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Do The Casinos Cheat At Video Games Part8
So I had to do my homework. My fellow gaming writers have assumed that because New Jersey is a regulated state, its regulations are the same as Nevada concerning video-poker machines. Had anyone really bothered to talk to the members of the New Jersey Casino Control Commission or ask to see a copy of the regulations? If the anonymous letter writer in Blackjack Forum was right—New Jersey did not have the same rules governing video-poker machines as did Nevada.
I called the New Jersey Casino Control Commission to see if I could ease my fears or fuel my fire. After all, the control commissions of the various gaming jurisdictions set the rules that the casinos must abide by. Supposedly these commission exist to protect us—the players. I spoke with Tony DiFlorio who told me that while the video-poker machines must conform to the same payback percentage range as any other slot machine, that is 83% to 99% return, "they are considered slot machines" and that there are no separate requirements for them as in Nevada. When I asked him if they must be based on a totally random shuffling of the cards, and that each hand must theoretically appear with it expected frequency, he stated that there were only two criteria for the machine. The first— that it fall within the payback scheme (83% to 99%) and the second, that "every sequence be in the programming."
"But that means," I said, " that if a natural royal flush is a 40,000 to one shot, the machine could be programmed to pay it once in every 300,000 hands or more?"
"Yes," he said. "The machine has to have the royal flush sequence in the programming just as a slot machine would have to have for example the triple 7's but the frequency is up to the programming."
Two days later I received a set of the regulations from John M. Kovac, Administrative Practice Officer for the New Jersey Casino Control Commission concerning slot machines in New Jersey. No distinctions were made between video-poker and other slots. The information that Mr. DiFlorio had given me checked out. Indeed, the letter writer to Blackjack Forum had been correct. Video-poker machines in Atlantic City are slot machines and the probabilities are not necessarily the same as they would be for similar machines in Nevada. Remember, Nevada is based strictly on the random shuffling of 52 (or 53) cards.
The hands will appear in the long run within their expected frequency range. This does not have to be so for New Jersey Casinos. The game will be random, yes, but random the way a slot machine is random—that is, based on a program that dictates the probabilties and not based on the probabilities in a 52 (or 53) card deck.
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Do The Casinos Cheat At Video Games Part7
The letter writer continues: "A slot mechanic employee told us he sets the payouts on these video-BJ machines the same as any other slot machine…he assured us that the payouts were different for each machine…If it is a so-called 'slot device' with a set payout, this game borders on being illegal, or at least a misrepresentation."
This is disturbing news because, if true, it would mean that the payout schedule on these machines had nothing to do with the actual payback percentages. If several video-blackjack machines of the exact same type are paying different amounts—then the game is misleading—and, sadly, my fellow video-poker, video-blackjack writers have unknowingly misled themselves and others as to the nature of the games being offered in New Jersey (and other states) because no one has bothered to research the regulated states' actual rules governing video-poker, video-blackjack, video-anything machines.
Finally, to fuel my frustration and mounting ire, the September 1993 issue of Blackjack Forum, once again has Allan Pell writing on these slot machines in video-machine clothing. In an article entitled "Rip-Off Robo-Dealers II," Pell goes after the Japanese video-game manufacturers for employing "an electronic variable hold—which in essence are dip switches (toggles) that vary the programming" on their machines. "All sorts of little tricks can be programmed in without your knowledge, like never dealing you an ace when your first card is a ten, etc. Programming tricks can overcome any set of rules with a seemingly positive expectation."
Pell also states that not only is the Japanese company SEGA selling these machines in the Pacific rim casinos but that cruise ships are loaded with them. In addition Pell states that "manufacturers like Sigma, Irem, International Games Technology, and Bally's operate and sell devices outside the regulated jurisdictions," the implication is that even machines that appear to be standard Las Vegas-type machines may actually use variable programming. Pell concludes his piece: "Expect to see new forms of electronic gambling introduced, but be wary. The game may look the same as a unit on the floor in Vegas, but it only takes a different chip inside it to turn it into a bankroll vampire."
So my quandary continues and I must return to the initial question of this chapter: Do Casinos Cheat at Video Poker and Other Video Games? Fact: the variable programming machines are out there, according to Pell and Friedman, on cruise ships and in non-regulated jurisdictions and in foreign casinos. Fact: we know, based on Dr. James Schneider's remarks, how easy it would be to fix machines so that they wouldn't really be random-shuffle machines. Fact: casinos exist for one reason and one reason only—to take your money (albeit in as pleasant a way as possible). Fact: both AP and I, and others, most notably Dan Paymar, have noticed some strange "patterns" on some draw poker machines—in a regulated state. Fact: the anonymous New Jersey letter writer apparently discovered this type of slot-machine-in-video-machine-clothing in Atlantic City casinos—another supposedly regulated venue.
So what do all these facts add up to? A big CAUTION. As Dr. Schneider said, it's hard to believe the casinos would risk the bad publicity inherent in the public finding out that they are less than honorable in executing their games. Still, some casinos do bar card counters at blackjack, or harass people who play the Captain's Supersystem in craps, both certainly less-than-honorable practices. Maybe only certain types of bad publicity would bother them, then?
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