Month: November 2019

What is Big Six? How does it compare to roulette and slots?

Big Six, also known Big Six Wheel or Wheel of Fortune, is a popular casino game, that draws the crowd. It’s especially popular in Las Vegas. It involves a vertical wheel, six feet in diameter, divided into 54 equal segments. Typically, 52 of the 54 segments are marked with numbers representing dollar amounts – usually $1, $2, $5, $10 and $20 – while the remaining two are marked with a joker and a casino logo. Each segment is separated from the next by spokes which, by means of frictional interaction with stationary ‘clapper’, made of leather or rubber, at the top of the wheel, bring the wheel to a halt at the end of each spin.

Fairly obviously, the idea of the game is for players to predict on which, of the six possible segments, the clapper, or stopper, will fall.The payout odds, probabilities and house edge vary slightly from one version of Big Six to another across the globe but, under Las Vegas rules, odds range from even money, or 1/1, for the $1 segment to 40/1 for one of the logo segments. Unsurprisingly, the probability of winning ranges from 44.44% to 1.85% and the house edge – which, at best, is one of the highest to be found in casino games – ranges from 11.11% to 24.07%. To put those figures in perspective, the probability of winning a bet on a joker or logo segment on Big Six is less than that of making three of kind in a hand of poker.

Which countries gamble the most?

The former Portuguese colony of Macau, or Macao, is the only part of the People’s Republic of China in which casino gambling is legal. Nevertheless, while gross gambling revenues in Macau fell 5%, year-on-year, in January, 2019 to $3.1 billion, according to government figures, the fall was the first for two-and-a-half years. Known as the ‘Vegas of the East’, Macau is the most densely populated region in the world and its burgeoning gambling economy is a shining example of what can happen when a huge, increasingly wealthy population is exposed to legalised gambling.

Even in countries not always associated with being gambling such as New Zealand spent the equivalent of $648 each on gambling in 2018. $895m in total was spent on pokies (slots).

The United States is, of course, home to the City of Las Vegas, Nevada, which is billed as the ‘Entertainment Capital of the World’ and attracted over 42 million visitors. In the U.S. as a whole, gambling revenues are invariably in excess of $150 billion, with pari-mutuel, legal bookmaking and lottery revenues the major contributors. Several gambling and sports betting regulations have been relaxed and sports betting is legal and making a comeback, so gambling revenues are only likely to increase in years to come.

The United Kingdom has a fraction of the population of China or the United States and British casinos – of which there are apparently 152, according to the latest figures from the Gambling Commission – are ‘small beer’ compared with those in, say, Las Vegas or Macau. Nevertheless, the minimum legal to gamble in Britain is 18, as opposed to 21 for Macau residents and residents and foreigners in many U.S. states and Britons invest heavily on lotteries, sports betting, poker and other gambling activities. According to the Gambling Commission, the total gross gambling yield for the industry as a whole, in the year ending September, 2018, was a respectable £14.5 billion.

 

How do you play Texas hold’em poker?

In Texas hold’em poker, each player is dealt two cards, known as ‘hole’ cards, face down. The player immediately to the left of the dealer, known as the ‘small blind’, and the player to his left, known as the ‘big blind’, are required to make compulsory, albeit small, bets so there is something in the pot for players to win. A round of betting proceeds to the left, during which each player may call, raise or fold.

The dealer discards, or ‘burns’, the uppermost card in the deck and deals the first three ‘community’ cards, collectively known as the ‘flop’. By using the hole cards and the community cards, each player decides on the best actual, or possible, hand he can form and another round of betting follows accordingly.

The dealer burns another card and deals the fourth community card, known as the ‘turn’ card. Another round of betting follows, before the dealer burns another card and deals the fifth, and final, community card, known as the ‘river’ card. After another round of betting, the remaining players, starting with the last player to bet, or raise, reveal their hole cards and the player with the highest five-card combination wins. The highest possible hand is a royal flush or, A, K, Q, J, 10 all of the same suit, followed by a straight flush, or any sequence of five cards all of the same suit, followed by four of a kind, and so on down to a high card, which can still be a winning hand.