Karen,
First, Class II and III are artificial terms used by a Federal law to
regulate Indian tribal casinos without going too far in interfering
with the sovereignty of the Tribes and the States their land is in.
Class II games of chance are defined as Bingo, punchboards and
pull-tabs. The latter two are not important if you don't know what they are.
Without going into a lot of details generally speaking the States
cannot prevent Indian tribes from offering Bingo games. Or machines
that look like slot or video poker games but are actually based on a
Bingo game going on very quickly in the background. One very
interesting fact is that at least two people must play Bingo at the
same time. So if you are the only person in a Class II casino your
machine will not operate since no Bingo games are going on.
Class III is used to describe what we normally think of as casino
games. If the Tribe negotiates a Compact with the governor of the
state and the Federal government approves the Tribe can then offer
any games that are permitted under the compact.
Getting back to Class II for a minute, don't confuse the Bingo games
that are going on in the background with a Bingo option on a
coin-operated machine. You will not find American-style Class II
outside of the US (as far as I know but there are so many different
rules that I might be misinformed. As I was about IGT Class II video
poker if you read my next post).
To determine if you are getting a fair deal contact the regulators
that control the casino you are interested in. Regulations throughout
western Europe are very tight as they are in the Caribbean, Australia
and most countries. But this doesn't guarantee that they are in all cases.
Hope this helps.
Bill
···
At 04:58 PM 2/8/2006, you wrote:
I've been reading this with interest.
As a non US-resident I've been playing at various casinos in Europe and I'v=
e wondered
whether or not I'm always getting a fair deal. But I guess as long as the m=
achine doesn't
correct you if you break a winning hand than it's probably fair (?).And how does this work with multi game machines? I mean, machines that also=
offer bingo
and video reel games next to VP?And I hadn't heard the terms Class II and III before. What's a Class I then=
??Thanks for any answers!
Karen B
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