Weird

Yesterday, we blogged about how the Chicago Cubs had stood up to Horseshoe Casino, a Harrah’s owned gambling venue located in Hammond. We discussed how the Cubs, a baseball team which is known for fiercely defending its reputation, took a stand against the Horseshoe, who had purchased prominent advertising space on a nearby building.

You can check out our full analysis of the news item by reading yesterday’s blog post, but the summary is that the building’s owner, Tom Gramatis, sold the ad space to the Horseshoe, without consulting with the Cubs or contributing a percentage of the advertising revenue. The Cubs, to hit back at Gramatis and the Horseshoe cashing in on lucrative ad space, have since erected blank billboards, blocking out the casino promos.

Many of us wondered what Gramatis and the Horseshoe would say about the issue and fortunately, the Chicagoist.com managed to get in touch with a PR representative at the casino. Dan Nita, Senior Vice President at the casino, told the Chicagoist that 2009 has been a “milestone year” for the casino, noting that not only did they launch a new casino, they “became a corporate sponsor of the Cubs organization, with a substantial six-figure investment”.

Nita’s suggestion that the Cubs are already partners with the Horseshoe Casino throws the entire disagreement into a new light. Before, Budweiser advertised nearby (without the building the ad was located on paying a percentage of ad revenue), but this was allegedly allowed because the beer company also sponsored the Cubs. As Horseshoe already has an agreement with the baseball team, blocking their advert sends out mixed messages, specifically that it’s okay for one company to take advantage of nearby ad space, but not another.

Matt Smith as the Doctor

With the news that Doctor Who will be hitting our screens this week in the first instalment of the tenth Doctor’s final three episodes, we couldn’t help but analyse the odds bookmakers have offered on who will replace David Tennant and become his new companion. As with any hit television show, bookmakers are often eager to venture into the world of “novelty bets” and with the announcement that Tennant would be leaving after a run of specials, Paddy Power, the Irish bookmakers quickly announced their own Doctor Who odds However, as those who viewed the betting options when they were first announced will remember, they were all a little, well odd.

In October, a variety of websites ran Paddy Power’s odds, which named Paterson Joseph as the most likely actor to become the next Doctor, with 3-1 odds. Interestingly, David Morrissey was second tipped to take the role (he featured 5-1 chances of becoming the new Doctor), but as viewers of “The Next Doctor” will recall, Morrissey’s Doctor was actually a confused gentleman in search of his own identity and family. Interestingly, Paddy Power’s October odds didn’t even feature the man who we all know (and will presumably love) as the eleventh Doctor, Matt Smith. Even further back in time, William Hill carried odds in June which featured Daniel Radcliffe and Catherine Tate (12-1 and 25-1 odds respectively) as likely contenders to take the role. Much speculation later, as well as James Nesbitt’s alleged announcement that taking the then-vacant Doctor Who role would be “career suicide”, the BBC put everyone out of their misery and revealed that Matt Smith would become the latest incarnation of the Doctor.

Casinos

Casinos are probably one of the few places in the world (aside from trading rooms, of course), where thousands of dollars can change hands in the blink of an eye. You can become a millionaire, or maybe lose that last dollar from your bankroll, in just a few seconds and no one really notices as everyone else in the casino is attempting to either recreate your good luck, or avoid your misfortune.

It’s not surprising then that gaming floors often become the stuff of legend. Whilst some of these legends may well be true, quite a few casino myths circulate amongst players and end up becoming legends. Today, we’ll discuss the weirder side of these casino urban legends, picking out one or two stories which we think are not only eerie, but also have a slight hint of truth to them.

The Megabucks Tragedy

Megabucks slots offer a statewide progressive jackpot which pays out huge sums, usually worth millions of dollars. Since the progressive slots were first introduced into casinos just over 20 years ago, rumours have been circulating that those who were lucky enough to hit the jackpot soon faced misfortune afterwards. In 1998, a rumour circulated suggesting that everyone who had hit the Megabucks jackpot had died. Another also suggested that when a Megabucks player saw the winning symbols line up, they suffered a heart attack and died at the slot machine.

Street Craps

Street craps is essentially casino craps’ illicit, shifty and slightly scary older brother and unsurprisingly, street craps gets its name from the fact that it’s usually played in alleys or narrow streets. While it’s commonly associated with the Bronx and, as we have suggested, the slightly criminal underbelly of society, street craps between friends (no, that’s not a euphemism) can be both fun and enjoyable, which is why we’ll be helping you learn to play street craps in today’s blog post.

One of the main advantages of street craps is that you don’t have to worry about a variety of different bets and the house edge each one entails. You won’t find Big 6 and Big 8 bets in a typical game of street craps, which means you don’t have to worry about the casino gaining a huge mathematical advantage over you (see our best odds of winning in a casino post for more details on good and bad craps bets). However, street craps is illegal in most countries, so the groups you’ll find playing it in public might not be a particularly amiable bunch of people. If you’re thinking of playing street craps, we recommend you play with friends, not with people you don’t know and in a safe and legal enviroment. Anyway, now we’ll discuss the rules of street craps: