Blackjack Player Breaks the Bank At Atlantic City 294
Hugh Pickens writes with a link to Atlantic writer Mark Bowden's account of how one gambler has cleaned up against casinos: "[B]lackjack player Don Johnson won nearly $6 million playing blackjack in one night, single-handedly decimating the monthly revenue of Atlantic City's Tropicana casino after previously taking the Borgata for $5 million and Caesars for $4 million. How did Johnson do it? For one thing, Johnson is an extraordinarily skilled blackjack player. 'He plays perfect cards,' says Tony Rodio. But that's not enough to beat the house edge. As good as Johnson is at playing cards, his advantage is that he's even better at playing the casinos. When revenues slump as they have for the last five years at Atlantic City, casinos must rely more heavily on their most prized customers, the high rollers who wager huge amounts and are willing to lessen its edge for them primarily by offering discounts, or 'loss rebates.' When a casino offers a discount of, say, 10 percent, that means if the player loses $100,000 at the blackjack table, he has to pay only $90,000."
Pickens continues: "Two years ago the casinos started getting desperate and offered Johnson a 20 per cent discount. They also offered playing with a hand-shuffled six-deck shoe; the right to split and double down on up to four hands at once; and a 'soft 17,' whittling the house edge down to one-fourth of 1 percent. In effect, Johnson was playing a 50-50 game against the house, and with the discount, he was risking only 80 cents of every dollar he played. Johnson had to pony up $1 million of his own money to start, but, as he would say later: 'You'd never lose the million. If you got to [$500,000 in losses], you would stop and take your 20 percent discount. You'd owe them only $400,000.'"
Re:That's how it's done... (Score:5, Funny)
Does your grandfather know you're using his Slashdot account to post?
Re:Decimate (Score:4, Funny)
Don't do this. Now 'decimate' is in the top 20% of lookups on Merriam-Webster.com and etymologists everywhere will be confused by its popularity.
Money to burn? (Score:4, Funny)
'You'd never lose the million. If you got to [$500,000 in losses], you would stop and take your 20 percent discount. You'd owe them only $400,000.'
Only $400,000? This guy has money to burn.
Re:Money to burn? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I Can't Help But Feel (Score:4, Funny)
no no no if you are building a better one its
Bacarat and "Escorts"
Re:That's how it's done... (Score:5, Funny)
Busses walk to church?! Why wouldn't it just drive there?
Re:That's how it's done... (Score:5, Funny)
My system's better. I tap a machine of my choosing three times, take my roll of quarters out of my left pocket and put it into the right pocket and then go home!
Re:Decimate (Score:2, Funny)
Right, make sure you stop the traffic when it takes up 10% of the lookups on Merriam-Webster.com. Then once you get that statistic, you can write a blog post and submit a /. summary about decimating a dictionary website. Which will result in more people double-checking the meaning of decimate.
Re:Roulette (Score:5, Funny)
Why so skeptical? If you can't trust an internet comment from THE_WELL_HUNG_OYSTER, what *can* you trust?
P.S. Clams got legs!
Re:I Can't Help But Feel (Score:4, Funny)
Only if it ends with a guy trying to sell just such a "system". The only sure-fire get-rich-quick scheme is selling get-rich-quick schemes.
Well, there's always opening a brown envelope and briefcase store in Washington DC during lobbying season.
Hey, I used to know a great place like that. It was right next to the place that sold signs with catchy, grossly one-sided messages to protesters.