Golden Eggs

Geno Lawrenzi 07:45 Oct 5th, 2020 Poker

(Some lessons from childhood stay with us forever. Like those fairy
tales that have morals for the ages. Pay attention to them and learn about life.)

I don't know about you, but fairy tales always interested me. 

They all had a point to them and I spent a lot of my time my school library perusing them for their meanings. I was particularly interested in the goose that laid golden eggs.

Now here was a farmer who owned a goose that regularly laid eggs made of pure gold. You would think that would make the man happy and, for a while, of course it did. 

But then the farmer got greedy. 

Getting those eggs on a regular basis turned out not to be good enough for him. He wanted all those eggs at once, so he decided to kill the goose, cut it open, and take all the eggs out at once.

He did. The goose turned out to be empty!

Let us compare that to what the casino industry is doing to itself and has been doing for the past couple of decades:

Everybody knows slot machines are more profitable to a casino than poker or blackjack or some of the other skill games. 

But what casino executives fail to realize is that a casino visit is a TOTAL experience. 

Some casino customers enjoy poker, blackjack, dice or other table games. They are there for the total experience. 

And yet…

…I find myself reading stories about a growing number of casinos that are either eliminating or reducing the size of their poker rooms to give that space to slot machines, thinking that will add to the bottom line.

HELP! Is the world going crazy?

Benny Binion, in my humble opinion, was one of the smartest casino owners of all time. He knew the secret to operating a successful gambling casino was how much money you returned to your customers. That was why Binion gave so much money back to his customers in those wee small hours of the morning. 

Poker players at 2, 3, 4 and 6 a.m. would be rewarded with jackpots based on drawings taken from the number of tickets they won for full houses they collected. They would continue playing poker all night long trying to hit one of those jackpots. And they paid off to the astute player.

Having spent a lot of my past 50 years in gambling casinos, I know the tired old argument casino executives give when people ask them why they pay more attention to slot players than to poker or blackjack players. 

The profit from slots is considerably higher than from any other gambling game in the casino. But remember the story of the goose that gives golden eggs.   

Don't ever overdo a good thing!

A casino technician can easily set the microchip to pay off whatever profit he wants on a slot machine. Poker tables pay off at a different rate. It's steady but different from the slots. It's different for blackjack as well. 

I lived in St. Kitts and Nevis for five years. St. Kitts has one major gambling establishment at Jack Tar Village. It has all the table games from blackjack to dice to poker. 

There are other casinos on the island, but they are limited to slot machines. Mostly they are empty because people know skill games pay off better than games of pure chance, which slot machines represent.

People reason, why should I give my hard-earned money to slot machines, which are simply money-making mechanical devices to profit the house? Better I should stay at home and play dominoes or bocci with my friends.

Remember the story of the goose that gives golden eggs. It will make your life much more simple.