The Robots Are Coming

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yogi
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The Robots Are Coming

Post by yogi »

As noted in another post, robots can outperform humans at many tasks. That post talks about surgery, but the big revolution is in the fields of lesser skilled people, such as those who work Los Vegas. A recent study shows how Sin CIty could lose 65% of it's human workers to robotics and automation. Places such as El Paso, Texas, Riverside, California, as well as Greensboro, North Carolina, are at the same level of risk. This is all going to happen by 2025.

Some major planning needs to be done right now in order to accommodate all those unemployed people. Some ideas on the subject are presented in this article: http://www.zdnet.com/article/las-vegas- ... ays-study/
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Kellemora
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Re: The Robots Are Coming

Post by Kellemora »

I have nothing against automation or robots, except when it comes to gambling devices.
I would rather be beat by a crooked dealer dealing from the bottom of the deck,
than try to beat the computers behind the electronic gambling machines.
A number of years ago, I used to repair gaming machines, video games, and pinball machines.
The more computerization added to these devices, the more they work to lure you in.
Just because the government inspects and controls the random number generator, it really means nothing.
It's what is done with the numbers generated after they leave the little black box that makes all the difference in the world.
Even back when I worked on them, there were sensors to detect the emotional level of a player.
I'm sure these days they have even more sophisticated sensors than they had twenty years ago.
The purpose of these sensors is to keep you at the machines, by giving you little token wins if they sense you are about to quit.
Good thing I don't live near any casino's anymore. To easy to get hooked on going!
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yogi
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Re: The Robots Are Coming

Post by yogi »

The electronic slots might be regulated and monitored, but the house has to take a cut of the money in order to stay in business. The only way they can guarantee a predetermined cut is to manipulate the numbers. You are absolutely right about sophisticated sensors. Google, for example, is way ahead of the curve on face recognition. A tiny indiscreet camera on the front panel of a slot machine could watch for key body language signals and adjust the house take accordingly. I don't know where they draw the line. I can see how easy it would be to take advantage of the system, but then again each pull of the lever involves limited input. It's not like the machine is taking your life savings all at once. It does it one pull at a time. :mrgreen:
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Kellemora
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Re: The Robots Are Coming

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Basically what it boils down to, as far as House Take, for every dollar you put in, you get 75 to 80 cents back, on average.
The jackpots on most machines are not really very much, although they make it sound like it.
Although they sound cheaper to play, Penny Slots actually cost more to play than dollar slots if you want to get your odds up so you do win back 80 cents for every dollar you put in, but normally you only win back about 60 cents for each dollar you put in. And when you do win a jackpot, it is less than you've already put into those penny slots.

There was a time when you could count on winning on certain slots, provided you knew which ones were paying out that day.
Start out with 20 bucks and build it up to a hundred bucks so you could play the card tables and lose it all back to the casino.
When I was working on gaming machines, those of us who did, usually told each other which machines were set to pay out more.
So we would go and play our 20 bucks, and when we did win, we put our 20 bucks back in our pocket, then play for a few more hours until we lost back what we won. At least we didn't lose doing it that way.
But they still getcha. They let you get up to about 500 bucks ahead, then lure you in and take it all back, and in many cases, then some, hi hi...

Back when I was working on the machines, the handle you pulled contained two sensors, one on each side, and basically measured resistance in ohm. Not high tech. But today's machines, although they do have handles to pull, most folks just tap the buttons. If you have one hand on the frame, and keep your thumb against the edge of the button housing, they can read that way. Also some button housings have alternating metal and plastic lines as part of their design, those also are sensors.
I don't doubt, like you pointed out above, they now use video camera's to study your face, hi hi...

Oh, the plastic cards they use now instead of money, is used to control what you win or lose, regardless of the machine you are on. Some folks think if they take the card out after loading the machine, it makes a difference, but it really doesn't, and may actually hurt your odds of winning. Playing blind on a machine is holding it at computer controlled machine odds. Using your card lets them know how much you are losing, and my cause you to get a few extra wins, and larger wins too.
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pilvikki
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Re: The Robots Are Coming

Post by pilvikki »

interesting... my ex used to win all the time. he'd go in, play a couple of hundred, get $500 - 1000 and waddle off. sometimes even a few thou.
now, for some reason, he doesn't. still goes, of course...i guess the hook was set deep enough.

i went a couple of times, lost a whole $35 total and said that was enough of that. :lol: :lol: :lol:
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yogi
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Re: The Robots Are Coming

Post by yogi »

Gambling is a bit like the stock market. The strategy is to buy low and sell high. Then quit. Most people don't quit which is their downfall.

I went to one casino in my life down in San Juan, Puerto Rico. I bought $20 in chips and played blackjack for a few hours. I lasted that long because I never took my chips out of the "insurance" box, meaning I won when the dealer had a blackjack. It was quite a pile for a while, then I lost it all. At that point I left with no winnings and the initial $20 lost.

My second gambling excursion was to Arlington Park Race Track, which was close to where I lived. I knew nothing about horses and even less about betting. I did know which horse "looked" like a winner. I picked one in the fifth race that looked like a winner, but the odds were 40:1 on that horse. So ... I bet on it to place instead of win and walked off with $75 for my $2. I took that cash and went shopping with my wife to buy a beautiful painting for our living room wall. The painting is still there and I left the gambling world a net winner. :lol:
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Kellemora
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Re: The Robots Are Coming

Post by Kellemora »

When we were on the cruise the year before last, I lost a fair amount of money in the slots.
But then made up for a lot of it playing Three Card Poker, which I know is heavily geared toward house wins.
I passed by this table several times a day, but because of the poor player odds, I never sat down until the last day, and then only because the slots were not open yet.
I assume the two that continually win are shills for the casino, hi hi.
Even so, I was batting a thousand, and winning more than my fair share too.
I had planned on losing at least a hundred bucks a day in the casino while on the cruise.
I was pretty darn close to that too. Then made over 2/3 of that back on the last day.
Which was much better than anyone else in our group, hi hi...
The family in the cabin next door to us, only went to the casino one day, and was 300 bucks ahead.
Knowing it was bait to get them to come back, they decided to keep the money and enjoy the cruise.
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