Video poker machines are a con
Look at them, video poker automates lined up at the entrance to any casino, or lurking in the corner of social clubs where the local gambling ordinances permit them. They play to the greed, the get-rich-quick in the poor saps who can’t resist them. . . They are there to take the hard-earned dollars from suckers. Keep hearing them complain they’re not winning enough. Keep seeing them coming back to the machines. There’s only one thing you can say about these people. They demonstrate the one important feature of the machines. The House has an edge. No matter where you go in the casino world, whether its to some swanky place or online, the paytables are set in a way that gives the House a mathematical advantage. That’s just the way statistics work their way to the one mathematical certainty. The House will win in the end. So let’s put those sore losers right. There will be times when players have a hot streak and it will seem like all the jackpots are falling. Then those streaks will go cold. There’s no way they will spoil a sure thing by risking detection as a fraud by regulators.