|
|
Reason #1 why the Wizard likes Bovada:
Excellent customer support
The thing that separates Bovada from the rest is its customer support. Many other online gaming companies outsource their support. It can be difficult getting a response from them, and if you do it is often slow and handled by somebody with little understanding of gambling or even of English. But Bovada’s support is handled by Bovada, and their support staff is actually knowledgeable and helpful.
I’m so confident that you’ll have a good experience with Bovada that if you have a problem getting paid and you can’t resolve it with them on your own, I’ll talk to them myself. I personally have known the Bovada management for about three years and always found them to be professional, friendly, and knowledgeable. I have also personally visited one of their call centers so I could see first-hand how they handle customer issues. (More on my mediation service.)
If you have a problem with any other casino besides Bovada, I can’t help you. I get complaints from players of other online casinos every day who have difficulty getting paid. However that isn’t my job nor my problem. If you play at Bovada after clicking through my site I’ll stand behind you 100%. Any place else and you’re on your own.
Visit Bovada 
|
Wizard of Odds Newsletter | March 30, 2006
Last Update: now()
|
Intelligent Bonuses
Many online casinos offer huge signup bonuses, but there's a catch. Buried in the fine print is that play on the most popular games doesn't count towards earning the bonus. It's common for blackjack, roulette, baccarat, craps, and Jacks or Better to be excluded. Sometimes everything except slots.
And that's if you can even find the terms and conditions. Many casinos put their 100% bonus in big flaming letters but make you hunt all over the site to find the rules.
But Bodog allows play on all games to count towards the wagering requirement. It's that simple. Just no opposite betting. All casinos ought to be as easy as Bodog about this. The bonus offer itself is simple too: on your first deposit, they'll give you an extra 10%. If you deposit $100, you'll wind up with $110 in chips or tokens.
Finally, in the unlikely event that Bodog feels you've been abusing their bonuses they won't seize your winnings, like some other casinos. In the worst case scenario they will politely tell you that they will not be offering you any future bonuses but you are welcome to keep playing and keep everything you have made already. (Visit Bodog)
Try Bodog's blackjack game.
One click and you're in:
No popups, no download, no registration, no B.S., just the game.
|
|
This is a long newsletter so make sure you
don't miss the
survey at the very end where
you can win either
$25 or two copies of my book, Gambling 102
(your choice).
 Trip
to Iowa, Nebraska, and South Dakota
Several months ago I was invited to be the
luncheon speaker at a conference of the Iowa Actuaries
Club. So on February 27 I set out to Des Moines one of
the 8 states I was missing from my quest to visit all 50.
The conference went well and I enjoyed the mid-western
hospitality. As an example when I went to the capitol
building and asked for a tour not only was I given my own
personal tour guide, but another capitol worker
accompanied us because of a new rule prohibiting one on
one tours.
If my history is correct Iowa was the first state in
the mid-west to legalize gambling and has never looked
back. When I arrived all I expected to see were riverboat
casinos in Council Bluffs and Sioux City. My first
surprise was slot machines in convenience stores. When I
asked the clerk how long they had been legal he was very
quick to correct me, saying they technically were not
slot machines but "pull tab machines." You could have
fooled me. They were made by Bally's and looked just like
the video slots here in Vegas. Throughout the trip I
learned they were recently legalized lottery games and
the source of quite a controversy.
I was also not aware that there was a full-blown land
casino called Prairie Meadows on the edge of Des Moines.
The casino was attached to a dog track, although there
were no races going on at the time I was there. Overall
the rules were quite good for a non-competitive
environment. Here in particular is what they had:
- Video poker (Cash back = 1/3 of 1%):
- 9/6 Jacks or better (99.54%)
- 7/5 Bonus Poker (98.01%)
- 9/7 Double Bonus (99.11%)
- 9/6 Double Double Bonus (98.98%)
- 940/50/17 Joker Poker (98.44%)
- 25/15/9/4 Deuces Wild (98.91%)
- Blackjack: 6 decks, dealer hits soft 17,
resplit aces allowed, no surrender. House edge of
0.54%.
