08.07.19

Purchase:

Sale:

71,3675

71,37

63,6925

63,695

LLC "Company BKS", license No. 154-04434-100000 dated January 10, 2001 to carry out brokerage activities. Issued by the Federal Financial Markets Service. No expiration date.

How to win at a casino, or what roulette can teach those who don’t like gambling

Preface

I am not a casino owner or a gambling addict. I did not receive a penny for this article from the bigwigs of the gambling business, and on the contrary, I risk causing their displeasure by teaching you how to play roulette correctly. And to make things even more intriguing, I’ll say that I work as an auditor, have a PhD in economics, and sell my software for finance. analysis of the largest enterprises in Russia. Therefore, I often teach how to save savings, and not waste them (this is why the Sberometer project was launched). And yes, I didn’t lie in the title and I really will tell you a theory on the verge of mathematics and psychology that will allow you to win at the casino. It may not always be money, but it will definitely be a good mood!

Who loses at the casino?

In the casino, the one who comes to earn money loses. If you go to a casino for this purpose, you have already lost! People go to the casino to have an exciting time in luxury and excitement. They go to work for money. Therefore, before going to the casino, allocate an amount that you do not mind. And how to save it is my task, for the solution of which this article was written.

Second point. Never play slot machines (one-armed bandits). There is no more mediocre and stupid way to squander money than throwing coins into an iron box. However, according to the American Gaming Association, in Las Vegas casinos, 74% of players prefer slot machines and only 5% prefer roulette.

What is the fundamental difference between a slot machine and roulette? In the first case, you play with a black box, which itself decides whether to give you a win or not. In the case of roulette, your opponent is the theory of probability with objective laws that you can observe with your own eyes. The opaque operation of slot machines allows you to put any “appetite” into them. Therefore, in different countries, including Russia, the minimum return on winnings from slot machines is forced at the state level. As a rule, the minimum value is limited to 90%. Those. If you play such a machine for a long time, you will find that it “eats” only every tenth ruble put into it. They say that in Las Vegas, on the initiative of individual casinos, this bar is raised to almost 95% (it is impossible to verify, you can only believe in the kindness of the sharks of the gambling business). But more often the percentage fluctuates (at least it should) around 90%. Compare this to roulette, where the casino’s “appetite” is not 10%, but only 2.7%.

Roulette: Basics

On the roulette wheel, numbers from 0 to 36 are scattered around the circle. This is European roulette. In American roulette there is also a 38th number – “00”. Beware of American roulette, you are twice as likely to lose at it than at European roulette! This means that over a trip to Las Vegas, you should prefer a trip to Monte Carlo or Macau (a Chinese gambling zone that has long outdone the legendary Las Vegas in terms of turnover). Why is American roulette twice as voracious as its European sister? To do this, you need to understand how to win at roulette. Its size is determined not by the desire of the casino owner, but solely by the theory of probability. And it works like this.

Let's discard the unfortunate 0 and 00 for now, imagining that we have 36 numbers. The probability that a specific number will appear at random is 1 in 36 (or 1/36). This means that you only have a 1 in 36 chance of guessing which number will come up (i.e. 2.78% chance (= 1/36 * 100%)). But if you guess correctly, you will receive from the casino 36 times the amount you bet.

All 36 numbers are colored equally in black and red (18 black and 18 red; only zero is green). You can choose to bet on “red” or “black”. If you bet a chip on “red” and guess correctly, the casino gives you back 2 times what you bet. Why exactly 2 times, and not 3 or 4? Because the probability of guessing correctly when betting on “red” or “black” is 18/36 or 1/2. And therefore your reward will be 2 times the bet (i.e. equal to the denominator of the fraction).

According to the rules of roulette, you can place a chip not only on a specific number or on black and red, but also cover several numbers at once with one chip. In particular, 12 numbers, 6, 4, 2 numbers (there is a picture below in the article that shows how this is done on the gaming table). And in all cases, if you guess right, the winnings will be inversely proportional to the probability of guessing. So, by closing 12 numbers, you will receive 3 times more chips than you bet (12/36 = 1/3); put a chip on 4 numbers at once, you will get 9 chips (4/36 = 1/9) and so on, the principle is clear - the probability of winning is less, you get more chips.

