[AMA] Ex-Casino Games Dealer and Supervisor - So Get The Questions Ready

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    psychomagic on 22/02/2018 - 01:42

    +1

    1) Gaming machine Win - No. Linked Jackpot win - maybe. Jackpot odds that are external to a machine can consider a variety of different factors and sometimes aren’t actually jackpots but competitions.
    2) progressive jackpots can be set to go off within a range and the likelihood of them going of increases as they get closer to the top of the range. This is how “pokies gangs” work. They have a sentry watching for the linked jackpot to get close to the win range, then they send a team of people to intimidate or even pay people so that they can occupy all the seats of the progressive. Typically one person bets max bet, max lines and all others are 1 credit 1 line. This provides the best combination of jackpot velocity and triggering spins. The jackpot goes off, they claim the jackpot and the whole team stops playing and waits for the next jackpot range.
    3) that’s just machine volatility. It’s designed so that at least around 10% of the combinations are winning ones. More often than not there will be small wins but not enough to cover the total bet as your credits run out. This the main attraction of video machines vs the old stepper physical reel machines. The maths allows for a more complex and volatile game with more lines so you feel like your winning and the machine says win 5 even though your bet on that spin may have been 9 so it was really a loss of 4.

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  tightarse on 21/02/2018 - 23:25

  +1

  Hi pegaxs. Just want to thank you for one of the best reads I’ve had in a long time. This AMA is nothing short of brilliant. Have counterfeit chips or notes ever been passed to you, and if so, how were they identified and what were the consequences?

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    pegaxs on 21/02/2018 - 23:41

    +4

    Oh, TA, high accolades coming from an OzB veteran such as yourself. I am humbled indeed :) I can add you to the celebrities I have talked too!!

    Yes and yes. Notes were the big ones, more so than chips. I have laid my hands on some varying degrees of counterfeit notes in my time. The first thing you notice is the texture. It just feels "odd" at best. Next is flexibility, they just don’t bend like notes. And another one was the big, thick fat wad of brand new $50 and someone who just wants to cash in for the biggest chips they can. This rings alarm bells.

    Once had a Chinese player turn up and throw down two envelopes filled with $100 notes. Only problem was, they were the old paper $100's and LOTS of them. Not seen them in, wow, 20 years? Security was called and he was escorted to the cage to get them changed. Found out later, they were all just photocopies. They were just too perfect and too new to be 20yo $100 notes…

    Chips on the other hand were good. Very good. Some of them were nearly impossible to tell. What some people used to do was take $5 chips away, paint them the same as a $100 and bring them back and change them on really busy tables. Same with making $500 chips into $1000's. Paint them up, bring them back. We did also get a spate of home made chips, but they were easy to see. Poorly made, wrong size, featureless and weirdly weighted.

    To combat this, most of the really big denomination chips have serial numbers on them and a NFC type chip inside them. Along with embedded UV light patterns, micro-printing and micro-textures on them. High-tech stuff…

    And final note, if people were caught passing off counterfeit cash or chips, they went out back and into the wood chipper… feet first!! Or a holding room, until police arrived. What ever sits best with you. :)

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      Scrooge McDuck on 22/02/2018 - 01:44

      +1

      most of the really big denomination chips have…

      So which ones don't?

      Asking for a friend.

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      psychomagic on 22/02/2018 - 01:52

      One of the systems I worked on was early introduction of chip tracking technology. It’s been around since the late 90s but not sure of the implementation here. Definitely was implemented in some Nevada casinos around 1999, but the technology improved with RFID is the early 2000s

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  randomhero24 on 22/02/2018 - 05:27

  Is it harder for a player to win at Roulette if they are the only player on the table? Are they going one on one with the dealer?

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    pegaxs on 22/02/2018 - 11:13

    Roulette doesn’t car if you are 1v1 or if it's 20v1. It has something to do with it, as each spin is totally independent of the previous and the next. What can happen on a 1v1 game is that it can become very fast. The dealer isn’t waiting for 6 people to place bets, only one. So the game speeds up a lot.

    That being said, a game with a lot of players at it can signal that the dealer is struggling to vary their game and could be stuck in a section. The more stress there is and the more that is going on, the more likely the dealer is to be stuck. These moments are fleeting, so jump on it while you can. Follow what the other players are doing and get on the ride. If they change dealers, remove your chips.

