 
Just
say NO to keno
Dear Mark:
Though I'm not a keno player, my
favorite casino offers a Special
Bonus Keno ticket. All I have to
do is hit 19 out of 20, and I win
$250,000. Is this ticket worth a
try? Marti S.
The
nerve of your favorite casino calling
it a "Special Bonus" ticket.
Let me illustrate how appalling
this ticket is. Let's say you were
to play one keno ticket per second,
24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
According to laws of probability
you will catch 19 out of 20 once
every 93,420,116 years. What are
the odds of hitting it? Two quadrillion,
946 trillion, 096 billion, 780 million
to one.
Unfortunately, Marti, this isn't
the only ruthless ticket in keno.
The chances of hitting 10 of 10-and
mind you they will only pay you
$50,000-is nine times harder than
hitting your state lottery. Then
the casino has the audacity to pay
you what is called an "aggregate
payoff," meaning if both you
and someone else are playing the
same numbers and it hits solid,
you split the money.
Or how about this popular ticket
here in Nevada-the 15 spot. Chances
of your hitting it? 428 billion
to one. Tall odds, but consider
that no person has ever hit a solid
15 spot, a solid 14 spot, a solid
13 and to the best of my knowledge,
a 12 out of 12. As you can see,
Marti, these long-shot tickets-or
keno in general for that matter-are
a game designed for the Tootsie-Pop
crowd; known by the casinos as "a
sucker's born every minute"
club.
Dear
Mark:
My husband claims that certain casinos
use different weighted dollar coins
for their slots in order to make
it sound as if people are winning
in the casino. Is he right? Sally
L.
Your
husband is on to the casinos. It's
not heavier coins, though, but the
tray where the coins fall. Casino
operators have long understood the
value of "the sounds of winning,"
so what some do is install "loud
drop bowls," which are the
metal trays that catch the slugs
when your slot is paying off. These
deeper pans tend to make more noise
when the coins drop, creating the
misimpression that people are winning
big. Unfortunately, that sense of
luck is really nothing more than
an illusion the casino hopes will
stir interest in playing their machines.
Dear
Mark,
How Did the strip get its name?
Suzanne S.
One
day I was walking down the strip
in Las Vegas recently and overheard
a couple vehemently arguing over
how "The Strip" got it's
name. The husband said; "Bugsy
Siegel named it when he built the
Flamingo-and I should know, I played
there the second week it was open."
The wife believed it was Liberace
who named the Strip.
The dialog was hideous and I would
have butted in, but like I said,
they were arguing, actually screaming
at a level that brought security
out of Caesar's Palace. Now, I've
seen some skirmishes over positioning
in a $3.49 prime rib buffet line,
but over how the Strip was named?
It's a first.
So, Suzanne, here's how "The
Strip" got it's name.
Known also as Las Vegas Boulevard
and earlier the Los Angeles Highway,
The Strip's name came from a Los
Angeles Police Captain named Guy
McAfee, who said it reminded him
of Sunset Boulevard (Strip) in LA.
The story doesn't end there with
Captain McAffe. He was a Las Vegas
casino owner as well. McAfee purchased
the Pair-O-Dice on the Los Angeles
Highway in 1938 and reopened it
as the 91 Club.
Liberace's early fame came from
being the first to demand, and get,
$50,000 a week to perform
in Vegas.
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