If there were only 36 numbers on roulette (by the way, the sum of all numbers from 1 to 36 is 666, which is why roulette is called the “Ferris wheel”), then we could play in the casino for hours on end, remaining with our money. As shown above, winning would exactly balance the probability of losing. But the casino is not a charitable organization, so it wants to take a piece of your pie. To do this, the 37th number was added to the 36 numbers - “0” (European roulette). And the greedy Americans also use the 38th - “00”. The rules for calculating winnings remain the same, as if we had 36 numbers. It turns out that the 37th (and 38th) number is the casino’s income. Now the probability that your number will come up is 1/37 (or 1/38 in the American version), but you will still receive 36 times more than you bet. It turns out that on average the casino receives 1 ruble out of every 37 rubles that you bet on roulette. Casino income - 2.7% (1/37*100%); and from American roulette - 5.3% (2/38).

How much does the casino earn from me?

Yes, when playing roulette you pay the casino only 2.7%. But this is so little, you say?! The supermarket's markup on food products can be 20% or 30%! Why then are there gold walls, marble floors and free booze in a casino and not a supermarket? It's simple. The store bears the costs of delivering the goods, storing them, etc. And the casino takes your bill and, figuratively speaking, cuts off the 37th part from it, without leaving the gaming table. Money flows like a river, and the small stream leaving this river in favor of the casino turns into a very large lake with goldfish on the hacienda of the owner of the gambling establishment. So why am I writing this article, if 2.7% must be guaranteed to be given to the establishment, the game is obviously a losing one? Because you can lose in different ways. You can lose all your money in one moment, or you can enjoy your victories all evening, receiving sharp, but mostly positive emotions. How - read below.

A story from the 90s. The first casinos appeared in Moscow in the best traditions of capitalism, pompous, with free drinks, but the minimum bet was too high for ordinary citizens. But this was not the case where ours did not disappear! There were dodgers. They came to the casino in twos, pretending not to know each other. One bet on black, and the other at the same time on red. As you understand, in 36 out of 37 cases one of them won, and exactly as much as the other one lost. That is, in total they remained practically with their money. What's the catch? And the booze is free! True, the guards quickly learned to recognize such booze-hungry beggars and take them out under white hands.

Casino myths and magic schemes to win at roulette

Myth 1: Beginners are lucky.

Of course, newcomers are no more lucky than regulars. It’s just that when an old-timer wins, they don’t pay much attention to it. And when a newcomer wins (especially by betting his chip on one number and receiving a stack of 36 chips in return), he rejoices louder, and those around him focus on his success. This is beneficial for the casino in order to attract newcomers, and for the old-timer of the establishment it is a good explanation why the newcomer won and not him :)

Myth 2: If you get “red” 10 (20, 30...) times, then now you will probably get “black”!

This is a misconception exclusively from the field of psychology. Indeed, the probability that “red” will appear 10 times in a row is very low, less than 0.1%. Therefore, when we see that “red” has come up 9 times, we have no doubt that “black” will definitely come up on the 10th time. In fact, the key point here is that red has ALREADY been rolled 9 times, so now the odds of getting red and black are still 50/50 (or, to go deeper, the odds of getting red 10 times are exactly the same like 9 times “red” and then “black”). I haven’t been to casinos often, but I have seen such long series of the same color, just like those who believe that they cannot continue indefinitely. Yes, they can’t go on forever, but the probability that a “one-color” series will end on the next move is 50 to 50.

Myth 3: You can't beat the casino.

No, I was not mistaken. The fact that you cannot be guaranteed to win in a casino (theoretically) is as much a myth as the fact that you can (practically). According to the rules of roulette, you can theoretically win. But to prevent this from happening in practice, the casino introduced an additional rule - the maximum bet. Otherwise, the rich would be able to increase their fortunes without leaving the table. To do this, you need to constantly bet on red (or black): first 1 chip; losing - 2 chips, losing again - 4, then 8, 16, 32 and so on until you win. You will win only 1 chip, but you will not be able to lose endlessly; as I wrote above, the probability that one color will appear 10 times in a row is less than a tenth of a percent. In a clever way this is called the martingale system, but usually such an idea comes to all players by itself. And if it comes to Bill Gates, who has enough money to “survive” a black streak of almost any length, the casino will be in trouble. To do this, casinos have two tricks: they limit the maximum bet that can be placed at the table, and increase the minimum bet for the simplest red-black option. That is, those who want to wait for a bright streak in life will have to start with a larger amount, and the likelihood of finishing the “race” without waiting for the desired color is no longer so illusory.

