Dispelling Client Myths About Gambling for Therapeutic Counsellors and Clients

Dispelling Client Myths about Gambling for Therapeutic Counsellors and Clients

A Clinical Development Project funded by the Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation

Author: Rob Wootton, Venue Support Worker Gambler’s Help North-Western ISIS Primary Care Ltd

Table of Contents Introduction: ...... 4 How to use this manual ...... 5 Chapter 1: - Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs) or Pokies ...... 7 Some questions to ask your clients to gauge their understanding of how Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs) operate ...... 7 Materials and Resources to Support the EGM Facts (Basic) ...... 9 What Is The Random Number Generator ...... 11 Random Number Trials ...... 12 The House Edge – Puffing and Starving ...... 13 Chapter 2: - Wagering ...... 16 Some questions to ask your clients to gauge their understanding of how wagering works...... 16 Materials and Resources to Support the Wagering Facts (Basic) ...... 18 TAB Wagering...... 18 How does the TAB make its money? ...... 18 Victorian Totalisator maximum commission deductions and win rates...... 18 Let’s go through another example...... 20 How does the TAB Commission deduction affect The Odds? ...... 21 What’s a form guide and how to read it? ...... 22 What does it all mean? ...... 22 Chapter 3: - Sports Betting ...... 26 Some questions to ask your clients to gauge their understanding of how Sports Betting operates 26 Materials and Resources to Support the Sports Betting Facts (Basic) ...... 28 What is Sports Betting?...... 28 Freebet Example: ...... 28 Sports Betting Strategy ...... 29 Downfall of most Gamblers ...... 29 Sports Investment ...... 29 Bankroll ...... 29 Winning Percentage of Bets/Units ...... 30 Expert Tipsters at Sports Betting Sites ...... 31 Chapter 4: - Casino Gambling ...... 33 Baccarat ...... 34 Some questions to ask your clients to gauge their understanding of how BACCARAT works. .... 34

Materials and Resources to Support the Baccarat Facts (Basic)...... 36 Roulette...... 40 Some questions to ask your clients to gauge their understanding of how ROULETTE works...... 40 Materials and Resources to Support the Roulette Facts (Basic) ...... 42 The Standard European Roulette Table ...... 43 Blackjack ...... 45 Some questions to ask your clients to gauge their understanding of how BLACKJACK works. .... 45 Materials and Resources to Support the Blackjack Facts (Basic) ...... 47 Blackjack Basic Strategy ...... 49 Appendices ...... 51 A. Materials and Resources to Support the EGM Facts (Advanced) ...... 52 B. Horse Racing Glossary ...... 54 C. Greyhound Racing Glossary ...... 58 D. Australian Harness Racing Glossary ...... 62 E. Australian Horseracing Track Ratings ...... 64 F. Martingale and Positive-Progression systems ...... 65

Introduction:

A significant number of therapeutic counselling clients who attend Gambler’s Help services can present with numerous myths, misconceptions and sometimes an overall lack of knowledge about the gambling products they purchase.

The most common myths occur with the use of Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs or pokies) given that the only knowledge required to play the EGM is a) where to put the money in and b) which lit button to push.

Although a large number of Gambler’s Help clients are primarily engaged in playing EGMs, there are also significant numbers gambling on horse/harness/greyhound racing (wagering), sports betting and casino games such as blackjack, baccarat and roulette.

The objective of this manual is to provide therapeutic counsellors with factual information presented in a simple format so that they can identify and dispel many of the myths held by gambling clients in their counselling sessions. The dispelling of gambling myths and fallacies plays an important part in Cognitive Behavioural Therapy.

While some therapeutic counsellors will have a reasonable understanding of the betting types described, it is certainly worthwhile having a free practice on some of the websites listed in the guide just to familiarize yourself with the game.

This manual is designed to be used in conjunction with the Dispelling Myths About Gambling client fact sheets or workbooks.

The main driving force for this project has been therapeutic counsellors’ positive feedback following telephone and face-to-face sessions. I have sat in on some of these and attempted to explain the inner workings and odds involved in the above gambling products and answered questions from clients regarding their various gambling products of choice.

I hope you find it of use to your clients, and to yourselves, in dealing with the many myths and misconceptions held by gambling clients.

How to use this manual

The manual is divided into separate chapters for each gambling type.

Each chapter has the following sections:

a) Questions to ask your client to gauge what they know and don’t know about their main gambling form; b) Information to enable you to inform clients based on their responses to section a); c) Fact Sheets and/or worksheets to give to clients to read, and/or fill in, to increase their take-up of factual information to replace the myths; d) An advanced section as an Appendix for those clients/counsellors who need or want more detailed and technical data.

It is suggested that you read through the questions and answers for each gambling form and familiarize yourself with the game, its rules and the odds and/or house edge.

There are suggestions for each gambling type for you to get some practice at the game so you can apply what you’ve learned. DO NOT purchase any additional credits on any of the recommended websites or apps. You may have to wait for an hour or more but they will be topped up again for free.

The Chapters are as follows:

Chapter 1: - Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs) or Pokies

Chapter 2: - Wagering

Chapter 3: - Sportsbetting

Chapter 4: - Casino Games

a) Baccarat b) Roulette c) Blackjack

Chapter 1 – Electronic Gaming Machines (Pokies)

Chapter 1: - Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs) or Pokies

Some questions to ask your clients to gauge their understanding of how Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs) operate

1. When you push the PLAY button on an EGM, what do you think happens?

The most common answer will be that it starts the reels spinning and displays the symbols when it stops.

The actual operation is as follows: a) Pushing the PLAY button – selects a random number; b) The computer then selects the matching set of symbols for that random number from the pay table; c) The computer then displays the symbols for that random number by ‘pretending’ to spin the reels and finally displaying the symbols.

It should be stressed that the Random Number Generator operates continuously at the rate of about 1 million cycles per second – pushing the button selects the random number generated at that particular millionth of a second.

2. Do you believe EGMs pay out more or less than usual at certain times of the day or only on certain days of the week?

The most common answer is yes they do.

The truth is that there is no set time or day that an EGM is certain to pay out. Each PLAY is independent of the previous result and the outcome is totally random. EGMs cannot be programmed to pay out at a particular time. The random number generator doesn’t know what time or day it is.

3. Do you believe that, by playing maxbet of $5, you have a better chance of getting a winning combination?

Some players do believe this.

This is entirely untrue as the EGM random number generator doesn’t know how much you’ve played. Again the outcome is independent of the amount of money played.

4. Do you think some poker machines are luckier than others?

Most players will say that their favourite machine is luckier than others.

This is not true at all. Each EGM has a game-set and a random number generator which results in a minimum of 85% being returned to the player. Regardless of the manufacturer, the type of game or the denomination of the EGM, over the course of a calendar year, the total amount returned to the player by a venue MUST be 85% or more

5. Do you believe that gaming machines can be tricked into paying out by altering the number of lines played?

This is another common fallacy among players.

The random number generator doesn’t know how much you’ve bet or how many lines you’ve played. The outcome is totally independent of these and any other strategies.

6. Do you believe that the venue manager and/or venue staff can control which machine will pay out and when?

The venue has no control over payouts. The only thing a venue can control is the return to player and this must be done via the monitoring agency Intralot. It cannot be done by the venue itself.

Logically, if venues could control payouts, I’m sure their relatives and friends would be sitting at those machines programmed to pay out. This just doesn’t occur.

7. Do you believe if someone hits a jackpot at the machine you were just playing that it would have been your jackpot if you’d stayed there?

The only way you could have got that jackpot is if you pushed the button at the precise microsecond that the other player did. That’s a one in a million chance.

Materials and Resources to Support the EGM Facts (Basic)

How the pokies work – a brief guide to Electronic Gaming Machines (EGMs)

 Return To Player:

o Percentage of total money played on all EGMs in a venue that will be returned over a calendar year. o In Victoria, this is currently a minimum of 85%. o This does not mean that each time you play the pokies you will get 85% of your money back! o It means you will need to play every machine in the venue every day of the year to be sure of only losing 15% or less of the money you had gambled with. o It also means that the operator can count on up to 15% of your money. o The average return to player (RTP) of EGMs is usually between 90% and 92% - this has been worked out around the world as the best RTP to keep players interested but still make a healthy profit for the venues.

 On an EGM with 5 reels and 125 symbols per reel, there are 30,517,578,125 possible combinations – that’s more than 30 billion.

On an EGM with 5 reels and 32 symbols per reel, there are 33,554,432 possible combinations – that’s more than 33 million.

 About 1 in 20 patrons walks away with at least what they came in with, the other 19 patrons lose – so only about 5% of patrons break even or better.

 The longer you gamble the more probable it is for you to lose ALL of your money.

 The Random Number Generator (RNG) is what the computer inside a gaming machine uses to pick the symbol from each of the reels (It works a lot like a lotto draw):

o This is a very precise computer (to the nearest millionth of a second) which ensures accuracy and an inability to ‘rig’ the machine (even the technicians don’t know what the next combination would be) o The belief that some patrons/clients have when they state that someone else won ‘their’ jackpot as soon as they left the machine – this is a fallacy! It would have been almost impossible to press the button at the exact same time as the person who won the jackpot (due to the RNG’s precision).

 Every push of the button on the pokies machine takes at least 2.14 seconds to allow the machine to register; therefore continuous pushing of the button does not mean you can make the machine go faster.

 Pulling the lever on the old pokies machine used to start the cycle whereas pushing the play button on today’s pokies machine selects a random number and then displays the combination of symbols matching the number i.e. you stop the EGM’s Random Number Generator at the precise point of pressing the PLAY button.

 There is no way to influence the outcome of a spin – the Random Number Generator doesn’t know how many lines your playing, how much money you’re playing, what day it is, whether the coins are cold or hot, whether it’s pension day or not, whether a jackpot has just gone off or not, or anything else you might think influences the outcome – it just selects the random number generated at the precise point you hit the button.

 The venue and staff have no control at all over which machine will pay out or not – the Random Number Generator determines the outcome depending on precisely when you push the play button.

 As long as the gaming machine is turned on, the Random Number Generator continuously issues numbers and when you press the play button, selects the number that was issued at that precise time.

What Is The Random Number Generator

Random Number Trials

Handout Graph Sheet

The trials above emulate taking one of 10 balls numbered 0 to 9 from a jar, recording the number, replacing the ball in the jar, and drawing again.

The graphs show how a small number of ‘trials’ i.e. a small number of spins, gives a very skewed and irregular set of results.

A medium number of ‘trials’, like 10,000, starts to level out the results BUT it’s still a long way from an even distribution.

A large number of ‘trials’, say a million, approaches a “perfectly” even distribution.

In the same way, the estimated RTP (Return To Player) approaches 85% or higher in a venue over a whole year after many, many millions of button pushes (trials) on all the venue’s EGMs.

