www.CostaRicaTicas.com

El Ciego,
On a previous edition of the World Series of Blackjack a lady who was in the tournament and made the final table is blind. He husband tells her what all the cards are (including all the other players) and what each player bets.

This infomation if critical when playing tournaments and she's a champion.
Any good CRT member should be able to help you play blackjack.

I'm sure you're correct, except to add that often house policy interferes with a blind person playing blackjack.

On my first visit to Vegas in 1991, we stayed at the Rio Suites; management politely asked that we not attempt to play table games, including blackjack, as it would "inconvenience" other players.

This makes sense from the casino's POV, as they must mainttain a fast pace at the blackjack tables to maximize their already smaller edge over the players.

Complaints to the Rio yielded no response whatsoever; a complaint with the Nevada Gaming Commission yielded only a form letter, telling us that the casino has the right to refuse anyone from their tables, and that mine was not a civil rights issue in their opinion.


"As for slot machines, they are controlled by a chip and an RNG (random number generator). The chips are installed at the factory (based upon the casino's orders) and the payoffs are calculated based on the life of the machine. These usually range from 84% to around 95%.

The chip selects the winning (or losing) number as soon as the circuit is started and the reels have no impact on what that is. They are just for show.

Essentially correct, however in fact the machine's chipset continues to generate winning/losing "reel" combinations even while the machine is not being played, as long as the machine is plugged in and turned on. This makes it harder to find the one millisecond slice of time in which the winning combinations appear.


The locals have no control over the chips except to install new ones.

And herein lies the rub: In Vegas and other big stateside gaming locales, changing of the chips can only be done under the supervision of a gaming commission official; the chips are then "sealed" with tape. If a casino was to try to surreptitiously change the chipset, the broken tape would be a dead giveaway, and the casino would be fined.
I am unsure of gaming laws as pertains to slot machines in C.R., but I suspect that no such prohibitions exist. The house is free to change out the odds generator as often as is necessary, and by the way, the lowest payout chips available only provide 70% payback. In fact, I believe that's the default payout for new machines shipped by IGT is 74% payout (i.e. the house takes 26% of all bets as income). This is a good deal lower than the 84% you state as the typical low end payout percentage.

Wit, a mutual friend from CRT tells me that you're a gambling whiz, and I don't want to argue with you, but my experience in casinos has been generally poor; lack of gaming opportunities etc. But hey, I'll try anything once.

BTW, I found the machines in the Colonial and Del Rey to behave much like stateside machines in terms of payouts. And it is certainly easy to find and play familiar slots, especially the mechanical reel games manufactured by I.G.T. So, it's easy to lose money, even if one doesn't see.


http://casinogambling.about.com/cs/slots/a/SlotRng.htm