Myth 4: The casino spins the roulette wheel to make you lose.

Quite the contrary, the casino goes out of its way to ensure that roulette works as correctly as possible, i.e. the numbers appeared in a completely random order. This slot machine can be tweaked, we can set any probability of giving out a win - the player still won’t check. Roulette is a completely different matter. All it takes is a slight misalignment of the table and the casino will start losing money. Players will quickly notice if numbers from one sector of the roulette wheel begin to appear more often. And that’s it, roulette will become unprofitable for the owner. Therefore, the tables are not only set perfectly evenly, but also a special counter controls the randomness of numbers, signaling in case of suspicious deviations from the theory of probability.

A story from the 2000s. One day I happened to come across a crooked tape measure. Of course, in a serious casino this is practically impossible. But there was a time when automatic roulette stood alongside the usual one-armed bandits in provincial Russian cafes... It was the only time in my life when I bet on a specific number (never do that, see below!) and... won:)

Myth 5: Casinos are expensive and people lose a lot there.

They lose at the casino exactly as much as they want to lose. For example, in the Monte Carlo casino the minimum bet is 5 euros. This means that you can play for 100 euros all evening, receiving positive emotions. Or you can lose this hundred in 3 minutes without getting an ounce of pleasure. Details are below.

How to win a good mood at roulette with minimal costs

First of all, never bet on a specific number! Did you bet on "14"? The probability that exactly “14” will be rolled is less than 3%. This means that instead of getting 36 chips in return for the one placed on the table, you will most likely simply lose it.

Secondly, do not bet on “black-red”. This is the simplest and most attractive option for beginners. With a probability close to 50/50, you will either lose your chip or win 2 instead of 1 put on the table. This is better than betting on a specific number, naively believing that Fortune is asleep and sees how to caress you with attention. But this is still not reasonable enough. Because:

a) for bets on “black-red” casinos, as a rule, set a minimum bet 5 times higher than other betting options (so that you lose money faster and don’t pull the cat by the tail);

b) we don’t want to be happy or upset with a 50/50 chance, we want to be more happy than sad :)

So what should you bet on?

Bet 5 chips at once, closing 5 blocks of 6 numbers (called “six-line” in English). In roulette there is a bet option where one chip covers 6 consecutive numbers. It looks like this - point “F” (in the picture this is how numbers from 31 to 36 were closed):

By betting on 6 numbers, if you win, you receive 6 instead of one bet chip. The probability of winning is 1/6 (more precisely, 6/37 due to the presence of “0”, but for simplicity we will assume that it is “one sixth”). However, we don't want to win on average 1 time for every 6 bets. Therefore, we close not 1 block of 6 numbers, but 5 at once. In other words, we leave only 6 unclosed numbers plus “0”. Which 6 numbers to leave uncovered is at your discretion, practice your intuition. The main thing is that now we will win with a probability of 5/6 (or more precisely, 30/37), and lose with a probability of 1/6 (or, taking into account zero, 7/37). That is, the probability of winning is 5 times greater than losing. Yes, miracles do not happen, if we win, our wallet will grow with only one chip, and if one of the “not our” 7 numbers falls out, we will lose 5 chips. But the key point here is that we will win 5 times more often than we lose!

The whole point is that we rejoice at winning 1 chip not 5 times less than we regret losing 5. This is subjective and difficult to prove, but in practice this is exactly the case. Winning more often but less is a more positive way to spend your time than winning a lot and rarely (or even never). In fact, if you bet on one number, on average you will win 37 times. But do you need it, it’s depressing to lose chips 36 times and wait for that rare moment of winning?! Moreover, there can easily be more than 36 defeats in a row, and in order to “wait out” them, waiting for a win, you need more chips... Do you need it, spend money on a cloud of chips and then watch your fiasco over and over again? This is not what you came to the casino for!

