How the casino works

And why is it an honest business in which luck is not on your side anyway?

Now you can go to the casino only in four specially designated gambling zones. I have worked in a legal casino for over three years. And there is no magic in this.

It's just such fun

The editorial staff of Tinkoff magazine warns: a casino is not a way to make money or invest, it is just entertainment for your money. You pay constantly so that you sometimes have a chance to win big. At the same time, you are being entertained.

All "systems" and "proven methods of guaranteed winnings" are either cheating or illegal. Spend at the casino only the money that you don't mind losing.

The principle of operation of slot machines

There are halls for slot machines in the casino. They are called slot machines - 

play best ausslots online.  It is simple to play on them: symbols are spinning on the screen of the slot, the player's task is to collect a winning combination. You make a note, set the parameters of the game and place a bet. If several symbols are collected according to the specified parameters, you win. The symbols are assembled by themselves according to the algorithm wired into the slot: manual dexterity and pressing force do not affect the result.

Briefly about how a slot machine works: any slot machine is a computer with a screen and several buttons. At the heart of this computer is a chip that decides whether you win now or not. His solution is tied to mathematics, internal tuning and a bunch of other things. The chip is made in such a way that it was impossible to predict its behavior at the moment, but so that in the long run it would give a statistically predictable result on a large number of games.

There were stories in the press about how someone hacked slot chips using special emitters. Say, they gave out some waves that confused the chip and made them pay the winnings at a predictable moment.

There are a lot of slot machine models. They come in different companies, the names of which are meaningful only for casino owners. Regardless of the company and origin, all machines must be certified for playing and have customizable game parameters available only to casinos.

Slot machines are also divided by body type and differ in fit: upright and slant-top. On upright machines, the monitor is installed almost vertically, at eye level; on slant-top - significantly inclined. The gameplay of the slot machines is the same. The decisive factor when choosing a slot machine for a player will be the game he plans to play. The casino where I worked preferred upright. They had the most popular games, as well as mechanical rather than electronic buttons. It's more pleasant to press them.

For the player, slot machines differ in the quality of graphics, sound, body design and buttons. Inside all machines are soulless semiconductors and many layers of protection. There are no “more successful” and “less successful” slot machine games.

Jackpot

Jackpot is a super prize on slot machines. If you are very lucky, you do not get an ordinary win, but “hit the jackpot”, that is, a big mega prize. This is how casinos encourage players to spend time on slots. The jackpot is fixed, progressive and secret.

Fixed jackpot is a jackpot, the amount of which is predetermined. To get a win, you need to collect a certain combination. This is just a super prize, nothing interesting.

The progressive jackpot grows as the game progresses. It is easy to recognize him by the scoreboard, which is placed over the group of slot machines. All machines in this group list a small percentage of each game to the total jackpot, then someone alone takes it.

A secret or "mystery" jackpot is a random win that can be received by any player regardless of the entered bet, the presence of a winning combination and compliance with any other conditions. The winner is randomly determined when the jackpot reaches a certain amount. The budget for the secret jackpot can be set aside by the casino management: to reward players or to encourage them to play more.

Is it possible to win at a casino

Most of the jackpots and other winnings in the casino do not come from the casino, but from the losses of other people. Almost any win on a slot machine means that you take the money that other players have fed to the slot machine. And if they promise to tell you how to "ruin a casino", do not believe: either they will deceive you, or they will offer you to deceive the casino. And neither will end well.

This does not prevent you from winning honestly, just do not think that you have beaten the casino in this way.

How the casino winnings are paid

When you win in a modern casino, you don't have a mountain of coins falling on you. Instead, the slot machine issues a special ticket - TITO. You can exchange it for cash or continue playing on the same or another machine.

TITO (ticket-in, ticket-out) is such a ticket with a barcode and face value. You can present it at the checkout and receive the amount by nominal ticket. Small transactions with TITO and money can be carried out in special money changers. They look like ATM machines, only for TITO tickets. Such machines are placed around the hall for the convenience of visitors and in order to remove some of the load from the checkout. Through the car, you can independently buy or cash out TITO tickets and exchange small amounts. Usually they have an upper limit on transactions.

Large amounts of winnings can only be cashed out with the help of the slot hall staff. Depending on the situation and the size of the payment, a slot supervisor or a shift manager can come to the rescue. Before proceeding with the payment, they can check with the video surveillance department to check the settings of the slot machine. They need to make sure the payout is correct. After that, the employee accompanies the guest to the cashier and helps to receive the winnings.

How a casino makes money on slots

The slot industry has an RTP - return to player. This is the average percentage of money that the slot machine theoretically returns to the players, when viewed over a long period of time. The casino makes money on the difference between how much customers have deposited and how much they have withdrawn.

The minimum RTP is determined by law - 90%. Theoretically, if 1000 people bet 100 dollars each, then the machine will receive 1K dollars and return 90 a prize.

In short periods of time, large fluctuations in payments are possible: now you were paid 1000 rubles, then nothing was paid for a long time, and then 30,00 dollars immediately. But over time, the average payout approaches the RTP.

The casino is beneficial for players to win more often, so they set a higher payout percentage than required by law. For players in the premium sector, the RTP can be 94-96%. The remaining 4-6% of the turnover is "hold", the casino's earnings. Basically, this is a commission for using the car. People put money in the car, the casino takes a small percentage, and gives the rest as winnings.

