I too have played in a number of California Casinos, and all seems fair to me- except a dumpy place near Sonora: Chicken Ranch. I stopped in one time and found some strange looking machines but with great paytables. After a little play something didn't seem right, so I dumped a paying hand to see what would happen. Somehow my throw away cards came back and gave me back my paying hand. Also, you can run into things like this at Indian Casinos:
http://www.casinocitytimes.com/news/article/woman-loses-car-prize-over-technicality-193723
--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Frank" <frank@...> wrote:
>
> There has apparently been a lot of chatter about my brief comment about having played at an Indian casino and questioned the fairness of their machines. Here's the whole story. First is was about 16 years ago. I'll share what I remember.
>
> 1. Somewhere near Sacramento CA.
> 2. The machines were too good to be true. 9/6 JoB with a triple progressive for the RF, SF, 4K. 1% Meter-Rise on each. THAT'S 3% TOTAL. The RF reset to $5,000, the SF reset to $500 and the 4K reset to $150. Yet you couldn't win to save your life.
> 3. Applying the chi squared test to a small sample of hands revealed that pay cards were coming up about 15% less often than they should have.
> 4. They were off brand.
> 5. It was too far from home to worry about. We left it.
>
> It should have been about a 4.8% edge from reset, but we left. That should tell you something.
>
> Now let me be perfectly clear. We did not play enough to be certain of anything. This was an isolated incident in a single casino, and it was 16 years ago. I have not played in an Indian casino since. It is just a personal choice and mainly based on the fact I don't like to leave my cats at home alone.
>
> Indian casinos may now be just as fair as Nevada casinos. I have no direct evidence either way. Oh, and I like broccoli!
>
> ~FK
>