To play according to the “five-sixths” tactics, you will need 20 “starting capital” chips. That is, 100 euros in Monte Carlo is enough. The probability that you will never win is 0.13%. That is, you must be very guilty before Fortune for her to make such a cruel joke on you. The legal casino income of 2.7% has not been canceled with any approach to betting. But if you bet your 100 euros entirely on one number, or, which is a little better, on “red-black”, you will learn about such a moderate casino income only from this article, but not from practice :)

The described theory of “positive casino visits” has been tested in practice more than once by me and I can confirm that:

a) the joy of winning 1 chip may be less than the bitterness of losing 5, but definitely not 5 times. Therefore, by winning 5 times more often than losing, you spend the evening positively, feeling from your own experience the basic rules of probability theory, which are not emphasized at the university.

b) 20 chips are enough for the evening. I haven't been to a casino often, but I've never left without a single chip. As a rule, what you came with is what you left with, but sometimes it’s a plus. This is explained by the fact that I didn’t play often and didn’t play all night long, so this legal 2.7% was simply not felt. Small pranks Fortune forgives;)

Are there any other betting options?

Eat. According to the same theory of getting pleasure from the game, you can bet 2 chips, closing 2 lines of 12 numbers (to close a line of 12 numbers is the “B” chip in the figure above). With a 2 out of 3 chance you will increase your budget by 1 chip, otherwise you will lose 2 chips. In this case, you will need even less “starting capital”. If you only have 12 chips, then losing them all without winning once will require a lot of effort, because... the probability of this is only 1.7%. But personally, to me, the possibility of losing every 2 wins seems like an insufficiently positive rest, so I like the “five-sixths” option more.

Or you can take my theory to the point of absurdity - take 35 chips and cover 35 numbers at once, leaving only 2 numbers at the discretion of evil fate. With a probability of 95% (i.e. in 35 cases out of 37) you will return 35 chips and additionally receive 1 prize money. But in 5% of cases you will say goodbye to all 35 chips, which is very, very disappointing. This is rather an approach for someone choosing between suicide and “getting rich.” A person borrows 35 million, bets it on 35 numbers and with a probability of 95 out of 100 becomes a millionaire. Well, in 5 cases out of 100, creditors will implement the first option... We don’t need such a roulette.

Instead of a conclusion

Roulette is the theory of probability in its purest form, which can be seen and touched. Roulette is the most honest way of taking money from the population; it is much more honest than contributions for major repairs or a funded pension.

The above approach is applicable not only to roulette. For example, movements in financial markets are sometimes not very different from random ones. It’s not for nothing that FOREX is often compared to a casino. If you rely not only on your knowledge and intuition, but also on the theory of probability, you will be able to earn not so much, but at least not lose much :)

Now I should remember the phrase that has become a classic: “What happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas”... but is it possible to talk about Las Vegas without talking about the casino?

Therefore, I admit - of course, we played in the casino. We played a lot, had fun, won and lost. Otherwise, why go to Vegas?

Since casino profits are the city's main source of income, Vegas does everything possible to attract as many people as possible to the game. For example, casinos are located immediately at the entrance to the hotel, and a person who goes to his room or to a restaurant inevitably passes by sparkling machines beckoning with million-dollar jackpots. The first goal is to attract attention and give hope.

If you don’t know whether you should go to a casino, then ask yourself one question - “why?” And if the answer is “win”, believe me, you have nothing to do in the casino. People who come to casinos for money always lose. To earn money, you have to go to work.

And you can go to the casino for entertainment! In this case, it doesn’t matter whether you win money or lose money - you will have fun, and fortune will decide the rest.

Why do I say so categorically that losing is inevitable? Because all my statements are usually categorical? Not at all, read the mathematical justification below.

All casino games are based on the theory of probability and one of its particulars - the law of large numbers. With a large number of games, their result is predetermined: depending on the variant and rules of the game, the casino advantage is guaranteed to range from 0.5 to 10 percent of the money turnover.

For clarity, let’s look at French roulette (photo from the Internet):

It has 37 numbers - from 1 to 36 (18 red and 18 black) and 0, that is, “zero”. The probability of getting any number in one roll is 1/37. When playing on odds (for example, red or black, which are equally likely), the casino takes all bets when a zero appears - and the probability of this is 1/37 (like any other number), that is, 2.7%. It is easy to calculate that with a fixed bet on the odds, for example, $10, for 10,000 bets the casino is guaranteed to win $2,700 from the players.

This principle of a 2.7% casino advantage applies in any case - at any bets and any combinations thereof.

For example, if you bet one chip on one number, your chance of winning is 1 in 37. If you are lucky, you will have 36 chips (the payout for hitting the number is 1 in 35 plus one chip from the original bet). In total, in 37 games you will bet 37 chips, but you will receive (with average probability, of course) only 36.