It should also be remembered that, if you lose $50 on an EGM, you may well have turned over (re-invested) hundreds of dollars in the process – if a player uses the tracking session or the pre-commitment system, he/she can check the “credits played” which shows the turnover. This is often referred to as the “churn”.

Example:

If you placed $100 in an EGM and were fortunate enough to continue playing for an hour at say, $1 per spin, the maximum you could have actually played through the machine is $1682 based on 1 spin per 2.14 seconds (the minimum spin rate in Victoria).

The House Edge – Puffing and Starving

Hand Out Sample Machine Sheet:

The House Edge which creates venue revenue is achieved by reducing the number of possible winning combinations by ‘Puffing’ some symbols and ‘Starving’ others.

Puffing – more of a particular symbol on some reels

Starving – less of a particular symbol on some reels

In the above ‘pokie’ there are 10 different symbols and 25 symbols per Reel so there are 9,765,625 total combinations (25x25x25x25x25).

If the 20 Jack symbols were distributed evenly, there would be four Jack symbols on each of the five reels.

The perceived combinations are 4x4x4x4x4 = 1024.

However, by Puffing Jacks on reels 1 and 3 (6 and 5 respectively), and Starving Jacks on reel 2, the actual combinations are 6x1x5x4x4 = 480.

Similarly, with 10 Pyramids the expectation is 2 per reel or 2x2x2x2x2 = 32 combinations. But, starving reels 1, 3, 5 and puffing reels 2 and 4 gives 1x3x1x4x1 = 12 combinations.

The actual combinations being less than the perceived combinations provides the House with their ‘edge’ and hence, their revenue.

Practice Makes Perfect – at least you’ll understand the symbols and payouts

In order for you to have a free practice on many of the games your clients play, here are some suggestions to experience some apps and online games that are free to download and contain very realistic versions of the gaming machine your clients play.

Heart of Vegas – an Aristocrat Gaming Machine app.

Contains quite a number of games your clients are familiar with including:

 Big Red  Queen of the Nile  Where’s the Gold  Miss Kitty  More Chilli  More Hearts

If your client plays some machines you haven’t experienced or heard of, just use your search engine as follows and you’ll get a comprehensive list of where to play them:

Example of finding a particular gaming machine to play free online

Enter the following into your search engine –

online free play

The Appendices contain some more advanced information to Support the EGM Facts

Chapter 2 - Wagering

Chapter 2: - Wagering

Some questions to ask your clients to gauge their understanding of how wagering works.

1. How does the TAB make its money?

The most common answer will be that the TAB deducts a fee or commission from all bets. Some will answer that they make money from the losing bets and others will have absolutely no idea at all.

The actual operation is as follows: a) Every bet that’s put on has a set maximum commission deducted. e.g. 14.5% for win BETS. (Check the commission deductions table for all bet types.); b) This means that only 85.5% of the WIN bets are paid back to the punter; c) The TAB also rounds down its prices to the lower 10 cents so it also collects a rounding amount as well. (Check the example of bets placed and prices) The main point to stress is that the TAB gets the same amount whatever number wins plus the rounding amount for that number. Occasionally, when the calculated return, before rounding, is less than $1.10, the TAB is forced to pay the legislated Victorian minimum bet return of $1.04.

2. If I placed a bet of $12 on a boxed trifecta of four runners, what percentage of the Trifecta dividend will I get if I’m successful?

Most punters will have no problem with this question. Anyone who can’t answer correctly really shouldn’t be placing bets with a TAB.

The answer is 50%. There are 4x3x2 combinations = 24. So a $12 bet is just like putting 50c on each combination and 50c is half or 50% of a unit. (Unit=$1)

3. When you choose what to back in a race, do you study the form or just pick what you think is going to win?

Anyone who says they don’t study the form really shouldn’t be betting on a TAB.

For someone who says they do study the form then the next few questions could be asked just to test their knowledge.

a) How would you describe a horse if the form guide states it’s “b g 5”? Answer is black gelding 5 years old b) If the last five starts for a horse are listed as 04s20, where did it finish last start and what does the “s” mean. (04s20 is zero four s two zero) Answers are: it finished worse than 9th and the “s” stands for a spell. c) If the Career Stats for a horse are shown as 24 12-6-0, what’s its Win percentage? Answer is: 50%. 12 wins out of 24 races. d) If a horse’s track and distance performance are shown as tdw, what do those letters tell you about the horse? Answer is: t – won at the track, d – won at the distance, w – won in the wet.

These are not trick questions and anyone who says they study form should know b), c) and d) definitely. It’s understandable not knowing the answers to a) as it’s not mandatory to know the colour and sexual ability or lack thereof, but the age of a horse is quite important.

4. Do you believe you have a system for betting on races whether it’s horses, greyhounds or harness racing? If yes, could you briefly describe it?

Most punters will say that they have some sort of system but when asked to describe the details, they find it very hard to explain.

If they do provide details, write it down and run it past an expert to verify whether or not it would qualify as a bona fide system.

The key issue here is that, if the client had a working system, he or she probably wouldn’t be seeing you. The other issue with gambling systems is that your clients probably cannot adhere to a system anyway due to the nature of their gambling impulses.

Materials and Resources to Support the Wagering Facts (Basic)

For the purposes of this manual, wagering includes betting with a TAB, either at an agency or online, a land-based bookmaker or an online bookmaker.

Wagering in Victoria covers thoroughbred horse racing (“the horses”), standardbred or harness racing (“the trots”) and greyhound racing (“the dogs”).

Thoroughbreds are so named because they can all be traced back to English mares and Arab sires – a pure breed of racehorse.

Standardbred* horses are any of an American breed of trotting and pacing horses developed especially for harness racing by crossing Thoroughbreds with Morgans and other breeds.

*From the fact that in order to be registered as a standardbred, a horse originally had to be able to trot a mile within a standard time of two and a half minutes.

TAB Wagering

All Australian TABs offer online betting as well as land-based agencies in their jurisdictions.

How does the TAB make its money? Every time you put a dollar on the TAB, an immediate deduction is taken out depending on the bet type.

The following table shows the bet types and the commission and return to player:

Victorian Totalisator maximum commission deductions and win rates Bet Type Maximum Commission Deduction (%) Win Rate (%) Win 14.50% 85.50 Place 14.25% 85.75 Quinella 17.50% 82.50 Duet 14.50% 85.50 Exacta 20.00% 80.00 Trifecta 20.00% 80.00 First 4 22.50% 77.50 Daily Double 20.00% 80.00 Running Double 20.00% 80.00 Quaddie 20.00% 80.00 BIG6 25.00% 75.00 International Pooled Bet The lesser of 25.00% or the maximum commission applying in the pooling (host) jurisdiction.

The Bet Types are as follows:

Win Bet Betting for a horse, trotter or greyhound to win the race Place Bet 1st, 2nd or 3rd place Quinella 1st and 2nd in either order Duet Any two of 1st, 2nd and 3rd i.e. 1st & 2nd, 1st & 3rd, or 2nd & 3rd. Exacta 1st and 2nd in order Trifecta 1st, 2nd and 3rd in order First 4 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th in order Daily Double Picking the two winners of two nominated races Running Picking the winners of two consecutive races Double Quaddie Picking the four winners of four nominated consecutive races (Quadrella) BIG6 Picking the 6 winners of 6 consecutive nominated races Boxed Bets Betting on multiple combinations e.g. Boxed Trifecta with 5 Numbers gives you 5 x 4 x 3 = 60 combinations Flexi-Bet Putting a fixed sum on many combinations to return a % of units. Eg $50 on a Quaddie taking 4x5x5x2=200 combinations - $50 = 25% of a unit

Example:

Quadrella

The quadrella might be on Races 5, 6, 7 and 8 at a horse race meeting. You need to pick each winner of the four races.

You might take the following combinations:

1st Leg Race 5 - 1, 2, 5 and 9 (4 horses) 2nd Leg Race 6 - 2 and 5 (2 horses) 3rd Leg Race 7 - 1,3,5,7,9 and 15 (6 horses) 4th Leg Race 8 - 2, 5, 6, 7 and 14. (5 horses)

Total combinations = 4 x 2 x 6 x 5 = 240

If you spent $60, if successful, you would get a return of 60/240 (25%) of the dividend for $1. If the ‘quaddie’ paid $718.60 then you would get $179.60 = 25% of the unit dividend.

Let’s go through another example.

The result of a greyhound race was as follows:

No. Name Win Place 6 ALL ABOUT COUNSELLING $11.80 $2.50 2 SEA BEE TEA $2.70 3 MYTH BUSTER $2.50

Bet Type Result Dividend QUINELLA 2 * 6 or 6 * 2 $42.50 TRIFECTA 6 * 2 * 3 $393.30 EXACTA 6 * 2 $160.50 DUET 3 * 6 $10.10 2 * 6 $21.80 2 * 3 $6.90 *RUNNING DOUBLE 5 * 6 $121.30 *The previous race was won by No. 5 Some sample winning bets on the above and dividends

Bet Type Number(s) Combinations $ Bet % of Units Return Win 6 1 $10 1000 $118.00 Place 3 1 $5 500 $12.50 *Each Way 2 1 $5 500 win $0.00 1 $5 500 place $13.50 Duet 2 & 3 1 $5 500 $34.50 Boxed 2,5 & 6 (3x2)/2=3 $6 2000 $85.00 Quinella Boxed 1,2,3,5 & 5x4x3=60 $20 **33.33 $131.10 Trifecta 6 *Each way means half of the bet on the win and the other half on the place 1 **Often referred to as a flexi-bet, provides part units – in this case 33 /3%

How does the TAB Commission deduction affect The Odds? The table below shows how it affects the price of each runner from 1 to 8 in an imaginary race. The points to note are:

a) The Actual $ Bet column has the actual money paid over the counter by punters at a TAB and/or bet online b) The Real Price column is what each number would pay WITHOUT any deduction of commission. c) The After Commission Win $ Pool column shows the money remaining after the deduction of commission is made i.e. 85.5% of the Win $ Bet.

TAB Win Bets Analysis

After Horse Actual $ Real Commission TAB Actual Rounding Number Bet Price Win $ Pool Price Dividend Amount

1 $2,000 $2.43 $1,710 $2.07 $2.00 $146.75

2 $1,200 $4.04 $1,026 $3.46 $3.40 $66.75

3 $600 $8.08 $513 $6.91 $6.90 $6.75

4 $400 $12.13 $342 $10.37 $10.30 $26.75

5 $200 $24.25 $171 $20.73 $20.70 $6.75

6 $100 $48.50 $86 $41.47 $41.40 $6.75

7 $50 $97.00 $43 $82.94 $82.90 $1.75

8 $300 $16.17 $257 $13.82 $13.80 $6.75

Total $4,850 $4,147

TAB Vic takes out 14.5c in every dollar invested for the win.

