Slot and Roulette Gambling
In Atlantic City there are presently nine casinos open, as of this writing: Resorts International, Caesars Boardwalk Regency, Bally's Park Place, the Sands, Harrah's, Golden Nugget, Playboy, the Claridge's Hi-Ho, and the Tropicana.
They all have one thing in common: As you walk into the casino, you are confronted with a sea of slot machines, and an incessant sound, a distinctive thud as the arm is pulled, followed by the whir of spinning wheels. This action is repeated in quick random succession so that the sound becomes a rhythmic blur in the background. Drop a coin in one and try it out. The result is immediately apparent in the machine's windows where you watch the wheels come to rest. You can drop nickels, quarters, half-dollars, and dollars into the slots, but go easy - they don't call them "one-armed bandits" for nothing. Seventeen percent of all the money played goes to the house. Perhaps we better move on to a table game. Let's try roulette.
The favorite game in the more elegant European casinos, roulette is one of the least popular games in Atlantic City and Nevada, because of the increased casino advantage with American rules. However, there is a major difference between roulette as it is played in Atlantic City and the roulette game offered by most of the Nevada casinos - a rule similar to the European rule called "en prison" has been incorporated into the Atlantic City game. This rule works with all the even-money bets, red-black, odd-even, high (19-36), and low (1-18). If either green zero comes up, you can surrender half your bet and retain the other half. This feature cuts the casino advantage on even-money bets in half, from 5.26 to 2.63%. Even better is the game offered in The Playboy Casino, with the single zero that reduces the house edge on all bets to 2.70%. These features make roulette an enjoyable experience for the occasional gambler.
Watch a few spins of the wheel before you place your bet. Notice that there are 36 numbers, plus a zero, and a double zero. Eighteen numbers are red, eighteen are black, and the zeros are green. Purchase chips from the croupier and place a $2 bet on the big red square at the bottom of the roulette betting layout. The croupier spins the wheel in one direction, the ball in the opposite. If the ball drops into any red number, you win $2, black you lose, green you surrender half your bet and the other half is returned to you. The bottom of the layout contains all the even-money bets. You can bet that a number between 1 and 18 will come up, an even number, a red number, an odd number, a black number, or a number between 19 and 36. If you stay at the wheel for a while, I suggest you stick with these even-money bets to keep the house advantage to the minimum 2.63%.