? where they?re allowed to offer these machines legally so long as they don?t offer cash or prizes worth a particular amount.

Slots

At a game room a buddy of mine was playing at, he won $400 on the machine. The attendant then suggested that they go outside for a cigarette. If they did, the attendant put a cigarette pack on the windowsill, which my friend took. It had the $400 he?d won inside it.

It seems as though such silly tactics wouldn?t work well at keeping law enforcement from shutting down the hundreds of businesses offering illegal slot machine game gambling through the entire state.

But apparently, they work very well.

I?ve seen these slots in bars. I?ve also seen them in truck stops, and, less often, in restaurants. They?re called ?amusement machines? or ?sweepstakes games,? but we all know what they really are.

How Does the Rise in Machine Gambling Affect Table Games?
As slots grow in popularity, table games are increasingly being removed from casino floors to make room for more slots. In Addiction by Design, multiple experts compared the rise of slot machines to changes in forests where trees are increasingly being cut down in favor of different forms of vegetation.

It is a Darwinian process in a small business setting. Casino games appear to be concerning the survival of the fittest, and the fittest consistently seem to be the gambling machines.

Changing Technologies and Different Gambling Experiences
Huge corporations are changing technology in the gambling world to increase corporate profits. The rising popularity of slot machines is a side-effect of this search for profits. Cities like Las Vegas are basically giant petri dishes where constant experiments are determining which game features result in the maximum losses for gamblers and maximum profitability for the casino companies.

The ?gaming? industry is now a more impressive force in the American economy every day. Two out of three people living in Las Vegas gamble. Many of them gamble at least twice a week, which isn?t probably the most profitable. The average gambling session can last provided that four hours.

On top of that, four out of five local gamblers participate in loyalty clubs that ?reward? them because of their play. They earn free meals and other comps like entertainment tickets or free hotel rooms.

Gambling machines have made the activity more convenient than ever. In Las Vegas, every business you frequent seems to have at least one slot machine game, including convenience stores, restaurants, and bars.

And the number of gamblers who prefer slots has risen from 30% in 1984 to over 78% by 2012.

Conclusion
Las Vegas was previously called ?LAS VEGAS,? but perhaps a better name for the city now would be ?Machine City.? The rise in popularity of gambling machines shows no sign of slowing or stopping. The technology behind these machines and how they affect the mind chemistry of gamblers continues to improve. So, the amount of money gamblers lose to these machines will continue to grow for the foreseeable future, too.Mostly of the ways to get an advantage in casino gambling is by firmly taking advantage of casino promotions. If you don?t find a way to get an advantage in casino gambling at all, you then?d be classified as a ?recreational gambler.? And that?s okay, as long as you don?t gamble hardly any money you could?t afford to lose.

But if you want to get a small edge while casino gambling, it is possible to enjoy your entertainment at the casino without paying so much for this in the long run.

Blackjack promotions are one of the ways to get a better deal on your own gambling, whether your goal is to be an advafntage gambler or even to just lose less money in the end.

What Are Casino Promotions?
At online casinos, promotions are straightforward enough. They?re more often than not deposit bonuses. Deposit $5,000 and get a 100% matching bonus, for instance. The wagering requirements that include such bonuses ensure it is impossible to get an advantage at an online casino by taking advantage of those promotions.

Brick and mortar casino promotions, on the other hand, are usually more interesting to share with you. You can think about these as advertising schemes designed to get more gamblers playing at a casino. Maybe traffic has been slow lately and the casino wants to get more people in the door. Or maybe the marketing guy just needs something to do.

Either way, casino promotions?especially when you?re playing real money blackjack?could be absurdly profitable if you know how exactly to tell the wheat from the chaff.

Examples of Blackjack Promotions
In this article, I look at examples of blackjack promotions. Some of them are hypothetical. Others happen regularly at various casinos. Either way, they lead to interesting discussions of probability.

Just about the most easily stood blackjack promotions is when a casino supplies a 2:1 payout on blackjacks. That hand normally pays off at 3:2, and the home still comes with an edge.

What happens to the home edge during a 2:1 payout promotion on blackjack?
To calculate this, you start by considering the probability of getting a blackjack. A blackjack?or a ?natural??is a two-card hand consisting of a card worth 10 points and an ace, which is worth 11 points. It?s a two-card hand totaling 21, in other words.

The only way to get such a hand is usually to be dealt it. Invest the a hit and obtain a total of 21, it?s not just a blackjack. This makes calculating the probability easy.