It also rounds down all dividends to the lower 10c. The rounding Take- amounts for the winner go back to the TAB. Out $703 The minimum payout in Victoria for a Win bet is $1.04 (excluding Dead-heats) Bookmakers often use the TAB as a guide getting close to race-time but frame their earlier markets on their own calculations and ratings

What’s a form guide and how to read it?

Australian horse racing form guides can be difficult to understand if you are not familiar with horse racing. The following is a breakdown of a typical form guide. Hopefully this will make reading a form guide much clearer for you even if you don’t punt.

Typical Australian Horse Racing Form Guide

1 TC LEARNING Rob Wootton (Ascot) 14 57.5 kg b g 6 Scenic (IRE)-Bluegrass Belle(Is It True(USA)) FOALED: 16/01/10 LIGHT BLUE, BLACK, MULTI-COLOURED BIRD, FEATHERED CAP (Jessica George) Career: 27 13-5-1 $1389500 **WINS: 48% PLACES: 70% First Up: 5 2-0-0 Track: 15 9-1-0 Distance: 2 1-0-0 Trck-Dist: 1 0-0-0 Fast: No starts Good: 25 12-5-1 Dead: 2 1-0-0 Slow: No starts Heavy: No starts WR: 1200-1600 1-10 BLMT Sat14Jun12 1400 Good, 53, $126100, BLMT SPRNT, A Baht(2) 60 1.25L 2: Oroya Gold (53), 3:Ripped (53) 1-22.83 $2.45 11-13 ASCT Sat18Oct12 1400 Good, 53, $102000, NORTHERLY, M Radmilovic(3) 60 2.25L 1:Megatic (53), 2:Tarzi (53) 1-22.2 $3.30F 1-7 ASCT Sat8Nov12 1400 Good, WFA, $202000, LEE STEERE, E Sirakovska(1) 59, 1.25L, 2:Tarzi (59), 3:Hartley’s Dream (59), 1-22.67 $1.75F

What does it all mean?

Horse Details 1 TC LEARNING Rob Wootton (Ascot) 14 57.5kg The number 1 indicates the horse is carrying saddlecloth number 1 in this race field, and he is also TAB No. 1 in your local TAB. The horse's name is TC LEARNING and trained by Rob Wootton at Ascot. He has drawn barrier 14 and is set to carry 57.5 kilograms in today's race.

Colour, Type, Age & Breeding details b g 6 Scenic (IRE)-Bluegrass Belle (Is It True (USA)) FOALED :16/01/10 TC Learning is a black gelding who is 6 years old and his sire is Scenic and his Dam is Bluegrass Belle and he was foaled on 16/01/10.

Horse Racing Colours & Jockey LIGHT BLUE, MULTI-COLOURED BIRD, FEATHERED CAP (Jessica George) TC Learning's jockey has silks that are predominantly Light Blue, with a Multi-Coloured Bird and a Feathered cap, and his jockey for today's race is Jessica George.

Horse's Career Stats and Win & Place percentage Career: 27 13-5-1 $1389500 ** WINS: 48% PLACES: 70% TC Learning has had 27 career starts for 13 wins, 5 seconds and 1 third. He has amassed prizemoney of $1,389,500 in his career to date. TC Learning has won 13 races from 27 starts which is a 48% win strike and he has been placed 19 times from 27 starts which is a 70% place strike.

Career Spell / Track & Distance / Track Condition details First Up: 5 2-0-0 Track: 15 9-1-0 Distance: 2 1-0-0 Trck-Dist: 1 0-0-0 Fast: No Starts Good: 25 12-

5-1 Dead: 2 1-0-0 Slow: No Starts Heavy: No Starts WR:1200-1600 These figures show TC Learning's career record over a number of areas, including returning from a spell, track and distance details, and track condition details.

TC Learning has had 5 first-up runs from a spell for 2 wins, while he has had 15 starts at today's track for 9 wins and one second placing. At the distance of today's race he has had 2 starts for just the one win. At this particular track over the distance of today's race he has had 1 start for no placings.

TC Learning has had no starts on a Fast track. He has raced 25 times on a Good track for 12 wins, 5 seconds and 1 third. On a Dead track he has had 2 starts for just the one win. TC Learning has had no starts on a Slow or Heavy track and he has won races from 1200m to 1600m

Horse's finish 3 starts ago 1-10 BLMT Sat14Jun12 1400 Good, 53 , $126100, BLMT SPRNT , A Bhat (2) 60 , 1.25L, 2:Oroya Gold (53), 3:Ripped (53), 1-22.83 $2.45 TC Learning finished 1st in a field of 10 at Belmont race track on Saturday 14th of June over a distance of 1400m on a Good track with a limit weight of 53 kilograms He contested a race worth $126.100 which was named the Belmont Sprint and his jockey was A Baht and came out of barrier 2 and carried 60 kilograms.

He won the race by 1.25 lengths from Oroya Gold (carrying 53kgs) who was 2nd, with Ripped running 3rd in a race time of 1-22.83. The starting price for TC Learning was $2.45.

Horse's finish 2 starts ago 11-13 ASCT Sat18Oct12 1400 Good, 53 , $102000, NORTHERLY, M Radmilovic (3) 60 , 2.25L, 1:Megatic (53), 2:Tarzi (53), 1-22.2 $3.30F TC Learning finished 11th in a field of 13 at Ascot race track on Saturday 18th of October over a distance of 1400m on a Good track with a limit weight of 53 kilograms He contested a race worth $102,000 which was named the Northerly Stakes and his jockey was M Radmilovic and came out of barrier 3 and carried 60 kilograms.

TC Learning finished 2.25 lengths behind the race winner who was Megatic (carrying 53kgs) with Tarzi finishing 2nd in a time of 1-22.2. The starting price of TC Learning was $3.30 and he started favourite.

Horse's finish last start 1-7 ASCT Sat8Nov12 1400 Good, WFA, $202000, LEE STEERE, E Sirakovska (1) 59 , 1.5L 2:Tarzi (59), 3:Hartleys Dream (59), 1-22.67 $1.75F TC Learning finished 1st in a field of 7 at Ascot race track on Saturday 8th of November over a distance of 1400m on a Good track at Weight-for-age. He contested a race worth $202,000 which was named the Lee Steere Stakes and his jockey was E Sirakovska and came out of barrier 1 and carried 59 kilograms.

He won the race by 1.5 lengths from Tarzi (carrying 59kgs) who was 2nd, with Hartley's Dream running 3rd in a race time of 1-22.67. The starting price for TC Learning was $1.75 and he started favourite.

More Form Guide Information When using a form guide you also need to be aware of common abbreviations used to denote various factors in a horse's recent form line.

 1-9 = finished the race in 1st to 9th position  0 = finished the race further back than 9th  s = indicates a spell which is generally 3 months (some form guides use x)  f = fell during the running of the race  p = pulled up during the running of the race  l = lost rider during the running of the race (some form guides use x)

For example; 1 - 12548 Mercury Rising (last 5 starts finished between 1st and 9th) 2 - 33150 Peter Pan (last start finished further back than 9th) 3 - 2506s Apocolypse (resuming from a spell) 4 - 402s3 Fortress (has had one run from a spell) 5 - 2313f Peacemaker (fell last start) 6 - 3981p Acronym (pulled up last start) 7 - 4903l Hungle (lost rider last start)

Letters are also used to indicate track and distance performance as outlined below.

 b = beaten favourite last start  t = won at track of today's race  d = won at distance of today's race  c = won at both course & distance of today's race  w = won in wet conditions  n = won at a night meeting  h = racing on home track

For example; 1 - 12548 Mercury Rising (bth) 2 - 33150 Peter Pan (cwnh) 3 - 2506s Apocolypse (btdw) 4 - 402s3 Fortress 5 - 2313f Peacemaker (t)

If a horse does not have any indicators such as number 4 Fortress, then it means they have not met any of the criteria.

Conclusion A form line of '11111' is obviously better than a formline of '00000' however it is not always that black and white with horse racing. The horse with 5 wins in a row may have won those 5 races in a much lower class, while the horse that finished worse than 10th five times in a row may have raced in a much higher class and only been beaten 2 to 4 lengths or so each race.

When studying a form guide you need to delve deeper into a horse's recent form and factor many things, including fitness, form, class, jockey, barrier, and trainer and so on. If you take the time to dissect a race you will have much more luck than the average punter, who just has a quick glance at the form and makes a hasty decision that more often than not sees him lose his money.

More Information

Australian form guides are commonly found in lift-out form in the centre of most major newspapers in each capital city, although they vary in quality, with some having detailed form, while others have simply basic information.

Depending on what you want form wise, you can go with your main papers, such as the Melbourne Herald Sun, The Australian, The Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Brisbane Courier Mail, or the West Australian newspaper, or you can go with a specialised form guide that will cost you a few dollars more.

Examples of specialised form guides are The Sportsman, The Winning Post, Best Bets, and Practical Punting Monthly. There are also specialised form guides for greyhound racing like The Watchdog and Greyhound Racing Victoria websites and for harness racing like the Harness Racing Victoria website.

Chapter 3 - Sportsbetting

Chapter 3: - Sports Betting

Some questions to ask your clients to gauge their understanding of how Sports Betting operates

1. If Sportsbet are offering $2.10 for Hawthorn’s and Adelaide’s total score to be 160 points or more and Centrebet are offering $2.05 for the total score between Hawthorn and Adelaide to be less than 160 points, which bet should you take?

Most will answer that it depends on how the teams are playing, and the weather and other factors but the correct answer is to bet on both because you can’t lose. For example $100 on both bets costs $200. If Hawthorn and Adelaide score 160 points or more you’ll collect $210. If Hawthorn and Adelaide score less than 160 points you’ll collect $205. This is often referred to as ‘hedge’ or ‘arbitrage’ betting)

2. If you place a multibet of $5 on the following: Hawthorn at $2 Carlton at $3 Essendon at $3 and Chelsea at $2 How much will you receive if they all win?

Anyone who doesn’t answer ( 5 x 2 x3 x 3 x 2 ) $180 shouldn’t be sports betting.

3. Do you have a dedicated account/bankroll for your sports betting activity?

Most of your clients will answer no. This immediately brings their gambling down to a hit or miss strategy and 95% of the time, they’ll miss.

4. Do you follow a particular tipster or tipping service? If so, how do you select them and how do you rate their performance?

Unless your clients are doing the form religiously themselves, they will usually follow a so- called professional tipster or pay for a tipping service.

If they can’t evaluate the performance of a tipster or tipping service then they are flying blind and cannot be expected to win.

5. Do you keep an accurate record or diary of wins and losses?

If they don’t, then they have no idea how they’re going either in the short or more importantly, in the long term.

Like any form of gambling, the House Edge is always there and the longer you play, the closer the House will get to making its edge. Certainly, some players will win along the way but most players, if they continue to play, will end up losing – this simple mathematics applies to every form of gambling.

Materials and Resources to Support the Sports Betting Facts (Basic)

What is Sports Betting?

