A Sinners Guide to Casinos Everywhere

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Growing like kudzoo or the most awesomest infection you've ever had - casinos are everywhere. This is their story.

Indiana Casinos: Card Counters Get Lost

My Uncle is a professional card counter in Atlantic City. His days usually start with a bloody mary and scrambled eggs, followed by a hot bath wherein he finishes the New York Times crossword puzzle in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. He then hops in his White Caddie and goes to Trump Plaza, Showboat or Tropicana where he plays a coupla hours of blackjack. Just before dinner he meets up with some of the other guys in his crew where they divvy up the winnings between them then he goes home. This has been his "job" since the mid 1980s.

The casinos know that he is a card counter. Nearly all of the casinos have at one time or another waved him off the 21 tables, and always with a friendly admonition from a pit boss that goes something like this: "Sir, you're too good for us at blackjack, but we welcome you to play any of our other games." He's learned that as long as he doesn't press too hard when the count is in the players favor, the casinos will let him keep playing. As long as they don't "fish out" the watering hole, they'll still be allowed to go fishing.

Indiana casinos REALLY hate card counters. To the point of petitioning the Indiana State Supreme Court to allow Indiana's 12 casinos the right to remove suspected card counters. Currently, Indiana statues state that counting cards is NOT illegal, the same holds true in Nevada, New Jersey and elsewhere.

Donovan said he usually wins $75 to $100 in a five- to six-hour session. When he's hot, he's won as much as $2,500, but he said he's had about the same number of nights where he's lost a couple of thousand dollars or more.

Casinos need to encourage card counting, possibly by selling a card counting tip sheet next to the laminated basic strategy cards in the gift shop. Sure, there will be the occasional card counting savant who rakes $10k out of the casino, but there will be thousands of fools who lose $100-$1k per session trying to count cards.

If you're in the business of gambling, then let people friggin play the goddamn games. When people feel that they actually might win, they are gonna come gamble more money more often. The converse - tightening up games, tightening up slots and turning down the excitement level in the casino - is a surefire way of alienating gamblers from your gambling hall.

Two Cent Tuesdays At Harrah's Tunica!

It's Two Cent Tuesday! From now until who knows when, Harrah's Tunica is offering Tuesday nights in its hotel rooms for the low low price of TWO CENTS.

Honey pack up the dice, we're goin to Miss'sippi! Here's the details.

Rhode Island Offers Aerosmith Branded Lottery Tickets

The great state of Rhode Island has released "Dream On" scratcher lottery tickets, branded after the classic song by Aerosmith. I guess it was only a matter of time before state lottery commissions started brand scratcher lottery tickets in the same way that slot machines are branded in traditional casinos.

Here's a tv commercial touting the Dream On scratchers:

A New Day At Black Hawk

We've got a great guest post today from reader Shadeymonk, who headed up to Black Rock the other day to see how the new rule changes have shaken things up there. Great stuff here for the CO contingent... Take it away Shadey!

Let me start off by saying that Black Hawk didn't even feel like it used to, and that is definitely a good thing. In order to really get how much things have improved, I feel I should explain what Black Hawk used to be like and then how it was different this time around.

Update: The Road To Wynn Monaco

UPDATE: The rendering police have come after us and we've removed them per their request.

Rendering removed

Bellagio II? Nope... that's Wynn Monaco.

Phish In Indio For Halloween 2009?

Book your flights, book your hotel rooms, book your tickets... all signs are pointing to Phish playing a three night Halloween weekend throwdown in the heart of California casino country on October 30, 31 and November 1st.

Five or so years ago, Miss Monkay and I headed out to Indio, California (near Palm Springs) to go see Radiohead, Kraftwerk, Stereolab and a slew of other freaks playing out there. After scorching in the 115 degree desert heat for two days, we tapped out and decided to get the hell outta there and head back to LA... hitting as many casinos we could on the way back.

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