The probability of your first card being truly a 10 is 16/52. You have 16 cards worth 10 in the deck, four each of the 10s, jacks, queens, and kings. And you also have 52 cards in the deck.

The probability of your next card as an ace is 4/51. You have 51 cards left in the deck and only four of these are aces. The probability of this happening is calculated by multiplying those two probabilities. You multiply as you need both things to happen.

4/51 x 16/52 = 0.0241, or 2.41%.
But don?t forget that there?s a second way to achieve this total. That?s by getting an ace as your first card and a 10 as your second card. The math is slightly different but comes out with the same probability:

16/51 x 4/52 = 0.0241, or 2.41%
Add those two probabilities together, and the likelihood of getting a blackjack is 4.82%. That?s near 5%, so you?ll visit a blackjack about once every 20 hands.

These numbers would change if you?re dealing with multiple decks, nonetheless it would still be close to 5%. It?s close enough that people don?t have to go through those calculations.

Further Implications of a 2:1 Payout in Blackjack
Since blackjack already pays off at 3:2, a 2:1 payout is an increase in payout add up to half a bet. This means an extra half of a bet 1/20 of the time.

Over 100 hands, you?d get an extra 1/2 bet five times. That?s 2.5 bets over 100 hands, that is an increase in your expected return of over 2%.

An excellent basic strategy player in a blackjack game faces a house edge of 0.5% or lower, usually, so an increase of 2%+ in expected return implies that the player has an edge over the house of at least 1% and probably nearer to 2%.

That?s a significant edge at a casino game. It?s especially significant in a blackjack game as you don?t even have to count cards to obtain this edge.

Another Possible Blackjack Promotion
I read about a promotion where in fact the casino gave you what they called a free ride. You got this free ride when you were dealt a blackjack as a bonus to your payout. It had been just a plastic button you could use on a later hand.

Here?s How You Used It:
You could turn it in to get your original bet back after getting your first two cards. You would, of course, wait until you got into an unfavorable position before using this free ride.

If you know anything about when you should surrender in blackjack, you understand that among the worst situations you could find yourself in will be when you have a hard total of 16 to start out and the dealer has a 10 showing.

This basically offers you an extra half a bet, but not as an immediate payout as if you get with the 2 2:1 blackjack. It?s a delayed payout you could only use on another hand. But it?s still worth a single bet, and you still get it once from every 20 hands. Remember, it?s a bonus that you get if you?re dealt a blackjack.

This will add 2% to your current expectation as a basic strategy player, too.

Blackjack With a Joker
I find out about another promotion at another casino where the casino put a joker to their game. It had been being dealt from two decks, but only a single joker was added. In the event that you got the joker in your hand, it was treated as a wild card, just like in poker.

If the dealer got the joker, she had to discard it and take another card. It?s obvious what sort of wild card would give a blackjack player a mathematical edge. But how big of an edge would it not give in this example?

The first thing to understand is that with a wild card in poker, you?re not assured a win. But in a blackjack game, any hand with a wild card inside it will automatically total 21. The only time you won?t win with the joker is if the dealer also gets a 21, resulting in a push.

Also, if you feel about, the so-called average submit a blackjack game is close to a push anyway. But that?s once you?re using perfect basic strategy. Basically, because the house edge is so close to 0%, you?re playing an almost breakeven game.

This means that if you get the joker, you?re winning a whole extra bet typically.

Because the average blackjack hand has three cards inside it, and two decks with a joker has 105 cards, you?re considering getting the joker once every 35 practical average. That?s roughly 3% of the time.

If you win the average a whole single bet 3% of the time in blackjack, as a basic strategy player, you?re playing with a close to 3% edge over the house.

Conclusion
Any time you see a casino offering some kind of promotion on the blackjack games, you should think about getting involved. Utilizing the way of thinking outlined in these examples, you need to be in a position to determine when this type of promotion will provide you with a mathematical advantage over the house.

Of course, getting this edge means being a close-to-perfect basic strategy player. In the event that you?re not using basic strategy, you?re giving up typically between 2% and 4% to the house depending on what lengths off you are with your strategy decisions.

I?m indebted to David Sklansky?s Making $100,000 a Day Gambling for a Living for the examples used in this post. I wouldn?t have understood the math behind these concepts or how to explain them if I hadn?t read this book years ago. But there?s a clear way to simplify the mathematics involved with gambling, just like there?s a way to earn profit over time.
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