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QUESTION: I have been counseled that a surrender bet is a bet that favors the house in blackjack. Seems to me that in selected situations, a surrender move is an advantage. What is your opinion? — Dirk D.

ANSWER: You were wrongly counseled, Dirk. Surrender, both early and late, is a rules option allowed in certain casinos where a player may give up half the wager after seeing the dealer’s up-card. Between the two, early surrender is far more advantageous for blackjack players.

With early surrender, the casino allows the player to surrender his hand and relinquish half the bet before the dealer checks the hole card. This reduces the casino’s edge by a whopping 0.6%. That makes early surrender one of the most favorable blackjack playing rules allowed, and that’s why few casinos make it available.

The more frequently offered late surrender allows a player to abandon a hand after the dealer has checked the hole card for a blackjack. If the dealer has a blackjack, lose you must. This rule reduces the casino’s advantage by only 0.08%, but it’s still one of the more sophisticated moves in blackjack and an advantage to the player.

So when is the best time to wave the white flag? Surrendering is best utilized when the dealer is showing a 10 or an ace and you have a hard 16. You will lose on average 41% of all the 16s dealt to you. Your worst loss will occur when the dealer shows a 10. For every 100,000 hands dealt, you’ll get a 16 against dealer’s 10 a total of 1,824 times and lose 1,037 of them. Your best playing strategy here is to surrender the hand and cut your losses.

Any time you’re allowed to give up half your wager for the privilege of not playing out a bad hand, consider it less an admission of defeat than really smart gambling.

MARK PILARSKI is a contributing editor for numerous gaming periodicals. E-mail questions to pilarski@markpilarski.com.

Saunter into a casino these days, and you probably will find two kinds of blackjack games: the traditional, sit-at-a-table-with-other-humans-and-actual-cards variety and other computer-based games that use virtual cards, virtual chips and virtual dealers.

This latter, dubbed “video blackjack,” was designed to democratize blackjack, enabling gamblers to bet as little as 20 cents per hand (or as much as $100).

The games also accommodate only one player at a time, making them feel like slot machines.

Technically speaking, the games are slot machines because the computer-generated images are based upon algorithms from a 52-card deck of cards (and not the actual cards themselves).

With this in mind, most casinos describe the money-making potential of video blackjack machines the same way they describe slots – in terms of a “hold percentage.” This number reveals the percentage of money that goes into the machine and doesn’t come out.

For most video blackjack machines, that number is 4 percent – the same house edge at a dealer-dealt blackjack game.

Of course the human element isn’t always a good thing at a traditional cards-and-felt blackjack table. If you linger at a table where players do dumb stuff, the house edge can rise precipitously. For this reason, many hard-core blackjack players actually prefer to gamble at the video machines.

The video machines attract amateur players as well, largely because bettors can bet so little.

“If someone wants to play blackjack just for fun, they can put $20 in a machine and bet 20 cents at a time and play for a while,” says Cean Burgeson, a spokesman for Cache Creek Casino in Brooks (Yolo County). “They won’t win much, but they’ll get a lot of entertainment value.”

Some could argue that one of the downsides to video blackjack machines is loneliness. Because the game pits you one-on-one against the dealer, the “social” element of the traditional game is eliminated. Many players cite this interactivity as one of the things they like best about blackjack. If you’re one of these players, you may want to stick to the tables.

Other downsides of the video game are potential payouts. Because the maximum bet at these machines is $100, maximum profit on a regular win (in other words, not a blackjack) is only $100 (as opposed to table games, which can have maximums of up to $5,000 per hand).

Still, when you hit blackjack on a video machine, you generally end up winning more than you would at the tables.

At Cache Creek, for instance, Burgeson says table games pay out 3:2 for blackjacks on shoe games and 6:5 on single-deck games in the main casino as well as 3:2 for blackjacks on all games in the high-limit room. In the video environment, blackjacks always pay out 2:1.

The bottom line: Unless you’re just out for a good time, ask about payouts before you sit down.

