The definition of problem gambling is when people keep gambling even though it’s no longer fun.
And most people aren’t problem gamblers.
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It doesn’t take long to figure out then that the reason most people like to gamble in casinos is because it’s so much fun.
Winning is more fun than losing for the average gambler, and most games offer multiple opportunities to win per hour –even though the math is set up to make sure that you’re going to be a loser in the long run.
The purpose of this post is to examine this phenomenon – why casino gambling is so much fun.
The Possibility of Winning a Life-Changing Amount of Money
Most casino gamblers these days put most of their time gambling in at the slot machines. I’ve often wondered why slot machine games seem to be so much fun. I like to play games that stimulate me intellectually or that provide me with some sense of agency, and slots just don’t cut the mustard.
I’ve finally conclude that the possibility of winning a sum of money large enough to change your life is the reason most people have so much fun playing slot machines.
After all, even small slot machine jackpots, like the flat top games which average payouts of 1000 for 1, offer enough money to change your life temporarily.
If you’re an average American, winning $1000 will enable you to buy something you wouldn’t otherwise be able to afford. It might be a meal for your family at an expensive restaurant. It might be a new suit of clothes.
But it’s a considerable amount of money.
Progressive jackpots allow you to win even bigger amounts which can change your life in bigger ways for longer. I know people who have won the lottery, and their lives were changed forever when they got that money – at least they thought it was.
I remember talking with a friend of mine once, years ago, about how silly I thought it was to buy a lottery ticket. He explained to me that it was worth a dollar to him to just daydream about what he’d do with all that money if he won.
The Thrill of Beating the Odds
Most people understand, at least in a general way, that the casino has the edge on all casino games. They might not be able to express what that means mathematically, but they know they come home a loser more often than they come home a winner.
But the thrill of beating the odds – of winning when the odds are against you – is a hard head-rush to turn down.
And you can’t win in a casino if you don’t play.
Some Games DO Reward Skilled Play
The 2 games I think of when I think of casino games with a skill element are blackjack and video poker. The first is better for extroverts, but the second is better for introverts.
I should point out, though, that even the most skilled players face a game where the math is solidly tilted in favor of the casino.
One of my favorite scenes in a movie is the scene in Vegas Vacation where Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) is explaining to someone that a smart blackjack player can get an edge over the casino. The implication is that just by making the right decision on every hand, a blackjack player can get an edge over the house.
There’s a kernel of truth there. You do only have one “best” decision in every situation, and making that best decision will help you minimize the casino house edge.
But the house will still have an edge unless you’re doing something a little extra, like counting cards or spotting dealer tells.
You can maximize the payback percentage for most video poker games by holding and discarding the right combinations of cards, but that still doesn’t turn a negative expectation game into a positive expectation.
There are some rare exceptions in video poker, but those games are for such low stakes that your hourly expected win wouldn’t even amount to minimum wage.
Still, if you get a chance to feel smarter than the casino, you’ll enjoy that.
Betting Systems Are Fun, Too
Betting systems don’t work. I’ve written about that repeatedly.
But that’s not entirely true.
Casino betting systems DO work – some of the time. After all, casino games are random, and you will win some of the time.
Betting systems are fun, but they don’t do anything to help you overcome the house edge. In the long run, the casino will always win.
My favorite betting system is the most popular betting system in the world – the Martingale System. Here’s how I do it:
I’ll visit the casino and go to the roulette table and pick a color. I’ll bet $5 on it. (Usually the betting limits at the table are $5 minimum and $500 maximum.)
If I lose, I double my bet, betting $10 on the same color. If I lose again, I double it again, betting $20.
I continue doubling my bets until I win.
I only stay at the table for an hour, too.
Most of the time, I win a small amount of money in that hour. Every once in a while, I have a big losing session that makes up for all those small winning sessions and then some.
That’s the nature of the betting system.
It’s still fun, though.
