Author: editor

Gambling was legalised in Atlantic City, New Jersey following a referendum in 1976 and, two years later, Resorts International, now Resorts Casino Hotel, on the famous Atlantic City Boardwalk became the first legal casino in the United States outside Nevada. Fast forward four decades or so and, according the latest report by the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, far and away the most profitable land-based casino in Atlantic City is The Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa which, in the year to April, 2019, grossed $53.37 million, or nearly double the revenue of its nearest competitor.

Opened in July, 2003, making it the newest casino in Atlantic City, the Borgata is one of three casinos in the marina district of the city, the others being Harrah’s Resort Atlantic City and the Golden Nugget. Harrah’s, which opened in November, 1980, is the oldest of the three and was, in fact, the first casino in Atlantic located away from the boardwalk. At one point in its history, Harrah’s was the highest-grossing casino in Atlantic City but, as of April, 2019, ranked second behind The Borgata, with annual revenue of $27.18 million.

Third on the list comes Tropicana Atlantic City, with annual revenue of $24.02 million. Originally opened, on the Boardwalk, in November, 1981, nearly two years after original owners, Ramada, acquired the Tropicana Resort & Casino on the Las Vegas Strip in December, 1979, Tropicana Atlantic City is, nowadays, one of the largest hotels in New Jersey, with 2,400 rooms.

The Main Event of the World Series of Poker, held annually in Las Vegas, is considered the unofficial ‘world championship’ of poker and, since its inception, has produced some of the largest payouts in poker tournament history. However, the distinction of the largest single payout ever belongs to another World Series of Poker event, known as The Big One for One Drop.

Staged in aid of the One Drop Foundation – an international non-profit organisation that provides access to safe water, hygiene and sanitation – The Big One for One Drop is a $1 million buy-in, no limit Texas hold ‘em poker tournament. In 2012, The Big One for One Drop was contested by 48 players, competing for total prize money of $42.67 million. The winner that year was Antonio “The Magician” Esfandiari, who took home $18.35 million.

Esfandiari was chip leader, by some way, heading into the final table and confidently predicted that he would win the tournament. His confidence was not displaced, because he quickly dispatched six of the eight finalists and, although he briefly lost the chip lead to British poker professional Sam Trickett during heads-up play, finally triumphed in the eighty-fifth hand of the final table. On the button and holding 7, 5 off suit, Esfandiari made trip fives on the flop and, after a series of raises and re-raises, raised all in against Trickett, who had Q,6 suited in the hole and flopped a flush draw. Trickett called, but failed to fill his flush draw and had to be content with $10.1 million, the biggest consolation prize in poker tournament history.

Nowadays, keno is a popular casino gambling games in which players attempt to ‘spot’ between one and ten numbers, from a pool of 80 numbers, 20 of which are drawn, randomly, at regular intervals. The name ‘keno’ is an Americanism, coined in the early nineteenth century and derived from the French word ‘quine’, meaning ‘five’, and the word ‘lotto’. Nevertheless, keno is of Chinese origin and has a history dating back at least two millennia.

Keno was originally known as ‘baige piao’, which translates into English as ‘white pigeon ticket’, reflecting the use of homing pigeons in the early form of the game.

Baige piao was popular throughout China from the third century BCE onwards; so popular, in fact, that under the auspices of Cheung Leung, ruler of the Han Dynasty, it reputedly financed the construction of a portion of the Great Wall of China.

Baige piao travelled to America with Chinese immigrant workers in the mid-eighteenth century, where it was initially played, illegally, by the Chinese community and hence became known as the ‘Chinese Lottery’. Over time, Keno became more widely accepted and the original ticket, which featured the first 80 Chinese characters in the so-called ‘Book of a Thousand Characters’, was modified to include Arabic numerals instead. Of course, Keno is a game that can be played alone, without interaction with others, and requires no special skills, yet offers the potential of a huge payout for relatively small outlay; these factors have led to the enduring popularity of the game.