All of the TABs and a host of other online betting sites offer Sports Betting.

What you need to know about sports betting is that all sports betting agencies employ expert handicappers and bookmakers to set their odds.

As one CEO of a very popular sports betting agency said to me on a recent visit, if you can find anyone who can beat my team of tipsters, I’ll give them a job with a six-figure salary plus commission.

Most, if not all sports betting agencies offer “Match Deposit” bonuses, Promotional Bets and Bonus or Free Bets without explaining the conditions clearly. Some of these are not legal in Victoria.

The best example of the conditions is the turnover qualification for free or bonus bets – nearly all sites will not let you withdraw anything from your account without turning over the free or bonus bet winnings at least once or more.

The vast majority of sites I have looked at state you must turn over any winnings from free or bonus bets at least once.

Freebet Example:

Nearly all sports betting sites provide “free” and “bonus” bets. Nearly all of them require you to turn over any winnings from these at least twice.

Example: Let’s say the minimum turnover requirements for winnings resulting from a bonus or a free bet is two times (2x).

If you gain a free bet of $200, you must place it all on one bet.

Let’s say you put $200 on Hawthorn to win at $1.95 against Sydney and Hawthorn wins.

Remember that the $200 free bet is not returned to you, so you collect $190 – the winnings from the free bet.

Before you can withdraw any winnings you must reinvest a minimum of $380 – i.e. twice the free bet winnings.

For a list of Freebet and Deposit Bonus conditions for any sports betting agency, try “Googling” “Freebet conditions”. Some of them are many, many complicated pages long!

Sports Betting Strategy

While not trying to encourage gambling clients to adopt a strategy to increase their chances, it’s very worthwhile for you to know that, if practised properly and with excellent money management skills, sports betting can be profitable. On the other hand, if these skills are not practised, the gambler has no chance at all of profit.

Downfall of most Gamblers

Similar to the stock market or real estate, sports investment is a long term venture that can reap consistent high returns if executed correctly.

However it is widely known that over 95% of all gamblers fail to make money on sports betting, yet billions of dollars are continually plunged on sports around the world daily.

So why do most gamblers find it so difficult to make a consistent profit?

The main reason is poor money management. Finding winning picks isn’t actually that difficult and there are many punters who can do so consistently, but very few have a system to managing their money.

Betting $15 on one game and $100 on another leads to volatility and ultimately losing most, if not all of your money. Doubling down after each losing bet isn’t exactly a sustainable system either, because if you understand probability you will soon realise that the previous bet has no impact on the future result and this strategy is the quickest way to lose a lot of money in a hurry! Money Management is without a doubt the least understood aspect of successful sports betting, yet the most important.

Coupled with poor money management, 95% of gamblers are just that, gamblers.

How many gamblers bet on events or sports that they know very little about? How many gamblers bet on unpredictable sports where the only winners will ever be the bookmakers? How many gamblers try to recoup past losses on one ‘hot tip’, because a friend of a friend gave them a ‘sure thing’. Sounds like most of us unfortunately, however there is the 5% of pro gamblers who view sports betting as an investment and practice in sports investment.

Sports Investment So what is the first step?

Bankroll You must establish a fund strictly used for your sports betting, otherwise known as your ‘bankroll’. Be strongly advised that you should only use money that you can afford to lose.

Whilst many firmly believe sports investment can supplement, if not replace your income in time, never under any circumstances use your rent money, mortgage repayments or the kid’s trust fund as your bankroll. Be patient and only start with what you can afford, but you will soon see your money grow if executed correctly.

Now that you have established your bankroll, you need to have a system of how much to bet on each event. As a rule, never bet anymore than 2.5% - 5% of your entire bank roll. The reason for this is like with any investment, you will have bad runs so betting conservatively will mitigate even the worst of streaks and help keep your bankroll in tact. We would advise for the conservative investor to start at 2.5% of your bankroll, whilst the riskier investor can bet up to 5% of their bankroll on any one event.

Example If you start with a $1,000 bankroll, bet no more than $50 on the one event. For example in the AFL, you bet $50 that Saints will beat Collingwood @ $1.90. If the Saints win, the $45 in winnings gets added to your bankroll which now increases to $1,045. The next bet is once again 5% of your bankroll, but notice you have slightly increased your bet whilst only risking 5%. i.e. New amount to bet is 5% of $1,045 = $52.25. On the other hand, if you lose your Saints bet your new bankroll is $950 ($1,000 - $50) and your next bet will be $47.50 (i.e. 5% x $950). Once again we stick with betting no more than 5%, because if you do experience long periods where the losses outnumber the wins (and it will happen at some stage!), by keeping bets to 5% you minimise those loses whilst protecting your bankroll ensuring you make it much less probable to get wiped out.

Now that we have established a bank roll then what?

Winning Percentage of Bets/Units

This step is the fun part and whilst it may sound logical, it is often misunderstood - hitting a winning percentage of above 52.36%.

Would you believe that you can make an incredible profit from hitting just 56% of your bets! From the example below, you will see that the average bet has odds of $1.91 and if you place 1000 bets over the course of the year and hit 56%, your profit is an outstanding $6,960!! That is a return on equity of 348% per annum, far better than any property returns and most stocks.

Even with a winning percentage of 54%, you will still profit a staggering $3,140 for the year.

So imagine what happens when you actually have a bigger bankroll and increase the size of your bets accordingly (i.e. 5% rule), the returns grow at a phenomenal rate and this is the secret to a successful sports investor. In fact, at odds of a $1.91 (your typical handicap or even money line bets) the breakeven percentage is 52.36%.

The pro gamblers, or sports investors, understand this and realise they only need to hit a moderate winning percentage to make an incredible profit, but must do so with a diligent money management system and finding good reliable tips.

Most tipsters are not handicappers (i.e. don’t always advise on $1.91 handicap/even money line bets) therefore they offer tips with varying odds each game. While their best bets or tips might appear very enticing with good odds, you need a way of determining how a particular tipster has performed over a period of time e.g. a year.

For example, if an expert tipster is showing a unit profit of 250 units for the year and you bet $10 per unit, your overall profit is $2,500. Let’s say you have a bigger bankroll and you bet $100 per unit,

30 your profit would equate to a whopping $25,000 for the year. A staggering result and one that you would be hard pressed to be found in other investment vehicles. BUT not all tipsters or Sportsbetting sites report their tipsters’ success over time.

So where do we find good tips or expert tipsters with good consistent winning percentages and units profit?

Expert Tipsters at Sports Betting Sites

A good tipster is in essence a specialist consultant - a sports betting consultant. Like many consultants some will charge a fee to punters for their service and some are paid handsomely by sports betting agencies. All tipster betting records should be able to be thoroughly analysed somewhere on the sports betting website.

Here you should find many statistical categories by sport and time period(s) helping you decide if a tipster's tips are worth considering. All tips provided on a website should be accompanied by a short commentary giving you further information required to help judge whether you will or will not consider a tip.

With the property or stock market there will always be peaks and troughs, but overall you can expect a consistent return on your investment. The same holds true for sports betting, in that over the long haul most professional tipsters or advisors make money, but unfortunately there will be losing days and in some occasions losing weeks over the course of a season.

Therefore to further mitigate the losing streaks that a professional tipster may experience from time to time, you should use the same technique investors use to build a well balanced stock portfolio – diversification. This technique is specifically designed to avoid over exposure to any one stock in the event it does not perform. This same principle would apply to professional tipsters. Why over expose your bankroll to just one tipster or sport when you can subscribe to a number of good tipsters, vastly decreasing the chance of a losing week or month and also increasing your number of bets, leading to a greater profit in the long run.

As you can see you really do require a good money management system and a good tipster to make money from sports betting. Sports Investment is the term coined by the small minority who actually make good returns from betting, whilst the other 95% of gamblers will continue to lose millions of dollars daily. These gamblers will never take the time to learn and understand the ins and outs of sports investing and will continue ‘gambling’ for the rest of their lives… and no one ever makes consistent returns from gambling except the government (via taxes), casino’s and bookmakers!

Chapter 4 – Casino Gambling

Chapter 4: - Casino Gambling

Casinos in Australia offer a wide variety of games and also a variety of versions of each game.

To cover them all goes beyond the scope of this guide, however, the three most popular casino games – Blackjack, Baccarat and Roulette - are worth discussing as most of your casino table games clients will concentrate on one or more of them.

All casino games have a house edge or the casino wouldn’t win. The house edges for games vary according to their specific rules however, the approximate house edge for the three games covered are:

Game Special Condition House Edge Payout Roulette Single ZERO (European) 2.78% 35 to 1 Roulette Double ZERO (American) 5.26% 35 to 1 Baccarat (8 decks) Banker Bet 1.06% 0.95 Player Bet 1.24% 1 to 1 (evens) Tie Bet 14.36% 8 to 1 Blackjack (8 decks) With cut card 5.41% With continuous shuffler 5.27%

As a lot of players try the Double-up or Martingale system in casino games, it’s worth looking at what happens after a run of losses.

Table Minimum After 6 losses After 7 losses After 8 losses After 9 losses $10 $320 $640 $1,280 $2,560 $15 $480 $960 $1,920 $3,840 $25 $800 $1,600 $3,200 $6,400 $50 $1,600 $3,200 $6,400 $12,800 $100 $3,200 $6,400 $12,800 $25,600 Exceeds Table Exceeds Table Exceeds Table Max Max Max

The above uses average table maximum bets and these may vary from casino to casino however, it would be very rare indeed for a casino to allow more than 8 doubles before reaching the table maximum. Strangely enough, this is not actually because they want to stop people playing the Martingale system, it’s purely a case of limiting exposure to large wins.

Baccarat

Some questions to ask your clients to gauge their understanding of how BACCARAT works.

1. Which bet in baccarat has the best chance of winning – Bank, Player or Tie?

Most will say that the Bank and Player bets have the same chance of success.

This is not at all true. The Bank bet is the best bet as indicated by the House Edge figures even with the 5% commission deduction.

2. Do you tend to ride trends and keep track of the outcome of every hand? Do you believe this increases your chances of winning?

Every baccarat table will have score cards and pencils for players to keep track of previous hands.

Many players religiously keep track of previous hands looking for trends. ‘Trends’ mean winning hands for either Player or Bank in a row. It’s a complete waste of time. The clever player will bet on the Bank every time and leave the calculations to the misinformed players.

3. Do you ever use the double-up or Martingale system as a means of playing?

Any player using the double-up system will eventually ‘crash-and-burn’.

The table-maximum prohibits more than 6-8 doubles and it’s not that unusual for 6 hands in a row to be won by Bank or Player. This is much the same in roulette and blackjack – it just doesn’t work.

4. Do you use any other system at all? Please describe it in detail.

Most players will say that they have some sort of system but when asked to describe the details, they find it very hard to explain.