- Matt Villano, 96hours@sfchronicle.com

This article appeared on page G – 23 of the San Francisco Chronicle

When Mariana Stebbins came from her native Brazil to attend UConn in 2005, like many students she needed to find a job. What she found was chance to deal blackjack at one of Connecticut’s nearby casinos.

Stebbins heard about the job through a program Mohegan Sun conducts with other countries to help provide immigrants with work. The money, flexible schedule and proximity to UConn seemed ideal for a student.

She soon enrolled in blackjack-dealing classes, obtained her green card and got a job at Mohegan Sun. Stebbins, now 29, worked on and off at both Mohegan Sun and Foxwoods from 2005 until her graduation in 2009.

Dealing blackjack paid the bills but often proved exhausting. Her shoulders and back ached from standing for eight hours and the constant use of her hands made them cramp. She also found the repetition of dealing one hand after another mind-numbing.

Sometimes she was harassed by players in the male-dominated environment.

But despite the negatives, a steady salary and guaranteed hours kept her coming back.

Stebbins says many dealers, including other college students she’s known, get “sucked in” by the job security and find it difficult to leave casino jobs. The income and flexible hours offer a comfortable life and sometimes sidetrack dealers from moving ahead with their education or career.

“Needing to make money and pay for more dealing classes causes some dealers to take semesters off, finish school late or not at all,” Stebbins said. As bills mount, many student dealers find it hard to leave, she said.

“You start paying bills and making good money,” Stebbins said. “I think people are afraid of losing that security. You look at college as something unattainable.”

But Stebbins stuck with the job, struggling to balance additional work shifts, more dealing classes and an expanding school workload.

As a young female dealer, Stebbins admits she often felt uncomfortable in the male-dominated gambling world.

 “It’s definitely a man’s environment,” Stebbins said. “There’s a bunch of men, they’re yelling, they get very excited and very loud.”

She once had to call a supervisor after being harassed by rowdy male gamblers who were losing money. Another man swore at her and told her she was only upset because she “didn’t have a man.”

While dealing blackjack did have its downsides, the work itself and interaction with people could be rewarding.

“Don’t get me wrong,” she said. “Working there can be fun. Some people love it.”

Stebbins’ casino job served its purpose, helping her graduate from UConn last year with a degree in journalism. Degree in hand, she landed a job at the Consulate General of Brazil in Boston.

Today, she is proud to have supported herself through college, but relieved her days dealing blackjack are over.

“I wasn’t going to die working at the casino,” Stebbins said.

 

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Bigger giveaways. More blackjack. Poker like it has never been played here before. Maybe even a new hotel or two.

This is what changes now that Gov. Charlie Crist on Wednesday has signed a bill reducing the slot tax, adding no-limit poker and ending a 30-year staredown with the Seminole Tribe of Florida.

“Everything opens up,” said Steven J. Wolf, a local gambling consultant and former casino executive.

By paying less slot tax, horse tracks, dog tracks and jai-alai frontons can devote more money to increase marketing and offer gamblers more complimentary play, casino owners argued. The compact cements blackjack being played at three Seminole casinos and adds it to Coconut Creek and Hollywood venues. No-limit poker means more cash flying around at Florida’s 23 poker rooms — and increases the amount of taxes poker rooms pay to the state.

The gambling experience will be better overall, as will tourism, says Wolf, former senior director of operations at the Isle Casino & Racing.

“If I’m a gambler and I’m living in Boston and it’s zero degrees, am I jumping on a plane to Las Vegas or am I going to Fort Lauderdale, where I can bring the wife and kids and they can hit the beach?”

Casino officials are reluctant to spill dates and timelines, but here’s a rundown of what’s coming up.

Racino facility expansion

When lobbying the state for tax relief on slot revenue (from 50 percent to 35 percent), the four Broward pari-mutuels said they could use some of the extra money to expand or upgrade their facilities, many of which are more than 50 years old.

Part of the Isle Casino & Racing Pompano Park’s hotel proposal was approved by the Pompano Beach City Commission on Tuesday. But it’s too early to set a construction date, Isle general manager Rob Wyre said.

“We’re still trying to gauge if the worst is behind us in the economy, and having been under the 50 percent [slot] tax for three years has prevented the shareholders from a fair return on their investment. We’re looking to improve that,” Wyre said.

