What kind of basic casino math do you need when playing casino games? If you can do basic operations, addition, subtraction, multiplication and division, you have all the math you need for casino gambling. No algebra or calculus is required.
Uses of Basic Casino Math
Why do you need basic math for casino games? Why do you need any math at all? The reason revolves around odds and probability. Every bet in a casino, in fact, every gamble, is an odds proposition. If the odds you are paid off at are longer than the true odds of an outcome, you have an edge. If the true odds are longer, the casino has the edge. Of course, all casino games are designed to give the casino the edge.
Using Basic Math Against the Casino
So if you know the casino has the edge, how can math help you? It can help you in a number of ways. First, it can tell you just how much of an edge the casino has. If the true odds of an outcome are 4-to-1 and you are being offered 3-to-1, you should be much more inclined to take the bet than a situation where the House is offering you 10-to-1 and the true odds are 100-to-1. Most people will always go for the higher payout, but if you understand the casino math, you will know which bet to take in order to minimize losses and potentially maximize wins.
Other Uses of Basic Casino Math
You can also use math for simple things, such as making sure you are paid off correctly. Although dealers are well-trained, they can occasionally make a mistake, and if they make a mathematical error that hurts you, you want to be able to point it out. In addition, basic casino math can help you manage your bankroll. You don't want to put your whole bankroll at risk in one shot. If you can figure out the House edge in a game and how many sessions you want to play, you can calculate what stakes you need to play at to make your bankroll last as long as you need it to.
Blackjack is actually a game of skill. Of course, there's a lot of chance involved in the decision of an individual hand, but chance evens out over time. Knowing when to hit and when to stand is what decides your success as a blackjack player.
Reducing the house edge
Nevertheless, even if you play an optimal blackjack strategy (see below), the house has an edge against you. But it is a smaller edge than in most other casino games - if you play well. A lot of people play blackjack in a way that doesn't yield the best possible chances. With a good strategy, a disciplined mentality, and a lot of practice, you can keep the house edge at a minimum and extract maximum enjoyment from the game.
Optimal blackjack strategy
This table describes a strategy that supplies an optimal move for each of your hands matched up against each possible up card of the dealer:
Play blackjack the smart way
Even with a good blackjack strategy, you cannot enter a blackjack game and expect to win - due to the house edge. However, using the blackjack strategy chart above you reduce the house edge to a minimum, and by following the simple mental guidelines below you have all chances of getting a lot of enjoyment from playing blackjack. Make a budget. Before you start playing, decide how much you can spend. Consider this amount gone.
Feels uncomfortable? Then you probably need to cut down your blackjack budget. Also decide how much you will bet on each hand. The higher you play, the shorter your session will last, on average. To have a long session, make small bets. If you want to play a short game with maximum variance, go for the big bets. When your budget is met, quit playing. This is the defining line between being a successful blackjack player and getting yourself into serious trouble.
Getting paid for playing blackjack
Keep a lookout for bonuses. A special feature in online casinos is that they offer casino bonuses as a mean to attract players. Bonuses usually require that you wager a certain amount before the bonus is released to your account. With this extra value you may actually turn the house edge around and be a favorite against the house!
Practice, practice and keep practicing. It takes a lot of playing to be comfortable with all possible situations that may arise in blackjack. As a matter of fact, it's a good idea to start practicing for free. Many online casinos offer play money tables where you can get accustomed to the game mechanics without risking any money.
What comes around
Don't chase losses. Sure, losing may be very frustrating, but if you change your game to compensate for it you deviate from the optimal strategy. That is, you increase the house edge. It is a good way of compounding your losses rather than neutralizing them. If you want to enjoy blackjack, make a sport out of smiling at your bad luck!
The idea may not be revolutionary, but there is certainly a growing buzz in the online casino gambling industry about the new personalized gambling experience launching under the Mybetboo brand. The subsidiary for the Gaming VC, Betboo, has announced that the new site is launching in the coming weeks and will target gamblers looking for a more customized and personalized gaming experience than the online casinos can offer. In essence, the Betboo gaming product will allow gamblers to create an account and then begin designing their own custom-built casino, poker, bingo, and betting sits.
