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***GambLux EDITOR ARTICLES*** |
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Odd things to know about the gambling business
[Monday, November 27, 2006]
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If you're fed up with articles about 'how to be a better gambler' and 'why you should prefer this strategy to that one' in a particular game, here's something different. It's simply a collection of odd, funny and maybe weird things you might like to know about the gambling business.
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Slot machines Ever wondered why a casino has so many of them? It's because the pain (to the player) is small and the payout (to the casino) is large. When Man plays against Machine, it will always be Machine that comes out on top.
The glass from old slot machines when a slot machine gets junked after delivering several millions to its owners, there's still a part of it that has some value. Yes, it's the decorative front panel. It can be salvaged for a shop window, coffee table top or wall decoration. So save the glass before you take a hammer to the rest!
One-armed bandit before the slot machine got all of its electronics it was essentially a mechanical device. You pulled a long lever on the side to get the reels spinning. That was the 'one-armed' part. The 'bandit' part referred to the fact that these machines would usually keep your money.
Fruit machine obviously slot machine manufacturer could put whatever kinds of symbols they liked on the reels animals, signs of the zodiac, numbers. However
They found that people seems to like fruit best. Three of the same fruits in a line would win you a jackpot but two fruits were pretty close and so you'd want to have another go. By the way, the bar in modern slot machines comes from a Bell Fruit Gum logo. Chewing gum was dispensed in slot machines designed by Herbert Mills in Chicago in 1910.
Poker online and live It was bound to happen: digital gizmos coming to the real live poker room. At the Hollywood Park Casino in Los Angeles you sit at a poker table, but instead of green baize you have a digital screen. This controls everything dealing the cards, queuing to play, making bids. Is this the future? Sounds hard and cold, somehow!
Fake lottery tickets There's quite a market now in fake lottery tickets that look like the real thing. The whole idea is to play a gag on somebody who you know is a bit nuts about playing lotteries you know, taking it out of proportion! Anyway, when victims scratch off the front of the ticket, they're amazed to see that they've won $10,000, $20,000 or even $50,000. They can't wait to tell their friends only later do they see the fine print on the back and realize they've been duped!
You can bet on anything Online casinos allow you to bet on strange things for example on the antics of superstars. If a celebrity is on trial you can bet on how long it will last. If a celebrity marries you can take odds on how long it will last or how often he or she will appear on TV in the next year. Crazy world, huh?
Rolling the bones This is a slang expressing for 'rolling the dice', but where did it come from? It seems that thousands of years ago, dice were carved from bones. In fact, in Roman times, they were shaped out of sheep's knuckles. So rolling dice was literally 'rolling bones'.
Horizontal gaming wheels You're familiar with the horizontal gaming wheel, called Roulette but did you know that the vertical version was invented in England in 1720 for a game called Roly-Poly? The difference to Roulette was that Roly-poly has no numbers on the wheel, just alternating white spaces and black spaces. There was also 'bar black' space and a 'bar white' space. Like the zero rule, if the ball landed in one of these spaces, you lost. Roly-Poly was banned in England in 1745 but the horizontal version traveled to France and by 1796 was known everywhere as Roulette.
Why have pictures and symbols on cards? Today's playing deck is based on cards that were designed in 15th-century France. It is believed that the king of spades was the Biblical King David, the king of clubs was Alexander the Great, the king of hearts was Charlemagne and the king of diamonds represents Julius Caesar. What about the four suits? Diamonds represented the Roman Empire, Clubs was Greece, Hearts was the Holy Roman Empire and Spades was the Biblical Middle East. So now you know where your luck comes from!
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