The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Greg Raymer, the 2004 World Series of Poker champion, apparently knows how to wield more than a stack of chips when everything is riding on it.
The soft-spoken patent attorney from Stonington, Conn., fought off a pair of attackers Dec. 20 at the Bellagio hotel-casino after he had finished playing a cash game of poker, according to a Las Vegas police report…
The Associated Press
LAS VEGAS — Greg Raymer, the 2004 World Series of Poker champion, apparently knows how to wield more than a stack of chips when everything is riding on it.
The soft-spoken patent attorney from Stonington, Conn., fought off a pair of attackers Dec. 20 at the Bellagio hotel-casino after he had finished playing a cash game of poker, according to a Las Vegas police report.
Raymer was returning to his room about 2 a.m. when two men approached, the report said. As he opened the door to the room, they tried to push him in.
But the heavyset Raymer resisted and began struggling with the men, the report said. As he was fighting, one of the men pulled out a gun and said: “We just want the money.”
But Raymer didn’t give up, and yelled for security, causing the men to flee.
A security officer said one of the suspects was a poker player and also recognized him from a previous incident.
Police made an arrest in the case but the report didn’t identify the person.
Raymer, known as the “Fossilman” in poker circles, won the WSOP Texas Hold’Em title and $5 million in cash. He beat out a field of 2,576 in May to win the prestigious event.
On a poker message board, Raymer recently wrote: “I don’t write this to brag, I just want any robbery-minded people out there who hear about this to know that I’m a tough mark, and they won’t get that much off me even if they succeed.”
By Alan Krigman For At The Shore
Don’t you really hate it in blackjack when you get a 12 versus a dealer’s two-up? Still, it’s not the worst hand you can get.
Played “by the book,” hitting the 12, the outcome balances out to a loss of just over $0.25 per dollar bet. Lots of player-dealer combinations are far more taxing.
For instance, a 16 versus nine, 10, or ace is projected to cost above $0.50 on the dollar. And a 17, which many bettors erroneously think is a safe plateau, bears theoretical penalties for every dollar at risk exceeding $0.38 against eight, roughly $0.42 against a nine or 10, and almost $0.48 against an ace.
The fear and loathing of 12 versus two arises from Basic Strategy gently calling for players to hit, while instinct is loudly screaming to stand.
The latter, mainly because the possibility of drawing a 10 and busting immediately looms large at four chances out of 13. And, more, prospects for receiving an ace, deuce, three, or four — surviving the peril of busting yet not improving — are similarly strong at four out of 13. That leaves only five ways out of 13 to finish better than where the hand began, although by no means necessarily being a winner.
Intuition about standing is reinforced by the fact that the probability of winning this hand by doing so is actually a bit greater than by hitting. The apparent discrepancy between the likelihood of winning and the expected loss per dollar is resolved when pushes are considered. Hitting may lead to a push, while standing cannot. The accompanying table gives the figures.
The data show that solid citizens can anticipate winning 35.4 percent of their hands by standing rather than 34.8 percent by hitting. Slightly fewer wins are accounted for primarily by hands that bust when players draw 10s, offset by the impact of those that finish with higher totals than the dealer.
What’s left is the effect of the 5 percent of hands predicted to push when players hit, most of which reduces the overall chance of losing. And expectation is the net, on the average, of how much bettors win minus the amount they lose, per dollar put at risk.
Here’s another item of which players interested in the nuances of blackjack might want to be aware. A two-card non-pair 12 can be formed in four unique ways, and expectations differ among them. This results from the shoe starting with a set number of cards of each rank, and those already withdrawn therefore being unavailable for the player or the dealer during the round.
The order for hitting, from least to most desirable along with the statistical loss per dollar bet in an eight-deck game, is 7-5 ($0.253), 8-4 ($0.254), 9-3 ($0.255), and 10-2 ($0.252). Qualitatively, considering only the players’ side, sevens and fives both improve 12s, such that making these less available in the shoe can hurt; at the other extreme, 10s are poison and twos are useless with 12s, so withdrawing these from the cards remaining to be dealt is a benefit.
The order for standing, again from least to most desirable, is the opposite. It’s 10-2 ($0.295), 9-3 ($0.292), 8-4 ($0.291), and 7-5 ($0.289). In this situation, a bettor would like to deprive the dealer of the cards most apt to lead to a pat hand.