As the online casino gambling industry matures there are an increasing number of niche gaming sites really targeting the internet gamblers and offering up highly unique and specialized gaming experiences. In this case, the Betboo product is actually pretty similar to the player-created gaming site experience that Microgaming successfully launched and implemented last year. The new Mybetboo experience is going to take the online casinos to a whole different level – and it certainly gives more control to the gamblers themselves – the control to customize the look and feel of their sites as well as the games they are offered when they log in.
The company has patented this new technology that will operate much like open-source content. Online casino gamblers are given the option of dragging and dropping elements of their gaming site onto a grid – this includes the look of the site as well as “pills” or the single gambling games and betting products they want to include on their highly customized and personal internet gambling site.
As more casinos adopt scientific methodology to improve business, CRM and marketing automation technologies are taking a more prominent role in an ongoing struggle for customer loyalty. As a result, the information technology department has become a key player in strategy development. Increasingly, IT is held accountable for making sure that customer loyalty strategies succeed.
“I’ve been in the gaming industry for a few years, so I’ve seen plenty of change. One of the biggest changes has been in how IT fits into the big picture,” says John Enriquez, vice president of information technology at Pearl River Resort in Choctaw, Mississippi. “In today’s fiercely competitive environment, IT’s most important job is creating guest knowledge.”
Pearl RiverResort is one of the largest casinos in the U.S. The resort has 5,000 slot machines, 115 table games, 1,000 guest rooms, 14 restaurants, two golf courses, a water park, and a variety of shopping venues. A development of the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Pearl River Resort draws guests from Mississippi, Georgia, Alabama and Louisiana — which means it also competes with other resorts and attractions in these states.
Guest knowledge is the fuel for resort marketing, and marketing is the heart of a successful resort operation, says Enriquez. The more you know about your guests, the more likely you are to develop cost-effective marketing campaigns that boost revenue, increase market share, and improve margins.
“We make sure that the information we collect is analyzed and presented in the form of actionable business intelligence,” says Enriquez. “We develop models for testing assumptions. We monitor and measure the impact of marketing campaigns so they can be optimized on the fly, in real time. In other words, we make sure we’re fishing where the fish are!”
Having 360-degree views of its guests enables Pearl River Resort to deliver better guest experiences. It also empowers the casino to create and execute highly targeted marketing campaigns based on what we really know about the preferences and habits of our guests. “In the past, we had to guess,” recalls Enriquez. “Now we know!
For example, the resort recently launched a campaign aimed at a narrow segment of players. “We assumed that this segment was highly profitable. But when we looked carefully at all the data, we saw that our assumptions had been wrong. So we refined the campaign, adjusting and optimizing it until we achieved the results we desired,” says Enriquez.
Not all high-value guests are the same, he notes. Pearl River Resort could easily miss opportunities to increase revenue by assuming that all high-value guests are interested solely in gaming.
“If you approach your marketing strategy from a guest knowledge perspective, you’ll know precisely which of your guests love to play golf, which love to shop, which want an appointment at the spa, and which want to visit the water park! Before they even arrive, you can schedule them for a round of golf or a soothing massage. You can make their dinner reservations — and even make sure the right bottle of wine is properly chilled and waiting for them at the table,” says Enriquez.
Knowledge makes it easier to deliver the kind of memorable guest experiences that will keep them coming back year after year. At Pearl River Resort, guest knowledge is the cornerstone of all marketing strategy, says Enriquez.
The resort is being recognized for its customer-focused marketing strategies during the 15th annual SAS Enterprise Intelligence Awards ceremony at this year’s SAS Users Group International (SUGI) meeting in San Francisco.
Pearl RiverResort recently partnered with SAS to build a consolidated data warehouse. Having a data warehouse enables the casino to gather guest information in a central location and provide fast, consistent reporting and analysis. Marketing automation software helps the casino target our marketing campaigns with greater accuracy. Pearl River Resort also has data mining and predictive modeling capabilities, creating a steady stream of new knowledge that be leveraged to improve guest loyalty.
In a very real sense, the gaming industry is only just beginning to understand what retailers have known and practiced for years. Fortunately, advanced technologies such as data mining, marketing automation, and behavioral analytics make it practical for casinos such as Pearl River Resort to leap ahead of less nimble competitors.
“From our point of view, the success of our resort depends less on how much our guests win or lose in the casinos than it does on how well we manage the knowledge we gather from all of our touch points and channels,” says Enriquez.