Take a look at the map above. Toronto, the biggest city in Ontario, and in fact, the country, DOESN'T have it's own casino. 1 1/2 hours away is Casino Niagara and Casino Rama. Windsor is about four hours away. These are the three main commercial casinos in southern Ontario. There are two other spots closer to Toronto that are called Charity Casinos. They are located in Brantford and the other at Lake Scugog. The Brantford Casino has an 8 deck game with standard Vegas rules with table limits of $5 to $50, just enough to get a reasonable spread out when the time is right. The Great Blue Heron Casino in Scugog has a 6 deck game and a better $5 to $100 spread. They also have the 777 side bet if you want to play it. Anyone want to side count 7's? So far, the Great Blue Heron Casino wins hands down for distance from Toronto AND game conditions.
Who will be the first to bring Blackjack to Toronto? We don't have a Donald Trump or Steve Wynn around that could wrestle our Government into a good toe hold and make them say "Uncle", so who will be "The Man"? Simple. Mike Harris our Premiere.
Earlier this year a secret backroom deal took place that allows the Province to place table games inside any existing race track operation. Chris Hodgson says this will not happen unless it is approved by that City's council. This is the same thing they said during the last election, in fact it was on the balot as yes or no to casinos. After getting a big NO from Toronto voters, the province wanted to put slots in the Woodbine Race Track. They took the deal to the Ontario Municipal Board to make it a YES, and now they have 1,700 slot machines there.
This new regulation, published in the Ontario Gazette in March, will allow gaming tables at the existing 18 racetracks. Nine of the tracks have slot machines with six more awaiting zoning approval, the same kind of approval Woodbine had to go through to get their slot machines in. Each municipality gets 5% of slot profits from the first 450 machines, 2% from the rest of them.
With slots pulling in 70% of the overall revenue for casinos, table games come last in the pecking order. According to a spokesperson from the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Corp., "Slots present better odds of winning than the gaming tables, unless you happen to be an experienced player". Then he goes on to say "85% of the money pumped into a slot machine comes back in winnings". Huh? This is a 15% take! Roulette has a 5.26% take, Baccarat 1.17% Banker 1.36% Player 14.04% Tie, Craps about 1.4% with some of the wacky bets coming in up to 16%. Blackjack as we know is beatable. Seems they want people to keep playing slots to me! The way it keeps "churning" the players money over and over, that 15% take empties a LOT of pockets.
Municipalities get 0% of gaming table revenues, and this is why the Province wants them. Good old Mel Lastman (mayor) doesn't mind getting his 5% take from Woodbine while he looks like he didn't want the slots. Just wait to see him carry the torch against table games! They introduced Craps for the first time to us in Canada for the same reason they want us to play slots: the game "churns" your money quickly allowing the odds to get at your wallet quicker. Those sly devils!
We shouldn't care which part of the government is making money from these casinos, just that they will be making money for us. I do care about the people that buck the odds of unbeatable games in the name of entertainment. It breaks my heart to see these peoples faces when they are on their way out the front door as I arrive. I feel like Robinhood robing the rich. I couldn't make enough to give to these poor gamblers.
It's just a matter of time before we have Blackjack tables at Woodbine and Mohawk to play on. Probably the up hill climb of the 8 deck game with new and crazy shuffles to track, Ace's to sequence, full seats, and no comps to brag about. Still, it's beatable with the right group of tools up our sleeves.
I am doing research into how much money someone can make as a
professional blackjack player over a period of, say a year? Could you
please give me your opinion?
Thanks,
Laura
Hi Laura
My opinion is based on a person who has at least $10K to start with, knows what s/he is doing and is able to play 1 and 2 deck games in Vegas. With 1% being their maximum bet ($100) they should be able to make about $100 an hour.
When you are saying professional I think you mean that Blackjack is their main source of income. Not being able to play in one place for too long, let's say they play about 4 hours a day. We'll give them the weekends off, so I can see an average take of about $2K per week, more if they work weekends. 2K times 48 (giving them 4 weeks holidays with the family) would total a tax free income of around 96K a year. During this time, they will have to be able to handle the out of the ordinary ups and downs called standard deviation. They could lose for a week or more, and then win far more than $100 an hour for long periods. It takes guts.
Players facing 6 and 8 deck games will win much less and face larger curves in income. I'd say about 30K to 40K a year. Good shuffle trackers more, card sequencers, even more.
Once the player has 100K behind them, they would have to change tactics to be able to bet as large as they are suppose to, 1% max = $1,000. They would have to come out when the casino is busy, look the part in a tux or evening gown, look like someone who plays with their money. They would be better off playing much lower bets to keep things going without getting into trouble.
I hope this will help you with your work.
Rob
In a day or two Laura wrote back to thank me, and to ask for more information. I sent her a link to the www.bj21.com website. It is a posting by a new player using the Knock-Out count. I think it is a great example of living life as a counter. He does well for himself and is learning the tricks of the trade to keep in business.