Or in another way - if you cover all 37 numbers with chips, then in one throw you will return only 36 chips. The casino's guaranteed income is the same 2.7% of turnover.

With exactly the same probability, you can play for dozens, even-odd, large and small numbers, place splits, quads or series on the field - on average, the casino will win 2.7% of the turnover of all chips.

Novice players usually try to find a hole in this system - but there is none there. The advantage of the casino over the player in the amount of 2.7% is inherent in the very rules of the game of French roulette (with one zero). And in Las Vegas, almost all roulettes are of the American type, that is, with two zeros, which further reduces the player’s chances.

When a player realizes that there are no winning combinations, the first thing that comes to mind is to try to increase the bet. It's a well-known system, based on mathematics, and here's how it works. The player places one play chip on the odds (let's say on red). In case of loss, the bet on the same color is doubled - and so on until red comes up. But sooner or later it will fall out! - then the player’s profit will be the initial bet. Logical? - undoubtedly.

But if everything were so simple, it is unlikely that Las Vegas would have turned into such a town in just a hundred years (photo from the Internet):

It is precisely to ensure that players cannot be guaranteed to win using this scheme that betting limits are set at each table in the casino. Typically, the maximum limit on roulette allows you to win “by doubling your bet” only if the player’s series of failures does not exceed 8 throws. If the player does not win back after eight games, then he loses a disproportionately large amount compared to the initial bet (about 200 times more). And the winnings in case of victory at any stage are just one minimum bet.

I hope that I have sufficiently substantiated the pointlessness of the game for increase, and no one who has read this will want to test this theory in their own practice.

The next stage in the “development” of a roulette player is the search for patterns in the dealer’s throw. At this stage, players already know the location of the numbers on the roulette well and begin to play mainly on the series. For example, “zero spire” is zero and two adjacent numbers on each side. The player can either independently place any number of chips on the field, or entrust this to the dealer - in this case, four chips will be placed: three splits 0-3, 12-15, 32-35 and 26 per number. There are various combinations of bets that can be used either separately or with increased bets on selected numbers... details, I think, are unnecessary, but I can write in more detail in the comments if it is important to someone.

Also, by this point, the player usually acquires several personal “successful” combinations - for example, he always puts one after zero, thirty after ten, or orfolines after orfolines. Of course, this makes the game more fun, but not more profitable. And from this moment on, some of the players become addicted to gaming (but more on that later).

At our hotel casino, I picked up a booklet with numbers for the average house edge for different games. Attention, exclusive information:

Of course, it also happens that a roulette player guesses the number the first time, and sometimes he doesn’t guess the number even on the fiftieth try - this is a matter of short-term luck. But from the law of large numbers it follows: the greater the number of games, the closer the final result is to the probable one.

From this we conclude that the second goal of any casino is to create conditions so that people play for as long as possible. Various tricks are used - for example, in none of the casinos will you see anything that could remind you of time. There will be no clocks on the walls or on the wrists of dealers, and the curtains on the windows will always be closed so that day turns into night without you noticing:

Any drinks in a Las Vegas casino are free for players (but the rule of good form is to thank the waitress for the completed order with at least a five-dollar chip). Champagne, as I mentioned earlier, is brought in tall narrow glasses with strawberries - that’s what we mainly ordered.

In a Las Vegas casino, you can get a massage of the shoulder girdle and neck - while you play cards, a pretty masseuse will knead your stiff muscles, and you will not feel discomfort from sitting for a long time at the card table.

And even smoking, which is universally prohibited indoors, is allowed in Las Vegas casinos. True, very powerful hoods are installed there, and, fortunately, there are fewer and fewer people who smoke every year, so cigarette smoke is not a significant problem for non-smokers, and the opportunity to smoke without leaving the table allows smokers not to be distracted from the game.

As you can see, the amenities organized for players are aimed at keeping a person in the game for as long as possible.

As a result, people play, and when they play, they lose.

Those who have carefully studied the above table have already realized that the most favorable game for the player is blackjack with a payout of 3 to 2, the house edge is only 0.5 - 1.5 percent.
And the biggest income for casinos can come from slot machines - the casino advantage is on average 10 percent.

We played mostly blackjack, a little roulette, and also mastered a new type of poker - three-card poker, a very funny and absolutely hopeless pastime in terms of winning.

