oregon VP

[notes1]

saw this on mendelson's site and thought others might be interested. for the full story, google OREGON VIDEO POKER, sorry, i do not know how to post link.  for decades oregon has offered state-run video poker terminals. the paytables offered an average 90% return, far lower than any casino. but, that is not the story. when playing, you could opt for an 'auto hold' feature. a state run operation with auto hold would certainly recommend  the best cards to save. nope! for those who selected the auto hold, they received an average 5% lower rate of return. apparently, this feature saved cards to potentially win the most, instead of save the best cards to be successful at the game. public officials have known about this problem for years, but chose to let it go. a lawsuit is pending.  i/m/o, there is a lot to this story. is this an isolated case of a governmet screw up? what is key to me is the idea that trusting the government to do what is right for the consumer, as opposed to what brings them the most revenue, is a mistake. is this the same regulatory type atmosphere that would be keeping an eye on private casinos?  

[alpax]

I saw that article too while lurking there. I think it is similar to the video poker in New York state lottery as well.

This website does explain what a Class II machine does

http://www.casinocenter.com/class-ii-vs ... -machines/

[QUOTE]Let’s say the result of the bingo pattern is a prize of 4000 credits, which translates to a typical royal flush in video poker. However, on the draw, if you decide (knowingly or unknowingly) to hold all the cards instead of going for the royal flush, fear not. A genie will appear on the IGT entertaining display and change the 9 of spades to a 10 of clubs, giving you a royal flush hand and corresponding 4000-coin payout. (The latter payout was determined as the winning outcome of the bingo game.) - See more at: http://www.casinocenter.com/class-ii-vs ... YYEhE.dpuf[/QUOTE]

[notes1]

I saw that article too while lurking there. I think it is similar to the video poker in New York state lottery as well.

This website does explain what a Class II machine does

http://www.casinocenter.com/class-ii-vs ... -machines/

[QUOTE]Let’s say the result of the bingo pattern is a prize of 4000 credits, which translates to a typical royal flush in video poker. However, on the draw, if you decide (knowingly or unknowingly) to hold all the cards instead of going for the royal flush, fear not. A genie will appear on the IGT entertaining display and change the 9 of spades to a 10 of clubs, giving you a royal flush hand and corresponding 4000-coin payout. (The latter payout was determined as the winning outcome of the bingo game.) - See more at: http://www.casinocenter.com/class-ii-vs ... YYEhE.dpuf[/QUOTE]
 i believe it was determined these were not bingo machines, it did matter what cards you kept. thus, they were able to determine a higher rate of return for correct play.

[Vman96]

i believe it was determined these were not bingo machines, it did matter what cards you kept. thus, they were able to determine a higher rate of return for correct play.

Right, Oregon plays just like Vegas and strategy does matter! As for the auto-hold issue, that's very unfortunate. West Virginia is also a state that offers Vegas style video poker on VLTs so strategy also matters, but the state requires auto-hold AND the machines are not supposed to return more than 95% back with the auto-hold on. So most machines are 6/5 JoB garbage (94.996%) or worse. However, there are supposedly games made by Spielo that are 9/5 JoB (98.45%). How so? Supposedly the auto-hold on these machines maximizes the chances of winning anything instead of maximizing your overall return just like Oregon apparently did. So it will do things like hold a high card over a pair and other significant mistakes and following the auto-hold will make your return sub 95%.

[alpax]

Mr. Dancer weighs in on this topic for this week's article

http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/bob_dancer/2015/0331.cfm

[notes1]

[QUOTE=alpax]Mr. Dancer weighs in on this topic for this week's article

http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com/bob_dancer/2015/0331.cfm[/QUOTE]
 i was a little surprised when i first brought his subject up, that it got very little attention from anyone. boring, i thought.  thanks for posting  a good article, dancer feels it was worth talking about. i just wish he had dug into the story a little bit more. left me, wanting more. here is my question for all to consider. if the state of oregon found  a 'private' enterprise not doing the right thing, you can bet they would make a big deal about it and how the state regulators will come and save the public. but, when the government intentionally misleads the public, we are supposed to just accept it, move on, nothing here to look at. as dancer points, the government made millions more by misleading the public, they are the same government that is regualting/watching out for us.  

[alpax]

What I did like with the article was that Dancer provided a long history with auto-hold feature in a nutshell in that article.

I do like what Dancer said about it in a general opinion

[QUOTE]Let's face it. A 90% video poker game is a tax on ignorant people. Anybody with a clue would avoid that game. If the manufacturer created a better auto-hold, the state would earn many millions of dollars less in revenue each year. [/QUOTE]

I am also looking forward this week's Gambling with an Edge episode with another video poker player who gets the most out of the game.

[notes1]

What I did like with the article was that Dancer provided a long history with auto-hold feature in a nutshell in that article.

I do like what Dancer said about it in a general opinion

[QUOTE]Let's face it. A 90% video poker game is a tax on ignorant people. Anybody with a clue would avoid that game. If the manufacturer created a better auto-hold, the state would earn many millions of dollars less in revenue each year.

I am also looking forward this week's Gambling with an Edge episode with another video poker player who gets the most out of the game.[/QUOTE]
 remember, the 'auto hold' that the state allowed, reduced the payout below 90%.

[alpax]

The payout reduction below 90% sparked the whole controversy, but Dancer goes as far as to show it has a history of misleading.

The California Lottery has a running Keno game every 4 minutes, but for all the spots 2 to 10, it pays out on average 65 - 68% ER. Dancer does have a good point to make a remark for people even considering playing.

Someone on the VPFREE forum posted a screenshot of a Oregon Lottery game. Surprising there is no Royal Flush payout increase from 4 to 8 coins, but rather the Straight Flush and the 4oaK are improved.

[FloridaPhil]

I would never play a machine with an auto hold feature.  While it seems these machines were not, most auto hold machines that we have seen turned out to be video lottery terminals (class II).  They used to have a bunch of these at the Florida Hard Rock Casinos, but most of them have been phased out.