Oh yes. Maybe you noticed that none of this reasoning involves the time-honored casino credo about hitting so you don’t change the flow of the cards and ruin the table for everyone else. Since, of course, it doesn’t. Consistent with this obsessive observation of the oracular odester, Sumner A Ingmark:
Adhering to wisdom conventional,
Attainment is oft unintentional.
——————————————————————————–
(Alan Krigman is an MIT graduate and gaming aficionado. He believes that informed players can optimize their choices in the casino to improve their chances of achieving their personal goals as recreational gamblers. However, Mr Krigman and At The Shore caution that gambling is inherently risky and assume no responsibility for losses incurred by applying the information presented.)
Most of us, we go to play in casinos for fun to mingle around with the crowd and we know that the money we wager is paid to the casinos for the fun we have. Some however, believe that casinos can provide them with decent living, because they believe that they can win money in casinos permanently.
Myself, I never tried to become a professional gambler and make my living by spinning reels and counting cards at Blackjack. But, there is a fundamental thing that a gambler should know.
There are two types of games: Games of Chance and Games of Skill.
Game of chance is a game in which there is no chance to constantly win money, as the probability is always determined in favor of the casino. The classic example is a game of Roulette. You can try to bet a thousand times on red for instance, and you may think that you are guaranteed to win at least 500 times and it’s a 50/50 chance. However, Roulette also contains a “0” which decreases the chance of winning and it’s not 50/50 anymore.
In this type of games, the outcome of each event is independent. Roulette, craps, slots are all games of chance. The key factor here is that each time you spin the reel or toss the dice, it is not affected by anything that happened before and it does not have any effect on what will happen in the future.
What does this mean? Well, it means that as a player, there is not much you can do to improve the odds in your favor. The only thing you could do is make bets based on the probability of a given outcome. For example, if you play craps, you should know that probability of the player to toss a 2, 3 or 12 is almost 12%, but the probability of tossing a 7 is 17%.
The outcome in games of chance is random, and there is no pattern that predetermines anything. It’s like flipping a coin. You can flip it five times and get heads all five times, but the probability still remains 50/50. You may notice similar patterns in any other game of chance such as slots and craps, where the same numbers will come up often, but don’t be fooled. These numbers are just as random as the outcomes themselves.
The games of chances include: Roulette, Craps, Slots, Baccarat, Sec Bo, Keno, 3-card poker.
Games of skill on the other hand is where player’s knowledge and competency can influence the odds in their favor. Poker and Blackjack are the two classics that represent the games of skill. As a skillful Poker player, you know better which hand to play and which to throw away.
The games of skill include: Most of varieties of Poker, Blackjack, Sports Betting.
Usually, the more time you play and the more skill you gain, the more your win rate improves. In the next articles, I will tell more in detail on how players improve their winning rates based on several basic techniques.
What does site design and customer support have to do with whether the games are fair? I have enough history with Intercasino to know that if you play blackjack against the computer, the results are determined by the size of the bet. They love to boast about winning percentages but there is such a wild disparity between winning table minimum bets and winning bets that are larger. The higher the bet, the quicker the software will penalize the player, normally with the dealer getting a 20 or blackjack. They make no secret of the fact that your odds change based on how much you bet. They are very obvious about it.
Table games including black jack, roulette and craps all seem tilted to where there is less than a 45% chance of winning. This is for both the flash games and the downloadable. I have lost $6,000 in past six weeks betting an average of under $10 per hand..
I would estimate that for black jack casino wins a minimum of 65% of hands.
Mike
December 12, 2004. Moscow. A city court-martial confined warrant officer Yuri Fablinov, who was accused of an armed robbery and slaughter of three men in a local arcade, to 22 years of imprisonment.
A 22 year-old Fablinov was found guilty of an armed robbery, massacre of two and more persons, and illegal possession of firearms. The court stripped Fablinov off his army rank and confined him to serve time in a high-security prison ….
Here in Las Vegas we “rarely” have Casino Robberys. Internal Security is the main reason. Cages around the areas where there is money, armed security guards, cameras, etc… When a place is “able” to get robbed it is usually the fault of the casino themself. Plus, when you catch them you need to beat the blood out of them and then push them down the steps a few times, then, and only then you call the cops.
