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Casino venue manager Mark Vaughan said he once witnessed someone win £43K before cashing out. He’s also seen a former British football club chairman lose £40k at high-stakes poker throughout a week’s cruise – so it’s safe to say he knows a thing or two about what goes on behind the scenes.
🎲💼 Behind the Casino Curtain
Talking about slot machines, Vaughan said that just because someone won £500 doesn’t necessarily mean the machine will stop paying out. After all, it’s done over 100,000 spins.
The man with over 15 years of experience in casinos also believes it is better to agree with ill-tempered customers and sympathise with them rather than kick them out, as you’ll soon hear more about below.
Winning and Losing
This section highlights significant wins and losses at the casino, including a $43k win turned into a loss and a $270k loss on a ship.
Q: Do you recall the biggest win you’ve seen on a table?
Mark: “The thing is with the wins, it’s only ever a win if you cash out and leave. The biggest danger in the casino is walking out of the front door. If you go into a casino with £100 and know you’re going to spend it in a night at the casino, you put £20 on a roulette table or in slots and you’re up £40 then you’ve doubled your money, but most people will not walk away because you’ve just walked in and started playing.
“Over time, the odds are stacked in the casino’s favour. If you walked away when they were up, then it wouldn’t be a casino.
“But in terms of the biggest win I’ve seen, when I was working in Blackpool there was a person who was playing roulette and came in the afternoon and won £43k. He cashed it out and left. He was a regular customer and then he returned in the evening and said, ‘I’ve seen this new Mercedes that I want and it’s £50k’ so I just need another £7k.’ He lost the whole £43k in the process!
“Surprisingly he wasn’t upset. He was a regular and had his own way of playing and had his own strategy. He would play the previous number plus the neighbours of that on either side. So, 10 numbers on either side of the previous number that landed, so he played nearly a third of the numbers at a time with his stake every single spin. He shrugged his shoulders and left.”
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Q: What was the biggest loss you’ve witnessed?
Mark: “The most I saw in one night was around $270k when working on a casino in the ships. It was a junket group that had come on the ships. Junkets are casino affiliate player programmes but aren’t affiliated with one particular casino, so many will take them on and let them host. He did around $270k on the day, although, there were other days where he would be $60-70k up.”
Common casino myths
This section addresses common casino myths, such as pumped-in oxygen, rigged games, slot machine payout patterns, and the effectiveness of slot machine lurking.
Q: Is it true oxygen is pumped into casinos, games being rigged etc?
Mark: “Oxygen isn’t pumped into rooms, but the air conditioning is kept on low and kept cooler for people, so it doesn’t get too warm and overheated or gets at an uncomfortable temperature.
“It is common for a casino to have no windows, but there’s no truth in games being rigged in favour of a dealer. That’s one of the biggest myths I’ve heard. If it were possible to rig a card or a number on roulette, I would have my best friend sit on the opposite side of the table.
“There are also no clocks in a casino. It’s the same reason they wouldn’t have any windows, so you can’t see if daylight or darkness.”
Q: Can you win the slots after somebody has lost lots of money previously?
Mark: “This may have come from the old slot machines in pubs. A lot of the new machines you now see at the casinos, they’re all digital and run from a server elsewhere within the company or where they are based.
“It’s similar to playing online slots. The percentage payouts calculate over 100,000 spins. The payout percentage for a low machine, if you’re putting in 25p or 50p, the payout may be 88%. So, if you have 100,000 spins, that means 88% of the time. If you play at £1 a time then it increases to 90% payout, and if you pay a maximum £2 spin, that could be between 92 to 94%.
“But just because someone may have come in and won £500, it doesn’t necessarily mean that the machine will stop paying out as it’s done over 100,000 spins. That myth is coming from a pub machine where it’s full of £1 coins waiting to drop out.”
Q: Does slot machine lurking really work?
Mark: “Based on the fact that you have over 100,000 spins, unless you’re going to stare at the same machine for a week or so, it wouldn’t make much of a difference, though the theory behind it is correct.
“If you see someone putting hundreds of pounds into a machine and they lose, then it goes without saying that there would’ve been a lot of spins. But that person may have put £200 in and may have actually won £600 during it, and has then gradually put it back in. The actual payout would’ve been over 100%, so it wouldn’t be ready to pay out.”
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Tips on winning
Tips for winning in casinos, including moving machines after payouts, playing higher stakes, using Blackjack strategies, and suggests roulette as the easiest game for beginners due to its simplicity.