We didn't set ourselves the goal of winning, we wanted to have fun and communicate with different people. And the people there were really very different! Girls in evening dresses and flip-flops screaming after every win, very young drunken boys, respectable Chinese in suits, black athletes, and just “ordinary” Americans.

In Minsk casinos, dealers are prescribed fairly strict standards of behavior with players, but in Las Vegas, dealers do not hide, on the contrary, they emphasize their individuality. Therefore, we came across both strict dealers who may never smile at the players during the entire game, and sociable ones who accompany almost every card deal with jokes. And one dealer, in the case of a particularly successful hand, gave a “high five” to the players.

Las Vegas casinos have another very unusual option for card players - bet for the dealer. This is often practiced in lieu of tipping - the player places a chip in a designated area next to his bet, and this is considered the dealer's bet. If the box loses, the chip goes to the casino’s income, and if it wins, the winnings are paid out on it, which, along with the bet, is taken by the dealer as a tip. That is, the dealer’s tip can double or go to zero, and it’s as if he himself is playing along with the players.

Also, among the features of the game in Las Vegas, I will note a different order of dealing cards in blackjack than in Minsk casinos. Here the dealer takes two cards at once, one of them face down, and opens it only when the players take the required number of cards. And in Minsk casinos, the dealer deals himself only one card, and draws after the players. The difference in the distribution method hides one point that is clear to players: in Las Vegas, unlike Minsk, it doesn’t matter much how a person plays on the last box, since the dealer’s two cards are already predetermined in advance, that is, the last box cannot, for example, “pluck” a ten and save the game, or vice versa - take an “extra” card. In fact, no one knows in advance where the cards are in the deck, so this is mainly a psychological moment, but if you play in Minsk casinos, pay attention - “professional” players try to hold the last box themselves.

The most famous blackjack strategy is the card counting method, which is discussed in detail in the movie Twenty One. When implemented correctly, this is a winning strategy, giving the player a significant advantage in the game, but it is currently not feasible in Las Vegas, since the standard shuffle here is limited to about half of all cards - and this, unfortunately, is not enough.

Even in Las Vegas, when playing blackjack with a double or a split on aces, when only one card is relied upon to be drawn, the dealer is often asked to put the card “facedown” (as they say in Minsk casinos), and only open it after the dealer plays. This is usually accompanied by exclamations of excitement, friendly tapping of palms on the table and other attributes of collective fun.

But “one-armed bandits” and other machines have become completely electronic, that is, the joyful clink of coins is no longer heard in the casino, and winnings are issued in the form of a check, which must be cashed at the cash desk.

At the same time, I’ll debunk the myth about the 24-hour Las Vegas casinos - at about 3-4 o’clock in the morning, most of the tables close, only “duty” dealers remain working, and there are practically no players at this time.

Another unusual thing to note is the people in wheelchairs who come to the casino and the low tables specially equipped for them to play cards.

The casino has excellent betting facilities. There are huge rooms with soft sofas, waiter service and many screens - both full-wall and individual, installed in front of the players' chairs.

The bets in Las Vegas in good casinos are quite high: the minimum bet in blackjack or poker is $25 (rarely, but there are tables with a minimum bet of $15), in roulette - most often the minimum colored chip is $5 (you can also find $1, but not in all casinos), the odds are $25. Roulette chips are changed to different colors for different players (as in Minsk), but in Monte Carlo, players place money chips on the table, and the dealers are responsible for remembering all the players’ bets with each throw.

I suppose that on the outskirts of the city you can find casinos with lower bets, but casinos even in five- and four-star hotels are qualitatively different from each other. The simpler hotels in the casinos tend to have lower ceilings, a worse air conditioning system, and noticeably older carpets and furniture.

For games with a minimum bet on boxing of $300 or more, there are separate closed rooms; in the general room on tables with a minimum of $100, there are always free boxes, and the most popular bets are $25-50 on boxing.

We brought some chips home, they look like this:

In Las Vegas, there is no need to present an ID to enter the casino and participate in the game (in all casinos I know, this is required, including in Minsk). There are also no special dress code rules here. In decent casinos in Minsk and in Monte Carlo, the dress code is approximately equally relaxed, but, for example, in the casino of Baden-Baden, where Dostoevsky, Gogol and Tolstoy played, a jacket and tie are required for men (attention! you can rent them inexpensively before entrance to the casino).

