I feel as if I’ve been hearing about the SugarHouse casino for 10 years, but I haven’t and it is opening in the Philapelphia waterfront in less than three weeks.
Philly.com has a gallery of pictures so you can see the progress. This is the most urban casino I’ve seen. I’m interested to see how SugarHouse does once open.
I’ve wanted to do more interviews at ECG and I was finally able to sit down (on my couch) with Stu Hoegner (probably in an office) to learn a little about online gambling, Canadian gambling and more. This will be broken into a few parts as there was just too much information for one sitting.
I “met” Stu on twitter. We both seem to have similar interests and I’ve learned a lot about the man just by reading his tweets and asking questions. In fact, he’s the person that tipped me off to the rumor that the Rio may be sold. Here’s your introduction to Stu.
Q: Who are you?
A: My name’s Stuart Hoegner and I’m a gaming attorney in Toronto, Ontario. I’m also an accountant.
Q: What do you do?
A: I act for a broad array of clients in the gaming sector, including for online poker and casino operators, sportsbooks, penny auction websites, and other skill and hybrid skill-chance game operators. I also act for software developers, marketing and advertising companies, and some joint ventures in the banking industry.
Q: What are some of your interests?
A: Outside interests include gaming (mostly casino), golf, yoga, and history.
Q: Do you gamble?
A: If so which games? Absolutely – my job is a great fusion of two things I love to do: practising law and gaming. My favourite casino games are craps and blackjack. I also love Texas Hold ‘Em poker and Scrabble.
Follow Stu (aka gaming counsel) on twitter.
Last week was a lot of looking back at my trip to Las Vegas. There will be a few more in the coming weeks. Unfortunately ECG is having some problems, which I’m working on getting fixed but that won’t stop the goods from going up. I’m back home for a week before I take off again for another adventure.
Speaking of adventures, football season starts this week with some NCAA games. I’ll be sharing my picks on my tumblr and twitter once again this year if you’re interested. I’ll also have JMP back with his NFL picks. So get ready! Here are the highlights in the past week on ECG.
Making bank, might be a little strong, but I was a little surprised when I saw that Trump Marina was making more money from $1 blackjack than higher limits (I’m guessing $10).
(Trump Marina’s Don) Browne noted that the $1 tables are averaging about an $1,100 win per day for the casino, compared to about $950 for higher-stakes blackjack games at Trump Marina. On weekends, the average daily win on the $1 tables jumps to about $1,500.
Earlier this year I saw the money behind the reason for so many $25 limit tables in casinos. I guess for Trump this is a good thing, but the odds are not with the player. Because of the .25 extra I would tend to stay away from this kind of game. Even if I could get drunk on crappy beer and well drinks.
For full odds/strategy check the wizard of odds. And because a picture of Ivanka Trump is more interesting than a picture of Trump Marina..
Two years ago I realized that a friend of mine was getting better comps than I was by playing video poker in Atlantic City. I was appalled by this. I never thought that a game that grannies played would be given better treatment by the casinos than the table games I played.
This was the catalyst for me learning more about advantage play, payouts and percentages over two years ago. It’s also partially the reason I started ECG. Hopefully people can learn from my experiences – good, bad, drunk and over-caffeinated.
Since my $15 bets in blackjack weren’t accumulating comps in the way they I wanted them to, I devoted that money to learning how to play video poker. I thought that maybe this would help my comps a little while making me a more efficient gambler. I still play $25 hands when I play blackjack, but I tend to stay away from low limits for reasons beyond comps.
Since I began playing video poker, my comps have certainly gotten better and I’ve been able to extend my gambling day as I enjoy playing video poker in the morning before the rest of the casino is awake. I’ve also come to learn what I like and dislike with all games and I’ve learned a lot about my own tendencies when I gamble.
This blog started as an into into my video poker play during my recent trip to Las Vegas, but was a little too long for an intro. Look for my video poker play later this week and why I think video poker in Vegas is lame.
I started to get some stuff up from my trip to Vegas 2 weeks ago. Of course, now that I’m caught up on sleep I’m off to another destination. Postings will be slow, but keep an eye on twitter as I’ll always pass on anything good I see.
Funny enough I was working on ECG 4.0, when I decided to work on an idea I had last year and was never able to get to. If I did things right, that will launch shortly after my next trip. Here’s the fun from this past week.