You Have Other Ways of Parlaying Your Bets Into a Life Changing Jackpot, Too
Let’s use roulette as our example again. If you want better odds of getting a big jackpot than you’ll see on the slot machines, try this:
Set a goal of winning a specific amount of money – maybe $5000.
Start by betting $5 on a single number. If you win that bet, you’ll get 35 to 1 on your money. That’s $175 in winnings.
If and when you win with that bet, let the $175 ride on the single number.
35 to 1 on a $175 bet results in winnings of $6125.
You probably think that’s such a longshot that it will never happen, but it’s actually a proposition with much better odds than trying to win that kind of money in the lottery or on a slot machine.
Casinos Have other Perks, Too
One of the things people enjoy about going to casinos is the variety of entertainment and dining that becomes available to them there. Most casinos in Las Vegas have world-class entertainment every night of the week.
They also have some of the best restaurants with menus from the best chefs in the world, too.
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And while you’re having fun gambling, you’re also earning points and credits toward getting access to these perks for free.
They’re not really free, because you have to gamble to get these perks. Since the casino counts on getting a lot of action and keeping a percentage of it, they don’t care how much you win or lose in a single visit.
They just want to get more action going. In the long run, with millions of customers, they can afford to pay out plenty of winners and still make a healthy profit.
The trick is to keep people coming in the doors and placing bets. The rewards program is the way they do that.
The math behind it is usually pretty simple, too, although they convert it into a points system. They basically track the amount of action you’re bringing them per hour and convert that into comp dollars at a rate of about 0.2% of your total action.
Play roulette for an hour at $5 per bet, and you’re probably putting $300 per hour into action. You’re earning 60 cents per hour in free meals.
That doesn’t sound like much, but compare that with what you get when playing slots. Most people spin the reels 600 times an hour. They’re putting closer to $1000 per hour into action.
The slots players are the ones who earn the most comps – at least, unless you’re talking about a high roller who’s wagering thousands of dollars on each hand of blackjack.
Conclusion
Casinos and casino games are fun by design. And the casino does its best to make sure that every aspect of your casino experience is fun, too.
Why is casino gambling so much fun?
Because we’re hard-wired to try to risk something and win something. Casino games play on our underlying psychological nature to ensure that we keep coming back and placing more casino bets.
Please enable JavaScript to view the comments powered by Disqus.In the United States, slot machines and other gambling machines dominate the casino’s gaming space. When I started writing about the casino gambling industry, the prevailing wisdom was that 65% to 70% of a casino’s revenue came from slot machines.
That number is now nearing 80%, so slot machine play is clearly on the rise.
The casinos know how profitable slot machines are per square foot, and if you pay attention to their advertising materials, you’ll notice how much of their advertising focuses on gambling machines.
Table games, on the other hand, are shrinking as a percentage of casino market share. Less floor space is dedicated to table games like blackjack, craps, and roulette than ever before.
Some of this is because slot machines afford the casino the opportunity to offer higher jackpots than would ever be possible at a table game. Of course, the odds of winning one of those huge jackpots can be infinitesimal, along the same lines as winning the lottery in some cases.
I think this is a trend that would be good to change, but I’d need an army of committed table game players to join me in making this a reality. Are you up for this mission?
Skill vs. Chance in Table Games and Gambling Machines
For the most part, skill doesn’t play a big role in table games OR gambling machines. You’ll find exceptions in both kinds of gambling, though.
When you talk about gambling machines, the two biggest categories of games are:
- Slots
- Video poker
Video poker, on the other hand, requires distinct amounts of skill. The house still has an edge in most video poker games, but if you play skillfully enough, you can shave that edge to practically nothing.
You still have to choose the right video poker games with the right pay tables, though.
When you’re talking about table games, you have quite a few more categories:
- Baccarat
- Blackjack
- Craps
- Poker-based games
- Roulette
Of those, blackjack and poker-based games are the only ones that have a skill element. Baccarat, craps, and roulette are entirely games of chance.
The poker-based games are the newest table games in most casinos, and sometimes, they include a skill element. Other times, they don’t.
