Most people gamble without any real understanding of how gambling actually works.

Do you know what the ‘house edge’ and ‘average return to player’ mean? Are you playing a skill-based game or is it just chance? Can you separate fact from fiction amongst the many myths surrounding gambling? What are your real chances of winning?

Before you decide to gamble, it’s a good idea to know how gambling works so there are no hidden surprises.

How Poker Machines Work

Poker machines (pokies) are a popular form of gambling, but make no mistake, pokies are designed to earn revenue for the venue operators and not for you. This is known as the ‘House Edge.’

Each machine has an inbuilt computer program that randomly generates 1000s of possible outcomes every second.  When you press the button:

1.    The machine will randomly pick one result from the many thousands of possibilities in a millisecond.
2.    The next second it will generate thousands more.
3.    It does this continuously, every second all day and night, without thinking or remembering.

The machine accepts any credits bet. If the machine determines a win, credits are paid.  If not, the machine continues to generate outcomes until the button is pressed again, each press completely unrelated to the last.

GAME FEATURES

Game features are designed to give you the feeling that you are getting something for nothing or a second chance to win. However, everything that happens on a poker machine, including ‘game features’ and ‘free spins’ are included in the calculations made by the poker machine manufacturer. So even when it appears that you’re getting free spins, the fact is, you have already paid for them with the losses you’ve already had on the machine.

Double Up

Double up and other “win” events give you the option to gamble your winnings. The machine manufacturers understand that many gamblers are willing to take this risk, however, unless you’re prepared to lose your winnings, don’t choose to double up.

Jackpots

Often jackpots will give you a chance to win a prize or an amount of money that would be difficult or impossible to win by playing on a non-jackpot machine. Jackpot prizes include cars, motorbikes, boats, houses or even a million dollars. If a poker machine or other game is connected to a jackpot, your chances of winning prizes on the normal game are actually slightly reduced as a cost of trying to win the jackpot.

Surely some money must return to the players?

The ‘return to player’ setting is the average amount won by players as a share of the total amount bet. By law, Victorian poker machine venues and the casino must return at least 87 percent of the total amount that is bet each year to players.

It takes millions of games for a machine to reach its ‘return to player’ setting and it’s important to note that there is no legal requirement for any individual poker machine to return the expected rate (87%) in any given period of play.

Casino Gambling

When you step into a casino to gamble it’s easy to be overwhelmed by the number of options in front of you. With rooms of pokies, card tables, dice games and spinning wheels it’s a good idea to find out how each game works before you play. Otherwise, you may find yourself losing more money than you imagined.

Each game has a “house margin” which is the overall percentage of money bet that is kept by the casino or house. Skilled players may be able to reduce the house margin slightly to be in their favour in games of skill, but in games of chance, the margin always remains the same.

Skill-based games are never an assurance of winning and the odds are always in favour of the house.

BLACKJACK is a card game of chance and skill where players may improve their chance of winning by using a better strategy. After receiving two cards from the dealer, the player can choose to be dealt more cards so as to have a total score closer to 21 than the dealer’s total – without going over 21. Face (picture) cards count as 10, aces count as 1 or 11 and the cards 1 to 10 count as their face value. The house margin for Blackjack is generally less than 1% for skilled players.

CARIBBEAN STUD POKER is a game of chance and skill where an initial “ante” or “stake” is bet and players receive five cards face down. The dealer receives four cards face down and one face up. If a player thinks they can beat the dealer’s hand they must double their original bet. If they don’t think they can beat the hand, then they forfeit their original bet. The best poker hand between the player and the dealer wins. Jackpot bets are also available, but even with an allowance for the jackpot, the house margin is around 5.5 percent.

BACCARAT is a game of chance in which cards of 10 and below count as their face value, aces count as 1, and 10s and “face cards”, such as Queens and Kings count for 0. Two cards are dealt to each of the players and the banker with an optional third. The total of the hand’s value works by dropping the first digit (a hand totaling 15 would be counted as 5) the aim being to get a hand value closest to 9. Bets can be placed on the player’s or the banker’s hand, or on the hands being tied. The house margin for Baccarat is around 1.2 percent.

SIC BO is a dice game of chance in which three dice are rolled and players try to predict possible outcomes and totals of the dice rolls. Players can bet on the dice rolls amounting to particular totals, combinations of two dice, single numbers being rolled through to specific triple rolls. There are no betting strategies to reduce the margins of Sic Bo, depending on the bet placed the house margin remains between 2.8 and 16.2 percent.

