Gamblers must accept that the odds are against them

GAMBLERS need to accept one simple fact – the odds are always on the side of the casino or club, regardless of whether they play pokies or table games.

But players continually moan that pokies have been “turned down”, or “they don’t pay when I use my benefits card”, or “there aren’t enough people playing”, or “they can control the spin of the roulette wheel” etc.

It’s all rubbish.

Poker machines, for example, are highly regulated in all states.

Any organisation tampering with a machine, even if it could, would not only face criminal charges, but also lose its licence to operate.

Anyone who believes the casino would risk losing its licence through tampering with a few poker machines, especially when some of the top gamblers play a million dollars in one table bet, isn’t thinking straight.

And there are plenty of ex-employees who could expose them if it was the case.

Modern poker machines are controlled by computer software. Venues have no control over the payouts.

Most payouts are set by the machine manufacturers on the computer chip running the game in accordance with legislated returns.

The Return To Player of poker machines in Queensland by law is 85 per cent, meaning 85 per cent of its income must be returned to the players. Some venues, such as the casino, have a RTP of about 90 per cent.

That does NOT mean that any one player can expect to get 85 per cent of the money they bet to be returned.

It means that over the life of the machine and millions of spins, 85 per cent of the total bet will be returned to players.

The pokie returns appear worse now because of one simple fact – most modern machines have progressive jackpots which increase with each bet, meaning that a small amount from each bet must be diverted to fund those jackpots. So there are fewer wins paid at lower-level payouts.

People are still expecting the returns they got on older machines (with much smaller jackpots), and at the same time wanting bigger jackpots. They can’t have both.

And even if a player has a good win, the chances of them continuing is low and the machine will take it all back eventually if they continue to play.

The odds are always on the side of the machine.

So players should simply accept that the chances of winning continually are small, and to stop trying to find a reason why, other than the odds are against them from the start.

IAN TIMMINS MERMAID BEACH