May 22, 2017 Too late for me, I learned that I walked right into the oldest scam in town (New Orleans). If a stranger walks up to you and says, 'I can guess where you bought your shoes.' DO NOT ENGAGE.
Louisiana riverboat casinos could move to land under proposed law ..4 Nov 2017 .. It can hold more than three times as many passengers as razzle gambling new orleans the Creole Queen. Meanwhile, the New Orleans Steamboat Co., which owns the Natchez, is also adding a second riverboat next year — the City of New Orleans, which will operate from the Lower Bienville Street Wharf.10Best things to see and do in New Orleans
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Louisiana riverboat casinos could move to land under proposed law change
Updated January 16, 2018 at 4:19 PM; Posted January 16, 2018 at 3:41 PM In this February 1994 photo, the Hilton's Queen of New Orleans riverboat casino nears the Hilton dock (Tyrone Turner, The Times-Picayune) CommentBy The Associated Press
Louisiana lawmakers will be asked to significantly rewrite the state's riverboat casino laws for the first time in nearly two decades, to move the casinos to land and redefine the limits on gambling space.
The ideas were recommended Tuesday (Jan. 16) by a task force created by lawmakers in 2016 to suggest ways to update Louisiana's riverboat gambling regulations, keep the state's casinos competitive and promote the heavily regulated industry as an economic development tool.
Sen. Ronnie Johns, a Republican from Lake Charles, said he'll sponsor the proposals in the legislative session that begins in March. He said the changes might be seen as 'baby steps,' but he said lawmakers have not had a 'meaningful conversation about this industry' in years.
Razzle Dazzle New Orleans Gambling
'We've started with something we think is very manageable, something that I think has an excellent opportunity to pass,' he said.
Louisiana has 15 riverboat casinos, under a law enacted in 1991. The casinos are in many ways still operating under the regulatory structure of that law. The last major law change was in 2001, when the riverboats were allowed to be permanently docked -- doing away with a requirement that they cruise periodically -- in exchange for the casinos paying a higher tax rate.
The task force proposals, approved without objection Tuesday, are likely to be contentious as gambling is a sensitive issue in the conservative state. Legislation with the word 'gaming' included in it often gets sidelined with little discussion.
Task force members say the changes will address concerns in an important state industry that provides sizable income for the treasury.
'I think we've started a discussion that's been years in the making. We can make some meaningful changes. We can promote a reinvestment in this economy in Louisiana. I think we can create some jobs,' said Ronald 'Ronnie' Jones, the former state trooper who led the task force and is chairman of the Louisiana Gaming Control Board.
Razzle Dazzle Store
Riverboat casinos send more than 0 million annually to state coffers, out of about 0 million collected from gambling, including the lottery, land-based casino in New Orleans, slot machines at racetracks, video poker and the riverboats.
The 15 riverboat casinos employ more than 20,000 people and keep a payroll topping 8 million, according to the legislation creating the task force.
The recommendations involve allowing the casinos to conduct gambling activities within 1,200 feet on land from where the riverboat is berthed and removing the requirement the riverboats have an operable paddlewheel. Jones said Louisiana is one of the last states to require their casinos to remain in the water.
Also suggested is removing a requirement that limits the riverboat casinos to 30,000 square feet of gambling space and replacing it with a cap on gambling positions -- essentially the number of seats in front of slot machines and table games -- at 2,365. The change is sought by the industry to accommodate larger slot machines with more features.
The task force didn't make a recommendation on sports betting, though the topic was discussed.
