In the world of gambling MIT is surely best known for the antics of a professor and his students, who found a way (card counting in casinos) to eliminate the house edge in blackjack. This of course led to the best blackjack casino performance seen in years. They raked in millions, but as it turns out this isn’t only time that students at the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology have used their IQ to their financial advantage.
Several years ago a group of industrious MIT students decided to analyse the local lottery game, ‘Massachusetts’ Cash WinFall’ because of how the jackpot was broken down when there wasn’t a main prize winner. The brainboxes discovered that if they bought $100,000 of Cash WinFall tickets on those days it would virtually guarantee success. In fact, buying $600,000 worth of tickets raked in a 15%–20% return.
So successful were the group in implementing this system, that many of them quit their day jobs and they brought in investors to maximise their profits. Others eventually got wind of how to exploit this loophole, but all in all the group benefited to the tune of over $8 million. Over time they fine tuned their approach yet further to further enhance their gains.
It was later revealed that the Massachusetts Lottery actually knew that the students were engaged in this scheme, but as it didn’t impact them directly they did nothing about it for years. In fact the inspector general’s report stated that officials intentionally allowed the group to buy hundreds of thousands of lottery tickets, as it increased revenues and made the lottery more successful. The game was eventually stopped, but no action was taken against anyone. It was fun while it lasted I’m sure!
You just can’t go wrong on this thing!
Most newbie players have one huge issue once coming for the first time into a casino. Choosing which game to play might be an issue, and going with what your friends tell you is rarely a good choice. You will need to choose and adapt the casino game you’re playing to your character.
There are, in general, three things to look for:
1. Level of Control
2. Competitiveness
3. Budget
Each casino game will have some mixture of these three and offer different excitements to different people. Some really like competing with other players for the winning pool, while others prefer going solo and relaxing while the machine does its thing.
Even when the games are pushed away from brick and mortar buildings and to a digital setting of an online casino, the deal is still the same. You will simply have more fun with one set of rules and goals over the other.
It should be Fun, not Stressful
With much of modern existence, we have forgotten that some things don’t need to be stressful. If you resent sitting at the poker table, just leave and find something else that will be fun. Unless you are the croupier, it is not your job to sit there.
Also, some people focus too much on how playing something will appear to others over how it makes them feel. This is the same trap as leasing a car you can’t afford, much more trouble than it is worth.
Thankfully, with the push towards online games, this type of peer pressure is dialing down. Still, you need to be mindful that it is your game and that you always deserve to have fun.
#1 Poker
Short for trivia competitions that some casinos like to host, poker is the least luck-based game you can play. Even with the random number generator (RNG) component, that is the cards, the win is most often with the experience.
The cards you are using are just a tool and even a dud of a hand can win if you make your opponents think it will. Similarly, a royal flush can sometimes only bring you the small buy-in pool and nothing else.
If you like to have control and are competitive by nature, poker is the game for you. The budget might be an issue, because good players look for high stakes, but there are penny-chip games where you can slowly develop your skills.
#2 Blackjack
Although tales about card counting are fairly common in the gambling community, and each is more fantastical than the last, they are but stories. Even real card-counting is still very reliant on chances and will only give you a bit of an edge.
That being said, there is a significant skill component when it comes to blackjack. You need to have a general idea when to hold, when to hit, and when to split, which is not something a new player will be familiar with right from the get-go.
Also, there is no competitiveness. There is no point in raising your blood-pressure when playing against the house, as you know that they always have the upper hand, otherwise you won’t be allowed to play.
Still, for those who want to have some control but prefer staying cool and employing their mind, blackjack is the place to be. It is not too intense, but can still get you riled up at times.
#3 Slots
While online slots are for the most part pure RNG, they employ a lot more strategy than they do tactics. There is also zero competitiveness, especially when it comes to online casino games.
The biggest advantage of online slots is the lightness on the budget. For the same price as ten blackjack hands, you can play online slots for hours, even if you have the utmost worst of luck.
