Quote:
Originally Posted by
mickeycrimm
Back in the 80's there wasn't much known about video poker paybacks. Video poker software had not been invented yet. In Volk's time there was Jacks or Better and Deuces Wild. Bonus Poker didn't come out until the early 90's. Tamper proof seals were not used when placing chips in machines.
Gaming kept improving regulations. All eproms that go in the machines must be delivered to Nevada Gaming Control Board by the manufacturers. The Nevada lab runs chi-squared and correlation tests to test the randomness of the chips. An approved chip has to be installed with a tamper proof seal and a Gaming Agent must witness it.
There are state auditors in every casino. They don't trust the casinos to count correctly. The auditors are pouring over the coin-in/coin-out numbers everyday.
How much does the average video poker player know about payback? For oblivious players you could just put in 8/5 Jacks instead of 9/6 Jacks, a 2% difference.
It would be the knowledgeable players that the house would be looking to fool. But the knowledgeable players are not going to be fooled for long just like poker players and the ultimate bet cheating. There is something wrong if nobody is winning.
I know of a lot of cases where casinos put on promotions that didn't last as long as they said it would. They cancelled when they seen they were getting shellacked. VP pros would also cancel if they seen they were all getting shellacked.
If a poll were taken of video poker pros as to whether they think they've been cheated at any time I don't think there would be many that would say yes.
According to the theory of cognitive dissonance, there shouldn't be. I heartily recommend, as a starting point, Leon Festinger's Theory of Cognitive Dissonance.
https://books.google.com/books/about...d=voeQ-8CASacC
My life advice is, if you'd prefer to believe A, and A and B appear to be a toss-up, best to believe B.