- Craps: 10x odds
- Roulette: Double zero
- Three Card Poker: Full pay (1/4/5 on Ante
Bonus, 1/4/6/30/40 on Pairplus)
As long as I was in Iowa I decided to knock off two
other states I'm missing from my list: Nebraska and South
Dakota.
After the conference I headed west to Council Bluffs,
Iowa which had two fully functioning casinos: The
Ameristar and Harrah's. In addition the Bluff's Run dog
track had a casino, although at the time I was there only
slots were available. There were lots of brand new table
games in a pit area still under construction. A security
guard told me of the grand opening date, which I don't
remember, but by now they probably are fully
operational.
Both the Ameristar and Harrah's were riverboat
casinos. Although the "riverboat casinos" I visited in
Biloxi were gigantic affairs the ones I have seen up and
down the Mississippi and Missouri rivers were true boats
that seemed capable of moving. As such they tend to be
small with two or three floors. Even on a Tuesday night
both Council Bluffs casinos were very crowded. I might
also add that alcoholic beverages were not free for
players and no alcohol was served after cutoff time. In
terms of atmosphere I found both casinos about equal.
However the gaming rules are the important thing to me.
Here is what I found.
|
|
Ameristar
|
Harrah's
|
|
Video Poker
|
6/5 Bonus Poker (96.87%), 20/12/10 Deuces
Wild (97.58%), 9/6 Double Bonus (97.81%), 8/5
Jacks or Better (97.30%), 940/15/17 Joker Poker
(98.44%), 8/6 Bonus Poker Deluxe (98.49%), 9/5
Double Double Bonus (98.98%).
|
7/5 Bonus Poker (98.01%), 25/15/9/4 Deuces
Wild (98.91%), 9/6 Double Bonus (97.81%), 8/6
Jacks or Better (98.39%), 940/15/17 Joker Poker
(98.44%), 9/5 Double Double Bonus (98.98%).
|
|
Roulette
|
Double zero
|
Double zero
|
|
Craps
|
10x odds
|
10x odds
|
|
Blackjack
|
6 deck, dealer hits soft 17, double after
split, no surrender, no resplitting aces. House
edge of 0.62%.
|
6 deck, dealer hits soft 17, double after
split, no surrender, no resplitting aces. House
edge of 0.62%. Also same thing but with two deck
and blackjack pays 6 to 5, house edge of
1.76%.
|
So between the two Harrah's wins the prize for the
better video poker. The rest of the observed games had
the same rules. However, shame on Harrah's for the 6 to 5
double deck blackjack game.
The next morning I crossed the bridge and set foot in
Omaha Nebraska, my 44th state. Just six more to go. I
walked around the downtown area but there wasn't much to
do. I did notice the Woodman insurance company building.
That was where Jack Nicholson's character from "About
Schmidt" worked, but I never knew it was a real
company.
I didn't spend too long in Nebraska because I had
another state to set foot in and get back to Des Moines
in the same day. So I headed back into Iowa and headed
north. My next planned stop was the Argossy casino in
Sioux City. However on the way a billboard caught my eye
for the Winna Vegas native American casino. The billboard
said it was only a few miles off the highway, so I
decided to pay a quick visit.
When I got there an actual Indian opened the door for
me. That was a nice touch. Normally Indians are nowhere
to be seen in their own casinos. The casino itself was
small but compared to Council Bluffs was pleasantly
sparsely crowded. I lost my notes but the gaming rules
were much the same as those in Council Bluffs. However
there was a very pleasant exception. What I saw there was
the best blackjack game I have ever seen on a percentage
basis. The rules were the same as those in Council Bluffs
with these bonuses as long as the bet was at least
$10
- 6-7-8 unsuited paid bonus of $50
- 7-7-7 unsuited paid bonus of $50
- 6-7-8 suited paid bonus of $100
- 7-7-7 suited paid bonus of $100
- 2 consecutive blackjacks paid bonus of $50
- 3 consecutive blackjacks paid bonus of $100
- 4 consecutive blackjacks paid bonus of $200
When I got back home I had to work out the benefit of
6-7-8 and 7-7-7 bonuses. As long as I went to the trouble
I wrote it up in blackjack
appendix 11.