Not to be confused with ‘slow rolling’, which is the subject of an altogether different question, ‘slow playing’ in poker is a deceptive tactic, whereby a player with a strong hand chooses to represent weakness rather than strength and, in so doing, encourages opponents to keep playing. Rather than playing a hand aggressively, by betting or raising, slow playing involves playing weakly or passively, by just checking or calling before and after the flop, and on the turn, when given the option. Slow playing denies your opponent the opportunity to make any meaningful assumptions about the strength of your hand but, by handing him the initiative, you may cause him to over-commit to the pot, which makes it more difficult for him to fold when faced with a substantial raise in a subsequent betting round.

Poker experts generally agree that slow playing typically works best against loose, very aggressive opponents, who play a high percentage of hands and frequently bet or raise after the flop. This is especially true against a lone opponent in a ‘heads-up’ situation. Similarly, a so-called ‘dry’ flop, with no possible flush or straight draws, and little or no possibility of a ‘free’ turn card that can significantly improve opponents’ hands, creates a favourable situation for slow playing a strong holding. By contrast, betting a dry flop is likely to encourage to fold marginal or drawing hands and result in a pot that is a fraction of the size possible by slow playing.

Spanish 21, or Spanish blackjack, is a variant of the classic game of blackjack. As the name suggests, Spanish 21 is traditionally played with the Spanish 48-card deck, although the standard 52-deck, minus the four tens, is equally suitable. Obviously, removing four, or 25%, of the 10-point cards increases the house edge, but only to 0.40%, if the dealer stands on 17, compared with 0.28% for blackjack played under liberal Las Vegas Strip rules. Indeed, in common with liberal Las Vegas Strip rules, Spanish 21 players may double after splitting, resplit aces and late surrender of the first two cards is allowed.

Spanish 21 is akin to blackjack in many ways, although the main difference is that a player 21, including blackjack, always beats a dealer 21. Any five-card, mixed suit 21 pays 3/2, any six-card, mixed suit 21 pays 2/1 and any seven-card, or higher, mixed suit 21 pays 3/1. Similarly, a mixed suit 6,7,8 pays 3/2, a suited 6,7,8 pays 2/1 and a suited 6,7,8 in spades pays 3/1; the same odds apply to 7,7,7 in all three cases although, in the event of a suited 7,7,7, if the dealer is also showing a seven, the player receives a bonus of $1,000, or $2,500 – known as a ‘Super Bonus’ – depending on the size of his or her initial stake. Note that none of these bonuses apply after doubling or splitting.

Not to be confused with ‘Little Joe’ Cartwright, the character made famous by the late Michael Landon in the television series ‘Bonanza’ from the late Fifties onwards, ‘Little Joe’ is a traditional – in fact, almost obsolete – term used in casino craps games. The term ‘Little Joe’ was first recorded in the late nineteenth century and is often used, loosely, and erroneously, according to some sources, to describe any roll of four – that is, 1-3, 3-1, or 2-2 – or a point of four in a craps. The term ‘Little Joe from Kokomo’, on the other hand, was a later development and refers specifically to a ‘hard’ four or, in other words, 2-2 alone. For the record, the probability of rolling any four is 3/36, or 1/12, or 8.33%, while the probability of rolling a hard four is 1/36, or 2.77%.

In the case of the latter term, the ‘Little Joe’ in question is believed to be ‘Little Joe’ Fohn, who was one of the top tournament bowlers in Kokomo, Indiana in the Twenties. Interestingly, the first Japanese American jockey in the United States, Yoshio Kobuki – who, his father once joked, was small enough to fit in his jacket pocket – was also nicknamed ‘Kokomo Joe’. However, Kobuki Jnr. was not born until 1918 and did not rise to prominence until the early Forties, by which time the ‘Little Joe from Kokomo’ term was probably already in common usage. It is also interesting to note that U.S. Route 31 and U.S. Route 22 pass through Kokomo, Indiana north-south and west-east, respectively.