What are the odds? 2 cars in 3 days?

[DezJeep]

I haven't posted on here in a while but I had to vent. Our local casino is Harrahs So. Cal. They gave away three cars during President's weekend. Sat/Sun/Mon. The usual Harrahs stuff...swipe your players card during the month to enter yourself in the "drawing". They mysteriously draw a name from behind some door and announce it while everyone stands around in anticipation. The SAME GUY that won a car on Saturday night won another car on Monday night! And come to find out he won a Corvette at Harrahs last year. WTH? I mean what are the odds? I'm calling bull on the entire "random drawing" thing. I heard that he's a "big player" which means that he gets lots of entries but seriously, I think the casino knows exactly who is going to win.

And this is not the first time I've seen this kind of stuff. Another local casino used to have a promotion where a player could win a rather large amount of money "randomly" by having their players club card in the machine when the "jackpot" would hit. Almost without fail, the winner was almost ALWAYS a "big player". The rest of us "plebs" sit around actually thinking we have some kind of chance to win? I'm not buying it.

There, now I feel better

[Tedlark]

Hi Dez, good to hear from you. The only thing I can say about what you wrote is that the "events" are highly suspect given the number of potential entrees into the contests. I just can't see one person being that lucky in a drawing such as these.

[Come Back Kid]

I totally agree with you Dez, there's no doubt in my mind...Our casino does the same thing..Nothing "random" about it!!!

[billryan]

Pretty sure Jean Scott and Bob Dancer would disagree with you.
If entrees are earned by money gambled, a couple of big players might have as many as the entire rest of the people waiting for the drawing.

[wildman49]

Pretty sure Jean Scott and Bob Dancer would disagree with you.
If entrees are earned by money gambled, a couple of big players might have as many as the entire rest of the people waiting for the drawing.I have to agree with bill, if Dancer played where I played he would win the drawings most of the time since there is very very few BIG players if any. With that said last month they gave $50,000 cash away and my wife and others waited at the stage to see the person that got drawn. No one came but the casino did say it was over. Sounds fishy.

[FloridaPhil]

At the casinos where I play the drawings always seem to be late in the evening or at some other inconvenient time.   Unless you live close by, it would take a lot of determination to enter them all.  I've been playing in Tampa one full day a week for years and have never won anything in a drawing.  I did see a lady win a car once.  I think these raffles draw players, not winners.

[FAA]

What a surprise. I congratulated a Bally's AC high roller who won a
car when I bumped into him at the cage about four months ago. Mustache,
gray pony tail. A character to remember. He's always in the high limit
room getting in a lather about something. I figured he would be very
much in the mix for any lucrative contest. When I saw his mug on the
casino's Twitter, I just shook my head.   

[Vman96]

If casinos were going to "cheat", this is more likely where they would do it. The gaming commission seems to care less about promos. Venetian got caught over a decade ago. I am sure a couple of others have as well.

That being said, if he was a high roller and had a reasonable chunk of the entries, this could have been a fair result.

Percentage of Entries...% Chance of winning 2 or 3 cars

0.1%...0.0002998%
1%...0.02998%
3%...0.265%
5%...0.725%
10%...2.8%
15%...6.075%
25%...15.625%
30%...21.6%

Now, I have no idea what would be a reasonable percentage of "entries" would be for the individual that had the most of them. Probably at least 1% of the total though. Maybe as high as 10%? I really am hazarding a guess on that one.

[Come Back Kid]

I have even seen the drawings where they send you a post card and only the people sent postcards (everybody) get entries...The most entries you can have is 9999 and most people get that many...And they still call the same people over and over! The favorites, the high rollers etc...It gets old.

[FAA]

The favorites, the high rollers etc...It gets old.-----------------------------------------------------------It sure does. I don't even get excited about entering at CET anymore. It's  a separate kiosk entry, then watch your measly entry or handful of entries be overwhelmed by the high rollers later in the day, often after you've left.