If they do provide details, write it down and run it past an expert to verify whether or not it would qualify as a bona fide system. I’m quite sure it won’t qualify!

The key issue here is that, if the client had a working system, he or she probably wouldn’t be seeing you. The other issue with gambling systems is that your clients

probably cannot adhere to a system anyway due to the nature of their gambling impulses.

5. Do you keep an accurate record or diary of wins and losses?

If they don’t, then they have no idea how they’re going either in the short or more importantly, in the long term.

Materials and Resources to Support the Baccarat Facts (Basic)

Baccarat or Punto Banco is usually played in a separate casino area. The playing table is about the size of a craps table with up to three casino dealers and up to 12 or 14 players.

There are just two principal bets to make: banker or player - Banco or Punto, plus the rarely used Tie. Some casinos let the players deal the cards in turn and others have a casino dealer to deal the cards. In online Baccarat the cards are dealt automatically by a virtual dealer.

Each player, including the player dealing, may bet on either Punto or Banco but it is customary for the dealer to bet on Banco. Players may opt not to deal, passing the 'Shoe' to the next player. The shoe remains with one player as long as the Bank wins. If Punto wins, the shoe passes on to the next player.

Two hands are dealt and you bet which one will win, or that they will tie. It is just like betting on Black or Red at roulette, and the payoff is even money, 1:1 (except for the tie, which pays 8-1 or 9-1). The only difference between the Banco and Punto bet is a win on Banco will cost you 5% commission or tax levied by the casino - the in-built advantage.

The reason for taxing the Bank is because it has been established that over an 8-deck cards play, on average the Bank will win three to four hands more than the Player.

Each hand consists of a minimum of two and a maximum of three cards. The person dealing will put two cards, face down, tucked under the shoe, and give the player with the largest bet on Player the other two cards, face down.

The Player then looks at the cards and gives them back to the player who is dealing. Then the player who is dealing will turn over the cards of both hands while one of the casino dealers will announce the results and the winner.

If either hand has a total of 8 or 9 (nine is the highest), then it is called a 'Natural' and no more cards are dealt. If it is not a natural, then depending on the value of each hand the casino dealer may instruct the card dealer to deal a third card. The decision when to deal a third card follows precise set rules used by all casinos.

Once dealing is completed, the hand with the highest count wins. The paying casino dealers will collect the losing bets first and then pay the winning ones. The player who actually deals the cards is not responsible for the payouts. He is just like any other player, playing against the casino.

The rules

Baccarat is played from a six-deck or an eight-deck shoe. All face cards and 10s have no value. Cards less than 10 are counted at face value, Aces are worth 1. Suits don't matter. Only single digit values are valid. Any count that reaches a double digit drops the left digit. 15 is counted as 5 and 25 is also counted as 5.

To start, the players bet either on Bank or Player or Tie. The card dealer gives two cards each; first to the player and then the banker. The object of the game is to bet on the hand that you think will have the highest total value.

A third card may be dealt to either or both the player (Player) and the bank (Bank) based on the following three-card-rules. It is not necessary to learn these rules to play, they are compulsory decisions and therefore automatic. Only on rare occasions a mistake is made:

Player's third-card-rule

 If either the player or the bank have a total of 8 or 9 on the first two cards no further cards are drawn. The resulting hand is called a natural and the hand is over.  If the player's total is less than or equal to 5 the player's hand draws a third card.  If the player does not draw a third card, then the bank's hand stands on 6 or more and takes a third card on a total of 5 or less. If the player does take a third card then the Bank's third-card-rule below will determine if the bank takes a third card.

Bank's third-card-rule

 If the bank's total is 2 or less then bank draws a card, regardless of what the players third card is.  If the banks total is 3 then the bank draws a third card unless the players third card was an 8.  If the banks total is 4 then the bank draws a third card unless the players third card was a 0, 1, 8, or 9.  If the banks total is 5 then the bank draws a third card if the players third card was 4, 5, 6, or 7.  If the banks total is 6 then the bank draws a third card if the players third card was a 6 or 7.  If the banks total is 7 then the bank stands.

House advantage Banker (Banco) 1.06% Player (Punto) 1.24% Tie (Standoff) 14.36% at 8:1 payout

As expressed above, the only bet for a savvy player to wager on is the BANK.

A Typical Baccarat Table

There are numerous side-bets played on Baccarat tables around the world but it’s beyond the scope of this guide to attempt to list them all and display their outcome odds.

Some of the common ones are:

 Player Dragon Bet  Banker Dragon Bet  Perfect Pairs  Banker Pair  Player Pair

If you need to find out about them, the easiest way is to Google them – you’ll probably end up at www.wizardofodds.com – a useful site indeed.

You can also practise playing baccarat at http://wizardofodds.com/play/baccarat/new/.

It’s important to get a feel for the game so you can relate to what your client tells you and also pick up on any misconceptions he or she might have. There are many Baccarat apps for iPhone and iPad that are free so please do give them a try.

Roulette

Some questions to ask your clients to gauge their understanding of how ROULETTE works.

1. What’s the difference between American Roulette and European Roulette?

If they don’t know this, they probably shouldn’t be playing roulette. American Roulette has two (2) Zeros and European Roulette only has one (1) Zero.

2. Do you tend to ride trends and keep track of the outcome of every spin? Do you believe this increases your chances of winning?

Many players religiously keep track of previous spins looking for trends. ‘Trends’ in roulette are considered Reds or Blacks in a row, or Odds or Evens in a row or even single numbers in a row.

It’s a complete waste of time. The previous spin(s) has absolutely no effect on the next spin.

3. Do you ever use the double-up or Martingale system as a means of playing?

Any player using the double-up system will eventually ‘crash-and-burn’.

The table-maximum prohibits more than 6-8 doubles and it’s not that unusual for 8 spins in a row to be won by Black or Red. This is much the same in baccarat and blackjack – it just doesn’t work.

4. Do you use any other system at all? Please describe it in detail.

Most players will say that they have some sort of system but when asked to describe the details, they find it very hard to explain.

If they do provide details, write it down and run it past an expert to verify whether or not it would qualify as a bona fide system. (It won’t!!!!!!!!)

The key issue here is that, if the client had a “working” system, he or she probably wouldn’t be seeing you. The other issue with gambling systems is that your clients probably cannot adhere to a system anyway due to the nature of their gambling impulses.

5. Do you keep an accurate record or diary of wins and losses?

If they don’t, then they have no idea how they’re going either in the short or more importantly, in the long term.

Materials and Resources to Support the Roulette Facts (Basic)

Roulette is one of the easiest games to play and understand in the casino. As usual the easier a game is to understand the greater the house edge, and roulette is no exception.

One difference between roulette and all other table games is that roulette chips have no value denomination printed on them. This actually is the true definition of a chip, one which indicates its value is technically known as a ‘check’.

The roulette table comes with sets of different coloured chips, each set usually consisting of 300 chips. When players purchase chips they get their own colour and the value of each chip is the buy-in divided by the number of chips received. The dealer will place a token on top of the dealer's stack of that colour of chips to indicate the value.

To the casual observer, it would appear that the numbers on the wheel are not organized and seem to be distributed randomly. The only obvious patterns are that red and black numbers alternate and that usually two odd numbers alternate with two even numbers.

For what it is worth, the sum of all the numbers in roulette is 666.

One interesting fact about the European Roulette Wheel is that if you split the wheel in half through European Roulette Wheel the ZERO, all the RED LOW numbers and BLACK HIGH numbers are on one side and conversely, all the RED HIGH numbers and BLACK LOW numbers are on the other side.

The Standard European Roulette Table

Most Australian casinos favour the European wheel.

Blackjack

Some questions to ask your clients to gauge their understanding of how BLACKJACK works.

1. What is the objective of blackjack? ie what are you trying to do each hand?

The most common answer is “to get as close to 21 as you can”. This is totally wrong!! The real objective is to beat the dealer – it doesn’t matter what hand you have as long as you beat the dealer.

2. Do you use Basic Strategy when playing Blackjack?

Most will answer ‘Yes’ but you can test them easily as follows:

a) Should you split 8s when the dealer has an Ace? (Always split 8s) b) Do you ever split 10s? Under what circumstances? (Never split 10s) c) Do you ever take “Insurance” against the dealer’s Ace. (Never take Insurance, however there is some excuse if you have a very large amount of money riding on the hand) d) In an 8-deck shoe, you have 12 and the dealer’s show card is a 3 – what should you do Stand or HIT? (The correct answer is HIT – most players will say Stand.) e) Do you play Perfect Pairs? (Should say No! This increases the House Edge by 2-3% - not a good bet!)

3. What’s the approximate House Edge in Blackjack a) without using Basic Strategy and b) using Basic Strategy?

Without using Basic Strategy, the House Edge is a little over 5%. Using basic strategy reduces the House Edge to as little as 0.513% but depends on the expertise of the player. Most players who attempt basic strategy without the required expertise and resolve are playing against a House edge of around 2-3%.

4. Do you ever use the double-up or Martingale system as a means of playing?

Any player using the double-up system will eventually ‘crash-and-burn’.

The table-maximum prohibits more than 6 doubles and it’s not that unusual for 6 hands in a row to be won by the dealer. This is much the same in roulette and baccarat – it just doesn’t work.

5. Do you count cards? If so, which method? Please describe it in detail.

Most players will say that they have some sort of system but when asked to describe the details, they find it very hard to explain.

If they do provide details, write it down and run it past an expert to verify whether or not it would qualify as a bona fide system. (It won’t!!!!!)

The key issue here is that, if the client had a working system, he or she probably wouldn’t be seeing you and the casino would have banned them from playing by now. The other issue with gambling systems is that your clients probably cannot adhere to a system anyway due to the nature of their gambling impulses.

6. Do you keep an accurate record or diary of wins and losses?

If they don’t, then they have no idea how they’re going either in the short or more importantly, in the long term.

Typical Online Blackjack Table layout.

Materials and Resources to Support the Blackjack Facts (Basic) Rules

The object of blackjack is to beat the dealer. To beat the dealer the player must first not bust (go over 21) and second either outscore the dealer or have the dealer bust. Here are the full rules of the game. 1. Blackjack may be played with one to eight decks of 52-card decks. 2. Aces may be counted as 1 or 11 points, 2 to 9 according to pip value, and tens and face cards count as ten points. 3. The value of a hand is the sum of the point values of the individual cards. Except, a "blackjack" is the highest hand, consisting of an ace and any 10-point card, and it outranks all other 21- point hands. 4. After the players have bet, the dealer will give two cards to each player and two cards to himself. One of the dealer cards is dealt face up. The facedown card is called the "hole card." 5. If the dealer has an ace showing, he will offer a side bet called "insurance." This side wager pays 2 to 1 if the dealer's hole card is any 10-point card. Insurance wagers are optional and may not exceed half the original wager. 6. If the dealer has a ten or an ace showing (after offering insurance with an ace showing), then he will peek at his facedown card to see if he has a blackjack. If he does, then he will turn it over immediately. 7. If the dealer does have a blackjack, then all wagers (except insurance) will lose, unless the player also has a blackjack, which will result in a push. The dealer will resolve insurance wagers at this time.