- Melinda Deslatte, Associated Press
View CommentsRazzle (or Razzle-Dazzle) is a scam sometimes presented as a gambling game on carnival midways and historically, in the casinos of Havana, Cuba.[1] The player throws a number of marbles onto a grid of holes, and the numbers of those holes award points which it is suggested can be converted into prizes. In reality, it is almost impossible for a player to win enough points for the prize. According to gaming expert Darwin Ortiz, the Razzle is seldom, if ever, run honestly.[2]
This generic name of Razzle is seldom known to players, as it is generally presented under a name such as Football, Baseball, Ten Points Win, Mo-Co, Indian Poker or Cajun Bingo, selected to generate interest for the locals. The nature of the game makes it a particular money-maker for dishonest carnies.[3]
Play[edit]
Razzle consists of a large playing board with over a hundred holes numbered 1 through 6. A player makes a bet by spilling eight marbles onto the board from a cup, and the numbers of the holes they land in are added together and referenced on a chart that looks something like a calendar, telling the player how many points they have won for that roll. Around half of the squares on the chart show a point bonus, while the other half are empty and score nothing. In football themed versions of the game, points scored are 'yards'. Significant prizes can be on offer, valued in the hundreds of dollars,[4] but they can only be won when a player has reached a particular point or yard total.[3]
In most Razzle set-ups, the player must bet one unit of currency (dollar, pound, Euro) per roll. Whenever the player throws a total of 29, the game is 'doubled': the player must pay twice as much for all future rolls, but will receive an extra prize at the end of the game.
Jay Mallin records the game being played with eight dice instead of marbles and holes, in Cuban nightclubs and casinos in the 1950s.[5]
Scam[edit]
The points-per-number chart is the secret. The scattered order of the chart obscures the fact that the point-scoring squares are exclusively among the higher and lower throws.
A chart might list numbers from 8 through to 48, where a result in a middle range of 20 through 36 is shown as scoring the player nothing, while results 8 through 19 and 37 through 48 all pay out. Visually this would mean that more than half of the squares on the chart showed a payout (with 22 winning squares and only 16 losing ones), and a player might instinctively conclude that more than half of their throws will pay out. In reality, more than 98% of a player's throws would land in the 20-to-36 range.
Further to this, around 10% of throws will total to 29,[6] and although this is presented as penalty for both sides ('Player and Operator must Double on Number 29') it merely accelerates the rate at which the player hands over their money: the operator will never lose, so doubling the size of the prize is meaningless.
Even if the game were run honestly, the mathematical nature of the razzle board makes it extremely unlikely that a player would ever win before running out of money, or that the value of the prizes won would ever equal the amount of money spent chasing them. The game operator conceals this from the player by using a fast and incorrect count to, when it suits the operator, pretend that a throw scored when it did not. This is used initially to hook the player into the game by giving the player a generous number of wins in the opening throws of the game, taking them some way to the prize point total and giving the impression that the remaining points can be obtained just as easily. Once the player has become invested in the game, the operator will switch to counting the throws accurately, with nearly all of them being losses. If the player starts to show reluctance to continue, the operator will dole out just enough miscounted points to keep them at the table.[7] Increasingly the player believes that walking away would be a disaster - they only need one or two more points to win the prize. Unfortunately for the player, they will only get those points if the operator allows it. According to Darwin Ortiz, most Razzle operators are not satisfied until they get their mark's last dollar.
The Razzle is such a devastatingly effective scam that some crooked booth operators have been known to even abandon their store's theme and 'bring out the razzle'. On a block in New Orleans in the early 2000s, tourists had reported losses of up to $18,000 to the scam.[8]
References[edit]
- ^English, T. J. (2008). Havana Nocturne: how the mob owned Cuba -- and then lost it to the revolution. New York: William Morrow.
- ^Ortiz, Darwin (1984). Gambling Scams. Mead.
- ^ abBerry, Donald A.; Regal, Ronald R. (Nov 1978). 'Probabilities of Winning a Certain Carnival Game'. The American Statistician. 32 (4): 126. doi:10.2307/2682938. JSTOR2682938.
- ^Du, Susan. 'Minnesota State Fair goer confronts Razzle scam artists and gets his revenge'. City Pages. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
- ^'Razzle Dazzle'. www.goodmagic.com. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
- ^ ab'Ask the Wizard #260 - Wizard of Odds'. wizardofodds.com. Retrieved 4 May 2019.
- ^Gryczan, Matthew L. (1988). Carnival Secrets: How to Win at Carnival Games, Which Games to Avoid, How to Make Your Own Games. Zenith Press.
- ^Perlstein, Michael; TheTimes-Picayune, Copyright 2004 (8 May 2004). 'Role of New Orleans police in rigged game investigated'. Houston Chronicle. Retrieved 4 May 2019.