Dear Mark, Can the casino change the odds of getting certain hands in video poker?
For example, a player never being able to get a royal flush. Roger H. Many players, Roger, erroneously believe that the casino can change the odds of video poker by changing an internal chip so that the player cannot acquire a royal flush, or even limit how many four-of-a-kinds and straight flushes they get. Nothing, Roger, could be further from the truth. If a casino was ever caught doing what your question suggests, they would probably lose their gaming license faster than you can say, “lose their gaming license.” In Nevada, where you play, all the chips are encrypted with a source code that’s controlled by the gaming control board and the manufacturer, not casino management. The slot manager has no access to the source code to change the odds of the game. The reason a royal flush is elusive, Roger, is because the odds of hitting one are almost 50,000 to one. Gambling quote of the week: “A lot of good players never get to the top because when they get ahead in a game they start to fe
