Gambling Guide
Ask the Wizard #202
Pete from Bakersfield
Not only do they have that right, that is what they are supposed to do. According to Nevada gaming regulation 12.060.4:
A licensee shall not redeem its chips or tokens if presented by a person the licensee knows or reasonably should know is not a patron of its gaming establishment... .
Regardless of whose hands they are in, chips are legally the property of the casino (Reg. 12.060.1), although they must be promptly redeemed from legitimate patrons (Reg. 12.060.2c).
My advice is to avoid cashing in large amounts of chips at a property where you have no experience. The fancier the casino, the more it will take to get questioned. However, if forced to estimate, I would say that at most Strip properties, you will start to get questioned around $3,000.
If you are still stuck with large chips at a property where you have no play, then my advice is to make some play. Don't take them directly to the cashier, but break them down at the tables, play a while commensurate with your buy-in, and then cash out whatever you are left with from that sitting.
Jason from Murrieta
According to my calculations, the “anything but the point” strategy will have a loss of 0.11988 units per pass bet resolved. The expected amount bet, counting only resolved bets, is 5.09865 units. So, defining the house edge as the ratio of expected loss to total bets resolved, it is 2.351%. Under the “anything but the point” strategy, the house edge is 9.19394/5.09865 = 2.341%, which includes the push on 12 as a resolved bet.
Lee from Los Angeles
From the 1983 to 2007 seasons, there were 10 ties over 5,901 regular season games played. Rules dictate that a game can not end in a tie in the post-season. So that would make the probability, based on historical games, 0.17%, or about 1 in 590.
A.B. from Zion, IL
After a pass bet, on a point of 4 or 10, the house edge swings to 33.33%. On a 5 or 9, it is 20%, and on a 6 or 8, it is 9.09%. The player has these same advantages on a don’t pass bet, once a point has been established.
Michael from Clinton Township
For purposes of recreational playing, it seems that every store that sells computer software games have a few with various casino games, often in the bargain bin. I’ve tried some of them and find them all to be pretty bad. The Internet casinos do a much better job. Sorry, but I can’t recommend anything.
Bill from Tempe
The probability the first card is a spade, and the second two are not, is (13/52)×(39/51)×(38/50) = 14.53%. You should then multiply that by 3, because the spade could be any one of the three cards. So the answer is 3×14.53% = 43.59%. For those who prefer the combinatorial function, the answer is 13×combin(39,2)/combin(52,3) = 9,633/22,100 = 43.59%.
Jesse from Scottsdale
I’ve never seen that before; thanks for the information. The house edge on the ante bet, with those ante bonuses, is 4.75%.
Mason from D.C.
The reason is that my table assumes the front-player will keep resplitting, if he can. That depresses the value of a single 10, because I assume the front-player will keep making the same mistake, if he can. I just added that condition to that page.