And if you are just a bit luckier than the average you will leave with more money than you came in with. That has everything to do with slots high RTP, or ‘Return to Player’. Going through the best payout online slots, you’ll see that for some this number is as high as 99%.
If you are not competitive and want to have fun on a budget, slots are definitely for you. And unlike regular games, there are a lot of variations online, all with their own way to spice things up a bit.
#4 Roulette
Roulette is, in many ways, the opposite of poker. While it seems that there is a skill-based component in the game, there really isn’t. There is no way to know where the ball will land and you will always have the same chances for the same bet.
But, for those who really want to test their luck and are willing to splurge on predicting where the little ball will stop, roulette is the best game ever.
Also, even though you are playing only against the house, the number of players at the table will give an illusion of competitiveness, because someone will always be right and others will be wrong. And there are those who thrive on that fact.
#5 Wheel of Fortune
Depending on the casino or online operator, the wheel of fortune might just be a simplified version of online slots. There is no component of strategy or much skill to speak off. Someone with a very confident hand might try to gauge the turn, but that is unspeakably hard.
If you are just there for luck and don’t care to think about it a lot, this is the game for you. And it is generally not expensive to play, costing similar to slots.
Your chances of winning big are slimmer, but there is always that glimmer of hope that the big prize will be there with your next try
Born in Reading, Berkshire in 1967, Neil ‘Bad Beat’ Channing is best known as a professional poker player. Indeed, his total live earnings of $3,458,652 rank 27th on the England All Time Money List, according to the Hendon Mob Poker Database. Channing collected his best live cash so far, $1,263,261, or €801,400, when winning the Irish Open Main Event at the Citywest Hotel, Dublin in March, 2008 and was unveiled as a Sky Poker Ambassador in November, 2014.
Despite his prowess on the felt, Channing describes himself as a ‘professional gambler‘. He started playing poker, recreationally, as a youngster and, in his early twenties, graduated to playing tournament poker, albeit sporadically, at the Grosvenor Victoria Casino, London. Although, by his own admission, he was not the most attentive student, Channing graduated from the City of London Polytechnic with a degree in economics, by which point his focus had reverted to his first love, horse racing. He spent several years on the racecourse, making a decent living from placing and taking bets but, in his late twenties, his fortunes took a turn for the worse and he was forced to seek alternative employment.
Channing subsequently joined City Index, where he demonstrated a natural aptitude for spread betting, as an odds compiler and as a punter. Indeed, when he was made redundant, he opened an account with his former employer and won £140,000 in a nine-month period. Inevitably, his account was closed and he was also banned by Grosvenor Casinos for winning ‘a bit too much money’. Nevertheless, he continued to play tournament poker, with no little success, at Russell Square Casino, London – in the days before it was acquired by Grosvenor Casinos – but resisted the temptation to turn professional because of his involvement in other gambling ventures.
Channing formed a lucrative horse racing syndicate, such that, by the age of 33, he never had ‘less than a few hundred grand’ in his current account. In 1998, the deregulation of bookmakers’ pitches presented a new opportunity and he invested heavily in pitches at racecourses nationwide. However, the abolition of off-course betting tax, in 2001, coupled with the rise of online betting, sounded the death knell for that venture and Channing turned, once again, to poker, but this time as a full-time career. He was re-admitted to the Grosvenor Victoria Casino, albeit as a guest, where he played high stakes Omaha with money he ‘couldn’t afford to lose’.
Through thick and thin, Channing continued to visit Las Vegas for the World Series of Poker (WSOP), whether or not he could sensibly afford to do so. He collected his first live WSOP cash, $8,895, for finishing seventeenth in a Texas Hold’em event at Binion’s, Las Vegas in May, 2001, in the days when the fields were smaller ‘but everybody was a good player.’ Channing has yet to win a WSOP bracelet, but went agonisingly close to doing so when beaten in heads-up play by American Henry Lu, in a field of 2,770, in a No Limit Hold’em event at the Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino in June, 2012.
