Back to Niagara

My Players insider coupons for May included 4 tickets to the Michael Jackson tribute show “Man in the Miror”. It is decision time  – who to take to the casino? Do I take the hardened bitter cynic or new fresh meat for the casino grist mill or those that I owe some favours – hmmmm ??

I opt for a combination. Someone I owe a favour and new to the “Casino Lifestyle”. They do not have “players cards” so it is better to drive the first time to the casino and get registered as players. Cost on the casino bus without players card $30 each – or pay gas both ways about $18 bucks. We saved $42 by driving. The players cards are free and the second time going on the casino bus is only 5 bucks each.

So we get to the casino – park the car and go in to pick up the show tickets at 1:30 PM. We go into the casino and the buffet line is over 1 hour long. No time for a buffet before the 3 PM show.  We walk outside and hit the local Subway sandwich shop. My assorted cold cuts sub was good. We came prepared to spend about $100 for the big buffet – we spent $35 at Subway – I felt like we saved another $65.

The show was very good. The music was familiar – the singers and dancers were good  – it was a good production.

After the show we went to the casino. We had two virgin player cards to break-in so it was time to play. The girls went to play the slots – the boys went to Blackjack.

Both girls said they enjoyed the flashing lights, bells and whistles and both lost 20 bucks. Oh well.  After being up for the first hour I eventually lost 2 bucks playing blackjack. My buddies could not resist playing the Canada Playboy slot machine and they lost another 15 bucks.

I gave my usual lecture – if you gamble you will lose. The machines and games are designed to win all of your money – eventually. If you play long enough – you will lose all your money. etc etc etc.

It was a good day at the casino – costs were gas $18, food $35, gambling losses $57.

The four show tickets were normally $100 or more – I felt that we almost made money.

Niagara – we are coming back !!

Baadster.

Roughed up at Rama

My buddy needed help splitting some firewood and it looked like a 4 day job up at the cottage.

You know  – I have to be bribed and enticed to do anything.

He thought what can I do to make this better.  He had a free room and food coupons at Rama and his buddy had four tickets to see the “Fab Four” show.

So this trip is starting to interest me. I have been to Macao and Las Vegas last year so why go to Rama? Well free food, room and show can swing my interest. So I took the ten-dollar bus trip up to the casino and my buddies came down from the cottage to pick me up.

So my “whats the real deal” brain was starting to calculate. Normal price for Rental Car or Greyhound up to the cottage and back $143. Room, show and food $260.  Yes this type of 3 day weekend easily has a 400 dollar price.

So what did it actually cost?

So I paid 10 bucks to get up to the casino.
Tips to the servers for “free” drinks about 10 dollars.
I traded a ride to and from the casino and food for wood splitting labour.
Everything else was a casino comp.

To be fair – the room was excellent – I really liked the show and the buffets were good.

The rest of my cost was just my gambling losses.

Rama has the goldfish set at 5 cents – what a bummer. It is better as a 1 cent machine. This goldfish machine was terrible – it averaged a win every 13 spins – so it took 13 spins to win a minimum of 5 units. In no time at all I was down about 7 dollars. – I pulled the plug on this machine.

My second machine was the “new” goldfish machine. It has pre-set buttons of 30,60,90,120 and 150.
This is not a penny machine. This machine automatically plays the 20 lines and adds the amount to trigger the bonus prizes. You have no choice with this machine. I kissed my 20 bucks goodbye and went for it. I played the minimum 30 and I only “won” 30 cents and went down to zero with absolutely no bonus. This was my second worst slot game playing experience ever. I certainly do not recommend the “new” goldfish.

So I watched my buddies play Cleopatra and Big Win. They went up a little and then slowly down to zero. One is down about 100 bucks the other about 400. All three of us were losers. Rama paid for the room show and food – they “made” over 500 bucks – Rama is the winner.

Rama must have their slot machine payback cranked way down. When I walked around the floor – there were not a lot of bells going off. When I talked to some of the players – they said the casino was only busy during the big shows. Thank God I only have to split wood once a year – there seems to be no benefit to me of going to Rama just to gamble.