Mardi Gras Casino in Hallandale Beach will increase its marketing budget immediately, chief gaming executive Dan Adkins said. “You’ll see a presence from Mardi Gras that you haven’t seen since we first opened in 2006.”

Plans include adding a large meeting room and party area on the fourth floor, which is vacant, and improving the dog track grandstand for band performances, he said.

“Then, ultimately, the construction is a hotel. That’s been on our drawing board since 2004,” he said.

He declined to offer a timeline, but noted that Mardi Gras’ sister property in Charleston, W.Va., will open a hotel this summer that broke ground less than a year ago.

Dania Jai-Alai was the lone Broward pari-mutuel not to remodel and install machines when county voters approved slots in 2005. The Dania site’s parent company, Boyd Gaming, called the 50 percent tax prohibitive.

“But we are very encouraged by the state’s reduction, and we’re planning to re-evaluate our expansion opportunities at Dania,” Boyd Gaming spokesman David Strow said.

Boyd is considering buying part or all of 17 properties owned by bankrupt Station Casinos Inc., a commitment of up to $2.4 billion, industry experts say, but Strow said “these are not mutually exclusive opportunities.”

Gulfstream Park Racing & Casino in Hallandale Beach opened in February the first phase of a $1.2 billion mall next to the casino, but other capital plans are up in the air because its parent company, Magna Entertainment Corp., is in bankruptcy proceedings.

That said, some money saved from the reduced slot tax goes to horse racing purses, which means horse owners will be more likely to come to Florida, which attracts more racing fans, Gulfstream President Ken Dunn said. That’s expected to help stem the decline thoroughbred racing has seen in 2009 and early this year, he said.

It’s been a little while since I’ve talked about the implementation of table games at area casinos, but Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs made an announcement earlier this month regarding the changes they’re working on to prepare for the new games.

According to a press release sent out on April 8, a new gaming room outside Bar Louie is being built to hold approximately 300 slot machines, plus a table games pit. A second area for table games will be installed near Johnny Rockets and the Timbers buffet. Close to 80 tables will be added to the casino with games including blackjack, roulette, craps and poker.

There’s still no definitive word on when the games will be operational, but all signs continue to point toward sometime this summer. Both Mohegan Sun and Mount Airy have been holding dealer schools to train dealers for the table games.

I’ve never played a hand of poker, blackjack or any other such game in a casino, but I’m intrigued by the idea that these games will be available right here in our backyard. Clearly it’ll draw a larger, more diverse crowd — especially more men in the always important 21-40 range — to the casinos, which currently tend to draw an older crowd for the slots. It will also mean even better business for the clubs within the casinos, which already tend to draw a younger crowd.

Speaking of the casino

Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs recently released the acts and dates for this year’s Hot Summer Fun concert series. The fun begins with Pat Benatar on June 27; tickets are $25-35. Bowzer is coming July 2 ($16-20), Huey Lewis & the News on July 16 ($25-35), Randy Travis on Aug. 20 ($16-20); Foreigner on Aug. 29 ($22-30). Tickets are on sale at the Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs box office, located in the valet lobby, or through Ticketmaster.

Supporting art

The NEPA Independent Arts Bazaar will be held on Saturday, May 22 from noon to 5 p.m. at Eleanor Rigby’s in Jermyn. Artists of all kinds are invited to purchase a vendor space for $25. The deadline to reserve a spot is May 19, so those interested should call or e-mail Amanda at 282-1606 or ohsweetjosephine@gmail.com.

The Bazaar will also feature live music and performances, plus food and beverages both alcoholic and non-alcoholic.

Original efforts, please

With this week’s summer movie preview, I can’t help but wonder what’s going on in Hollywood. Jeff Boam previews 20 films in the story, and a whopping half of them are either remakes or sequels to previous movies. Granted, there are way more than 20 movies set to hit theaters this summer, but the 20 featured in these pages are among the most highly anticipated. Is Hollywood running out of ideas that it has to recycle old material? It sure looks that way.

