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Gaming is older than history itself. One of the most popular forms of entertainment in the world, gaming has a rich and colorful history that crosses continents and cultures as easily as it crosses the centuries. This is the place where we collect some of the more interesting facts and tidbits about gaming for your enjoyment. We'll also give you "news you can use" in the form of proper game etiquette and the rules for the games as they are played at Ameristar. So dig in and take a look around. We're certain that you'll discover something that you never knew before, and if you have a question for us, drop us a line!
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Fun Facts:
• The earliest settlements in America were
funded in part by lotteries; George Washington ran a lottery
to fund the construction of a road to his property in
Appalachia.
• The IRS receives nearly 4 million W-2g (Individual
winner) and 5754 (group/split winner) forms a year for gaming
and lottery income.
• The only states without some form of legalized gambling are
Utah and Hawaii.
• "Go all in" - In Poker, if you don't have enough
money to match the current bet, you can "go all in,"
whereby you vie for the portion of the pot that your wager
covers.
• In Blackjack, a soft hand is one with an ace; the value of
which can be either 1 or 11. A hard hand is a hand without an
ace, whose card value cannot vary.
• In craps, betting against the player throwing the dice is
called "betting wrong."
• Casino is the Italian word for "house."
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| Etiquette
Craps:
• Keep your hands away from the table when the dice are
thrown so they won't interfere with the roll.
• When you're shooting, don't take the dice beyond the
rail.
Poker:
• Don't talk about a hand while it's being played.
• Play proceeds clockwise around the table; whether
you're going to fold, check, or raise, wait until it's
your turn.
Blackjack:
• If someone at your table makes what you know to be a
bad play, don't comment on it. Criticizing the play of
another is bad form.
• In games where you are allowed to pick up your cards, always hold them with one hand and keep them over the table.
Roulette:
• If you have made a winning bet and the dealer has
paid you, don't touch your winning bets until the dealer
has paid the other players and removed the marker from
the table.
• If you want to bet on both zeros (split zeros) but
can't reach, place your bet on the line between the
middle third (12-24) and the upper third (25-36) outside
bets instead of asking the dealer to place your chips between
the two zeros. They're the same bet.
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HISTORY OF GAMING
GAMING IN THE US New Orleans was the
first major gambling center in the United States. By the
beginning of the 18th Century many taverns had set aside
special rooms and tables specifically for gambling. In 1823
gambling was officially legalized; a license to operate a
casino cost $5,000, which was allocated to support either a
school or hospital. By 1850 there were over 5,000 casinos
along the Mississippi River offering primarily craps and card
games, many of which were open 24 hours a day.
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THE FIRST SLOT MACHINE:
Charles Fey, a Bavarian Machinist, invented
the slot machine in San Francisco in the early 1890s. His
3-reel model proved to be quite profitable and inspired many
entrepreneurs to develop their own machines. A few years later
a man named Herbert Stephen introduced three innovations that
changed the device drastically. He expanded the viewing
window, which displayed a larger portion of the reels, he
replaced the front panel on the machine with a transparent one
exposing the money in the hopper, and he installed larger
reels, which allowed 20 symbols per wheel, with one symbol per
reel keyed to a jackpot.
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