8. Play begins with the player to the dealer's left. The following are the choices available to the player:

 Stand: Player waves over the cards and stands (stays with what he’s got).  Hit: Player draws another card (and more if he wishes). If this card causes the player's total points to exceed 21 (known as "breaking" or "busting") then he loses.  Double: Player doubles his bet and gets one, and only one, more card.  Split: If the player has a pair, or any two 10-point cards, then he may double his bet and separate his cards into two individual hands. The dealer will automatically give each card a second card. Then, the player may hit, stand, or double normally. However, when splitting aces, each ace gets only one card. Sometimes doubling after splitting is not allowed. If the player gets a ten and ace after splitting, then it counts as 21 points, not a blackjack. Usually the player may keep re-splitting up to a total of four hands. Sometimes re-splitting aces is not allowed.  Surrender: The player forfeits half his wager, keeping the other half, and does not play out his hand. This option is only available on the initial two cards, and depending on casino rules, sometimes it is not allowed at all. 9. After each player has had his turn, the dealer will turn over his hole card. If the dealer has 16 or less, then he will draw another card. A special situation is when the dealer has an ace and any number of cards totalling six points (known as a "soft 17"). At some tables, the dealer will also hit a soft 17. 10. If the dealer goes over 21 points, then any player who didn't already bust will win. 11. If the dealer does not bust, then the higher point total between the player and dealer will win. 12. If the dealer does not bust and a player has the same score, then this called a Push and the player retains his bet. 13. Winning wagers pay even money, except a winning player blackjack usually pays 3 to 2.

Blackjack Basic Strategy

For a given set of blackjack rules, there is only one best action to take for each possible hand a player may get versus each possible upcard a dealer may have. This set of "best actions" is known as the Basic Strategy.

For hard totals (no Ace):

H – Hit S – Stand D - Double

Dealer’s Upcard  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 A 9 H D D D D H H H H H 10 D D D D D D D D H H 11 D D D D D D D D D H 12 H H S S S H H H H H 13 S S S S S H H H H H 14 S S S S S H H H H H 15 S S S S S H H H H H 16 S S S S S H H H H H 17 S S S S S S S S S S

For pairs:

SP - Split

Dealer’s Upcard  2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 A 2,2 SP SP SP SP SP SP 3,3 SP SP SP SP SP SP 4,4 SP SP 5,5 6,6 SP SP SP SP SP 7,7 SP SP SP SP SP SP 8,8 SP SP SP SP SP SP SP SP SP SP 9,9 SP SP SP SP SP SP SP 10,10 A,A SP SP SP SP SP SP SP SP SP SP

For Soft totals (one of your cards is an Ace), always hit on soft 17 or less. Hit on soft 18 if dealer shows 9, 10 or Ace.

House Edge: 0.513%

This particular Basic Strategy chart is used for Blackjack played under the following rules:

Blackjack Rules

 8 Decks, dealt from shoe  Double on 9, 10 or 11.  Dealer stands on soft 17 (S17)  Split to 3 hands  Aces split to 2 hands  One card only on split aces  Double after split (DAS)  Double for less allowed  Blackjack pays 3:2  Insurance pays 2:1  Dealer blackjack takes Original and Busted Bets Only (OBBO)  First card from shoe burnt

For variations on these rules you’ll need to look up the web for info on the precise Basic Strategy Chart to use.

Try www.wizardofodds.com/blackjack. You’ll find a free Blackjack trainer there too if you want to check out the game.

There are many other free blackjack games available for laptops, iPads, iPhones and Android devices. Find one and practise the game with the Basic Strategy chart beside you. That way you’ll know what your client is talking about and be able to correct their myths and misconceptions.

Appendices

A. Materials and Resources to Support the EGM Facts (Advanced)

Random number generators (advanced information)

Continuously and constantly generate random numbers

All modern electronic gaming machines (egms) are designed using pseudorandom number generators ("PRNGs"), which are constantly generating random numbers, at a rate of many thousands per second. This means that the outcome cannot be predicted dispelling the myths that

a) “the machine is going to pay very soon”; b) “after a long losing run a big win will follow”; and c) “this machine is hot”.

Pressing the “play” button selects the random number.

As soon as the "Play" button is pressed, the most recent random number is used to determine the result. The random number is then mapped by the symbol mapping algorithm and the resulting combination of symbols is displayed on the screen.

The exact time the button is pushed measured to the nearest microsecond selects the random number.

This means that the result varies depending on exactly when the game is played i.e. when the button is pushed. A fraction of a second earlier or later, and the result would be entirely different.

This one fact completely dispels the myth of “I was playing that machine before; if I’d stayed there I would’ve got the jackpot that bloke playing it now just got”.

Victoria has high quality Random Number Generators – statistically valid randomness.

It is important that the machine contains a high-quality RNG implementation, because all PRNGs must eventually repeat their number sequence, and if the period is short, or the PRNG is otherwise flawed, an advantage player may be able to 'predict' the next result. Having access to the PRNG code and seed values Ronald Dale Harris, a former slot machine programmer, discovered equations for specific gambling games like Keno that allowed him to predict what the next set of selected numbers would be based on the previous games played.

Australian gaming machines are designed to defeat such attempts at fraud by generating numbers even when the machine is not being played, so the player cannot tell where in the sequence they are, even if he knows how the machine was programmed.

This dispels the myth that a tech expert can predict the outcome.

Australian/New Zealand Gaming Machine National Standard Rev 10.1 Feb 2010.

The Standard shows the strict guidelines and rules imposed on random number generators used in electronic gaming machines.

While the language of the document is designed for a statistician and/or mathematician to comprehend, there are some key facts that should be explained.

The selection of the combination of symbols must be statistically independent - the result is totally independent of previous spins; be uniformly distributed over their range; outcomes will be statistically represented according to their probabilities; and pass various recognised statistical tests; and be unpredictable.

The random number generator must pass any of the following 10 statistical tests:

• chi-square test; “goodness-of-fit” test – is the data really random or does it fit a known distribution of data • equi-distribution (frequency) test – number of 1’s, 2’s, 3’s etc.; • gap test; distance between 0’s – 020=1, 036540=4 etc. • poker test; examines groups of 5 digits for repetition • coupon collector’s test; e.g. the length of each sequence of numbers that includes all 10 digits – 0 to 9. • permutation test; analyses sets of numbers for randomness • run test (Patterns of occurrences should not be recurrent); • spectral test; measures the scale of randomness • serial correlation test potency and degree of serial correlation (outcomes should be independent from the previous game); and test on subsequences. The complete Australian/New Zealand Gaming Machine National Standard Rev 10.1 Feb 2010 is available at http://assets.justice.vic.gov.au/vcglr/resources/9175281d-bbec-4cf1- b40c-379575e48759/australian_nz_national_standard.pdf and the Victorian appendix at http://assets.justice.vic.gov.au/vcglr/resources/79510c0b-7231-4acc-81a9- f2a2ac77b96e/victorian_appendix.pdf

The new Australian/New Zealand Gaming Machine National Standard 2015 can be found at http://www.ilga.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0011/67277/Gaming-Machine- National-Standard-2015.pdf. This will most likely be adopted as the new standard by the VCGLR in the near future.

B. Horse Racing Glossary Acceptor: A runner with a paid up acceptance fee by its connections to start in a race. Approximates: The approximate tote odds on offer before the final pool is closed. Back: To have a bet or wager on a horse. Barrier: Starting gate stall a horse will start from in a race. Barrier Draw: The race club ballot held to decide the barrier a horse will start from. Blanket Finish: When many horses finish close to each other at the winning line. Blinkers: A hood worn by a horse to restrict his peripheral vision on either side. Bolter: A winning horse at very long odds. Boxed (in): To be trapped between other horses. Bookmaker (Bookie): A person registered and licensed to accept bets from the public. Card: Racing fixture or meeting. Checked: A horse that was momentarily impeded during running. Colours: The jacket and cap worn by jockeys, also known as racing silks. Colt: An ungelded (entire) male horse three-years-old or younger. Correct Weight: Weighed in correct allocated weight before dividends are declared paid. Dead Heat: A tie. Two or more horses finishing equal in a race. Dead Track: Racing surface which is rain affected and not firm... Deductions: When a horse is scratched from a race after betting on that race has already started, deductions are taken out of the win and place bets at a rate in proportion to the odds of the scratched horse. Derby: A stakes race for three-year-olds. Dividend: The amount paid by a Tote or bookmaker for a win or placed horse for every $1.00 invested. Draw: A horse's starting position in the barrier starting stalls. Drift (Ease): A horse's odds getting longer, i.e.; 2/1 out to 5/1. Entire: An ungelded male horse Even Money Bet (or Evens): A 1:1 bet. A $100 bet wins $100. False Favourite: A horse that is a race Favourite despite its lack of credential to win the race Fast (track): Condition of a very dry track where fast times are recorded. Favourite: The horse that is considered to have the best chance of winning the race. Field: All the runners in a race. Filly: Female horse three-years-old or younger. First Up: The first run a horse has in a new racing campaign or preparation. Flat race: Raced on flat track surface rather than over obstacles such as Hurdles. Form: A statistical study of a horse's previous career race performance. Front-runner: A horse with early gate speed who likes to lead in races. Gate: Another term for barrier, or position a horse will start from.

Gelding: A male horse that has been castrated. Going: The condition of the racing surface (fast, good, dead, slow or heavy). Good (track): Condition of racing surface. A firm, dry surface. Group Race: An elite group of WFA and Handicap races run each season. Group 1: Highest class of stakes race in Australia, usually above $250,000 prizemoney Group 2: Second highest class of stakes race in Australia, above $125,000 prizemoney Group 3: Third highest class of race in Australia, above $75,000 prizemoney Hand: Four inches. A horse's height is measured in hands and inches from the top of the shoulder (withers) to the ground. Thoroughbreds typically range from 15 to 17 hands. Handicap: A race for which the track handicapper assigns the weights to be carried. Each horse is allocated a different weight to carry, the theory being all horses then run on a fair and equal basis. Handicapper: Club official who allocates the weights to be carried in handicap events. Hand and Heels: The jockey urges a horse with hands and legs without using the whip. Head: A winning (losing) margin between horses in photo finishes. Heavy (track): Track conditions that are heavily rain affected. Horse: A "Horse" is referred to an ungelded (entire) male four-years-old or older. Impost: The allocated weight carried by a horse. In The Money: Finishing in the placings, first, second or third. Judge: The club official who declares the official placings for each race. Jumper: Steeplechase or hurdle horse. Juvenile: Two-year-old horse. Length: A measurement approximating the length of a horse (approx. 3 metres) used to denote margins between horses in a race. Lengthen (Eased): A horse's odds getting longer, i.e.; 2/1 out to 5/1 Listed Race: A stakes race just below a Group 3 race and above $50,000 in prizemoney. Long Shot: A Horse that is not expected to win and starts at long odds. Lug In (Out): Action of a tiring horse, bearing in or out, failing to keep a straight course. Maiden: A horse that has not won a race. Maiden Race: A race for horses who have not won a race. Mare: Female horse four-years-old or older. Market: A list of horses in a race and their respective odds or prices. Middle Distance: A race from 1600 metres (1 mile) to 2000m (1-1/4 miles). Morning Line: Approximate odds quoted before betting begins officially for the day. Mudlark: A horse that races well on rain affected tracks especially in heavy conditions. Mug Punter: A punter that regularly loses his money when betting. Neck: Unit of measurement approximately the length of a horse's neck. Nominations: The list of horses entered by owners and trainers for a race.

