By: Victor “Vegas Vic” Royer
Blackjack is a money-making machine. But for whom? You, or the casino? Well, the casino, of course. That’s easy to figure out – if the casino offers a game, any game, then it does so only because the owners are absolutely certain, beyond any doubt, that the game will make steady and continuing profits day in and day out, no matter what happens.
There are two reasons for this:
First, each game offered in any casino is always configured in a way in which the mathematical edge is in favor of the house. That doesn’t mean the games are crooked – no, they are not! It simply means that the games are configured in a way in which the casino will win the majority of the time.
Games in the casinos are there 24/7/365, and they work tirelessly and all the time, grinding out the small percentages for the house. Human’s don’t play like that. Can’t. We need to sleep, eat, do something else, work, spend time with the folks, and so on. But the games don’t. They just exist, and when a human sits down, the games just picks up from where it left off the last time, and the math of the house edge goes back to grinding out the percentages.
Second, because even though games like Blackjack can be played profitably, people just don’t play that well. Either because they don’t know, but mostly because they don’t care. Casino visitors come to the casino to play, to have a great time, and this means that the money they spend if free and clear, and so they happily play, making silly mistakes, and all but give away their money to the casino. Nothing wrong with that. It’s fun, it’s entertainment, and that’s why most people go to casinos, and have such trips and vacations.
But wouldn’t you like to know at least something? Last longer with your money?
To help you do just that, here are some facts:
Using Basic Strategy, a normal player who knows this method and plays accordingly will reduce the house edge to just about 0.45% . Let’s round this out, and make it 0.5%. Half a percent. Does everyone do this? Heck no!
Casino facts are that Blackjack games in Las Vegas hold – overall – about 12%, all the way to a staggering 20%, and sometimes even more, for the house!
Why?
Because people just play badly! Very badly.
But wait – there’s more!
As the casino corporations struggle with profitability, and since almost all of them are controlled by Wall Street bankers, hedge funds, and other institutional investors, they are focused only on the bottom line, and not on the customers. That’s very sad, and very bad business. But most of the bankers who own the casino corporations are just that, bankers, CPA’s, MBA’s, Lawyers, and so on – and none of them are gamblers. So, they don’t understand the business, and are therefore forcing other business models on the casino industry. This has the effect of strangling the business altogether.
Here are more facts from Blackjack, derived exactly from that kind of mentality:
To squeeze as much money out of Blackjack as possible, many casinos – but not all, fortunately – have been adding really horrible trick to this great game. One is the use of shuffling machines, especially the continuous shufflers, and the other is altering the rules, such as paying only 6:5 on a natural 21, instead of the standard 3:2.
What does this mean to you? Why is this so very bad!
That’s the subject of Part Two of this series, Secrets of Blackjack.
Look for it on these pages, at www.MoreCasinoDeals.com