ROULETTE wheels in Australia have 37 numbers on them, 18 red, 18 black and one zero. Double Zero Roulette has an additional zero to make 38 numbers. The wheel is spun and a small ball is sent spinning in the opposite direction. Bets can be placed on the ball landing on specific numbers or colours (red or black), on odd/even outcomes or on “low” or “high” numbers. The house margin is 2.7 percent for roulette and 5.26 percent for Double Zero Roulette.

PAI GOW is a chance-based game played with 32 tiles. 22 of these tiles form 11 Identical Pairs and the remaining 10 tiles form 5 mixed pairs. After the game has been dealt, each player and the Bank (house) needs to construct two separate hands with their four tiles called a Low Hand and a High Hand. The player’s hands and the Bank’s hands are then compared to determine who wins. Pai Gow has a house margin of 1.5 percent.

BIG WHEEL is a game of chance in which a wheel is divided into 52 compartments, each one showing one of seven different symbols. Players simply bet on a symbol and win if the wheel lands on that symbol. The house margin for Big Wheel remains consistently at 7.7 percent.

Lottery Games

Most people have purchased a lotto ticket at some stage. It can be thrilling to imagine what would happen “if my numbers came up.” While buying a lottery ticket can be simply a bit of fun, like all types of gambling, it’s important to know the odds so you can keep your chances of winning in perspective.  

There are several different types of lotteries and the odds of winning depend on the game you play, but all of them offer very little chance of a big win. There is no strategy in playing the lotteries to increase your odds either - all lottery results are completely random.

The following are some common Australian lotteries and the odds of your numbers actually coming up.

LOTTO draws are made on both state and national levels. 45 balls numbered 1 to 45 are combined and six balls are randomly selected to create the winning combination, with another two balls selected as the supplementary numbers. At least four games are played per Lotto card and your chance of choosing the six winning numbers and receiving the Division One prize with a single game is 1 in 8,145,060.

POWERBALL uses two machines each containing 45 balls numbered 1 to 45. Five balls are drawn at random from one machine, while one ball, the Powerball, is drawn from the second machine. You must play at least two games in a draw. Your chance of matching all five balls plus the Powerball is 1 in 54, 979,155.

OZ LOTTO also has 45 balls numbered 1 to 45. Out of nine balls drawn, the first seven are the winning numbers and the last two are supplementary. Your chance of choosing all seven winning numbers for the Division One prize is 1 in 45,379,620.

6 FROM 38 POOLS is played by selecting six numbers between 1 and 38. Instead of being drawn randomly by machines, the six winning numbers and one supplementary number are based on the results of soccer matches. You must play at least two games at a time. Your chance of matching the six winning numbers is 1 in 2,760,681.

INSTANT LOTTERIES are commonly known as Scratchies and involve revealing numbers or symbols on a ticket by scratching its surface. The odds of winning any particular prize vary with the type of ticket however your chance of winning the top prize on a $2 scratchy can be 1 in 900,000, for example.

KENO is played in a registered venue such as a club, hotel or casino and consists of 80 numbers (1–80) where 20 numbers are drawn at random. On a $1 game players choose 10 or 15 numbers. If a player chooses between 7 – 10 numbers, a proportion of their bet is allocated to a jackpot. Your chance of winning the jackpot on the 10 number game is 1 in 8,911,711.

LUCKY KENO consists of 80 numbers (from 1 to 80 inclusive), from which 20 numbers are randomly drawn by a random number generator (RNG). For each draw, the RNG will randomly generate 20 numbers from between 1 and 80 inclusive. Winners are determined by matching numbers generated by the RNG with the numbers selected for a particular Spot number selection. The odds of winning on a Spot 10 are 1 in 8,911,711   (spot 10 match 10).

LUCKY 3 winning numbers are determined by a random number generator (RNG), selecting one (1) number from the three (3) separate sets of numbers available. Each set of numbers contains ten (10) numbers from zero (0) to nine (9) inclusively. One game consists of a player selecting one (1) number from each of the three (3) sets of numbers available. The odds of winning the top prixe are  1 in 1000.

TV BINGO consists of twenty five (25) numbers. Numbers are randomly drawn until fifty (50) balls are drawn. A winner who succeeds to match all the twenty four (24) numbers of the TV Bingo board before a predetermined number of drawn balls (the 44th ball) is entitled to a jackpot prize. The odds of winning the jackpot are 1 in 14,638,344.

LUCKY 5 winning numbers are determined by a random number generator (RNG), selecting five (5) numbers from the thirty five (35) available (first field) and Red or Black (second field). The first field contains thirty five (35) numbers from one (1) to thirty five (35) inclusively. The second field contains two (2) selections of either Red or Black. One game consists of a player selecting five (5) numbers from the first field and one (1) selection from the second field. The odds of winning the top prize are 1 in 649,264.

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