I avoid most video machines, but an anecdote from some time I spend in Helsinki in the early 2000s while working for a company there.
Gambling, in a sense, appeared to be legal in Finland. In Helsinki there was one Vegas style casino (similar odds, $10 minimum -- memory serving me right); but many bars had 21 tables. The trip in the "bars" was a tie was not a push, but went to the house.
Given I was a loner in a country known for it's lack of gregariousness (a stereotype, I had friend's there, but many focused on family and those outside the city didn't come in during the week), playing the odds was an interesting gambit.
Giving up the natural odds in a tie is a push for 21 was a hard one to digest. However, I offset some of it by always taking the #1 position. Not ideal overall, but a help.
In the end, after 6 months there, tabulating pure gambling stakes, I ended up a net positive by about 15%.
On my return to the US, my first trip was with friends to Vegas. My skewed methodology of playing, assume no tie, for 21, permeated my game for the first few hours. It resulted in unhappy players, but saw a slight uptick in my own earnings.
I wish I had the time and energy to more fully document this period, but playing games that expect one skew and then coming into another that expects something else, at least for me for awhile was a benefit.
Gambling, in a sense, appeared to be legal in Finland. In Helsinki there was one Vegas style casino (similar odds, $10 minimum -- memory serving me right); but many bars had 21 tables. The trip in the "bars" was a tie was not a push, but went to the house.
Given I was a loner in a country known for it's lack of gregariousness (a stereotype, I had friend's there, but many focused on family and those outside the city didn't come in during the week), playing the odds was an interesting gambit.
Giving up the natural odds in a tie is a push for 21 was a hard one to digest. However, I offset some of it by always taking the #1 position. Not ideal overall, but a help.
In the end, after 6 months there, tabulating pure gambling stakes, I ended up a net positive by about 15%.
On my return to the US, my first trip was with friends to Vegas. My skewed methodology of playing, assume no tie, for 21, permeated my game for the first few hours. It resulted in unhappy players, but saw a slight uptick in my own earnings.
I wish I had the time and energy to more fully document this period, but playing games that expect one skew and then coming into another that expects something else, at least for me for awhile was a benefit.