For The Wall Street Journal, Katherine Sayre examined the ways casinos in Las Vegas are shifting the odds further in their favour. The reason? More gamblers. As they’re winning more, casino can’t afford the loss so they’re lowering the odds and reducing payouts.
Here are some of the numbers (via the WSJ article):
- Analysts at Vegas Advantage estimate that over ⅔ of Vegas blackjack tables offer 6:5 payouts for getting 21 on the first two cards, (so you get $6 for every $5 you bet; they were previously 3:2)
- They also estimated a surge in “triple zero” roulette tables where there’s an extra slot on the table which lowers the chance of winning
“You’re kicking out the lowest end,” explained Caesars Entertainment CEO Tom Reeg during a call with analysts this month. “I see no reason that that needs to stop or would stop.”
Casinos in the city raked in a record $8.3 billion in revenue from card games, slot machines, and other forms of table betting like roulette last year, even as the number of visitors failed to reach the 2019 pre-pandemic levels.
Las Vegas is awash in revenue, allowing it to even finance a Major League Baseball stadium, after officials clinched a deal with Oakland Athletics owner John Fisher. It would be the second time the Bay Area city opposite San Francisco lost a professional sports team to Las Vegas.
via Fortune as the WSJ article is paywalled
Vegas is really struggling, huh? Funnily enough, I read about the Oakland A’s moving to Vegas and the controversy it caused (as it used taxpayers’ money to fund). As if life isn’t a gamble enough, now the capitalists are winning even more.