If you plan to play at a casino in Las Vegas, be sure to inquire about the player card at the hotel system where you plan to play most often. We lived in Aria, so we had an MGM card - this hotel system also includes Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, New York-New York, Luxor and a dozen other lesser-known hotels.

To receive a plastic card, you will need to fill out a short form and then register on the website. Every time you buy chips, you must show the card - and points will be credited to your personal account. Also, the casino somehow keeps track of the amounts of winnings and losses (but only in the casinos of its hotel system) - this information is also available on the website:

Once you accumulate a certain amount of points, you can enjoy certain benefits. My husband and I almost simultaneously moved to the “pearl” level, and thereby acquired the opportunity to go to buffets without queuing, as well as book a hotel at exclusive prices, receive discounts in some stores, and so on. The gold level, to which we have very little time left, allows us to count on a free room upgrade, and the black level, among other things, allows us to get a limousine from the airport.

And now the most important thing. For most people, casinos are just about gambling and having fun. But some people can acquire a gambling addiction similar to alcohol addiction, and then they lose control over their behavior, losing more and more money, first in the hope of winning back, and then simply not imagining their life without a casino. Unfortunately, there are such people in Minsk casinos...

In our hotel, next to the casino cash desk, there were brochures with the title “When the fun stops” - they listed the signs of gambling addiction in a person and indicated psychological help numbers.

I repeat - the game is entertainment, not a way to make money. It is impossible to beat the casino. By the way, the windows in high-rise hotels in Vegas do not open - can you guess why?

First of all, I want to say that I do not believe in easy money, since I always got mine only through hard work. In this regard, I don’t believe that you can just go to a casino and win a ton of money and then live on it for the rest of your life. To do this, you need to at least work very hard for fate to give you such an opportunity.

However, I won in Las Vegas on the second day of my two-day vacation there. He won a jackpot in a slot machine for several thousand dollars, so that after all his games he remained in the black by $1,800. Since I do not believe in easy money and am afraid of it, I immediately looked down at the invitation to rent a helicopter at night for $1,800, which I did immediately after receiving the money. By the way, I must say that night flights over Vegas after watching the Love show are incredibly cool. The pilot honestly earned his money, and, being a former military pilot, he gave such a ride that I was happy to have an early dinner, which had probably already been digested. It’s just a pity that the photos turned out to be exactly zero point zero, since the phone and the night are not compatible, and only blurry spots of lights are visible. If I had known that there would be such an experience, I would have taken a normal camera... Well, okay, easy comes, easy goes... The spectacle is amazing, especially when you periodically think that somewhere among all these lights you are about to hit the ground, but only one thing is frozen on your lips word fuuuuuuuuuck.

Okay, I digress. As for winning, how it happened. It was simple, I went to the expensive machines (hint, it’s not possible to win on the cheap ones, I’ve already learned this in my eight trips to Vegas in six years). The bet was 10 dollars minimum, 20 maximum. I bet 20 five times (in fact, the hundred-dollar paper was drawn up by the machine), on the last turn some strange combination came up, everything went dark and zero was displayed in the Credits field. I went for a walk around the casino, played roulette, tasted some strange Mexican garbage, and then went to the next machine to get a free cocktail from the girls in fancy dresses scurrying around here and there. As soon as I sat down on a chair, three guys ran up to me and menacingly asked if I was playing in the High Stakes room. I answered honestly that yes, I was there two hours ago. To this, the next question was perfect: “Aren’t you running from the law? Or maybe you're not 21? Or are you just an idiot, you won the jackpot and ran away?” I didn’t immediately understand what kind of jackpot it was, and then I remembered that when everything in the machine went out, a light came on on top, which I thought was that the machine wanted service, having robbed poor Gaidar and was overflowing with bills. They explained to me that they had seen me on cameras and were running after me around the casino, but I was like a cheetah running away from them, and actually went where honest casino workers were reluctant to go, so they just found me. In this regard, they took away my license, asking me to run for a passport, without which they would not be able to give me money.

This is where it gets interesting. If you win small amounts (usually up to $1,200), then no one really cares. However, if it is more, then only the cashier can issue the money after he issues a notification to the American tax office. If the person is not a resident, then they ask for a taxpayer ID (local TIN), then they ask for a tax deduction (a separate form for a non-resident from countries for which taxes are not withheld, such as for Russia), after which they give out money and a bunch pieces of paper, and also promise that the American tax office will send me a letter in which it will explain that it loves me very much.

