Poker Forum

January 15, 2009

Gaming News
Rudolph Mc Nash
Paradise Island, Bahamas

This longest run of lady luck's boom in Las Vegas, NV just went into a spiraling bust. Unfinished giant skeleton building constructions remained standing amongst the glittering giant kaleidoscopes of electronic billboards. Unemployment registered over 7% ahead of the national average. Hotel occupancies of 80%-90% crashed down to 20%-30% in just less than a year. Yes, the epicenter of sin and hedonistic pleasures bowed down to economic realities of sub-prime meltdown. Las Vegas housing boom lead the nation in bubbled values and price appreciation. Unfortunately, the same properties are now plummeting in values, subsequently dragging the local housing industry into unprecedented payment defaults and foreclosures. The picture is now bleak and dreary.

But wait, there is another story in the far away islands of the Bahamas.
Don't tell the regular gambling patrons in the Bahamas that there's an economic meltdown – either they don't know it or they just don't care. Want to make a few thousand dollars in one night? Yes it's possible if you haven't heard yet the closed guarded secret of a few hundred seniors mostly from Florida. You must have heard of or seen the popular movie "21". A true story of a bunch of highly intelligent MIT students who won a million or so dollars by playing the dreaded "counting" blackjack system. This time, these senior gamblers were mostly doing it alone by themselves without the surreptitious fanfare and clandestine signs, signals and the bewildering counting of cards. They simply follow an easy system of progressive betting and plays. The system was found to be very effective against Baccarat and Craps, where the odds against the player are the least. The winnings by these sophisticated seniors were not making a dent on the gaming industry's earnings.
Perhaps, they chose not to be so greedy and take their winnings in moderate not so lavish
style. One successful gambler mentioned that there were quite a few websites offering reliable systems but the most popular is the website "lets deal or no deal" (www.letsdealornodeal.com) With a modest cost of $249, and moderate investment of less than $2,500 the player stands to win almost 90% of the time.

Amid the turmoil surrounding toxic stocks, retirement funds and home foreclosures, Bahamas casinos continues to post strong results in an industry that is seen to be in a slump. And the gaming island paradise celebrated the end of its first year in style. Despite the winnings by the selected group of systems players, the casinos posted its third highest betting figures since gambling and tourism became the islands foremost industries.
To drive the point, Mount Airy, a newly minted casino reported wagers of $55 million last week, almost 5 percent higher than the previous week. And that week was 10 percent higher than the week before. Gross terminal revenues, at $3.8 million were almost 9 percent higher. The payout rate dropped two tenths of a percentage point to 91.4 percent, suggesting patrons were playing the higher wage machines more frequently.
Wagers on the state level came in at $404 million, practically unchanged over the week before. Gross terminal wagers totaled $31 million, also unchanged. The state's payout rate dropped slightly, by one tenth of a percent to 91.2 percent.
Mount Airy averaged $43 million in weekly wages and $3.3 million in gross terminal revenues over the past year. The casino's payout rate for the 52 week period was 92.2 percent. Mount Airy has generated $2.4 billion in betting, $2.2 billion in winning payouts, $171 million in gross terminal wagers and $94 million in state tax revenues from gambling. Many gambling so called experts and gurus will swear to high heavens that gaming systems do not work. Well, they can swear 'till they turn blue, the seniors are running with their winnings to the bank. Recession or whatever.