All the recommendations in this article and in its accompanying strategy sheets are based on the assumption that the machines deal fairly, but rumors and hearsay abound in this area. One undisputed fact is that the Gaming Regulations of the State of Nevada, section 14.020, require fair deals. (Specifically, they require a machine that simulates a known manual gambling device like a deck of cards to have the same odds as one would expect from the manual device.) Most other jurisdictions, in the United States anyway, follow the lead of Nevada in this respect.
One author (Dan Paymar) reports that the machines can be jumpered to deal unfairly, presumably for use in those jurisdictions that do not have Nevada’s scruples. He reports he has observed machines that apparently cheat even in Nevada, specifically in the case of drawing one card to a four-card straight. He reports finding machines that are much more likely to return a card of the same rank as he discarded than mere chance alone would suggest. In other words, if he discarded a single four, he found he would draw another four about 50% of the time. This is wildly more than the true odds, which are 3 out of 47.
“That happens to me all the time,” I can hear you say. I know; it seems like it happens to me all the time, too. But when I actually measure it carefully, the results are always consistent with the true odds. I think the explanation is that when you play video poker, especially when you play fast, you enter a zone where you simply do not notice the normal events. Only the unusual things catch your attention. So when I measure it, I never write down a result either way unless I …
