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A Gambler Who Beat Roulette

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Re: A Gambler Who Beat Roulette

#61

Post by bastardoperator »

ryandrake wrote: post #14
MrMember wrote: post #10

>Tosa, Marjanovic and Pilisi returned to the Ritz at 10 that night, as promised. This time they were led to a private room where a squad from the London Metropolitan Police was waiting. An officer politely informed them they were under arrest on suspicion of “deception” and led them away to be interviewed at a nearby police station. Once the gamblers were out of earshot, Wootten urged the cops to check their shoes an…

Casinos are pretty pathetic. They claim to run an honest game, and if you lose, they are totally fine with keeping your money. But, if you consistently win, and it looks even slightly statistically improbable, the casino turns into a crybaby health insurance adjuster, going over the rules/law with a magnifying glass to find something, anything that lets them avoid payment. At worst, the ones run by less savory organi…

Casinos have never claimed to run an honest game. It's common knowledge that the odds are always in favor of the house with the exception of maybe blackjack where the odds can theoretically be equal. I played roulette for hours at the Venetian with family a few weeks ago and we basically walked away with a ton of money, we got lucky, but they didn't say a word to us, in fact they were friendly to us and took care of us the entire time. Maybe play at a better Casino?

Re: A Gambler Who Beat Roulette

#62

Post by JackFr »

pmoriarty wrote: post #40
Pulcinella wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting fact: As far as I am aware, it’s illegal to gamble at the casino in Monte Carlo unless you are a foreigner (I.e. it is not legal for citizens of Monaco to gamble there). Probably because the country isn’t actually bringing in any new money if locals gamble. There really is no reason to legalize gambling casinos. It is just an inefficient way of moving money around. It doesn’t actually create new value for…

"There really is no reason to legalize gambling casinos." When you make gambling illegal you just drive it underground and fund organized crime, with all the additional crime and corruption that brings with it. The arguments against making gambling illegal are similar to many of the arguments against making drugs and prostitution illegal, such as consenting adults should be free to do what they want as long as it doe…

> Consenting adults should be free to do what they want as long as it doesn’t harm anyone else.

So long minimum wage and workplace safety laws, welcome back indentured servitude.

Re: A Gambler Who Beat Roulette

#63

Post by beardedetim »

Pulcinella wrote: post #25
willcipriano wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I oppose efforts to legalize gambling not because I dislike gambling but I oppose the theft that we call legalized gambling.

Interesting fact: As far as I am aware, it’s illegal to gamble at the casino in Monte Carlo unless you are a foreigner (I.e. it is not legal for citizens of Monaco to gamble there). Probably because the country isn’t actually bringing in any new money if locals gamble. There really is no reason to legalize gambling casinos. It is just an inefficient way of moving money around. It doesn’t actually create new value for…

> There really is no reason to legalize gambling casinos.

Why should the government outlaw my ability to give my money away however I want to? If I want to go put all my money on black because it's fun to me, why should that be illegal?

Re: A Gambler Who Beat Roulette

#64

Post by bombcar »

IncRnd wrote: post #60
bombcar wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lotteries don't even have the semblance of legitimacy that allowing church bingo parlors does; they're exclusively an optional tax on the poorest members of society. Then again, so many of our sin taxes are.

From "Who is buying Powerball and Mega Millions tickets?" [1] > The general belief is that poorer Americans buy lottery tickets more often than wealthier ones. But that's not quite true. > The survey showed the most frequent lottery players earn between $36,000 and $89,999. About 56% of that group bought tickets in the last year. Fewer of those making under $36,000 bought tickets, only 40%. About 53% who make above $…

Keep reading:

>But other studies have shown that when lower income players do buy tickets, they spend far more money on lottery tickets than wealthier players. A study published in the Journal of Gambling Studies found that those in the bottom fifth of income spent the most on lottery tickets, and more than twice as much as the richest lottery players - $433 a year vs. $193 a year.

Most everyone buys a Powerball ticket when it hits a cool billion or whatever it is; but that's not the vast majority of lottery enjoyers.

Re: A Gambler Who Beat Roulette

#65

Post by mhb »

lelanthran wrote: post #58
jacquesm wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That jumped out at me too. You could lose 500K in a casino and nobody would bat an eye but win 500K and suddenly the police is involved and the casino refuses to pay out. Personally I think if they can't prove that you are cheating that you should be allowed to continue to play as long as you feel like and the casino stays afloat. What's good for the goose should be good for the gander. The police automatically sidin…

> That jumped out at me too. You could lose 500K in a casino and nobody would bat an eye but win 500K and suddenly the police is involved and the casino refuses to pay out. You have to win small. As another poster put it below, the role of the player is to lose. Anecdotally, I used to travel to a coastal city 650km away every two weeks for around 5 years. My Saturday afternoons during this time were usually free and…

FYI: 40K ZAR = ~$2,000

Re: A Gambler Who Beat Roulette

#66

Post by schoen »

btilly wrote: post #46
Pulcinella wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting fact: As far as I am aware, it’s illegal to gamble at the casino in Monte Carlo unless you are a foreigner (I.e. it is not legal for citizens of Monaco to gamble there). Probably because the country isn’t actually bringing in any new money if locals gamble. There really is no reason to legalize gambling casinos. It is just an inefficient way of moving money around. It doesn’t actually create new value for…

Lots of places have such rules, either officially or unofficially. In Korea, by law you have to prove you're a foreigner. In the Bahamas it is legal for the locals to bet, but the casinos kick them out. They've had enough experiences of a guy coming in on payday, losing his money, then his wife coming in the next day with a baseball bat to destroy the machine that took the money. Don't want any more.