Actually, after filling out all the forms (two from me - filled out by the casino employees, I only signed up, then two from the cashier and one from the hall manager - they were shown to me so that I knew) they slobbered out the money for me. To be honest, I was so freaked out by what was happening that while I was waiting for these forms to be processed, I drank an insane number of cocktails (read: three), went into a deranged state of mind and won a few more dollars from the machine, which I gave to the waitress, who was sitting next to me all this time and telling me different things. nice words.

Something like that. In general, for some reason I have no luck... I dreamed about the number 17 - I went and bet on it. It didn't fall out. I stood nearby and saw it fall out three times. Laughed until I cried.

In general, three, seven, ace, cards, money, two guns.

Every year, thousands of people travel to gambling destinations such as the Nevada cities of Las Vegas and Reno with the hope of winning at the casinos. While most of these dreamers' wallets are thinner upon their return than when they arrived, the lucky few win a lot of money. If you win gambling in Las Vegas or Reno, you may not be able to keep every penny of your winnings. Gambling winnings are taxable, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) wants its cut of your casino. Before you embark on a trip to Vegas in search of wealth, make sure you understand tax law as it relates to gambling to avoid any confusion with the IRS along the way.

The good thing about gambling tax laws for big winners is that, unlike income taxes, gambling taxes are not progressive. Whether you win $1,500 on a slot machine or $1 million at the poker table, the tax rate you owe on your gambling winnings always remains at 25%. When you win a jackpot with a big slot machine, the casino must keep 25% of itself when you claim your prize; it also provides you with an IRS form called W2-G to report your winnings to the government.

The threshold at which gaming winnings must be reported to the IRS depends on the type of game. On the line, you must report any winnings that exceed your initial bet by 600 or 300 times. For slot machines and bingo, you must report all winnings over $1,200. In a poker tournament, you must report winnings above $5,000.

Casinos are not required to withhold taxes or issue a W2-G to players who win large sums in certain table games such as blackjack, craps and roulette. It is not entirely clear why the IRS differentiated the requirements in this way; slot machines are games of pure chance, while table games require a level of skill. When you cash in your chips from a table game, the casino cannot determine with certainty how much money you started with.

Even if you don't receive a W2-G or collect taxes on your blackjack winnings, that doesn't relieve you from reporting what you won to the IRS. You simply do it yourself when you file your taxes for the year, rather than going to the casino when you claim your winnings.

You are allowed to deduct any money you lose gambling from your winnings for tax purposes. However, gambling losses beyond what you win cannot be claimed as a tax write-off. When you lose your shirt in Vegas, there is no silver lining in the form of reduced tax liability.

Are you planning a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate some special event in your life and at the same time get rich by playing in the best casinos in the city?

Here's a hint: you'll have a better chance of winning if you avoid playing roulette. This is because casinos have a big advantage in roulette. There are 38 numbers on standard American roulette: 36 plus 0 and 00. This means you have a 1 in 38 chance of beating the casino. If you bet a dollar, you don't get $38 - you win $35 and keep your original dollar, for a total of $36. The difference between $36 and $38, $2 is called the “house edge”, which is 5.26% (2:38) - this is the casino's profit! The casino, on average, keeps more than 5% of the loser's bet!

Thus, you can actually “cover” all the numbers on the gambling table and lose money...Games such as roulette and craps have a fixed percentage for each spin.

Unlike roulette, an experienced blackjack player can achieve a house edge of less than 1%. One of the reasons for the player's success is that the rules of the game of blackjack allow you to "double down" up to 100% of the original bet, which is an advantage for the player. Blackjack has good odds compared to other games.

And even if you do not have outstanding mathematical abilities and cannot count cards during the game, then it makes sense for you to listen to the advice of professionals, that is, us. Using the basic strategy, you have the opportunity to reduce the casino's profit to 0.5%, i.e. for every $100 you bet, the casino will only earn 50 cents, and if you're lucky, you might win!

If slot machines are your favorite toy, there is also a catch on the casino side. Las Vegas slots, which cost a dollar per spin, are programmed so that the casinos have an edge of about 5%. But slots that cost 1 cent per spin (spin) give the house edge twice as much.

And where you play is just as important. Smaller casinos, away from the famous Strip, are not as glamorous, but often give players a better chance of winning and have low, minimum table game bets.

And even if you don't get rich, at least you know that the chances of being in the group of losers will be reduced to zero.