Gambler's Thread 01 (May 08 - Nov 10)

[millionairemind]

Wonder if there are gamblers who are betting on the US elections?

Obama victory - 1 to 1?
McCain Victory - 1 to 4?
No. of states going to Obama?
No. of electoral votes?

[winston]

About 12 years ago, I told my Uncle that it make sense to have a casino in Sentosa. My uncle says that it's not a possible thing . Now, I say China will have casinos in Sanya very soon. Now, how does one make money in that ?

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China holds horse betting trial run

BEIJING (AP) — Organized gambling on horse races has returned to mainland China for the first time since the ruling Communist Party seized power in 1949, state media reported.

The central city of Wuhan in Hubei province held a trial horse racing event Saturday in which spectators could bet on four races at the Orient Lucky City racecourse, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

It is illegal to gamble in mainland China. The Communists deemed gambling a major vice, along with opium, when they came to power, and made a priority of eliminating them.

Xinhua said spectators were allowed to place two bets for free and winners received 20 lottery tickets issued by the local sports lottery administration.

Wang Shenshun, deputy head of the city's sports administration, said Saturday's races were meant to test the racecourse, betting rules and organization, according to the report.

"The test run is preparation for an official event in the future," Wang said. "If approved, the number of China's horse races, with betting, will be upgraded to regular events being held once or twice a week."

Wang said Saturday's trial run went smoothly, but did not give an indication of when an official horse betting event could be reintroduced.

An expert estimated that 3 million jobs could be created if a nationwide betting network were set up, Xinhua said.

Annual lottery sales could reach 100 billion yuan ($15 billion), with 40 billion yuan ($6 billion) in tax revenue a year, Qin Zunwen of the Hubei Provincial Academy of Social Sciences was quoted as saying.

Popular in pre-Communist China, horse racing started to reappear during the 1990s as national races were organized and jockey clubs set up, although betting was still illegal, Xinhua said.

Horse racing is extremely popular in Hong Kong, a special administrative region of China that has its own political and legal system. It is the only form of legal gambling there, run by the Jockey Club. Casinos in the nearby enclave of Macau have also started to draw streams of mainland Chinese visitors.

[winston]

Gambler sues casino over $900 million binge

CANBERRA (Reuters) - An Australian gambler who lost millions in a A$1.4 billion ($909 million) gaming spree is suing one of the country's largest casinos, claiming he was targeted by managers despite a known gambling addiction.

In a case which lawyers say could have implications stretching to China, gambling addict Harry Kakavas is suing Crown Casino in Melbourne for A$50 million damages after a mammoth 14-month baccarat binge in which he lost A$37 million.

At the time in 2007, property developer Kakavas had been barred from every casino in Australia.

But the Supreme Court in Victoria state was told that Crown's management did not "give a monkey's" about a prohibition in place since 2004, the Age newspaper said.

Supreme Court documents said Kakavas wore a concealed recorder that captured Crown managers allegedly attempting to lure him back to its riverside baccarat tables.

Crown is owned by Australian billionaire James Packer, who also operates Crown Macau and is developing a second casino project, The City of Dreams, in the Chinese territory. Last year the company reported profits of A$370 million.

"We have no intention of responding to the allegations made publicly. We are defending the action vigorously," Crown spokesman Gary O'Neill told Reuters.

Crown Chief Executive Rowen Craigie and Chief Operating Officer John Williams face accusations of unconscionable conduct while in charge of Crown, which this month reported revenue from table games and gaming machines up 4 percent as Packer looks to expand in Macau.

Court documents in Melbourne alleged that emails detailed a Crown plan to lure back Kakavas after managers discovered he had lost millions of dollars gambling in Las Vegas.

If found guilty, Crown could be judged to have breached Australia's Trade Practices Act, state gambling regulations and special laws covering the high-profile casino's operation.

