Honest online casinos? Don't make me laugh!

Guest incentives The main and primary task of the management was, as you already understood, taking care of visitors, providing them with everything new and unusual. Literally, a guest who came to the club received honors in the form of numerous preferences and indulgences from the management. And there were many of them: - immediately after the opening during the first three months, all guests, upon paying an "entrance ticket" (initially its cost was equal to 500 USD, but was reduced to 300 - here is clear proof that "ordinary" grandparents with their pensions could not a priori get into an establishment of this level), in addition to its cost in "drop chips", received an additional 50 USD as a gift from the establishment; - for those visitors whose monetary exchange was 1000 USD and playing at a rate of 25 USD. i.e. at card games, expensive alcohol and sandwiches with black/red caviar and white fish - treats that were not on the complimentary menu were free; - a special bonus system was introduced, crediting points to the guest card (which everyone who had ever visited the "Old World" had). They could be used to pay the bill at the bar, restaurant or night club "Marmelad". The amount of points received depended primarily on the amount of money exchange and the intensity of visits, while the result of the game (loss/win) did not matter at all; - casino visitors were offered a truly huge selection of games. In addition to the classic roulette, there was originally a roulette with double zero (called "French"), classic blackjack was supplemented with two decks, and triple blackjack was introduced as an alternative. However, it, like French roulette, did not find a response among players and was soon abolished due to unpopularity. As for poker, in addition to the already obligatory "Texas" along with the "oasis", there were about ten more varieties of this game. And the main one from the "repertoire" was Russian poker - which captured the attention of all gaming Moscow and beyond. We will devote a chapter to the history of the creation of this game, which instantly gained popularity and divided the history of the casino into before and after its invention. The management also tried to take into account the preferences of players of different nationalities, providing an opportunity for fans of everything American to entertain themselves with a dice game called craps, and for numerous representatives of the Chinese diaspora to play the "national" game of punto banco with its mini variety. For lovers of history and classical Russian literature, in memory of the immortal creation of Alexander Sergeevich Pushkin "The Queen of Spades", the long-forgotten card game stos was revived; — from the Poslonnik casino they borrowed the possibility of an “unlimited” bet on poker, limiting only the maximum payout at the table. Initially, in “silver” it was 100,000 USD, but with the advent of “platinum” it was increased to 200,000. In order for the esteemed reader to understand the full scope of the “Old World”, it should be noted that this casino was the first to allow a bet on a number on roulette of 500 USD (the level in Moscow did not exceed 200, mostly equaling 100), and the maximum payout on poker was half a million euros! A visitor to the Platinum Hall could hit such a jackpot. The initiative for this “innovation” undoubtedly belonged to the former manager of the “Poslonnik”. He was invited by one of the founders of the “Old World”, Slava, who remembered him well from his time as a dealer at the “Sovereign”. And he, in turn, most shamelessly borrowed the little good that was left in the "Messenger" and allowed him to enter the elite of Moscow casinos with a maximum payout of ... 30,000 dollars; - a very interesting innovation in poker was the permission to bet on the bonus without an ante bet. When a visitor has his last cash chip, he does not go to another table (roulette, blackjack), but bets exclusively on the bonus. Very convenient to finish the game beautifully; - to attract more and more guests to the first prize drawing, the prize was a new model of the "Cayenne" just released by the Porsche plant. At the beginning of 2004, only two such cars were driving in Moscow; - people with outstanding mathematical abilities of "counters" were not blacklisted, prohibiting them from visiting, as was done in other places. They were simply not allowed to play their "favorite" games or were restricted in their use of certain concessions in the rules, such as the ability to refuse to continue playing blackjack with an ace[60]. As you understand, all these innovations were supposed to help the "Old World" take a worthy place among the already existing and successfully operating casino factories. Because it is difficult to call a gambling establishment of this level by any other term: 22 tables were installed for visitors in the Silver Hall, 9 in the Gold. And with the opening of the Platinum, their total number reached 35.

In essence, casino and fair play are synonyms. But for some unknown reason, they came into conflict with each other. And now the average person, who has never stepped over the threshold of an official gambling house, believes that everything in the casino is rigged, it is impossible to win, and that the owners of such establishments are ready to use all means of scientific and technological progress, just not to let the visitor leave with money. A logical question arises: "If everything is rigged, why do people go there?" To which you are immediately retorted: "And where did you see people there? Only crooks and bandits!" And on this rosy note, the conversation, as a rule, ends, because further discussion becomes simply meaningless.

How does a modern person imagine a casino if he has never been there? The first thing that comes to mind is one-armed bandits. It sounds extremely funny. It is clear that we are talking about slot machines, but when a person finishes the sentence with the words "one-armed bandits", a picture immediately appears in the head that it is in the casino that all the cripples of the criminal world are found, punished for something by their brothers by cutting off one of their two front limbs. After the "one-armed bandits" come quite normal and outwardly healthy representatives of the criminal world, without whom, by common opinion, no establishment of this kind can do. And then it all started: girls of easy virtue (the question arises, what are they doing there? This is not a street or a brothel, but we don’t think about it! They said that the casino needs prostitutes, so they are there, and that’s it!), card sharps and all sorts of swindlers who are just waiting to fleece the inattentive visitor. Alcohol flows like a river, and all sorts of strange individuals offer forbidden pleasures. And not a word about Her Majesty the game! Well, who will think about it? It’s all set up! Forget all hope, ye who enter here... First, they will give you free alcohol to drink, stuff you with various narcotic and psychotropic drugs to the point of insanity, then hand you over to the tender hands of priestesses of love, after that the sharpers will empty your pockets, and if there is anything left, then you will definitely not escape from the "one-armed bandits", and if you do escape, then you will meet not crippled invalids, but real bandits, and after them you will either be "put on the meter", or completely forget the way to this den!

