Page 28 - December 2014 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Bob Dancer: Video Poker
SIhould You Make a Fuss?
n the “good old days,” casino drawings used paper tickets. Now, drawings in most casinos use electronic tickets, but on occasion you can still nd drawings where paper tickets are being used. Many players give some sort of an accordion fold to their tickets before they drop them in the
drum. e theory is that a fold creates some extra air space around the ticket, and the ticket is more likely to be chosen than one that is merely thrown into the drum without folding.
I’m not positive this works, but I do it anyway. I’ve won enough of these
rule, the casino seems ready to give “Sammy,” the owner of the folded ticket, the rst
drawings over the years that I’m a believer. Also I try to get my ticket(s) in relatively late. e early tickets get squashed, and all the folding is attened out. Also, some drums are too small to have the actual number of tickets be mixed thoroughly, and the rst ones in have a much smaller chance of being called than the last ones in.
Some drawings have had rules with wording saying something like: “ Tickets may not be folded. A folded ticket is grounds for disquali cation.”
“If you’re going to speak up, you have to do so right away. Once the prizes have been awarded and the crowd dispersed, there is no chance of any remedy. But if you do speak up right away, that’s not without some downside. Depending on how you phrase things, the casino employees could consider you a trouble maker and take actions accordingly that you won’t like.”
prize of $5,000.
So what do you do? e
fact that you followed clear rules and somebody violated those rules so as to give himself an advantage hurts your equity. Even if the casino disquali ed “Sammy’s” ticket, the most likely result is you still wouldn’t be called, but you could have been.
One question is: Was “Sammy” cheating? And the
answer is: Who knows?
A considerable percentage
friends might not speak to you again — or perhaps, take more drastic action. It would be easy to see how he could believe that he would have won $5,000 except for you and your big mouth. A lot of people wouldn’t just shrug that o .
If you’re already a frequent winner in these drawings and “Sammy” isn’t, the crowd will turn on you for being greedy. You might not give a damn what people think about you, but casinos are sometimes responsive to their players. If a high percentage of the casino patrons are against you, the easiest way to eliminate the problem is to eliminate you. If you are on shaky ground because you’ve won in the casino, and the casino is trying to decide whether to allow you to continue playing or not, this would not be a good time to complain publicly about the way the casino is doing things.
In my opinion, the best way to deal with this is proactively. When you read the rules and see such a line, encourage the marketing director to place a big sign near the drum saying that folded tickets are disquali ed.
With that big sign there, now everybody will know the rules — including the people running the drawing.
Professional video poker player Bob Dancer’s radio show Gambling With An Edge, is on Thursday evenings 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. Paci c 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. Paci c Time.
If that is in the rules, we
have a whole new ballgame. e rule itself is easy to understand. What is unknown is whether or not the casino will enforce the rule. In addition to certain players, sometimes the person conducting the drawing hasn’t read the rules, either.
Let’s say that you have some drawing tickets, and because you read and understood the rules, you placed your tickets into the drum without folding them. Further, assume at the drawing itself that the ticket drawn for the biggest prize has a complex accordion fold. Despite the
of players don’t read the rules. And unless the casino had this rule for a long time, and you knew “Sammy” had been to previous drawings, it’s hard to know what he knew. It’s possible he knew the rule and was willing to gamble that the house wouldn’t enforce the
rule. Is that cheating or being an intelligent gambler?
If you’re going to speak up, you have to do so right away. Once the prizes have been awarded and the crowd dispersed, there is no chance of any remedy. But if you do
speak up right away, that’s not without some downside. Depending on how you phrase things, the casino employees could consider you a trouble maker and take actions accordingly that you won’t like. “Sammy” and his
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PAGE 28
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
DECEMBER 2014