A special commission monitors how slot machines work in casinos: each machine must be certified, have a special seal and documents. If during the check it turns out that the slot machine has a chip tampered with or an underestimated RTP, the casino will have to pay a fine. For serious violations, the casino can be suspended for up to 90 days. Therefore, in legal gambling zones, the management carefully monitors compliance with the law.

Card and other games

Roulette, baccarat, poker, Texas hold'em and blackjack are popular in the casino. These are also types of games in which players place money bets and, with some probability, multiply them. There are games based on pure luck like roulette. Where the ball fell - that sector won. There are games in which a strategy can be applied - they are classified as advanced games. For example, in blackjack, with the right strategy, the player can change the mathematical advantage of the casino in his favor.

Dealers serve the players at the tables. This is not some glamorous mystical profession, there is no need for spy tricks and incredible sleight of hand. The main task of the dealer is to accept bets, explain the rules of the game and monitor their observance. The dealer is not a friend, not a bartender, not a service staff, he is just playing the game.

An inspector may be near the dealer. He also monitors the correctness of the game and enters the bets and the result in a special program. It is very important for the casino to collect information, because there are a lot of people who like to fool. The more information the casino has about the progress of the game, the better it is protected.

Counting cards and outsmarting casinos like they do in Hollywood movies is almost impossible. Several decks are used in one game. They are shuffled by a special shuffle machine, which is responsible for the unpredictable sequence of cards in the deck. For example, there are 8 decks in baccarat. They are used only once per game, then disposed of in a special room. Life in a casino is much more prosaic than in a movie.

Casino cards and chips are the subject of close attention from the management. They are very expensive and there is always a risk of fraud. They are carefully counted during and after the shift and stored in strictly designated places. The game, players and employees are monitored by a video surveillance service. Its task is to prevent dealer mistakes and fraud on the part of players.

Why the casino always makes money, even when it loses

In a gambling game, any bet has a certain probability of winning. For example, if you flip a coin and bet on one side, you have a 50% chance of winning. If you flip 100 times, the odds remain the same and will always be 50/50. This is a game with equal odds.

In gambling, the odds are initially unequal. In the gambling business, there is a concept of house advantage, or house edge. This is the percentage of the casino's income from each bet and is always positive. The more bets, the higher the casino's income, regardless of who won and how.

The trick is how the games work. For each bet, for Once you win, the casino pays slightly less than if the odds were even. Let me explain with an example.

How the win works

You have decided to play roulette. The biggest winnings will be if the bet is placed on one specific number - in this case, the amount of the winnings will be 35 times the amount wagered.

There are 37 sectors in total on European roulette with numbers from 0 to 36. To get a 100% chance that your bet will pass, you bet 1 chip on each sector. So you bet 37 chips, and you get 36. According to the rules of the game, the dealer will pay 35 to 1 and the amount of your bet. The amount of one unpaid chip is the house advantage.

The size of the house advantage is different for each game. In English roulette it is 2.7%, in American roulette it is 5.26% due to two zero sectors: you will get back 36 chips out of a possible 38. This is the mathematical advantage of the casino. The same advantage exists in any other game.

House advantage is in the very rules of the game. In games with an element of luck, it cannot be influenced. In a card game such as blackjack, house advantage depends on the specific rules, the number of decks used, and is usually less than 1%. Players use special strategies to increase the chances of success, but in any case, house advantage will be positive. Even if you win, the casino does not lose.

Loyalty program in the casino

In a good casino, everything is aimed at exceeding the expectations of the guests. Therefore, they do not spare money for entertainment. The management arranges large-scale show programs, holds large draws where you can win a car or a large sum. All for the sake of people coming and playing - after all, the more people and games, the more the casino earns.

Each casino has a loyalty program. It is based on the gaming activity of guests and is usually a bonus accumulation system. When registering for a guest, a plastic card is put in, on which bonuses are accrued as the game progresses. The longer you play, the more bonuses you get. They can then be exchanged for additional free games or other casino entertainment offers.

In addition to bonuses, the casino encourages active players with so-called compliments: it can pay for food and drinks, a night at a hotel, and even a plane ticket. Everything is very individual. For especially important players, there is a whole hospitality department, where a personal manager can be assigned to each guest.

Is it possible to cheat the casino and does it cheat you

The casino is a place of increased attention for fraudsters and the state. Therefore, a lot of attention is paid there to personal and financial security, legality and purity of relationships.

At the entrance, guests are checked with a metal detector, the bag is passed through a scanner. You will have to present your passport at the check-in counter. Guest data is entered into the database, checked through the lists of all kinds of security services.

If a person is caught cheating while gambling, they can permanently block access to the casino.

When a person does not play, but simply cashes money regularly, employees of the financial monitoring department begin to monitor his operations. Such a guest will also be blacklisted. The casino is one solid bare financial nerve, and it reacts very sharply to any manipulation, even seemingly innocent ones.

Some people believe that the casino is deliberately deceiving visitors. For example, they are afraid to use bonus cards, because they think that through them someone controls the process of the game. This is wrong. The randomness of the win, like the mathematical expectation, is inherent in the setting in the game itself, which is acquired by the casino and provided as a service.

The casino attracts players with good service and provides a platform for entertainment. In gambling, pure mathematics is on his side. Therefore, if you go there, then it is better not to "hit the jackpot", but just for fun.