After adding everything up the game had a player
advantage of 1.89% for a $10 bet. Although I had a lot of
miles to cover that day I played this game for about two
hours. The dealer said they took out a Caribbean Stud
Poker game and were giving the jackpot money back to the
players in terms of the bonuses. I later called the table
games manager from Vegas and he said he had $170,000 to
give back to the players. They started this promotion in
December 2005, initially with even more liberal rules,
and he expected it to last through sometime in April. So
play it while you can!
Eventually I left and made my next stop to the Argossy
Casino in Sioux City. Interestingly they had a sign
posted saying "Slot Payback 91.60% effective 7/1/04." I
find it strange they would boast about such a low return
percentage. Here were the game rules I could
quantify.
- Video Poker: 7/5 Jacks or Better (96.15%),
16/13 Deuces Wild (96.77%), 8/5 Double Bonus (94.19%),
7/5 Double Double Bonus (95.71%), Joker Poker - aces
or better (94.27%)
- Roulette: Double zero
- Craps: 2x odds
- Blackjack: 6 deck, dealer hits soft 17, no
surrender or resplit aces. House edge of 0.62%.
After at most a five-minute visit I was back in my
rental car and on my way to South Dakota. I stayed on the
surface streets to avoid a boring Interstate crossing. I
got onto Military Rd and crossed the Big Sioux River and
set my feet in state number 45. Yet another gambling
surprise met me in South Dakota. There were a whole slew
of video poker bars. I entered only one of them, which
had a lot of old machines by no-name slot makers. I took
notes on one deuces wild pay table but lost them. There
were only two people in the place, a bored bartender and
an old lady plugging away at one of the games. So I'm
afraid I don't have much to report on South Dakota. Of
all 45 states I have visited South Dakota was definitely
the shortest visit at about ten minutes.
Just five more states to go: Idaho, Wyoming, Montana,
North Dakota, and Kentucky. One visit to Yellowstone and
I can cut down the list to just two. However I shouldn't
get too excited. I met a guy two weeks ago at the Nevada
International License Plate Society meet in Henderson who
was working on visiting every single county in the
country.
On April 10 I plan make a long overdue visit to one of
California's full blown casinos, the Pala outside of San
Diego. Unlike my South Dakota visit I will be spending
the night and should have plenty of to report next
time.
Ask
the Wizard!
Here's an excerpt from the newest
Ask
the Wizard, column #159.
me and my boyfriend
have been together for about a month and a half. we go
to different schools and this one girl that he used to
talk to goes to his school.shes a nasty ho and
sometimes i wonder if they still mess around. is he
cheating on me? - Zaneta from colorado
springs
You know what they say, out of sight out
of mind.
(Read more Ask
the Wizard.)
What's
new on the site
The big news is that we completely redesigned
the front page. We also got rid of the harsh red
background in the sidebar. Here are new pages I wrote for
you:
Free
book drawing winner
About every month I pick a random newsletter
subscriber to receive a free copy of my book, Gambling
102. This month's winner is subscriber #850 (out of
9323) bobard77. Stay tuned, you could be next
month's winner.
Until next time, set
your expectations high.
From
Michael Bluejay....
 Bluejay's
Internet Tip of the Month:
Fighting spambots
(update)
In an
earlier column I explained how spambots will
steal any email address you put on a webpage, unless
you take special precautions. I recommended a certain
Javascript trick to fool the spambots. Well, some
spambots have now figured out how to get around that
trick. It was only a matter of time. The easiest way to
obfuscate your email address on a web page is to write it
like address(at)mydomain.com, though of course
that requires the reader to manually edit your address,
and spambots will eventually figure that trick out, too.
I have a special page with a
whole slew of various methods you can use to hide
email addresses on web pages from spambots, comparing the
pros and cons of each.
Vote
in our survey and win $25 or Wizard's book
We need your help choosing a new logo for the
website. We're getting rid of the red background, so
that necessitates a new logo. Please rank the logos below
and we'll select one lucky voter to win either $25 or two
copies of the Wizard's book, Gambling 102 (winner's
choice).
Visit
WizardOfOdds.com
|
|
Gambling Info 