–
Don Strevel, Las Vegas, NV.
By John Currun, The Associated Press
Atlantic City surveillance used to spy on women’s anatomy
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. - Women, beware: Those �eye in the sky� surveillance cameras used by casinos don�t just look for card cheats and crooked dealers.
Sometimes, they look for low-cut blouses.
New Jersey casino regulators fined Caesars Atlantic City Hotel Casino $80,000 Wednesday for using surveillance cameras to spy on female employees and customers sitting at casino tables or riding escalators.
On three occasions in 2000 and 2001, Caesars surveillance camera operators �recorded footage of selected parts of the anatomy of several females,� in violation of statutes governing the use of clandestine surveillance by casinos, authorities said.
Tipped off by a Caesars surveillance supervisor, investigators with the state Division of Gaming Enforcement obtained videotapes from the hidden cameras.
One tape from 2000 contained 16 minutes of footage focusing on the anatomy of several females, according to Deputy Attorney General Cyrus Pitre. Another tape made the same night, from a different camera, showed 80 minutes� worth of footage focusing on women�s anatomy, he said.
2 employees fired
Casino employees Paul Reyes and Peter Pallitto were fired as a result of the incidents. They still may face sanctions from the state Casino Control Commission, which will take up complaints against them next month.
The incidents were also the focus of complaints to the state Division on Civil Rights by two women fired from Caesars� surveillance department, allegedly for complaining about the use of the cameras to ogle women in �revealing clothing.�
Caesars officials did not return a telephone call seeking comment Wednesday.
When the incidents came to light, casino officials said Caesars had �zero tolerance� for sexual harassment and that its employees were cooperating fully with the investigation.
Iain Thomson, vnunet.com
Three Ritz Casino gamblers have been cleared of cheating by UK police and allowed to keep �1.3m they won using a modified mobile phone to predict roulette results.
The trio used a concealed laser scanner linked to a computer. The laser measured the speed of the ball and its arc of descent, and the computer identified a limited number of slots into which the ball could fall. The PC then sent the information back to the phone.
One Hungarian woman and two Serb men won �100,000 on the first night they used the device. The next night they returned and won �1.2m.
Casino staff called the police after examining CCTV tapes of the three in action. Police arrested them at a nearby hotel and seized money and phone equipment, which has not been returned.
It is believed that the police decided not to prosecute because the nature of the scanner was such that it did not interfere with the ball or the wheel. However, all three are likely to find themselves banned from other casinos.
A spokesman for the British Casino Association explained to vnunet.com that the gaming industry is seeking to add provisions to the gambling bill currently going through parliament that will address such issues.
Source: http://www.pcw.co.uk/news/1159911
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By TOM WILEMON, THE SUN HERALD
A purchasing agent for President Casinos Inc. received $251,000 in kickbacks as part of a bid-rigging scheme, according to a federal indictment.
Elizabeth Richard was charged with fraud and mail fraud last week by a federal grand jury in St. Louis, where the casino company is headquartered. A co-defendant, Aristotle J. Kumpis, allegedly paid her the kickbacks so his printing company could do business with President Casinos at inflated prices.
Richard also aided Kumpis by altering bids from other print companies to mark up their prices and then submitting fake invoices for his company, according to the indictment.
The fraud allegedly occurred from Jan. 1, 2000, until Oct. 15, 2003. During the three-year period, the President Casino paid about $840,000 to two printing companies that Kumpis either worked for or owned. He was the sole owner and operator of St. Louis-based AJK Images, the company that received most of the money.
President Casinos Inc., the parent company of President Casino Biloxi, filed for bankruptcy in June 2002.
Source: http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/business/10192000.htm
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So, I am sitting there and the online casino I was playing at,offered 1-900 Pay. I thought (Since my wallet was empty) that there’s no harm in trying!
So, in less then 10 minutes, I was set. In the next week, I racked up $500 in charges! Ouch!
OK, you did it, you gotta pay it. So I get my phone bill. I paid my basic bill, but due to car repair, could pay anything more.
Next month, pets needed surgery.
