Coins Currency used buy the slot machines to place bets. Coin Size Actual value of the coins used in the machine Double Up Typically found in Australian slot machines. Gives you a chance to multiply your win by 2 or 4 by choosing the color or card suit. Fruit Machine The UK variation of slot machine that often features additions like the possibility to hold the reels, nudge and play bonus games. Hi / Low A feature common for UK slots, which gives you the possibility to to double your win by guessing whether the next number will be lower or higher. Hit Rate / Frequency How often the machine pays a winning combination. Is also used to denote the chance of hitting a bonus game. Hopper The area of coin storage inside a real-world slot machine. Jackpot The highest win the slot machine can pay Linked Jackpot A network of slot machines in different casinos that share the same jackpot. Usually found on progressive slots. Maximum Bet The highest amount of coins allowed in the game. Multi-Line A slot machine that has more than one payline to win. Pay Line The line where the combination should line up for you to win.

Pay Out Percentage The pre-set percentage of bets that will be returned by the slot machine over the long term. Casinos cannot change this percentage.
Pay Table The chart outlining all th wins payed by the machine.
Pokies Slot machines in Australian slang
Progressive Jackpot Any jackpot that increases while the game is played. A part of every bet is contributed to form the jackpot. Usually met in linked jackpots.
Random Number Generator (RNG) The chip inside every slot machine that decides when the reels will stop.
Reels The drums inside the slot machine that spin when you press the button or pull the lever.
Modern video slots use digital images instead of spinning drums.
Scatter Pay Typically found on video slots, a pay that wins without having to line up in the payline. Often found on bonus slot machines.
Slot Machine Any casino game machine that involves reels
Symbols The images displayed on the reels in the slot machine. Common symbols are bars, fruits and sevens.
Video Slot A slot machine using a computer screen instead of physical reels to display the symbols.
Wild Symbol A symbol that substitutes other symbols. Acts like joker in card games.
Wild Multiplier A wild symbol that actually multiplies the win it makes a part of.
Winning Combinations The combinations of symbols that win. Displayed on the pay table.

A team of professional blackjack players whose founders were from Czechoslovakia that had been playing in Las Vegas flew all of their members to Atlantic City to take advantage of this new surrender rule. A New Jersey college student named Tommy Hyland, who had just turned twenty-one, started going to Atlantic City in 1978 when he heard about the favorable black-jack game at Resorts. Hyland’s team continues to this day as one of the most successful casino gambling operations in history.

It was also in 1978 that the first MIT blackjack team was started. This team actually consisted of students from MIT, Harvard, and other East Coast colleges. Johnny C.j now a legendary player who joined the team in 1981, plays high-stakes blackjack to this day and continues organizing teams of professional players. College kids found that they could pool their money, play blackjack with a modicum of intelligence, and get rich quick. In fact, it was a combination of that easy-to-beat early surrender game and Ken Uston’s The Big Player that had just been published in 1977 that worked together to create an environment where new teams of smart young kids could make millions playing blackjack.

So why should anyone want to play online? All you have are a few animated versions of the casino games that lack any sense of physical involvement. Worse, some of the games just are not the same. For example, thanks to the random number generator, counting the cards in online blackjack is a waste of time.

There is always another game ready to play. Because you do not have people looking over your shoulder (and judging you), you have more freedom to learn new games or try out different strategies without people getting impatient with you. And finally, you can get free money. In the real world, you can get drinks, food and, sometimes, accommodation comped. Online, the only thing the casino can give you is a credit of money. So does that mean online gaming is a “good thing”? The only thing wrong with it is that it is too easy to play. There you are at home or sitting in a hot spot with your wifi laptop and there is no-one to tap you on the shoulder to warn you that you are riding a losing streak into bankruptcy. But, so long as you have your gambling under control, you say when, where and how long you play. What can be better than that?

If nobody told you, you wouldn’t know you were not playing a Vegas style of machine. Except that, once you lift the lid, the insides are very different. The headline news is that these machines don’t have a fixed hold percentage. All the machines are linked to a central piece of software that plays bingo games among all you players. Whether you win or lose is decided by the virtual ball the software “picks”. To run the third class, the tribe has to negotiate a compact with the local State Government and, to be fair, many have done this. But some decided that regulation was not for them. To get around the legislation, they devised electronic bingo games that look and feel like slots and video poker machines. Each game ends when a “winning” pattern in the game is achieved. It’s all very ingenious and, using this technology, the manufacturers of the games claim that the payouts are identical to the third class of game. Just one ending thought: if the class two and three games are identical in the way they play, how come this is not illegal?

Tip: Here’s how many players think: If I hit this 14, I risk busting my hand right here and now. But maybe the dealer has a 6 in the hole. If I don’t take a hit, my hand still has a chance. Maybe the dealer’s hand will bust.

Every player is afraid that he will be responsible for his own loss. But that 14 you are holding is already in dire jeopardy when the dealer shows a 10 up. You must fight for the hand’s survival by taking the hit, giving it a chance of becoming a stronger hand against that 10. With a 14 against a 10, you must fight to the death.

On the other hand, if the dealer’s upcard is 2, 3, 4, 5, or 6, and you are holding a stiff hand, you should stand. Since the dealer must hit his stiff hands, and chance busting even when you are stiff, hitting your weak hands is not advantageous against these weak upcards.

Mistake: Some beginners think the best way to play is to play the same way the dealer plays: Hit all sixteens and stand on all seventeens. This is not true. The object of the game is not to make a hand as close to 21 as possible, but to beat the dealer. Often the best way to do this is to stand with a low total, sometimes as low as 12.

Tip: This is the basic logic of casino blackjack. There are exceptions to these guidelines, as the actual basic strategy decision for any given hand is determined by working out all of the mathematical probabilities. But if you just consider this logic when studying the basic strategy charts, the pattern will become clear to you and it should not be too difficult to memorize.