Q: Do you have any tips for people to win money?
Mark: “I would say, if you are ahead and have just been paid out by a slot machine, then it is likely to have paid out and won’t again, so just move on to a different machine. If you want to increase your chances of winning, then you need to play higher stakes because the lower stakes will be about 88% for returns. And if you get the bonus, that’s when the payouts increase substantially.
“On Blackjack, otherwise known as 21, there is a basic strategy guide to increase the odds of winning. There is a set procedure that the dealer has to follow for what they need to draw up. So, let’s say 17 of Hearts for example, they will need to stick, so depending on what the dealer is showing will determine whether you take another card or not. The idea behind that is, that the next card has always got to be worth ten because there are more picture cards than any other value.
“If you go to a Blackjack table and somebody is playing to what they call ‘basic strategy’ and you don’t play that way, then there is a good chance you’re going to upset that player because they are playing a way that will give them the best chance of winning.
“By you not playing to the book or that strategy, it’s lowering his odds of winning again. If you were to play Blackjack, have a quick look online and find the basic strategy. The casinos will even let you take a little look at the basic strategy and play like that. Most of the casinos will also allow the players to keep checking their cards to give themselves the basic strategy of Blackjack.”
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Q: What is the most popular game to play for beginners?
Mark: “The easiest one, and one of the most popular games to play would be roulette. There’s no strategy to it, you don’t need to know about the hand or cards, like a flush. You literally put chips on a table and it’s going to be a bet. It’s something as simple as putting money on red or black, odd or even, or a number, and people tend to go for numbers related to their birthdays.”
Celebrity gamblers
Q: Have you ever worked in a casino with celebrities playing on the table?
Mark: “Francesco Totti was playing in 2010 on a cruise towards the end of his career in the United States. He didn’t play that much; he was with his family, but he was really nice. Not a lot of people particularly knew who he was in the United States when playing at the casino, as football is obviously not as big in the States, but everyone else knew who he was, and it was great.
“His family weren’t gambling big, and neither was Francesco Totti. He was literally passing by on the cruise and saw a casino table, so he didn’t really gamble much at all, but he had a little flutter. He was with his kids, so he played for a short amount of time and then left but he was really nice and pleasant.”
“There was also once a well-known football chairman of a British football club who was playing at a casino table in the States. He played a lot of poker, and he was playing the maximum stakes possible, so a good couple of grand per hand, and he lost around £40k during the week. He was up and down throughout the cruise and was winning at times but also losing. He was in every night with his wife and they were playing together. I don’t want to name who it is, but this person has other gambling interests in the UK, so he was quite big on it.
“He gets a bad reputation, this person, but he was rather friendly. He was on good form, enjoying it, and literally going for the maximum stakes for the enjoyment of it. He was talking to other people and was more than happy for other people to join in. Nobody knew who he was in the States, but I knew who he was because I’m a football supporter.”
Advice for casino players, focusing on Blackjack strategy, increasing odds with higher stakes, and recommending roulette as the simplest game for beginners due to its straightforward betting options.
Q: How do you deal with ill-tempered customers?
Mark: “People can punch slot machines or bang tables after losing. I was on one cruise and at a casino table, a group of people were causing trouble and weren’t very nice at all. They were losing money, and the dealer spun the ball, and one of them put their hands on the table and grabbed the ball. They were playing big money too.
“From a manager’s point of view, on a cruise, you have your targets and people are playing for thousands on a spin, you have the peer pressure of head office on you. You can’t really be kicking them out because they’re spending a lot of money, but at the same time, you can’t let somebody grab a ball from out of the roulette wheel.
“Also on a ship, you don’t have security, and if anything kicks off, they’re not much use. You have to be aware of that because you can’t just ring the police and let them deal with it.
“Ideally, you have to try and calm the situation down. It’s often best to just agree with them, sympathise, and don’t say anything to antagonise them or defend the casino. You have to try and be on their side, which tends to work the best, like suggesting they come and have a drink at the bar rather than kicking them out, as that will make them have a break from the table.”
Q: Are there any standard procedures to catch out cheats?
Mark: “You’re always on the lookout and have to be aware of what is going on. You are also relying on other members of the team to be watching out. We do have cameras in the office, so if we are suspicious of any activities on the games then we can always check those. The first thing to do though is to be out and about yourself because if they see the manager walking around that will put people off.
