Majestic Star offers tasty possibilities

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Updated: November 2, 2011 6:49PM

In his first column of each month, John Grochowski reports on a casino visit.

There are only a handful of casino games in which the player can get an edge. Start with blackjack for card counters, video poker at certain pay tables that are not available in Illinois or Indiana, craps for a select few dice controllers. Add in live poker for those more skilled and disciplined than their opponents, and sports and racing betting for serious handicappers. That’s about it.

Other opportunities are around if you take into account the value of cash back, free play, room and meal comps, and other perks. If you’re playing 9-6 Jacks or Better, which returns 99.5 percent with expert play, and get a couple of tenths of a percent back in free play in the casino plus direct-mail vouchers, it doesn’t take many free lunches to get you above break-even.

That brings me to my morning at Majestic Star in Gary, Ind., last week. Majestic Star isn’t the video poker paradise it was a few years ago, but between its two boats there are a number of games that hover around 99 percent return with expert play. That includes quarter, single-hand machines — rare opportunities in the Chicago area.

On Majestic Star II, the third-deck video poker room includes a single-quarter machine with 9-6 Jacks or Better and 10-7-5 Double Bonus Poker (99.1 percent). On Majestic Star I, there are many quarter 9-7-5 Double Bonus games that reduce 250-coin payoffs on straight flushes or four 5s through Kings to 239 coins, leaving a 98.7 percent game. Many of those have progressive jackpots, which increase the overall return.

For over-50s like myself, there’s an added attraction, with a free breakfast or lunch buffet after earning 10 or more points that day on the Key Rewards card. That turns those video poker machines into what analysts call “positive expectation games.”

At the 9-6 Jacks or Better game, I found I was getting one point for every $8 wagered. That meant I’d need to wager $80 to accumulate 10 points for the buffet. At 99.5 percent return, my expected average loss on $80 in play was 40 cents. On the 9-7-5 Double Bonus game, the expected loss would be 72 cents, and on the Double Bonus games with the 239-coin payoffs, it would be $1.04.

I bought in for $20 and cashed out for $20. My free buffet was truly free. It won’t always work that way. Sometimes you’ll get bad cards and that $9.99 buffet will cost $20 or more in losses. Sometimes you’ll win money. On balance, losses up to 10 points will average much less than the cost of the buffet. To me, that’s a winning play.

John Grochowski is a local free-lance writer. His “Casino Answer Man” tips air at
5:18 p.m. Tuesday-Friday on WLS-AM (890).