If Rama announces a better slot policy or sets up 2 and 5 dollar table games – I will go back. Right now my experience and the stories told to me when on the floor have convinced me that other casinos are a better deal for the players.

more later.

Baadster

GoldFish Adventure Two

This time I had 2 meetings with lots of time in between. So I went to the first meeting – went to the casino – went to the second meeting – went to the casino – took the casino bus home.

My logic was that a car rental, gas, insurance and lunch would cost $100 bucks. My plan B was take the casino bus for 5 bucks – local taxi and brown bag my lunch. Actual transportation costs were 24 bucks so  I had a “free gambling budget of $76″. It is amazing how one can rationalize anything.

I went to the original 2 cent goldfish machine. You can use the on-screen buttons to determine how many lines or use the pre-set buttons of 1 – 9 – 20 – bonus etc. I used the on-screen controls and bet on the basic three horizontal lines with no additional bonus.

In the first session I played 594 times. I had 64 wins of 10 to 100 credits and the fish bonus 10 times. I was up $2.24 at the end of the session.

The second session was longer as I played 1634 times. I had 156 wins of 10 to 100 credits and the fish bonus 19 times. I was down at the end of the session $14.50.

The first session averaged less than 10 spins for every win and the minimum win was 10 credits – so by the end of the session I was up.

The second session averaged almost 11 spins for every win and the minimum win was 10 credits – so by the end of the session I was down.

I organized the spin/win info into groups of 100.

1st: 10, 11, 15, 11, 7, 12

2nd: 6, 13, 8, 6, 6, 16, 12, 8, 14, 12, 7, 11, 10, 10, 8, 8, 2,

When you look at the “stats” it is very apparent that the longer you play the greater the chance of losing.  There seems to be time periods of winning – neutral play and losing.

The best strategy is to play in short sessions and leave when you are up. As a player you have to recognize the winning – neutral and losing cycles. If you are in a losing session – leave.

If I look at the total recorded play of three sessions – it includes 2700 plays – In groups of 100 plays there were 15 winning – 3 neutral and 9 losing sessions. This was good for me as I left twice as a winner.

Now I have to determine the best winning percentage ratio to costs?  Is it 1 line or 3 – 5 – 7 – 9 – 11 – 15 or 20 lines? When is the best time to vary the bets from 1 credit to 5 credits?

How much is gambling just using the stats and how much is just guessing correctly ?

time for more research – more later

baadster

My Goldfish Adventure

So it was time for my monthly Niagara casino adventure. I opened the monthly players insider to see what was free and this time I got free tickets to the “Elvis Return to Grace show” , Yuk Yuks and a free buffet.

This combination of Downtown afternoon show and dinner and night comedy show usually costs about $150 each.  So going on the bus for 5 bucks and hotel for $75 is cheap – just have to keep my casino losses below $70 and I am ahead of the cost.

This time I played the WMS Goldfish slot machine.  There are 20 pay lines, and an extra 10 credits to qualify for the many random bonus rounds. I played less than 20 lines and with no extra credits.

I played for the fish food bonus which is triggered by a scatter of 3 dancing fish food cans. There are 25 cans – 20 foods and 5 turtles. When you find 3 cans that match, you win a listed dollar amount. If you find the 4th matching fish food, it doubles that value. You keep picking until you hit 3 turtles.  When you lose you get another chance to pick 1 of 3 turtles (one is 2x, 3x and 10x your total bet). If you find all 20 of the matching cans, you get to select turtles with golden shells with 20x, 30x and 100x your total bet.

I counted 507 spins and 62 wins of 10 credits or larger and played for the fish food bonus 7 times. I am up  $2.53 .

The shows were good – the food OK – I was amused by my slot machine - it was a successful casino entertainment trip.

I am wondering what I will get next month.

More later

Baadster

Feb 12 & 13 at Niagara Falls Casinos

It has been awhile since we traveled down the road to the Niagara Falls casinos.  In my monthly Players Insider – they bribed me with free tickets to see Human Nature, Yuk Yuks and a coupon for the breakfast buffet.