Finally third month comes and I have $300 extra for payment. I get the bill, open it and see:
Credit $500
Basic $25.97
Huh?
So I call my service. They said:
“We are NOT the colleciton agency” for this service. They have been told we will NOT collect debts for them. While this does NOT stop them from collecting through other means, we will NOT be their collection agency”
Now you may think “Oh, they’ll come after you dude”
This bill was incurred in January 2004!!!
It’s been 10 months!!
GET THE PICTURE???
HAVE FUN, USE THEM OFTEN, PAY NOTHING (UNLESS YOU WIN OR ARE A REAL SUCKER!!)
HAVE A NICE DAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
By Clare Babbidge , BBC News
Laser technology apparently used by a gambling trio to pocket more than �1m at London’s Ritz Casino is the latest of many examples of punters trying to turn the tables on casinos with elaborate scams.
“You got to know when to hold ‘em, know when to fold ‘em”, advises Kenny Roger’s The Gambler - but rather than “know when to walk away”, many people over the years have tried to beat the odds stacked against them with an ace up their sleeve.
In response, casinos have had to increase security and stay one step ahead of the game.
Films such as Ocean’s 11 with its multi-million dollar heist on a Las Vegas safe portray defrauding wealthy, and impenetrable casinos as the perfect crime.
The public imagination was also caught by Dustin Hoffman’s autistic character Raymond in Rain Man who was able to “count cards”.
‘Irritate other players’
Card counting - the practice by which skilful blackjack players keep track of which cards have been played in order to calculate which are left - is not illegal.
But if a casino suspects a player of counting they may ask them to leave the table or indeed the casino.
In October BBC’s Horizon told how a team of US science students from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) scooped millions of dollars at Las Vegas casinos by using the technique in the mid-1990s.
Gambler Anthony Curtis told the programme: “The buzz for me was the potential, it was unlimited, and I could make money without punching a clock.
“I could have a tonne of fun, certainly women were going to love me and it was great.”
Roy Ramm, compliance and security director for casino group London Clubs International (LCI) said card counters were “usually obvious”.
“They usually occupy a certain part of the table, and may stare intently at the cards, ” he said. “They tend to irritate the other players”.
Mr Ramm, a former police commander at Scotland Yard, said card counters may do so mentally or some “carry a device in their boots”.
In either case, he said LCI casinos will “not play to them” as it is considered unfair to other players and likely to cause problems.
In the recent London case, a group of gamblers allegedly used a laser scanner linked to a computer to gauge numbers likely to come up on the roulette wheel.
Mr Ramm said laws on the use of technology in casinos were something of a “grey area”.
The Theft Act from the 1960s makes it an offence to go “equipped to cheat”.
“But I think police are struggling to apply it to casino games”, he said.
Sophisticated scam
He said casinos were hoping the Gambling Bill, which is currently going through Parliament, would give them greater protection.
“If somebody is using some sort of computer technology, you take away that element of chance, which is what gambling is about, and casinos will go bust, ” he said.
He said the odds needed to be stacked “slightly in the house’s favour” for it to keep running as a business.
But there are times when the law is clearly broken by casino chancers.
Last year a croupier in Melbourne, Australia, was jailed for her part in a sophisticated scam that defrauded a casino of �1.8m Australian dollars (�719,000).
The baccarat dealer had met a man, against whom she did not testify, who allegedly showed her how to shuffle cards in such a way that the face could be seen.
A high roller won $1.4m Aus (�559,000) at her table, and the balance of the casino’s loss was made up of people who copied his bids.
In another continent four years earlier a sting which was estimated could have cost the South African gaming industry $10m a year was uncovered by an eagle-eyed casino.
Behaving strangely
Officials at Caesar’s Casino in Johannesburg first suspected something when blackjack takings dropped by 11% within three weeks.
Security men began scrutinising players and surveillance and found at least five gamblers behaving strangely - either darting their eyes over the card decks or making bets of widely different amounts.
Investigations found the patterns on the backs of the 10, jack, queen and king were almost imperceptibly different. The casino said it had received 4,000 marked packs - although it was never clear who was behind the scam.
Many methods have been used by casinos to stay ahead of those hoping to beat the establishment.
Las Vegas has its ‘Black Book’ of people who face a criminal charge if they enter a gaming establishment.
