According to Current Blackjack News, Bally’s has introduced eight-deck “blackjack” games that pay only 6 to 5 on blackjacks. This is ridiculous. The house edge with correct basic strategy exceeds two percent. The true house edge against patrons ignorant enough to sit down at such a garbage game is probably in excess of five percent – worse than many carnival games and even slot machines.
Harrah’s has long been the King of Ripoffs by offering garbage table games to gullible chumps, but this is beyond sickening, even by Harrah’s low standards. To make matters worse, Harrah’s is notoriously stingy with comps for table game patrons.
If you still doubted that Harrah’s management considers its patrons to be anything other than rank suckers, this should eliminate any such doubt. Harrah’s should be ashamed of itself.
Note: Harrah’s did not respond to a request for comment.
Thanks for the growl about Harrah’s. They use their monopoly position in the industry to gobble up casinos and then ruin their games. Bally’s is a case in point. My recollection is that several years ago, before Harrah’s took over, Bally’s had 6D S17 with surrender, and a decent DD game. And now ….
They destroyed the games at the Horseshoe in a similar fashion.
Your story about the new 6-5 shoe games at Bally’s prompted me to write about what I discovered on a recent visit to Caesars Palace. My first stop was the Forum Casino, which had a $25 shoe game, not great (dealer hits soft 17, and resplitting of aces not allowed, as in the more upscale Palace Casino). After being dealt a pair of sixes against a weak dealer’s up-card, and catching an ace on one of them, I went to double and had my bet pushed back. The dealer pointed to a sign on the baize that said: “Double on 10 and 11 only. No double after split.” I then went to the Palace Casino, and found the games there — most of which were $50 and $100 minimum 6-deck shoe games – had been degraded to what the Forum Casino games were, with the dealer hitting S17 and resplitting aces not allowed.. I can’t agree with you more that Harrah’s should be ashamed of itself.