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      idonotknowwhy on 22/02/2018 - 12:02

      each spin is totally independent of the previous and the next.

      Yep, I don't even look at the history now.

      a game with a lot of players at it can signal that the dealer is struggling to vary their game and could be stuck in a section

      I'm not understanding how this would work. How could they be stuck in a section? They just throw the ball after enough people have put their chips down, and there doesn't appear to be a 'section' on the wheel. It's like red->black->red->black… odd->even->odd->even and if it jumps from 1 number to another right at the end, that's a huge difference.

      If they change dealers, remove your chips.

      Yeah, I've witnessed this mass-exodus when the dealer changes.

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        pegaxs on 22/02/2018 - 12:49

        A Roulette layout is divided into a few sections that you can cover a large section of the wheel using a small number of bets…

        Zero section, Grand series, Tier section and Orphans. There are French names for these orginally… (Google them in your own time!! hahaah)

        If a dealer is under the pump and getting slammed, they wont be making variations to their spin and spinning from the same place with the same speed each time. This "may" cause the ball to keep dropping in the same "section series" on the wheel multiple times. Changing the dealer will give a different vibe, different spin rate and wheel speed… game over!

        I've witnessed this mass-exodus when the dealer changes

        Now you know why…

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  rlay3 on 22/02/2018 - 09:02

  Very interesting read, thanks @pegaxs

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    pegaxs on 22/02/2018 - 11:14

    My pleasure. :)

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  Godric on 22/02/2018 - 09:03

  Have you ever witnessed an attempted heist?

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    pegaxs on 22/02/2018 - 11:22

    +1

    You been playing too much GTA! Heist. Sheesh…

    But close. Not so much a heist, but a snatch and run. Never had it done to me as a dealer, because I look like the type of guy, that if you tried it and I caught your hand trying, I could pull you over the table and tie you up like a pretzel. It did happen while I was supervising though. Grabbers will wait and study dealers, which ones are vulnerable to it or are soft targets. They usually target females, as a females first reaction if someone is grabbing towards them is to react away, guys tend to react forwards and over the float.

    Although, one night I was there, a naked homeless guy, wearing a rain coat and smoking a cigar, rode a push bike down the middle of the casino. Does that count?

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      John Kimble on 22/02/2018 - 14:18

      +1

      Although, one night I was there, a naked homeless guy, wearing a rain coat and smoking a cigar, rode a push bike down the middle of the casino.

      Security fail.

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  Fizzydrink on 22/02/2018 - 11:29

  pokie question, but still a casino question…

  is it true that the payouts from jackpots aren't paid from the casino, but from the pokie manufacturer?

  obviously the casino will give you the cash, but do they get it back from the maker?

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    pegaxs on 22/02/2018 - 11:43

    Wrong guy to ask, sorry, but I do know that for some jackpots, the casino did not cover them, but they took out a sort of "insurance" policy on them. They sold off the jackpot to an external company, who would assess the risk involved and take a premium + % of wagers. Essentially gambling that the jackpot would never be won or would not be won before they recoup their insured amount.

    I cant get any more technical, not because i can't, but because I simply do not know. Even what I have provided here is more or less 3rd hand information and a large helping of speculation.

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    psychomagic on 22/02/2018 - 14:14

    +1

    Generally no. They are paid by the operator of the machine, i.e. the casino operator or venue operator.
    Statewide linked jackpots in Australia are paid by the jackpot operator i.e. Maxgaming. There are however some machine specific jackpots (which I don't think are here) such as wheel of fortune and megabucks that are run by machine operators in US jurisdictions. (see here for IGT jackpots http://www.igtjackpots.com/jackpots.aspx)

    I was the project manager for the first statewide jackpot in NSW. The jackpot was designed to be a million dollar jackpot and we had actually tested and planned for what would happen if the jackpot went off in two different places with 3 seconds which was the maximum delay between a win and a reset considering latency etc. In this case the million would be paid to both players. This outcome therefore has been insured against.