[winston]

Dead lucky widow finds numbers up

On the day that Donald Peters died, he unknowingly provided financial security for his wife of 59 years and their family.
Peters bought two Connecticut Lottery tickets on November 1 as part of a 20-year tradition he shared with his wife Charlotte.

Later that day, the 79-year-old retired hat factory worker suffered a fatal heart attack while working in his garden in Danbury.

Now his widow has cashed in one of the tickets - a US$10 million (HK$77.51 million) winner - which in her grief over her loss she put aside and almost discarded before recently checking the numbers. "I'm numb," said Charlotte Peters, 78, who has not decided how she will spend the money.

One of the couple's three children, Brian, said of dad: "He'd be very mad. He just passed away and she won a lot of money. He'd say, `Figures!"'

ASSOCIATED PRESS

[winston]

Since Spore will be having a Casino very soon, I thought that I would give you some "useful" statistics:-

The record for the same number to be spun consecutively is 8 times.

In 1913 a roulette wheel in Monte Carlo came up black 26 times in succession. Believe it or not, this isn’t the roulette record: in New York in 1943 red came up for 32 consecutive spins.

As there's a Table Limit, there's no way one can use the Martingale Method to play roulette..

[winston]

Can Roulette Be Beaten? Maybe

The nobles of Europe loved to gamble on the wheel. They loved it right up until the very moment when they lost all their money and property. Then they had to find a rich American woman to marry, usually a Southerner; a woman who was interested in a title and, in exchange, was ready, willing, and able to support her noble Prince Destitute with wads of cash from her daddy.

It was a fair exchange, we guess, if such exchanges are what people want out of life. The nobles of Europe, sad to say, were often bereft not only of money but of sense when they played the wheel; they employed centuries old, losing, methods such as the following (known as the Roulette抯 Ugly Seven):

1. doubling up when they lost a bet

2. continued doubling until they won a bet or hit the house edge

3. doubling up and adding one unit after each losing bet until they hit the house edge

4. going with the trend of the colors/sections/numbers that were hitting

5. going against the trend of colors/sections/number that were hitting

6. going straight up on a number that had recently hit more than once

7. going straight up on a number that had not hit in a long, long while

On a perfectly balanced wheel, not one of the Ugly Seven is a winning strategy. They each will lose the percentage that the house has over them on the total amount of money a player bets in the long run. On Europe抯 single-zero wheel (currently found at Isle of Capri!), that edge is 2.7 percent on the inside bets and 1.35 percent on the outside "even-money" bets when the casino has an option called "en prison."

On the American double-zero wheel that edge is a frightening 5.26 percent on the inside bets and, in some casinos, a 2.63 percent edge on the outside "even-money" bets where the "surrender" option is allowed (see table tips). So, if over the course of a lifetime of playing roulette, a European nobleman or woman bets one hundred million dollars on a combination of inside and outside wagers, he or she can expect to lose between $1,350,000 and $2,700,000. An American can expect to lose between $2,630,000 and $5,260,000 on those same wagers.

The math is merciless.

And that抯 that, right?

Wrong!

Over the years ingenious roulette players have figured out ways to beat the physical wheel, as opposed to the mathematical underpinnings of the theoretical game, by locating wheels that were slightly biased in favor of certain numbers. These wheels may have had design flaws, or usage flaws that over time caused the ball to favor some numbers or sections over others. Players call such strategies "biased-wheel play" and it was just such "play" that was used by the few individuals who were able to "break the bank" at Monte Carlo in the early part of the Twentieth Century. They recorded tens of thousands of spins and when they found a wheel that was obviously "off" -- they came on with big bets and battered the venerable casino to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars (today, with inflation, that would be millions).

Now, along comes another daring advantage player, Christopher Pawlicki, who has penned a new book in the Scoblete-Get the Edge Guides series, appropriately titled Get the Edge at Roulette: How to Predict Where the Ball Will Land! (Bonus Books), that not only discusses how to employ "biased-wheel play" but also discusses other methods of beating the wheel such as taking advantage of "dealer signatures," "wheel clocking," and "sector shooting." Pawlicki also has an interesting chapter in his book on how to beat Internet roulette as well!