You can’t get an edge at these kinds of games most of the time, but you can have some fun playing them. Examples of these games include Caribbean Stud, Three-Card Poker, and Ultimate Texas Hold’em.
How the House Measures Its Mathematical Advantage
With table games, the house measures its edge mathematically using a metric called “the house edge.” That’s the statistically predicted amount of each bet that the average player will lose on average over a long period of time.
For example, when I say that roulette has a house edge of 5.26%, it means that the casino will win an average of $5.26 every time I bet $100 on the game.
That’s just a long-term statistical average, though. When I bet $100 at the roulette table, I either lose $100 or win some multiple of $100.
With gambling machines, the casino measures its edge mathematically using a metric called “payback percentage.” You’ll also see this called the “return to player” or the “expected return.” This is the statistically predicted amount of each bet that the game will pay back to the player in winnings on average in the long run.
It doesn’t take the brightest bulb in the batch to figure out that the return to player and the house edge are flip sides of the same coin, so why do they use a different metric for the games?
The main reason lies within how the payouts are structured.
In a table game, most bets are paid off at X to Y odds. For example, in blackjack, if you bet $100 and win, you win $100 to the $100 you risked. You show a $100 profit because you only lose your $100 bet if you lose the hand.
But in a gambling machine, like a video poker game or a slot machine, the winnings are paid off at X for Y odds.
The same even money payout on a gambling machine results in no profit or loss for the player. The casino takes your wager when you bet, and anything you get back is on top of the amount already deducted from your balance.
So, if you bet $100 on a hand of video poker, you’d show no profit at all on a payout of $100. You already lost the $100 when you placed the bet.
Why This Makes a Difference
One of the things to keep in mind when playing any casino game is how much you’re mathematically expected to lose during an hour of play. That number is easily calculated by multiplying the size of your bets by the number of bets you’re making per hour and multiplying that by the house edge.
Slot machine and video poker players tend to make 600 bets per hour. Just for the sake of example, I’m going to assume you’re betting $5 per round, or $3000 per hour.
An average slot machine game probably has a house edge of 8%, which means your expected loss on that game is $240/hour.
An average video poker machine might have a house edge of 4%, which makes your expected loss $120/hour. (You can also find video poker machines with a really low house edge if you play well. You just need to be able to recognize the pay tables for the best games.)
Now, let’s compare those average loss numbers with what you might lose at a table game. Blackjack is a good example. At a fast table with only a single dealer, you might see 250 hands per hour. If you’re betting $5 per hand, that’s $1250/hour you’re putting into action.
Let’s assume you’re lousy at basic strategy, so the casino has a mathematical edge of 2.5% against you. This means your expected hourly loss at the blackjack table for a lousy player is only $31.25. If you take the time to learn the correct basic strategy, that number drops to about $6 per hour.
The main reason you see such a huge difference in earnings when you contrast gambling machines with table games is the speed at which you play.
No table game that I know of can get you more than 200 bets per hour in action. In fact, most games offer you far fewer bets per hour than that.
You could easily double the amount of money you’re betting per round and still lose less money on average per hour than you will at the gambling machines.
Conclusion
Slot machines are more entertaining and complicated than ever before. They’re so much fun that they’ve widely been described as addictive, including by people who are addiction experts.
Why Gambling Is Bad
And there’s nothing wrong with having some fun playing the slots either. You just need to temper your tendency to get addicted to gambling machines. I think the best way to do that, while staying in action, is to play some of the table games in the casino.
Playing table games alone, though, isn’t enough to minimize your losses. Even though the house has only a tiny 0.5% edge on most blackjack games, they actually win closer to 2.5% to 4.5% of each bet on average. That’s because many players are unsophisticated and don’t use appropriate strategy when playing.
In fact, the harder a game is to play well, the lower the house edge is when you DO play well. For this reason alone, it might make sense to stick with games you have to learn how to play.
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Also, have some fun getting to know some other gamblers at the casino tables. Most of them are as social and friendly as they can be.