In the UK, casinos are helped by sharing information and have requirements for identification and information.
Roy Ramm said high-tech cameras and “very astute” supervisors watching punters’ games and body language were important ways of stopping fraud.
“You have to be on your guard, ” he said. “A lot of people think the casino is fair game.
“”But I would say 99% of players are honest”.
He added that security officers still occasionally saw basic cheating, such as people trying to distract the dealer to put on a late bet.
“The mere fact that people still do this is an indication sophisticated methods aren’t really used”, he said.
Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/4071289.stm
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By Dominique Loh, Channel NewsAsia
SINGAPORE : A group of Singaporeans who are against the idea of building a casino here have taken their petition into cyberspace.
Calling themselves Families Against the Casino Threat in Singapore or FACTS, their petition is gathering momentum.
Businessmen Arthur Tan and Fong Hoe Fang are on a mission - to make sure a casino is not built in Singapore.
“The issue is the environment that we are bringing our children up in. By having a casino right in our backyard, we are sending a signal that gambling is okay as long as you can control it. That’s not an argument that I buy,” said Fong Hoe Fang, founder of FACTS.
The petition is addressed to Singapore’s President Mr S R Nathan.
Since the petition went online last Saturday, more than a thousand Singaporeans have signed it.
That averages to about more than 300 signatures a day.
On Tuesday morning alone, it’s estimated that one signature was received every minute.
Singaporeans who have signed it questioned the need for a casino.
They’ve asked if it is a last resort because Singapore is out of ideas to bring in more tourist dollars.
Others say gambling is not a moral value that should be encouraged.
The founders themselves also believe that most Singaporeans aren’t prepared to handle the dangers of gambling.
“If we’re matured enough, then I think what we should do is to allow us to handle our own CPF. But many of us cannot handle our own CPF well. In the same vein, we are not able to handle the addictiveness of gambling,” said Arthur Tan, also a founder of FACTS.
The men behind FACTS are also preparing their online petition to accept signatures through SMS.
They’ve not set a deadline when the petition will end, but it’s a safe bet it’ll be gathering signatures for at least a few months. - CNA
http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/singaporelocalnews/view/122244/1/.html
ATLANTIC CITY, New Jersey � As reported by the Press of Atlantic City: “The splashy grand opening of a $280 million Las Vegas-style entertainment complex and the Thanksgiving Day holiday weekend weren’t enough to overcome what was generally a dreary month for the casino industry. ”
“Gambling revenue at Atlantic City’s 12 gaming halls dipped 1.1 percent to $375 million in November, according to figures released Friday by the state Casino Control Commission. ”
“Results were hurt by the vagaries of the calendar - there were two fewer weekend days than in November 2003 - and the lingering effects of a monthlong strike by 10,000 casino workers that ended Nov. 1. ”
“Noting the double-barrel impact of the strike and the soft calendar, one gaming analyst said he expected the month to be flat. ”
“�Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa, Resorts Atlantic City and Tropicana Casino and Resort were the lone standouts, each racking up double-digit increases in revenue for the month. Trump Taj Mahal Casino Resort eked out a fractional gain, but the rest of the properties were losers. ”
“�Taj Mahal was the only Trump property that was up in November, though just barely. The Taj’s revenue rose 0.1 percent to $41.3 million. Trump Marina Hotel Casino and Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino both were hurt by big declines in table-game revenue�”
Casino City Times (www.casinocitytimes.com)
How long will Americans keep on loosing huge money that ends up in places like Antigua and Barbuda?
The industry’s Canadian-based Interactive Gaming Council estimates that thousands of cyber casinos last year raked in around $7.5 billion - half of it, at least, from Americans.
At last count, 77 nations were doing just that, and a lot of those legal Web sites are state-owned operations. Not all of those nations are Caribbean sand specks either. The list includes many of the world’s modern democracies, including Canada, Australia, the U.K. and most of the rest of the European Union. Even China and Russia are at the brink.
The United States cannot much longer stand alone against such a global tidal wave.
That, in effect, was what the World Trade Organization told the United States the other day when it ruled in favor of tiny Antigua and Barbuda in an Internet gambling restraint-of-trade case against the United States.
From Kansas City Star
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