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-rshemanski@timesshamrock.com

Gov. Charlie Crist quietly signed into law Wednesday a landmark, $1 billion gambling agreement with the Seminole Indian tribe that legalizes blackjack at five of its casinos.

The governor didn’t call the customary news conference for such major legislation, instead inviting the two primary legislative sponsors — Rep. Bill Galvano and Sen. Dennis Jones — to witness his signature.

The agreement authorizes blackjack at five Seminole casinos for five years, including its facilities in Broward County. The deal also gives the tribe a monopoly on slot machines statewide, except for Broward and Miami-Dade counties, where voters authorized slots.

Pari-mutuels in South Florida also get a long-sought tax break on slot machine profits — lowering the rate from 50 percent to 35 percent. In addition, pari-mutuels statewide will get expanded poker room hours and betting limits.

The governor plans to do a ceremonial bill signing with Seminole tribal members next week, said spokesman Sterling Ivey.

As Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd (“We’re Doing God’s Work”) Blankfein, Fabrice “Fabulous Fab” Toure, and other bank executives paraded before the Senate Permanent Subcommitee on Investigations to proclaim that their honor is as pure as the driven snow, even Nevada’s Republican Senator John Ensign–who had an affair with his Chief of Staff’s wife and then paid the couple off to keep it quiet–took moral offense when several Senators compared Wall Street banks to Vegas casinos, telling the Committee, “In Las Vegas, most people know the odds are stacked against them. On Wall Street, they manipulate the odds while you’re playing the game.”

He had a right to be offended. Vegas casinos and bordellos run more honest businesses than Wall Street megabanks.

Running a gambling casino is actually a pretty simple, straightforward and honest business. You’re closely regulated by the state gambling commission who would throw you in prison if you were caught loading the dice, stacking the deck or making side bets for your own account against your customers. All your customers know that you skew the odds slightly in favor of the house, so that cumulatively the house always wins and you make healthy profits on the margin by which the odds are slightly skewed in your favor.

But if you’re Goldman Sachs (and the other Wall Street megabanks) creating and selling toxic packages of synthetic derivatives, you can load the dice, stack the deck, and trade for your own account against your clients with impunity and then get bailed out by the government if you lose your bets. Any self-respecting casino owner would be insulted if you accused him of similar behavior.

If Goldman (and the other Wall Street megabanks engaging in similar practices) were a casino, it would look something like the old Robert Redford-Paul Newman movie The Sting: First they’d allow one of their heavy roller clients (in this case John Paulson) to pick the cards for its blackjack table, stacking the deck so some other drunk heavy rollers from Germany would almost certainly lose. Next they’d pay a supposedly independent private consumer rating company–something like Consumer Reports, but in this case called Moody’s or Standard and Poors–to certify to the Germans that the blackjack table was on the level. Then they’d make money selling the Germans lots of liquor to be sure they would bet heavily, while taking a cut of the table when they lost. Next they would make more fees by letting its other client, Paulson, bet against the Germans, taking a cut of that table too. Finally, they would make the really big score by using their own money (proprietary trading) to make side bets with other gamblers (like AIG) that customers playing at the stacked blackjack table would lose. And when this last group of gamblers (the AIG ones) lost their bets and had to pay up–but couldn’t because they weren’t legally required to have enough money to cover the bets in the first place–they’d threaten financial Armageddon if the taxpayers didn’t cover their bets and bail them out. And it wasn’t just Goldman running this kind of sting operation. It was other Too Big To Fail Banks like JP Morgan Chase and Morgan Stanley.

Part of the reason that this kind of activity would get a casino owner thrown in jail and would get a bankster a taxpayer-funded bailout is that in 1999, Bill Clinton signed a bipartisan bill prohibiting derivatives from being regulated in any form–as gambling, insurance or securities–after being advised to do so by his Treasury Secretaries Bob Rubin and Larry Summers (now Obama’s chief economic advisor).