Explanation of terms used in casinos for statistical reporting. DROP — the amount of money exchanged for the game (remember the story about the gypsies with their drawn dollars and the drop box where the money exchanged at the table was put?). Example: a client came to the casino, exchanged 200 dollars at the cashier, bet them on red, lost and left. His drop is 200 dollars. Some Moscow gambling establishments, in order to simplify the procedure for calculating drops, introduced drop chips into circulation, issued when exchanging money and differing from the game chips in color. FALSE DROP — a false drop. It is very important to be able to distinguish it from a real drop. Example: a client came to the casino, exchanged 200 dollars at the cashier, bet them on red, won. Bet again and won again. Went to the cashier and took 400 dollars, returned to the roulette, bet 200 on red and lost. Chips ran out. He went to the cashier, changed 200 dollars — these 200 dollars are a false drop — casino money put back into the game. CHIPS IN — chips put into the game. Example: Vasya and Petya came to the casino. They each changed 200 dollars at the cashier. They went to play roulette, and Vasya bet on red, and Petya on black. Black came up. Vasya lost, and Petya doubled his bet. Vasya has no more cash, but he wants to continue the game, and he borrows 200 dollars from Petya in chips he just won. These 200 dollars, borrowed chips, are what is called CHIPS IN for Vasya, but for Petya they will be recorded in the CHIPS OUT column — chips taken out of the game by a specific player. Ian, like any normal general manager, also had his own "quirks". And they were directly related to statistics. Based on its data, he assigned the size of the reward for each of the managers, determining the contribution of his shifts to the overall result of the casino for the month. Tolyan had the worst indicators. And there is a logical explanation for this: he always worked only the day shift. And during the day, clients did not come often, so in the case of the most elementary loss of even a small amount, the probability of winning back was extremely small. For example, a person would come, exchange 200 dollars, win the same amount and leave. And Tolyan's drop = 200 and the result = -200. The shift has -100%. And there are no more visitors.

During his year in power, although he failed to create a team of like-minded people speaking the same language, he was able to use carrot and stick (a purely English approach) to ensure that his commandments were followed. This was enough to attract people to the casino and to have a consistently high drop — the most important indicator of a casino's viability : after all, the more money is exchanged for the game, the more the establishment gets. If the percentage of the monthly result is 40% of the drop, then we can talk about the excellent work of the management team; 30% is an excellent result to strive for; with a norm of 15–20%, it is necessary to analyze the work and try to find mistakes and omissions: somewhere, something is going wrong. And the casino under Jena constantly "made a result", even despite serious "hits" from Nikolai Sadulovich and some other players.

The new Russian general manager was given a specific task: to constantly produce results. And how he would achieve this was of no concern to him. To make it easier to understand, a hint followed - a call to action, in the form of two lemmas: - the casino must always win; - a person who came to play "Marrakesh" already owes. (It does not matter that he does not know about it yet. The main thing is that we are aware. Our task is to convey to him the information about the debt so that he would take all the contents of his pockets and wallet as soon as possible and, preferably without "torment" and unnecessary struggle, with a feeling of "lightness and freedom" quickly leave the casino.) And they began to "bombard" all visitors in every possible way. They didn't disdain anything: they let "lucky" dealers "live" at the tables, pathetic losers who dared to give away "a piece of collective farm land" were immediately kicked out, without even a chance for the slightest rehabilitation: the dealer loses, and he is immediately replaced, without waiting for the expiration of the allotted time at the table. In the gaming room, right in front of the guests, it was allowed not only to make a remark, but even to yell at a subordinate. The pit bosses were driven into such a framework that all their actions were obstructed, with the exception of those cases when they "guessed" the dealer's choice. And how to guess? The croupier does not have it written on his face that "today I will win at poker, but lose at roulette." A losing dealer could not be put at the working tables for days. All efforts to achieve a result! Many pit bosses even began to believe in omens: when you stand on your right leg, tucking your left, the ball will hit an empty number. But if you change your stance, it means you'll lose, and you'll get a dressing down from the manager right away. Alexander Schumacher with his checklist in the refrigerator is nothing! Everything was cooler here! Some Moscow casino managers even thought of inviting a priest to bless the gaming room! I can't speak for Marrakesh, but Arkady saw the process of blessing the Gosudar casino with his own eyes. Particularly suspicious employees resorted to occult help. One of the first Russian managers at Gosudarina said that his grandmother, having learned about her favorite grandson's promotion, suggested that he exchange a certain bill for small change to attract good luck, so that he could carry it in his pocket during work shifts. Allegedly, with the help of magic coins, you can achieve a positive result. Every time he put his hand in his pants pocket, the sound of kopecks knocking against each other was heard throughout the casino. What kind of good attitude towards visitors could we talk about? Only at the level of the dealer-inspector staff. Among the rank-and-file employees, there were many professionals who were able to provide not only high-quality service in terms of running the game, but also simple human communication, so often required by visitors. But as soon as a person left the staff, moving to a middle management position, he immediately accepted the rules of the game proposed by Sergey, and turned into a hater of clients. Concessions were not made in "Marrakesh". The principle was: if you don't like it, you're free! Even in matters not related to the game.