| Consider 4 decks. With an Ace up and two non-tens in the player's hand, the remaining unseen cards consist of 64 tens and 141 non-tens. In this case the expected return to the player is: exp = 2 x 64/208 - 141/208 = -0.0625 (2) which is a house edge of 6.25%. How about one deck? Well, with two non-tens in the player's hand the calculation becomes exp = 2 x 16/52 - 33/52 = -0.01923 (3) or a house edge of 1.923%. So you see, the wager is better with fewer decks but still favors the house. No, it's not a fight between Steve Wynn and Donald Trump. It's a casino game that was developed a few years ago by Dave Sugar, then of the Hacienda, and is marketed through Bet Technology of Carson City. It is based on the children's card game of War that many of us did indeed play as children. A child's card game in a casino? Well, lately I see Yahtzee, Monopoly, Battleship, Pin Ball, Three Stooges, Betty Boop and other ties to things of our youth being used as a basis for casino games. Why? I think it is because folks are more readily willing to try out a casino game that is based on something with which they are familiar. Anyway, there are a few tables of War around and people are playing it. When I attended the 11th Annual Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking at the MGM hotel in June, I noticed that the MGM casino had several War tables and they were occupied by players. So what is involved in playing this simple game? Well, let me first describe the children's version to you. That is played with an ordinary 52-card deck and there are two players. The cards are shuffled and divided in two, each player receiving 26 cards. The cards are ranked as Ace low and King high; suits don't matter. Each player turns over a card from his/her pile. The higher card wins; both cards are placed face down on the bottom of the winner's deck. If the cards are of the same rank, a "war" is declared. This consists of each placing one card face down on his/her upturned card and another face up. The last up cards are compared and the winner takes all six cards. If another tie occurs, the process of face down, face up is repeated until the war is settled. This seemingly interminable game finally ends when one player gets all 52 cards in his/her pile. You're not paranoid if people really are coming after you, so the rising level of paranoia among people connected to the off shore sports betting industry is most definitely based on reality. The concerted effort by U.S. government agencies to take down leading online sports books is not a figment of anyone's imagination. Why any government in possession of its faculties would want to preclude participation by its citizens in a thriving area of commerce which has gained global acceptance, except in the U.S., is a question that needs to be addressed by our so-called leaders. The puritanical and moral zealotry wielded by government officials in pursuit of an anti-gaming campaign, steeped in hypocrisy and infused with attitudes left over from the Salem witch trials, is nothing short of a disgrace The strategic and profitable head start that non U.S. companies are building in a most promising business brings tears to the eyes of anyone who believes that artificial roadblocks to economic opportunities should not be imposed by government. Since 9-11, the Beltway Boys have expanded their ruling powers through the Patriot Act under the guise of protecting the country. Unfortunately, the autocratic implementation of these new statutes in the name of security frequently causes them to be bent out of shape. Our government still adheres to an ignominious policy that insists, "We had to destroy the village to save it." On a bad-guy scale of 1-100, terrorists are 100, gamblers are … well, you set the number. The latest assault on the freedom of American business as well as citizens' lifestyle choices is the chilling attempt brought by federal and state authorities to halt advertising of online gaming companies. A syndicated article in the January 13, 2004, Las Vegas Review-Journal noted that the Department of Justice had issued three waves of subpoenas, intended to "intimidate and discourage publishers and broadcasters from accepting advertising from online gaming sites." The papers were served between September and the end of December, demanding all records involving ads by offshore gaming companies since 1997. In a country where individual rights and freedom of the press are guaranteed by law, these tactics are outrageous and disgusting. American Civil Liberties Union, Nevada, general counsel Allen Lichtenstein was quoted as calling the DOJ's action an "intimidation tactic to go after the messenger." Rather than try to expose this ill-conceived campaign on a grand scale, which would require more verbosity than we are comfortable with, let's take a look at a single example – one in which we have personal experience. The Department of Justice, IRS and Post Office are investigating employees of Carib Sports for alleged money laundering activities and ownership of the offshore sportsbook. Right here let us state that Carib Sports is alive and well. Several months ago it experienced some website problems because it is a complex system, we are told. Experts were called in to change key configurations and the site was quickly restored to normal with the capacity to handle even greater traffic. Carib originated and operated out of Antigua in the early 1990s, where it was regulated by the Government of Antigua and Barbuda which enforced stringent requirements for its licensees. The book was one of the offshore pioneers which persevered as the industry early on was tarnished by fly-by-night operators. |
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