| From my pretty catholic and quite intensive experience, there's only one other person 'on your plane' in our universe, and that's Henry Tamburin. If I knew how to reach him I would forward a similar note to him. He does a little more with 'commercials' than you ... but you guys have to make the money required to support your superb efforts, and no one can begrudge you that -- if they have minimal brain cells functioning. P.P.S. Since I'm in this realm of thinking, and in the (very rare) spirit of communicating, I'd also like to extend my kudos to Alene Paone and her husband. They're damn good, too. Dear Ed, Thank you very much for the compliments about my column. I'm glad you also acknowledged Henry Tamburin, and Alene Paone and her husband, Frank Scoblete--I think this is the first time Alene has gotten top billing. I would also like to add John Grochowski, Don Catlin, Fred Renzey, and the other fine writers who contribute to the Frank Scoblete Network to the list. We all tell it like it is and try to help others have as much fun in the casinos as we do. Henry Tamburin's e-mail address is htamburin@aol.com. I'm sure he'd appreciate knowing how much you appreciate his work. Thanks again for your kind words. I really appreciate them. John -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- John, What's the best place downtown to play nickels? Or should I go bigger money? Just lead to me to the right casino! Martha Dear Martha, Without knowing what exactly you mean by best and what tradeoffs you're willing to make (for example, El Cortez may have incredibly high-paying slots, but some people don't feel comfortable playing there), I'll make two comments. It's been a few years since I've been downtown, but I don't think much has changed. The Golden Nugget used to be the hands-down winner for cleanliness and classy atmosphere. It remains to be seen if the new owners are maintaining the property to the same standards as when Mirage Resorts owned the property. The Nugget is not known for having the best paybacks and rules on the table games. Most of the people I know who spend a lot of time downtown recommend Main Street Station. They tell me that the rooms are nice and relatively easy to get comped. They also tell me that the slot club, food, and machine selection are all good to very good. As for whether you should move up to quarters, only your bankroll can answer that question. If you play mainly reel-spinning slots, it won't take much of an increase in bankroll to go from 15 cents per spin to 25 cents per spin--assuming you go from playing three coins per spin on the nickel machine to one coin per spin on the quarter machine. If you like playing video slots, you will probably need to beef up your bankroll quite a bit to jump up in denomination. There's a big difference between playing nine nickels per spin and playing nine quarters per spin. One last thing to consider is that most casinos have a better selection of reel-spinning slots in quarters than in nickels and the opposite is true for video slots--most casinos have a better selection of video slots in nickels than in quarters. Best of luck in and out of the casinos, John -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Good Evening, John, from Ohio, I read your column and enjoy the information. My wife and I along with another couple just love going to Las Vegas. My question is this: Is it better to get a handful of coins and random play machines or just sit and wait for one to hit. I usually have more luck if I just put a couple of quarters or dollars in a machine and move on if it does not hit. Dewey Dear Dewey, The choice is up to you. Neither option is better than the other. I always turn to the math behind the games first to see if one option is better than the other. There's no mathematical reason to leave a machine after any number of losing spins. The odds haven't changed. The machine is neither more nor less likely to hit after a series of losing spins. The math doesn't help us choose, so I say you should use your emotions. If you want to try to bully a machine into paying, go for it. If you'd rather switch than fight, then do that. When the math doesn't favor an option, we can follow our emotions without damaging our bankrolls. Best of luck in and out of the casinos, Dear Tom, You're right. The casino wants you to play off a jackpot because some people will not play a machine that has just hit a big win. It can only be a request, though. They can't force you to do it. That would be forcing you to gamble and no jurisdiction would allow a casino to force a patron to gamble. I can imagine the complaint one could write. "I just hit a jackpot on this machine. I didn't want to play it anymore, but the casino said I had to play it one more time to clear the jackpot. The casino forced me to play a machine against my will." I've had slot floorpeople ask me if I was going to continue playing a machine after a handpay, but I've never had anyone require me to play off a jackpot. Now, should the casino pay you to play it off? If I remember correctly, a casino in Las Vegas did just that a number of years ago. Video Poker pros figured out they could make some money playing high-denomination machines because the casino would front the money to play off handpays and those machines had many, many handpays. The casino could front the money for the spin as a public relations measure. You said some casinos in your area do that. Play at those casinos and not at ones that don't. That's one way to spread the word. Another is to write to the slot director or president of the casino and tell him or her that you hit a jackpot on a machine but were not given some coins with which to play off the jackpot. Tell them that Casino B does give players the money, so you'll be playing there in the future. Best of luck in and out of the casinos, Question about Megabucks progressive slots in Nevada: I read that the winning jackpot amount is set at some random value greater than the minimum, and that when the progressive pot reaches this value, the next spin wins. Any idea whether there is any truth to this? There's no truth whatsoever to the statement. Each Megabucks machine contains its own RNG and determines the results of its spins. The progressive is hit when someone happens to hit the Spin button just when the RNG on that machine has generated a value that corresponds to three Megabucks symbols. It is true, however, that each machine reports back to the progressive link controller, which is in Reno for Megabucks. When a jackpot is hit, the signal goes out to the appropriate Jackpot Team to go to the casino to verify the win. Just as important, the progressive amount is reset to the minimum and the new value is sent out to all the machines to display. I've heard tell that the simultaneous groans from all the Nevada Megabucks players when they see the progressive reset is so loud that IGT can hear it all the way up in Reno, but I think that's just an old wive's tale. Best of luck in and out of the casinos, |
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