So under current law, it may not be illegal for a bank to put together a package of toxic synthetic derivatives, knowing all the while that they’re likely to blow up and lose their clients’ money. It may not be illegal to simultaneously sell another client short bets that the toxic derivatives will blow up. And it may not be illegal to use the bank’s own money, collected from federally insured depositors, to bet that the entire subprime mortgage market, of which those derivatives are a part, will melt down. (Well there’s at least a theory that it’s illegal. It’s possible that this scheme may have broken general laws against fraud, or conspiracy to commit fraud; but so far no branch of the Federal government or state governments have tried to bring charges on those grounds. Let’s hope that the Justice Department and/or some state Attorneys General seriously pursue this angle–putting a few banksters in jail may do as much to deter future irresponsible behavior as regulations, particularly if the banks continue to capture the regulators.)

So far, the only law that Goldman has been accused of breaking in this scheme is the requirement that securities underwriters provide their buyers with all “material” information about the securities in question. The narrow legal issue in the SEC’s civil (not criminal) suit against Goldman is whether it was “material” to have told its clients, who were buying the synthetic derivatives long, that another client–John Paulson–helped pick the securities in the package because he was taking a short position that would make money if the package blew up. Goldman’s defense–and it may be a winning defense–is that almost no one at the time knew who Paulson was, so telling the long investors that Paulson was helping pick the securities would not have affected their decision to buy the securities and thus was not “material.” The government’s case will likely be that Goldman had a duty to tell its buyers, not only Paulson’s name, but that he was one of the people both picking the securities and betting against them to fail, and this information was thus “material.” Most lawyers will tell you that this case could go either way.

More important than who will win the Goldman suit is whether negative publicity from the Goldman charges will spur Congress to do more to make it clearly illegal for Goldman and other megabanks to engage in this kind of activity in the future. At this point, the financial reform bills before Congress don’t do nearly enough. Blanche Lincoln’s Agriculture Committee amendment, which the Democrats have now incorporated into their bill, at least requires most derivatives to be traded in public on exchanges, and forces banks to spin-off their divisions which engage in proprietary trading of derivatives into separate companies. There’s a good chance, however, that this will be watered down in the final bill by Republicans and corporate-friendly Democrats.

The legislation currently does nothing about ratings agencies that are paid by banks to give toxic assets AAA ratings, when both the banks and the ratings agencies know, or should know, that the assets are toxic. It does nothing to require that banks have a fiduciary duty to their investment clients, to treat their clients’ money as carefully as they would treat their own money, and to not be allowed to construct and sell securities packages that the banks have good reason to believe are toxic. It does nothing to restrict the sale of “synthetic” derivatives where neither the buyer nor seller actually owns anything, which securities were at the heart of AIG’s collapse and bailout.

If the Senate doesn’t amend the financial reform bill to unequivocally outlaw these practices–which did so much to create the financial meltdown and led to millions of Americans losing their jobs and houses–then banks will keep engaging in them and future booms, busts and bailouts are likely. We’ll continue to hear that giant sucking sound of the megabanks scooping up the wealth of middle class Americans and redistributing it upwards (instead of playing their proper role of allocating savings and capital where it’s most useful to make the economy more productive and create jobs.) And running a gambling casino will continue to be a more honest businesses then running a Wall Street Bank.

April 28, 2010
Written by: John M.

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Playing online blackjack is one of the most well liked and well played game online. Citizens of the world find it very enjoyable and a lot of fun to play. It can become a very skilled game.

Some say blackjack started in France around the seventeen hundreds. Vingt-En_Un (meaning twenty one in French) was the original blackjack. The rules are a little different now than then, the object of the game is the same, to beat the dealer. The French revolution over, blackjack found its way to North America.

The card sharks and gamblers found this game to be more rewarding due to the fact they could make up the rules, somewhat and win big. No set rules for card gambling were found around the nineteen hundreds so the United States government put some laws into effect. They thought blackjack would corrupt the people and gamblers would spend all their hard earned money.

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The game of blackjack can be played with one player and the dealer, almost like one on one. The dealer gets two cards, which one is face down. The player gets two cards as well. The player does not know what the dealer has so the player has to decide what to do. Does he get another card (hit) or stay? It depends on how many points the player has, verses the dealer. The player can hit, take the insurance, win or lose.

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