Page 25 - October 2011 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Bob Dancer: Video Poker
WLhich Casino Promotion is Best for You?
et’s consider two di erent casinos that are planning to give away $20,000 to their players in a drawing. Both drawings happen at the same time and you have to be there to win. You have to choose which promotion, if either, you’ll participate in.
Casino A and Casino B both give you one drawing ticket based on $100 worth of play. Casino A has games returning over 100%, and the best game in Casino B returns 99%.
Which is the better play?
It seems obvious that Casino A is the better choice, but
the drawing, Casino F is probably the better choice. And low-limit players are better o at Casino E because nickel players and $5 players get the same ten free tickets a day.
Casino G and Casino H have the same rules, but the restaurants at Casino G are better. at’s easy. Since your play will earn you free meals, you might as well play where you enjoy the
comps.
Casino I gives seniors
an extra 100 tickets and Casino J doesn’t. How old are you?
Casino K has a players club that returns a half percent of cash back and Casino L has a players club
that returns a third of a percent. Assuming the video poker games are the same, Casino K is the better choice.
Casino M has two promotions going on, and Casino N only has the drawing. Casino O is ve miles closer to your home than Casino P. Casino Q has a smoke-free section including games you like to play and Casino R doesn’t. Casino S has the drawing open to everybody and Casino T only allows 200 people, including you, to compete.
is list is meant to be suggestive of things to think about and not to provide a complete list. It is also meant to suggest that the best choice for John might be very di erent than the best choice for George. And many drawings have several of these factors going on at once, some of them pointing to one casino and some of them pointing to the other.
Most people will never have enough tickets in the barrel so that they are actually a favorite. It is frequently the case that a drawing with twenty prizes will attract a thousand or
that’s not necessarily true.
It is possible that most
players prefer Casino A so
that there are ten times as
many tickets in the barrel
as in Casino B. Even if it
costs you a dollar a ticket, it
is at least possible that the
value of the ticket is worth
a lot more in the second
casino. You’ll have to guess
at this, however; you can’t
know for sure how many tickets will be in each barrel until it’s too late to add any more. Most likely, though, even with ten times the tickets, Casino A is the smarter choice.
Casino C has good $5 games and Casino D doesn’t. Now your choice comes down to what stakes you play. If you have the knowledge, resources, and courage to play the $5 game, you’ll get a lot more tickets per hour of play at Casino C, than players who are playing nickels, quarters, or dollars. If you are a quarter player, for example, Casino D is the better choice. You don’t want to get into a numbers game with a guy with a lot more numbers than you have.
Both Casino E and Casino F give you tickets for every $100 of play, but Casino E also gives everyone on their mailing list ten free tickets a day just for showing up at the players club booth and asking. Are you somebody who goes and plays every day? If so, maybe Casino E is the better choice. If you are only going to play one or two times before
“Smart players evaluate, at least approximately, how
often they can expect to win at these drawings to how much inconvenience attending the drawings creates in their lives.”
more players who think it will be really cool to win. erefore, most of the time you attend a drawing, you’ll end up empty- handed. If this is devastating for you (or you absolutely hate crowds), probably you shouldn’t even show up.
Showing up at a drawing is not costless. Even if you live nearby it uses up an hour minimum on a rather unproductive activity—assuming you don’t win. If you do win, of course, it’s all worthwhile. If you’re not local relative to where the drawing is being held, it takes a lot more than an hour, and sometimes considerable transportation costs. Smart players evaluate, at least approximately, how often they can expect to win at these drawings compared to how much inconvenience attending the drawing creates in their lives. Retired people with “nothing but time” on their hands frequently nd themselves at more drawings than people with a lot of commitments on their time.
Listen to Bob’s radio show Gambling With An Edge, on Thursday evenings 7 to 8 p.m. Pacific Time on radio station 1230 AM in Las Vegas online at klav1230am.com. Dancer’s products may be ordered at bobdancer.com or at 1-800-244-2224 Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time.
OCTOBER 2011
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
PAGE 25