Gambling

Finding keno patterns that are consistent keno winners is an important part of playing the game. And learning how to take advantage of those patterns can be a benefit to the player.

If you’re familiar with gambling in a casino, you know that they make their money from having an edge (an advantage) on every game they have on the floor. However, there are rare instances when casinos have made mistakes.

When that happens things can go very wrong for the casino.  The following account is a fascinating story, as reported by Steve Bourie, about one of those instances that occurred many years ago at a casino in Canada.

Casino de Montreal first opened for business in October 1993 and one of the games it offered was keno. It was the typical keno game that uses the numbers from 1 to 80. Twenty numbers out of the 80 are selected randomly and players try to guess which numbers will be chosen. In this particular game, players guess anywhere from 1 to 20 numbers.

Interestingly, the casino offered the pick 20 on two types of keno games – mechanical and electronic. That’s a lot of keno patterns. In the mechanical version the numbers were printed on 80 standard ping pong-type balls and were chosen by a blower system that mixed the balls and then allowed the balls to escape to a chute one-at-a-time so the numbers could be called out. The electronic version used a computer chip called a random number generator (RNG) to determine its 20 numbers. These electronic machines had been used in numerous Las Vegas casinos for years and are known to be reliable.

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Daniel Corriveau was a freelance computer consultant who enjoyed using his skills to look for patterns in winning lottery numbers. When the new casino opened in his home province of Quebec he decided to turn his attention to the casino’s keno game. Eventually, he thought he detected specific keno patterns in the electronic version of the game and he went to the casino on April 10, 1994 to test out his theory. By the end of the evening he had hit 19 out of 20 numbers three consecutive times, plus some other number combinations for a total win of $620,000.

Knowing that it was statistically impossible to accomplish such a feat, the casino personnel immediately shut down the electronic game and decided not to pay Courriveau until they conducted an inquiry into what had happened. After all, they wanted to make sure that there wasn’t some elaborate scheme underway to defraud them.

After conducting a full-scale police investigation, including a polygraph exam, the casino called a press conference 17 days later to announce that Courriveau had legitimately won his bets and presented him with a check for $620,000.

So how was that possible? Did Mr. Courriveau really discover a winning system for predicting keno numbers? In a way he did – for that particular machine. The key was to be found in the keno patterns.

It turns out that there was an unknown bug, a problem, with the electronic version of the keno game. Although a RNG can literally produce hundreds of millions of different number combinations it always has to have a starting point, or seed, to begin its calculations. It then uses that number to do the math to come up with a new number which then becomes the seed for the next calculation. It then uses that number to do the math for the next calculation and that result becomes the seed for the next calculation. This process is repeated continuously. The one thing to keep in mind, however, is that because the calculations are always the same the RNG needs a different seed each time or else it will come up with the same numbers. In other words, if the starting seed doesn’t change, the RNG will simply come up with the same results time after time.

As mentioned before, the electronic machines had a history of working perfectly in Las Vegas, but in Las Vegas the casinos are open 24 hours a day. The machines are on all the time. It was different in Montreal. The casino didn’t  operate on a 24-hour schedule. The machine was shut off at some point every night for several hours. When the machine was turned on the next day it always started its calculations at the initial seed which was programmed into it. Since the seed never changed, the machine simply kept repeating the same keno patterns of numbers. Mr. Courriveau was lucky enough to spot the pattern but anyone probably could have done the same had they kept a history of the winning numbers. After the problem, the casino still offered keno, but only the mechanical version. The electronic keno game never reopened after Courriveau’s big win.

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By Elliot Frome | Gaming Today | Edited by TMG

A solid gambling strategy will serve you well.

Several days ago, I caught up with an old friend here in town. As we were discussing a variety of people we knew, a “condition” was mentioned with at least a couple of them – “gambling problem.”

Living in Las Vegas, you meet a variety of people who gamble for a living. A few are moderately successful and most, regrettably, are not. The ones that are successful are generally poker players, sports gamblers, video poker players and blackjack players– probably in that order. Those are the games that have an actual gambling strategy that people can learn

There’s a reason why these four games are the games of choice for the successful gamblers. Poker is a game of math, but also one of true skill. You are playing against other players and thus it is very possible for you to be better at the game than the others. I’m looking forward to casinos putting in more games of skill.

I’m an okay poker player, but I would think I can potentially have an advantage at some games of skill over others. A few months ago, I played a skill-based poker game at a table game convention. It was a Three Card Poker variant where you can pick your cards by being faster than the other players.

Two skills are needed – recognizing which cards you want and quick reflexes. I’m good at both of those. I’m looking forward to this game being in the casino someday. At the demo, I didn’t win every round, but I won more than my fair share, which is all you need to do when playing against other humans.

Next up are sports gamblers. I love sports, but I don’t gamble on it much. I used to occasionally do a $5 parlay card during football season to keep it interesting, but not in a few years. I know a few guys who do this well. They have a lot of data they pour through to try to get an edge. While the wagers are made with casinos, you are to some extent wagering against other players and if you know how to parse the data, this is another area where you can gain a true gambling strategy..

The latter two are more of my zone. They are video poker and blackjack. Not a surprise that they have a lot in common. Both games are routinely close to 100%. In the case of video poker, you need to seek out the 100%-plus games. It has gotten harder, but they are still out there. You can also seek out video poker tournaments and maximize cash back and comps to keep the game incredibly close to 100%.

Blackjack is a lot like video poker. You can play the basic game at 99.5%, and with comps and cashback and some tournaments, you can keep it very close to 100%. If you learn to count, then it is like seeking out the 100%-plus games of video poker, except that counting is technically not allowed and you might get banned from a casino.

That leaves all the other games for the not so successful gamblers. Now, if you’re just a tourist coming to Las Vegas for a week to have some fun, playing the other table games is not going to ruin you. Most games have a 1% to 2% house edge and if you wager $150-$500 per hour, you’re talking a loss rate of $1.50 to $10 per hour.

Even if you play for 20 hours across a week, you’re still talking about a maximum of $200 over your trip. This is not a lot of money for a week of fun. And it is not exactly a guarantee of a loss. Over 20 hours of play, you may very well win.

The problem comes in when you start playing regularly and for more money games that simply are mathematically against you. If you don’t realize playing a game with a 98% payback means you will lose 2% of your total amount wagered over the long run, then unfortunately, you’re probably not going to realize you also need to play using the right strategy in order to keep it to that 2%.

Luck can play a part, sure. Hit a Royal Flush at Let It Ride and you’ll make some good money. But, these games were all built using math and in the long run the math is always right. The reason why successful gamblers pick the game I mentioned earlier is because the math tells them you can win (or keep it very close to even) over the long run. They play those games using the right strategy.

The bottom line is that math dictates everything about every game. This is why Expert Strategy was created – to help the player learn the three key components. Know which games to play. Know the right strategy for those games. Know what to expect when you play.

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