About the Wizard of OddsLast update: Feb. 22, 2013 About This SiteThis site was born on June 19, 1997. At first it was titled Mike's Gambling Page Our goal is nothing less than to be the best gaming site on the Internet. Here's what we mean by best:
We're picky about who can advertise here. The Wizard himself personally reviews all potential advertisers before they can buy an ad, and he turns down about half of all applicants. The Wizard won't advertise a casino unless he feels it's a safe and honest place to gamble, and promises to act as an arbitrator if a reader has a problem with an advertiser that they can't resolve on their own. About gambling itself, our philosophy is that if you're going to gamble you should have the best information possible so you can have the best chances of winning, and can minimize your losses if you do lose. We don't actually encourage or promote gambling, and we're not just saying that to cover ourselves -- we simply want to provide readers with the opportunity to be educated gamblers if they're going to gamble anyway. In fact, if you read the site thoroughly, the inescapable conclusion is that with very few exceptions, there is no way to beat the house. You can contact us or read our terms and conditions (which includes our privacy policy). About the WizardThe Wizard of Odds is Michael Shackleford, A.S.A., a professional actuary What I doI write most of the content for this site, drawing on my training in mathematics and actuarial science. This site started out as a hobby, then as it grew and became more popular I moved it to its own domain and had it professionally designed. I'm proud to have built something that's used by thousands of people every day and is known around the world for providing quality, authoritative information. In addition to writing for this site, I am an Adjunct professor of Casino Math at the University of Las Vegas where I teach students how to do the kinds of analyses you find on this site. I also do consulting for game developers and land and Internet casinos. Here's more about my consulting services  My Life StoryI was born in Pasadena, California in 1965. Shortly after that my family moved south to Orange County where I grew up and lived off and on until 1992. My interest in computers led me to a computer science major at the University of California at Santa Barbara
The most fun part of my job was tabulating the most popular baby names After I finished with the actuary exams and became an associate in 1995 I put my mind toward analyzing casino games. This was just for fun and I never expected it to lead to anything. After I went through the trouble of analyzing about a half dozen games I put up the information on my home page (which no longer exists). Although I didn't advertise at all people starting wandering to the page which encouraged me to keep making additions and improvements. Eventually this led to work doing analysis of new games and a regular column in Casino Player magazine. In early 2000 I decided to take the leap from a non-profit page to accepting advertising. The combined income from private consulting and advertising allowed me to leave my job with SSA on April 21, 2000 and devote myself full time to this website and to gaming consulting In early 2003 I split with my old partners who had taken care of the design of the site and ad sales, and I brought my friend Michael Bluejay on board to take care of the web administration. The first thing we did was to get rid of the popup windows and a lot of the gratuitous advertising. With full control over the site again I became very picky about who could advertise here. To this day I personally review all potential advertisers before they can buy an ad here. I turn down about as many as I approve. I didn't turn the ad sales over to Bluejay until a year later in 2004, and when I did the site changed significantly. He got rid of the blinking banners but still managed to find advertisers who were willing to have static ads. He also added some small text ads to the site and made other various improvements. Gambling has always been a major interest of mine. Before turning 21 I mainly played poker, acey-deucy, and guts. When I reached legal age I developed a strong interest in blackjack. I started with the basic strategy and then moved to card counting. Other than gambling my hobbies are chess, computer games, juggling Here is my biography. Interviews, Reviews
Videos
Articles
More PicturesMy PersonalityIn April, 2010, I took a personality test, mainly designed to find my strengths and weaknesses in a leadership role. The following is a summary of the results: Michael, you fall within our Assertive Technician personality group. This means you describe yourself as a bit of a contradiction; you demonstrate comfort with risk, yet also have strong need to avoid criticism and failure. You have the assertiveness to take charge but prefer doing so within your area of expertise or in situations where the variables are either known or easily controlled. You believe in action, resourcefulness and goal-oriented solutions. Your tall column 4 indicates keen critical thinking aptitude, a strong analytical versus social mindset. You use an objective, logical reasoning process rather than intuition to solve problems. As such, data-intensive, mentally-challenging tasks likely appeal to you. You appear to be a direct, pull-no-punches communicator. You likely convey information clearly and succinctly. For you, interaction in a work context is probably more about informing and collaborating than on building relationships. If you manage people, you probably focus more on finding and fixing problems than on motivating. Be sure to look for the positives and to recognize even the ordinary achievements of those working with and for you. Fast paced, you have a strong sense of urgency for working under time pressure, managing the unexpected and dealing with competing demands on your time. You likely adapt easily to change and like moving between different tasks to keep things interesting. Unvarying routine might frustrate you. Michael, your column 8 points to a heightened respect for structure and meticulous work habits. You aim for excellence and are constantly looking for ways to improve performance. Trusting the quality of your own work, it might sometimes challenge you to delegate work to others, especially if they have not proven their worth. Be sure to let go of some details so you can focus on the big picture. Here are the full results About the Wizard's HelpersThe Wizard could not run this site all by himself. Here is a little about the Wizard's assistants.
 |
Reason #4 why the Wizard likes Bovada: One-Stop Shopping Bovada offers the triple crown of gambling: casino, poker, and sports. Many other casinos have tacked on poker as an afterthought, and many poker rooms have tacked on a casino as an afterthought, and the lack of attention shows, sometimes painfully. And very few of these sites let you make sports wagers. But Bovada doesn’t just offer all three, they do each one well, and everything’s integrated. It’s easy to play all three off one deposit, off just one account. Another nice thing about Bovada is that you don’t need a separate account to play casino games with fake money. In fact you do not even need an account for that at all, you can just click over there and play. Finally, Bovada usernames are only six or seven characters long making them possible to remember. By contrast some competitors’ usernames are extremely long and cumbersome.
|
Copyright © 1998-2013 Wizard of Odds Consulting, Inc. All rights reserved. • About | Privacy & Terms | Site Map | Links | Contact The Wizard’s other sites: Wizard of Vegas | Wizard of Macau | Math Problems | Diversity Tomorrow • Recommended: Vegas Click • Sponsored by: Online Casino | |