When in Vegas I did not have time to see Human Nature – saw all their trailers in the Vegas entertainment promos but was not able to go and see them.  So this was a wonderful opportunity to see them here very close to home and best of all – “free”.

The weekend started with a snowstorm. At 11 AM looking out of the window I saw nothing but white – a local snow squall  had descended and stopped all traffic.  I was worried – is this God’s way of saying – maybe it is not the best place to be going today??

So the snow storm passed and by 12 noon the sun was out. The Safeway bus is free for the big losers and costs 5 dollars for us mere mortals that just lose small amounts. The trip from Toronto takes about 90 minutes if there is no traffic, construction or snowstorms to slow the way.

The  Fallsview casino is set up very well for the busses. They have the new PAC card issuing desk, coat check and washroom right at the entrance.

The casino itself has the high-end hotel rooms overlooking the Falls with the best views. The Grand Buffet room has an excellent view. everything else is typical casino  – big and difficult to navigate your way around.

This time I stayed away from those terrible Bally blackjack machines and just played the 1 cent multi-reel slot machines. I played Wizard of OZ, Star Trek, Goldfish, Miss Kitty, 50 Lions and Quick Hits. After 6 hours I am up $20.43.  This was a good weekend.

The Human Nature show was excellent. Yuk Yuks was at 50% good and the other half bad, the breakfast Buffet was OK. 

More Later

Baadster

Hello world – My Casino Mis-Adventure

Once again the best teacher is experience.

Lured by the flashy brochures from Casino Niagara and the Fallsview Casino Resort I made the decision to go to see the free shows.

Yes the shows were excellent – the Yuk Yuk comedians were current, funny and entertaining and Le Grand Cirque was varied and exciting.

My problems started 5 minutes after walking into the Fallsview Casino. The casino has “upgraded” the high limit slots area with new machines.

My old favourite blackjack machines are gone, replaced by these new flashy looking blue-lettering multi-game, multi-denominational Game Maker machines produced by Bally.

These Game Maker games have two buttons one that controls start hit deal – the other button controls stand and play max. There are no distinctions between what function the button is “on or controls” when you are playing.

I was dealt a 20 and chose to stand. The whole screen blinked white, then the machine showed the dealer had a blackjack and I was somehow into another game at max bet where magically this blackjack machine took my 50 bucks.

I was down 60 bucks in a flash. I called the attendant who identified himself as the floor manager. The attendant played back my games to explain to me that two dealer blackjacks had occured. I did not even know what happened.

I explained that did not choose to play again – I did not choose to play at maximum bet – the Game Maker machine did it automatically.

He said that the casino can not give refunds every time a machine screws up. He said that it is my responsibility to understand the game before I play. Even if/when there are no posted instructions or warnings anywhere.

He said that he understands that having stand and max bet on the same button is deceitful. The best he could offer was a complimentary buffet dinner.

So the lesson for me is do not play the Bally Game Maker multi-game multi-denomination games that have multi-function buttons.

I will be writing a letter to the OLG to complain – I would like the casino games inspector to investigate this machine and any other multi-function button machines that have recently hit the market.

If you played one of these multi-function button machines and was placed into games at max bet that you did not choose – I suggest that you also write to the OLG to complain.

Send a copy here -we will post it. I am sure if someone went to an industrial psychiatrist – they could give a more qualified opinion that these machines are designed to trick casino patrons as they are designed to immitate regular game playing buttons and functions but with different and dire consequences for the players.

I have never had a lottery vendor take all my money and say – hey this your problem. When I play the lottery – I choose my numbers and I choose how many entries.

The price is only a few bucks. Playing the lottery is safer than going to the casino. The lottery does not force you to put your money into a machine then do whatever it wants – and still it is your fault and your loss.

OLG you should be ashamed of yourself. First it was OLG vendors who steal tickets, then OLG security who do not investigate, then OLG executives who deny any problems, now it is OLG casinos with machines you can not trust.

More later

Original Post: http://mylotterypicks.wordpress.com/