In Singapore, local residents have to pay an expensive annual fee to the government in order to be allowed to gamble in casinos, while foreigners may do so for free.

Re: A Gambler Who Beat Roulette

#67

Post by mhb »

hkmaxpro wrote: post #13

Similar but different story: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30489022 > Though roulette was considered by many to be purely a game of chance, Jarecki was convinced that it could be “beat.” > He noticed that at the end of each night, casinos would replace cards and dice with fresh sets — but the expensive roulette wheels went untouched and often stayed in service for decades before being replaced. > Like any othe…

randomocity :)

Re: A Gambler Who Beat Roulette

#68

Post by grecy »

jacquesm wrote: post #21
MrMember wrote: post #10

>Tosa, Marjanovic and Pilisi returned to the Ritz at 10 that night, as promised. This time they were led to a private room where a squad from the London Metropolitan Police was waiting. An officer politely informed them they were under arrest on suspicion of “deception” and led them away to be interviewed at a nearby police station. Once the gamblers were out of earshot, Wootten urged the cops to check their shoes an…

That jumped out at me too. You could lose 500K in a casino and nobody would bat an eye but win 500K and suddenly the police is involved and the casino refuses to pay out. Personally I think if they can't prove that you are cheating that you should be allowed to continue to play as long as you feel like and the casino stays afloat. What's good for the goose should be good for the gander. The police automatically sidin…

> You could lose 500K in a casino and nobody would bat an eye but win 500K and suddenly the police is involved

Yes, the Police exist as the private military of the rich.

Their job is literally to protect the assets of the rich, and that's exactly what they will do whenever you "get one over" the rich.

Re: A Gambler Who Beat Roulette

#69

Post by lancesells »

jacquesm wrote: post #36
aklein wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It wasn’t that they won; the article explains that plenty of people walk out with designer bags full of money. It’s that these folks won in a statistically hugely unlikely way, and that alone is pretty damning evidence that something is off. It’s usually just a matter of finding the smoking gun. Although it’s unpleasant that the casino and police assumed it was cheating and not a defect in the game itself (in what tu…

> It wasn’t that they won; Of course it was! If they had lost using the same method there would have been no issue. > It’s that these folks won in a statistically hugely unlikely way, and that alone is pretty damning evidence that something is off. That's the casino's problem though, not law enforcement. Statistically unlikely equates 'we haven't seen this before' and that should not be enough reason to arrest people…

> The police should not be in the business of protecting the revenue streams of gambling installation operators.

What about in something like betting on a boxing match and having the fighter throw the fight? Is that the casino's problem too?

If you're ok with someone cheating then it all makes complete sense what you're saying. If you're not then someone has to investigate. Do you really want the casino being law enforcement for anyone they find suspicious? I'm not on the casino's side at all but there's a big grey area here.

Re: A Gambler Who Beat Roulette

#70

Post by skippyboxedhero »

jacquesm wrote: post #21
MrMember wrote: post #10

>Tosa, Marjanovic and Pilisi returned to the Ritz at 10 that night, as promised. This time they were led to a private room where a squad from the London Metropolitan Police was waiting. An officer politely informed them they were under arrest on suspicion of “deception” and led them away to be interviewed at a nearby police station. Once the gamblers were out of earshot, Wootten urged the cops to check their shoes an…

That jumped out at me too. You could lose 500K in a casino and nobody would bat an eye but win 500K and suddenly the police is involved and the casino refuses to pay out. Personally I think if they can't prove that you are cheating that you should be allowed to continue to play as long as you feel like and the casino stays afloat. What's good for the goose should be good for the gander. The police automatically sidin…

Google Phil Ivey Crockfords. This case isn't that bad because the casino let them have the winnings. Ivey didn't get his winnings, sued them and still lost because the court concluded he was "dishonest". Iirc, all that happened was that there was an imperfection in how certain cards were printed, and Ivey was a stooge for a Chinese woman (Ivey is a poker player who is known to gamble huge) who had worked out this edge.

The same is also true with sports betting in the UK. Because sportsbooks are so bad at managing risk in the UK, they will shut down winning accounts (unlike in Asia where the huge books actually winning accounts to improve their line and make more money) and use the whole range of AML/consumer protection rules to tilt the odds in their favour.

The reality is that casinos can't beat that minority of customers that are smarter than them...so they cheat.

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