Nose: Smallest margin a horse can win by. Also called a “short half head”. Oaks: A stakes event for three-year-old fillies, or females. Odds: Prices offered by a bookmaker or totalisator. Odds Against: Odds of even money or longer. Outlay $1 and profit $1 or more if win Odds-On: Odds shorter than even money. Outlay $1 and profit less than $1 if win On The Nose: Betting a horse to win only. Outlay: The money a punter bets is called his or her outlay. Out Of The Money: A horse that finishes worse than third and misses a place. Outsider: A horse that is not expected to win. Overlay: The odds on offer are better than form says they should be. Pacifier: A hooded device with meshed goggles worn by the horses to protect their eyes. Penalty: A weight added to the handicap weight of a horse. Photo Finish: A close finish where a photo is used to determine the placegetters Place: Finish in the top three in a race or event in fields of eight or more horses. If there are only six or seven runners the horse must finish first or second to place. Price: Odds on offer for horses in a race. Protest: When a jockey, owner, trainer or steward alleges interference by one party against another during a race that may have affected the outcome of a race. If a protest is upheld by officials, the runner that caused the interference is placed directly after the horse interfered with. If a protest is dismissed by officials, the original result of the race stands. Punt: Another term for a bet or wager on a horse. Punter: Considered to be a Bettor or Investor. Ratings: A numerical figure given to a horse to reflect their chance of winning a particular race after taking a number of form factors into account. Restricted Races: Races which only certain horses are eligible. Return: The dividend you receive on a particular bet. Roughie: A horse which is considered to have a 'rough' chance of winning a race. Scratched: A horse is said to be “scratched” when it was taken out of a race. Shadow Roll (Nose Roll): Usually a lamb's wool roll half way up the horse's face to keep him from seeing his own shadow. Shorten (Tighten): When the odds of a horse decrease, usually because a lot of money has been placed on that horse by punters. Short Price: Low odds where a punter will get a small return for their initial outlay. Sire: Father of a horse. Slow (track): A racing strip that is wet on both the surface and base. Between good and heavy. Spell: The resting period between preparations or racing. Usually three months. Sprint: Short race, less than 1600 metres. Stake: Betting amount placed on a horse Stakes: Prizemoney allotted for a horse race and paid to owners and connections.

Stakes-Placed: Finished second or third in a stakes race. Stakes Horse: A horse that races predominantly in stakes races. Stallion: A male horse used for breeding. Starter: 1. Participating horse in a race. 2. The official responsible for starting a race. Stayer: A horse that can race long distances. Steeplechase: A race in which horses are required to jump over a series of obstacles. Stewards: The group of people who control the day's racing under the rules of racing. Stick: A jockey's whip. Stipes: Another term for the Stewards. (Or Stipendiary Stewards) Strapper: A horse's attendant who assists the trainer and helps care for the horse. Stretch (home-Stretch): Final straight portion of the racetrack to the finish. Stud: 1. Male horse used for breeding. 2. A breeding farm. Sure Thing: A horse which a punter or tipster believes is unbeatable in a race. TAB: Totalisator Agency Board. The body appointed to regulate off-course betting. Thoroughbred: Thoroughbred is a breed of horses bred specifically for horse racing. Tipster: A person who makes selections for a race on which horses they believe will win. Top Weight: Horse allocated the most weight in a race - Has the number one saddlecloth Totalisator (Tote): The system of betting on races (an automated system that dispenses and records betting tickets, calculates and displays odds and payoffs and provides the mechanism for cashing winning tickets) in which the winning bettors share the total amount bet, minus a percentage for the operators of the system, taxes etc. Track Condition: Condition of the racetrack surface. Fast; Good; Dead; Slow; Heavy. Track Record: Fastest time for a distance at a particular track. Trail: A Trail or Sit is racing immediately behind another horse in a race to get cover. Underlay: Odds offered for a horse are shorter than it deserves by its past performances. Under Wraps: Horse under strong restraint in a race or workout. Wager: Another term for a bet on a horse. Walkover: A race in which only one horse competes. Weigh In (Out): The certification, by the clerk of scales, of a jockey's weight before or after a race. A jockey weighs in fully dressed with all gears (saddles and lead bag) except for his/her helmet and whip. Weight-For-Age: The purpose of weight-for-age is to allow horses of different age and sex to compete on equal terms. The weight a horse carries is allocated on a set scale according to its sex and age.

C. Greyhound Racing Glossary

Arm Trial A trial where the greyhound is allowed to catch and grab an artificial lure after running a nominated distance. Box Draw The official random computerised drawing of the starting positions (box) of the greyhounds in a race or event. Describes the action of drawing the official starting positions of the runners in a race or event. Box Generally used to describe the starting position drawn in an event. Breaking in Track Any trial track used predominantly to teach greyhounds to jump from the starting boxes and chase a lure, generally 300 to 400 metres in length, may be straight, circle or oval in shape. The track must be registered with GRV. Brood Matron A female greyhound used for or intended to be used for breeding. Bullring A circular steel rail inside a small circular running surface with a hand operated artificial lure, generally not exceeding a 60 metre circumference, used predominantly to teach greyhounds to jump from the starting boxes and chase an artificial lure. Catching Pen A section of the racetrack capable of being enclosed to stop and catch the greyhounds at the end of a race; this generally includes a run-off chute. Check Interference received by the greyhound during a race, possibly causing the greyhound to lose momentum and time (lengths) in that race. Chief Steward The Steward in charge of the GRV Board Stewards Panel. Circle Track Generally used to describe an oval or circular Trial or Racetrack. Club Steward A person employed by a Racing Club to officiate and assist the Board Stewards during a race meeting. Coursing Club A Registered Greyhound Racing Club that conducts Plumpton meetings (see Coursing, Plumpton).Coursing: Consists of a race where two greyhounds compete on a straight track and are released from a set of slips instead of a Starting Box. Generally conducted with a Drag Lure. Dam The mother of a litter of registered pups. A Brood Bitch that is the registered producer of a specific greyhound. Day Yard A wire mesh enclosed space generally not exceeding 50 square metres where one or more greyhounds may spend periods of time recuperating outdoors. Distance Used to describe the distance covered by runners in a race from the front of the starting box to the finish line. Generally measured 1 metre out from the rail. Drag Lure A hand operated or battery operated winch used to pull a small piece of sheepskin or cloth along the centre of a Slipping Track to entice a greyhound to run to the other end. Exercise Yard A series of 2 or more long narrow fenced enclosures used to exercise greyhounds adjacent to each other. Each yard is generally 100 to 120 metres in length and 4 metres wide. Field Generally used to describe the combined runners in a race. Form Guide A publication listing the race performances of the greyhounds in a specific race (refer to The Watchdog available at www.thewatchdog.com.au)

Form Generally used to describe the recent performances of a greyhound. GAP Abbreviation for ‘Greyhound Adoption Program’. This program is financed and administered by GRV to place retired greyhounds in private homes as pets and has found homes for over 4000 greyhounds since 1996. GOBIS Abbreviation for ‘Greyhound Owner Breeder Incentive Scheme’. This program is conducted by GRV to provide additional bonus dollars that are available to both the owner and the breeder when their greyhound competes in selected GOBIS races. GOTBA Abbreviation for ‘Greyhound Owner Trainer Breeder Association’. This is an association dedicated to protect the rights of greyhound owner’s, trainers, and breeders. Greyhounds Australasia (GA) Greyhounds Australasia is the constituted body representing all of the legislated State Greyhound Authorities in Australia and New Zealand. Grade Used to describe the classification of a specific race, and/or the classification of a greyhound at a specific Racetrack and distance. GRV Steward A person employed and empowered by the Board of GRV to conduct race meetings and enforce the Rules of Greyhound Racing in Victoria. Kennel Describes the individually enclosed space used to house a single greyhound. Kennels May describe a group of individual kennel spaces in a single building and/or a property that has the facilities for housing (kennelling) greyhounds. Lure Arm The arm that protrudes out from the Lure Carriage to which the Lure is attached. Lure Carriage The mechanical trolley used to carry the lure along the inside rail of a Race or Trial track. Lure Training The action of allowing a greyhound to chase and/or catch a lure attached to a mechanical device. Lure The actual item used to entice a greyhound to chase, generally consists of an artificial toy designed to resemble a large rabbit or hare. Maiden Describes a greyhound that has yet to win a race, and/or to describe a specific grade of race for greyhounds yet to win a race. Margin The lengths between each greyhound during and race and across the finishing line (a length = ~0.067s) NCA National Coursing Association Interstate Nomination Form The approved Form that must be used to lodge a Nomination for interstate greyhounds wishing to nominate for a Victorian racing event. Nomination The act of nominating a greyhound for inclusion into a race or event either conducted by phone or online. Owner Trainer (C2) A person Registered by GRV to train greyhounds of which he or she is the Owner or part Owner of. Owner A person Registered by GRV for the purpose of owning a Registered greyhound eligible to be nominated for a race or event. Plumpton The type of race/event where two greyhounds compete on a straight track and are released from a Slip Lead instead of a Starting Box. Generally conducted with a Drag Lure.