    The best way to think about this is as a series of independent but linked transactions.
    1. Venue buys or leases machine
    2. Player makes a bet. (This is like buying a ticket in a raffle or a lottery)
    3. Price of spin is distributed to operator, or to jackpot contribution. (If jackpot contribution, jackpot contribution is divided against prize pool, seed pool and operator)
    4. Outcome of spin is calculated. (Jackpot outcome sent to machine)
    5. Wins are paid to player, if any.

    I think I mentioned in another comment about mystery jackpots - which are more of a raffle/competition. Factors that influence a mystery are very different - the probability of the jackpot going off is based of the aggregate of all the factors and doesn't increase the probability of a win on a specific machine. Best way to play a mystery jackpot is 1 credit 1 line. This gives you the most entries into the raffle at the lowest cost as the only criteria for machine selection for a mystery is that a machine is in play, thus you want to be hitting the play button as often as possible. Big wins and features actually prevent you winning the jackpot as it is just looking for the play button.

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      pegaxs on 22/02/2018 - 14:18

      Thank god you are here. So many pokie questions I cant answer… Seriously, with the amount of pokies players there would be out there, you need your own AMA. That would be awesome.

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        psychomagic on 22/02/2018 - 14:20

        +1

        Will do one at some stage. Don't want to step on the momentum of this one.

        Maybe when things die down a bit here, will start one on pokies.

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        pegaxs on 22/02/2018 - 14:22

        I'll be there to read it. I like your explanations. Very concise and easy to digest. Added to that, a world of experience shows though in your responses.

        It's a shame I can only upvote your comments once.

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  randomhero24 on 22/02/2018 - 14:24

  -1

  In reference to my earlier question, I notice how many players will play numbers in sequence on the wheel, and I have always thought dealers pick a spot covering say 3 numbers and they are able to get the ball to one of those three (or some may even be able to bullseye a number).

  So if I play 32, 0, 26, the dealer is spinning nowhere near there right?

  Did you ever try and get into the minds of the people at your table to help you avoid paying out?

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    pegaxs on 22/02/2018 - 15:10

    they are able to get the ball to one of those three

    Any dealer that says they can do that with any accuracy, is full of shit.

    Did you ever try and get into the minds of the people at your table to help you avoid paying out?

    No, but more to the point, why? It isn't my money. I am not on commission. I don't own shares. Losing punters are horrible people. As a dealer, I WANT people to win. I get no stake in what I win off them, and a table full of winners is waaaaay more fun than a table full of people doing their bank rolls…

    Put it this way, if you are nice to the dealer, strike up some witty banter to make their shift go quick, they are more likely to keep their spins as steady and as regular as they can. Start abusing the dealer and shit talking, you will find yourself having "no more bets" called in the middle of putting all your chips down or really irregular spins pumped out.

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  likang-c on 22/02/2018 - 15:41

  Do you guys sleight of hand to fool players

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    pegaxs on 22/02/2018 - 16:12

    LOL. No.

    There are really strict rules on what we do with our hands at all times. You will see some other ex-dealers mention "clean hands" which is the action of opening your hands to the players and surveillance to show that you most definitely are not doing anything "sleight of hand."

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  AznPride112 on 22/02/2018 - 15:42

  I made an account on OzBargain just to ask a question here =P

  Very interesting read and stuff you've told us about some of the going ons in a casino.

  My question is (It's probably different on land casinos) but when I was on a cruise ship last year, they kept changing dealers like every 20 minutes in the casino. When I asked around, people said it was because that dealer was "losing too much money for the casino" so they had to change dealers. What are you thoughts on this? (I know you mentioned they changed dealers around often for other reasons, but I figured, I'd still ask anyway)

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    pegaxs on 22/02/2018 - 16:06

    +1

    It's in this thread somewhere. I have already answered it a couple of time. It has nothing to do with a dealer losing, and more to do with keeping the dealers rested and keeping the players and dealers off each other nerves. :)

    Check the answers No.:2 here and here.

    PS: Welcome to the OzB Community, AznPride112 :D

    PPS: I got a new sign up!!! Do I get a commission on new sign ups @scotty???

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      AznPride112 on 22/02/2018 - 16:28

      Figured. I knew that reason was a load of crap.
      But people kept trying to convince me otherwise.
      Good to have actual confirmation? :P that this isn't the reason now.

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  Moderatorscrimshaw on 22/02/2018 - 16:36

  The AMA has drawn to a close and thread is now locked.

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