Deal Me In by Mark Pilarski

February 22, 2008

Casino lingo 101

Dear Mark: A recent article in the Biloxi Sun Herald was entitled "What are the odds?" Part of the article listed the Table Hold percentages. Twenty-one was 13-14 percent. Can this be interpreted as the average loss percentage for blackjack players as a whole? Also listed was the "expected loss" for BJ as 0.5-1.5 percent (assuming use of perfect playing strategy). Ray F.

A reader might confuse two things, Ray, the "house edge", which -- as the article states -- is 0.5-1.5 percent, assuming a perfect basic strategy player, and the Table Hold Percentages, or simply the "casino hold."

"Casino hold" is the ratio of chips the casino keeps to total chips sold, which is typically measured over each: an eight-hour period, a day, month, and year.

For instance, if one blackjack table on swing shift sold $25,000 in chips and dropped the currency in the box, and that table ended up keeping $12,500 of those chips, with players cashing in the other $12,500, then that particular table game would have held 50 percent for that eight hour shift. Now, tote up 30 tables, three shifts a day, thirty days, and $30 million dropped in the can, and that hold percentage number of 13-14 percent is a reasonable figure for the casinos' Table Hold for blackjack.

Dear Mark: Continuing with Jimbo's question last week, where you stated that you wished casinos would pay the mega-jackpot upfront, with one of the reasons you gave was the possibility of the tax liability being lower, I believe you overlooked the possibility where a winner would take his first initial payment upfront, wait a year, and then sell the remaining payments so the remainder would be taxed as long-term capital gains. Harry G.

Looks good on paper, Harry, but that's not how the IRS is going to see it. To Uncle Sam, all gambling winnings are taxed as ordinary income, including mega-jackpots, or any casino winnings for that matter, lotteries, and even winnings through illegal betting, like the Superbowl Square you might have won. Even if you sell the rights to collect future winnings, the IRS still treats it as ordinary income, and not capital gains.

For example, suppose that you hit the IGT Megabucks jackpot, which was $17,426,328.38 in Nevada at the moment I am typing this, which is paid over a 25-year period. And suppose that after collecting your first-year share, you sell the rights to your 24 future payments. The amount you get from that third party is still ordinary income -- just as it would be had you received the payments upfront or year-to-year from IGT.

Dear Mark: Once in a while a blackjack dealer makes an error in my favor - paying a push or even a loss, paying too much on a blackjack. Am I supposed to draw attention to the mistake or is it "part of the game?" Richard A.

The short, although not necessarily the virtuous, answer is no. You do not have to inform the dealer that he has made a payoff mistake. When I was pitching cardboard, seldom if ever would a player inform me that I had made a counting boo-boo. Why, if I had a dollar for every time a player said, "Hey dude, screw-up on your part. Take the money, I don't deserve it," I couldn't buy a cup of coffee, a donut, and this newspaper you're reading.

Bottom line, it's not cheating when a dealer accidentally exposes a card and you use that information, or when he or she miscounts your hand and pays you, but I also believe messing with integrity and honesty alters your karma every time.

Gambling Wisdom of the Week: All gamblers are paranoid, though they call it superstition. --Mario Puzo, Inside Las Vegas

Tags: Gambling Pilarski

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