So while the math of roulette might be merciless, the mechanics of the game just might be beatable if you have the time, discipline, and, in some cases, the talent to put into practice what Pawlicki preaches.

Take the example of a "dealer signature." For years gambling writers have speculated that some dealers might be able to influence the fall of the ball because they get into a "rhythm" where they pick the ball up a certain way, wait a given beat, then release the ball with the same speed each and every time. These dealers are not aware of what they are doing and their signature is therefore unconscious. Nevertheless, a certain pattern can develop where the ball lands within "X" number of pockets from the last spin. So a dealer might spin in such a way that more than two-thirds of the time the ball lands within ten to twenty pockets of the last hit.

If you know such a dealer, money can be made on them -- sometimes a lot of money. Pawlicki shows you how to analyze these dealers and take advantage of their "signatures."

In a similar way, some dealers have consciously developed the ability to hit sectors of the wheel. Pawlicki himself can do this as he dealt roulette for years in charitable games (the worst games you can play!). These dealers are called "sector shooters" and they too can be exploited if you understand their abilities and psychology.

The "wheel clocker" is an entirely different animal. A player can develop the ability to analyze the trajectory of the ball and then approximate where it will land when it finishes its orbit. Pawlicki shows exactly how to develop this ability. Unfortunately, of all the methods in his book, this is the most difficult to learn and to put into practice in a casino. It requires months of practice to perfect and then tremendous concentration to perform in the casinos. Frank once tried to master this method and all it got him was "eye strain and an upset stomach" every time he attempted it.

The advantage-play methods that Pawlicki writes about are all perfectly legal. Of course, casinos might not want you to play these systems and, unfortunately for players, there are simple ways for casinos to thwart each and every method -- if they know a player is using such a method, that is.

We realize that most casino players are obviously not all that interested in putting in the time and the practice to master most advantage-play techniques. It抯 a lot of time and a lot of practice. The amount of money you make from all that work is not guaranteed the way a good job guarantees a steady income with benefits.

But for those of you who would like a chance to turn the tables on the casinos, these are the only methods that can actually work to do just that. They are not "pie-in-the-sky" approaches, but concrete attacks on where the casino game of roulette is most vulnerable.

Even though most players who play will never read Pawlicki抯 book, and the majority of those who do read it won抰 have the desire to put into practice the various methods he espouses, it is still fun to know that for just about every game the casinos come up with, some players, some times, can come up with ways to beat those games -- legally! The casinos have created ingenious environments for players to enjoy playing games where the house usually has the edge, but some ingenious players have invented methods for surviving those environments and coming out on top in those games.

Pawlicki is one such player. Roulette players will find his book contains great food for thought -- in fact, it contains a whole buffet of ideas.

[winston]

Even in these tough economic times, many people are feeling lucky.

More than half of all states with lotteries have reported rising sales over the past six months, and some researchers say financial insecurity might be driving people to risk more of their money than usual on $1 and $5 instant scratch-offs and other daily games in hopes of a big payoff.

In Washington, D.C., instant sales reached a record of $45 million in the 2008 fiscal year, representing an 11% year-over-year increase.
In Tennessee, sales of instant lottery games were up $8 million during the fiscal first quarter ending in October.

The Massachusetts lottery reached a record of $4.7 billion in sales during the last fiscal year, up from $4.4 billion in the previous year.

– USA Today

[kennynah]

every body trying for a chance ...even more so now that times are getting worst....

afterall, if u are already quite poor, what's another $2 poorer...but for a very slim chance on getting millions...you might spend that away on that lottery ticket...

[kennynah]

$5 on toto....spools won again...knn....

kana 3 numbers got money to collect bo ?

Chin Tu Lan

[iam802]

next time u buy from miiiii....buy $5..I give u $1 back, ok?

20% returns