Casinos: An Introduction - Casino Games

Casinos offer a variety of games, including card games, dice games, domino games, slot machines, and gambling devices (such as the roulette wheel). Some games are banked games, meaning that the house has a stake in the outcome of the game and bets against the players. Banked games include blackjack, craps, keno, roulette, and traditional slot machines. A nonbanked game is one in which the payout and the house cut depend on the number of players or the amount bet, not the outcome of the game. In percentage games, the house collects a share of the amount bet.

For example, in "traditional" poker, players bank their own games. Each player puts money into the pot and competes against the other players to win the pot. A portion of the winning pot is taken by the house. In house-banked games, the players play against the house rather than each other. Another type of house-banked game is one in which there is a posted payout schedule for winning hands rather than a pot.

Gaming machines are by far the most popular type of casino activity. They are simple to operate and offer large payouts for small wagers. The first commercial gambling machines were introduced in 1896. They were called "slot machines" because the gambler inserted a coin into a slot to begin play. Each slot machine consisted of a metal box housing three reels that spun randomly when a handle was pulled. The reels were decorated all around with symbols (usually types of fruit or card markings such as spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs). Stoppers within the machine slowed each reel to a stop after a time. If the sequence of symbols that appeared across the reels matched a posted winning sequence (usually three of a kind), the player was a winner. Because each reel featured multiple symbols, there were literally thousands of possible outcomes. Because of their ease of play, low odds of winning, and the single handle used to activate them, slot machines came to be known as "one-armed bandits."

Some casinos still offer old-fashioned slot machines, but most gaming machines today are electronic and computer controlled. They are manufactured to strict technical specifications and use a computer programming technique called random number generation. A preprogrammed computer chip inserted into the machines tracks accounting and progressive play information and determines the percentage of payout. The machines are similar to high-tech video games, offering sophisticated graphics and sound. Many electronic slot machines are designed to mimic the look and feel of reel-type machines. Patrons may have a choice of a modern push button or an oldfashioned handle to activate play.

Electronic slot machines offer many different games; poker is one of the most popular. For this reason, the machines are called by a variety of names: electronic gaming devices, video gaming terminals, video gaming devices, video poker machines, or just slots. Slot machines can be played for a variety of denominations—from a penny up to hundreds of dollars. The quarter slot machine is the most popular.

Some casinos have slot machines with progressive jackpots—in other words, the jackpot grows with continued play. Most progressive jackpot machines are connected with one another in a computerized network. Play on any one machine within the group causes the jackpot to increase. On March 21, 2003, a man playing a progressive slot machine at the Excalibur Hotel–Casino in Las Vegas won $38.7 million, the largest slot machine payout in U.S. history.

Odds against Gamblers

Since casinos are businesses, and as such must make money in order to survive, the mathematical odds are always against game players in casino games. For example, according to PBS Frontline, a person betting $100 an hour on roulette will lose an average of $5.26 an hour in the long run. The "long run" is an important concept that is often overlooked by gamblers.

For example, most roulette wheels have two colors—red and black. Many people assume that if several consecutive spins have come up red, then black is overdue and will bet on black. However, the law of probabilities says that each spin has an equal chance of being red or black. Only when averaged over the course of many spins will red and black come up equally.

The same effect holds true for slot machines. The Colorado Division of Gaming explains this concept in an undated brochure titled "Understanding How A Slot Machine Works." The brochure notes that a slot machine with a 97% payout would "theoretically" be expected to pay back 97% of all money taken in over the lifetime of the machine, typically seven years. Therefore, a gambler would have to gamble on that machine continuously for seven years to attain a 97% payout.