Straight to the Customer

Straight to the Customer

           Through my years of analyzing games, I've often been asked by friends and family about the type of clients I do work for.  When I tell them that most of my work has been done by a company called Shuffle Master.  Invariably the response is "who?  Never heard of them."  I thought it would become easier when Bally Technologies bought Shuffle Master.  Everybody has heard of Bally's!  Of course, almost all of them are thinking about the casino.  A few are thinking about the chain of gyms.  Once upon a time, they were all part of the same company, but not for a few decades.  It certainly didn't get any better now that Scientific Games bought Bally Technologies.  We're back to "who?  Never heard of them."

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Blackjack Sidebet Primer

           What is the allure of sidebets?  I'm not sure if there any blackjack tables that exist without at least one sidebet.  It is almost hard to remember the days when you say down to play blackjack and there is was only one circle on the table.  There's the ago old question about which came first the chicken or the egg.  I wonder the same thing about sidebets.  Was it casinos that wanted them to increase their profits or was it Players who wanted them to increase their chances to win big even on relatively low volatility games like blackjack. 

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New Sheriff in Town

New Sheriff in Town

             There may be a new sheriff in town.  No, I'm not talking about the upcoming primary elections here in Las Vegas.  I'm talking about a game called Free Bet Blackjack.  Free Bet Blackjack is owned by Bally Technologies and invented by Geoff Hall, who also gave us Blackjack Switch.  Geoff's key patent covers the concept of the Dealer pushing on a 22.  This means that any Player hands that have not busted (and were not a Natural Blackjack) will PUSH if the Dealer busts with a final count of 22. 

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Switch It Up

Twenty years ago, if you walked into a casino, you had four choice of what to play that covered about 95% of the casino floor - Blackjack, Craps, Roulette and Slot Machines.  Flash forward to 2013 and the casino floor is quite a different place.  If I had to take an educated guess, I'd say that Blackjack and Slots have given up the most square footage.  Slot machines yield space to video poker and Blackjack yielded space to the myriad of new table games that have been invented and successfully invaded the casino.  For most of the time, only one blackjack variant managed to make any inroads.  This was Spanish 21.  While its popularity has diminished a bit, it is still quite a powerhouse in the industry.

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