The other night my sister called me from an area "racino" (in Yonkers,
NY) where she was playing the VP (against my better advice, for what
it's worth). From her mood later I divined that she ended up making a
sizable contribution to help underwrite our state's educational
system. I had warned her about the likelihood of encountering VLTs and
sure enough she confirmed that some machines had "match card" features
or "magic genies" that came out and changed the cards in her hand -
which I've read are sure signs that a machine is a VLT. However, she also
insisted that other machines were regular "Game Kings" just like the
ones she plays in Atlantic City. Never having seen a VLT myself, are
there really machines which are indistinguishable from true video
poker games? Is it likely that a venue would place genuine machines
mixed in among the VLTs on the floor? Is there any way of knowing the
true return on a VLT? Any payout tables would obviously be meaningless
if the hands are predetermined.
"Racinos" and VLTs
As I understand it, these are slot machines pretending to be video
poker machines. My buddy said he played one at Saratoga last week.
He was telling me it was a 9/6 JOB and I knew that the best they have
there are 8/5 JOB, so I asked him if the genie came out and changed
his picks for him if he missed the play.
It isn't bad enough that games are offered at these racinos that are
unplayable, or that they take advantage of the old and ignorant with
poor payback and terrible comps, but they also have to try to trick
those who know just a little about video poker. This would be illegal
in Nevada, as it should be. The problem is that the ones we count on
to enforce fair play have their hands in the till for their little
taste, so they don't really care whether the gambler gets a good play
or not, and the average person playing doesn't know anything and can't
be educated, even after years of dropping money in the long, dark well.
At Saratoga there are no table games and no live poker is dealt. Some
the the reason for that is the history of anti-gambling laws, but some
is that those games would yield less profit.
For the ones in Yonkers:
Outside of the the help menu mentioning the genie and the NYS lottery
marking on it they look like nice new Game Kings with the nice new LCD
monitors. It's a nice 100% smoke free facility with tons of new games.
If you are a slot player I'm sure it is just as good as anyplace. For
VP it is still a "slot machine / lottery ticket" draw not a random
card game.
-Dave
The other night my sister called me from an area "racino" (in Yonkers,
NY) where she was playing the VP (against my better advice, for what
it's worth). From her mood later I divined that she ended up making a
sizable contribution to help underwrite our state's educational
system. I had warned her about the likelihood of encountering VLTs and
sure enough she confirmed that some machines had "match card" features
or "magic genies" that came out and changed the cards in her hand -
which I've read are sure signs that a machine is a VLT. However, she
also
ยทยทยท
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "jd_weber" <jd_weber@...> wrote:
insisted that other machines were regular "Game Kings" just like the
ones she plays in Atlantic City. Never having seen a VLT myself, are
there really machines which are indistinguishable from true video
poker games? Is it likely that a venue would place genuine machines
mixed in among the VLTs on the floor? Is there any way of knowing the
true return on a VLT? Any payout tables would obviously be meaningless
if the hands are predetermined.