Private Trial A Trial where the time recorded by the greyhound is not on display to the general public. Public Trainer A person Registered by GRV to train greyhounds for a registered owner Public Trial A trial where the time recorded by the greyhound is displayed for the general public to view. Puppy Yard A wire meshes enclosure where young greyhounds to the age of four months are kept. May be attached to a Whelping Kennel. Qualifying Trial Trials that are conducted by a Race Club under race conditions to select greyhounds for inclusion into a specific race or event. Race Kennel A Kennel where a greyhound is housed at a racetrack prior to racing. Race Program A listing of the races/events to be conducted at a specific meeting, the names of greyhounds and trainers, the official box draw, and may include the recent form of the greyhounds engaged. May also be used to list proposed races/events to be held at a specific venue at a future date. Racetrack May be used to describe a specific race venue and/or the actual running surface and area set aside for the conduct of a race or event. Race Used to describe the actual race/event. Railing When a greyhound moves to the inside of the field and follows the rail during a race. Racing Kennel A Kennel where a single greyhound in race training is housed. Rearing Yard A wire mesh enclosure used to house young greyhounds, generally between the ages of four to thirteen months of age. Generally includes a building (kennel) used as sleeping quarters. Registered Used to describe the condition of being registered with GRV. May be applied to person or greyhound. Registration Certificate The Certificate issued by GRV that lists the Registered name of the greyhound, whelping date, the names of Sire and Dam, and the name/s of the Registered Owner/s. Registration The act of becoming registered. May be applied to person or greyhound. Selection Trial See Qualifying Trial Sire A Stud dog that is the Registered father of a specific greyhound. Slipping Track A long narrow wire mesh enclosure used to allow a greyhound free running exercise. Spell When a greyhound has a break from racing (e.g. injury). Spelling Kennel A designated kennel, perhaps away from other dogs or disturbances, for greyhounds that are having a break from racing generally due to injury. Split Times The time (seconds) in which the leading greyhound approached the designated section of the track. Starting Boxes The boxes where the greyhounds commence the start of the race. Straight Track A long fenced off area; approximately 400m where greyhounds can be slipped or free galloped. Normally grass or sand surface.

Swab Routine samples taken from a greyhound following a race (generally urine) that is used to determine if prohibited substances have been administered to the greyhound. Samples can be taken pre-race, post-race or out-of-competition. Trainer A registered member of GRV who cares and outlays training regimes for racing or potential racing greyhounds. Training The processes involved in getting the greyhound into a condition suitable for racing. Involves diet, trialling, racing and general care of greyhounds. Trial Track A registered entity with GRV, which operate smaller circular racing tracks, approximately 400m, normally used when breaking greyhounds in before heading to the actual racetrack. Trial Can be solo, double or in a half-field, where greyhounds go around a racing track similar to race conditions obtaining split and overall time for an indication of performance. VBIS Abbreviation for ‘Victorian Breeders Incentive Scheme’. A scheme designed to promote and reward Victorian bred greyhounds. Vetted/vetting Observations made by the track veterinarian following a race where an injury/illness stand off period is given to a greyhound. VICBRED The definition of a VICBRED Greyhound is that the greyhound must be whelped in Victoria and bred by a Victoria registered Breeder. Whelping Date The date a litter of pups were born.

Whelping Kennel A specific kennel designed for the birth of a littler of pups, would include a larger bed for mother and puppies and electricity outlets for lighting and heating. Wide (running wide) When a greyhound moves to the outside of the field during a race.

D. Australian Harness Racing Glossary Here’s a guide to some of the colourful ‘harness speak’ you may come across or hear a racecaller say. STANDARDBRED Harness racing horses are Standardbreds. They are slightly smaller than thoroughbreds, but are more versatile and generally have a quieter temperament. They race more often than thoroughbreds, but require more training to bring them to peak fitness than their galloping cousins.

PACER A horse which moves both legs on the same side forward in unison. Almost 100% do so through the aid of hopples (refer below). Approximately 80% of all harness races in Australia are conducted for pacers. In North America it is more like 60-70%, whilst in Europe there are no pacers, only trotters.

TROTTER (OR The natural gait of the Standardbred. A trotter is a horse which moves its left SQUAREGAITER) front and right rear legs forward almost simultaneously, then follows suit with right front and left rear leg in a diagonal motion.

BROKE When a horse ‘breaks stride’, it stops pacing or trotting and starts galloping. This is forbidden in a race and drivers must ease their horse back into a pace or trot before continuing to race.

DRIVER The person steering the horse in harness racing is called a driver, not a jockey. There are no weight or gender restrictions in harness racing. The minimum age at which drivers are licensed is 16, whilst there is no maximum age limit. Brian Gath, the driver is well into his 60’s.

SULKY The correct term for the ‘cart’ carrying the driver. It is not a reference to the emotional state of a beaten trainer/driver! The average weight of a sulky is 30 kgs and many feature high-tech carbon fibre wheels.

HOPPLES Leather straps connecting front and rear legs on the same side of the horse to help it ‘pace’ correctly. The size of the hopples is dictated by the length of a horse’s stride. The average length is around 57-58”. Blacks A Fake’s hopples were 62” long, whilst Safari’s were 59”. Hopples are only worn by pacers, although some trotters were half hopples on their front legs only.

MILE RATE The measuring stick of a horse’s ability. It is the time the winner of the race would have covered one mile (1609m) in based on the total time it took them to complete the distance of a race. A good mile rate is considered to be anything better than 2 minutes. The world race record is 1min 47.6sec! On average pacers post a mile rate 3-4 seconds faster than trotters for a race of the same distance.

LAST HALF AND LAST The final 800m and 400m respectively of the race. Used by punters to assess a QUARTER horse’s performance. On average a horse will run its last half in 58-59 seconds and it’s last quarter in 28-29 seconds. Elite horses can cover their last half mile in 55 seconds and their last quarter in 27 seconds.

LEAD TIME The time it takes the leader to reach a point one mile from the finish. A quick lead time will often aid horses at the rear of the field, whilst a slow lead time assists the frontrunners.

STAND START Harness racing’s only form of enforcing metric handicaps which are allocated in increments of 10 metres. Horses stand stationary behind elastic tapes which are released to start the race.

MOBILE START A moving start. A race where horses score up behind a vehicle with two protruding arms. The mobile is travelling at approximately 45kmh upon release.

C AND M The class of a horse. C stands for Country Assessment; M stands for Metropolitan Assessment. A C11 M6 pacer has won an equivalent of 11 country class races and 6 metropolitan class races.

THE PEGS For safety reasons Victorian tracks don’t utilise their running rails, instead rubber pegs are used outside the rail to denote the inside of the racetrack. Hence, a horse racing on the inside is never 'on the fence’, it is 'on the pegs’.

THE DEATH SEAT The position outside the leader, so named because it often brings the undoing of horse’s chances. You have to be tough and a good performer to win from ‘the death’.

THE ONE ONE The position one wide and one back (directly behind The Death Seat). Often considered the best place to position in a race – with cover, but handy to the lead.

RUNNING LINE Horses racing two wide are deemed to be in the “running line”. It is a favourable position because the driver can decide when to make his move, unlike the horses that are trapped on the pegs.

THREE WIDE Refers to horses three off the pegs. Horses travelling three wide are forced to cover extra ground than those closer to the pegs, so drivers back in the field wait until the last 1000m before making their runs “three wide” to get into the contest.

SPRINT LANE An opening 1-2 horses wide that can be used only in the home straight on the final occasion. It enables horses trapped on the pegs to have a clear run to the finish thus providing all horses with the opportunity of winning. Not all harness racing tracks have a sprint lane.

PULL THE PLUGS Ear plugs or deafeners are used to block out sounds from a horse. When the driver “pulls the plugs”, more often than not in the concluding stages of a race, the horse can instantly hear noises and will often find another gear.

E. Australian Horseracing Track Ratings

Australian track ratings range from Firm to Heavy and they are very important for the racing public to ensure punters are aware of the racing conditions for the day to make an informed bet on a particular fancy.

Most horses race best on a firm, dry track and are best suited to Firm and Good tracks, while other horses are able to plough through the mud on a wet track quite easily and are best suited to wet conditions.

Once the track conditions are known you can study the form guide even further and look for horses that have previous winning form in the conditions of the race in question before placing a bet.

New Australian race track ratings were implemented by the Australian Racing Board from December 1st, 2014 to have a graded rating system that provides a more accurate assessment of the condition of the track.

Category Scale Description Firm 1 Dry hard track Firm 2 Firm track with reasonable grass coverage Good 3 Track with good grass coverage and cushion Good 4 Track with some give in it Soft 5 Track with a reasonable amount of give in it Soft 6 Moist but not a badly affected track Soft 7 More rain-affected track that will chop out Heavy 8 Rain affected track that horses will get into Heavy 9 Wet track getting into a squelchy area Heavy 10 Heaviest category track, very wet, towards saturation

Race tracks that have received very heavy rainfall could have a track that is rated at worse than Heavy 10 which may cause the track to be unsafe for racing and the meeting can conceivably be postponed or abandoned.

If a race club alters a track rating during the course of a race meeting it will sound a siren at the track to alert punters to the change.

For Synthetic Tracks the following Track Rating Scale is effective from December 1st, 2014.

Category Scale Description Synthetic Synthetic Synthetic

F. Martingale and Positive-Progression systems

BETTING SYSTEMS AND THE HOUSE EDGE

There is no mystery to the success of casinos. People place wagers on games that have a built in house edge. The players win or lose the individual bets, but that’s of no concern to the management. The only concern is that players continue pumping wagers through the system. In this case, the large variance of individual bets evens out and the house earns according to the following basic equation:

Earnings = (Total Wagers) x (House Edge)

A progression betting system is based on the belief that this equation is wrong. It is an attempt to defy the laws of economics and mathematics by placing wagers according to a fixed pattern in an attempt to change the house edge.

A progression betting pattern is one that bases the current wager on the previous amount wagered and the result of the previous hand. Many authors write books about these systems, claiming they will win if combined with stop-loss and money management methods. Because of their simplicity, many people try them at the tables. Most lose. Some win.

Those who see individuals win using betting systems may come to regard these systems as an advantage method. Moreover, the arguments in favor of betting systems appear logical. But it is important to understand that it is the large variance of the games that lures most customers. Of course players will win. There are always winners. There have to be winners. But others players will lose. In the end, the losses will more than compensate for the wins so that the final result represents the house edge.

On the other hand, the "authors" and "experts" who extol betting systems usually blame the losers for their losses. They claim the losers are not disciplined or don’t fully understand the system (which essentially means that the loser is not able to foretell the future perfectly). They point to the myriad of winners (there are always winners, that’s a given). They claim that the computer simulations that show their systems are fraudulent don’t model the "real world." They invent fancy theories involving chaos and fractals and never fully explain them. They post defensive messages on Internet bulletin boards, using terms like "math boyz" and "flaw." They hire publicists who send out press releases. They gain media exposure. And worst of all, they gain credibility among the gaming public.

But betting systems do not give the player an advantage over the casino. Fallacious arguments, anecdotal accounts, and slick book covers cannot overcome the physical laws of the universe.

Wagering Law. A betting system can not change the house edge; players using these systems as a whole lose at exactly the predicted rate.

However, progression betting systems do change the way in which losses occur. To understand the appeal of these systems, we will look at two of them in detail.

The first progression we will consider is called the "Martingale system." This is the most common progression used by blackjack players. In it, a player starts with a basic unit bet (say $10). If he loses a wager, he then doubles his wager for the next bet. He continues doubling each wager until he wins. After a win, his wager returns to its original value of $10. On a push, the wager stays the same. By always leaving on a win, the player ensures himself a winning session.

This seems to be a sure thing. For example, if the sequence is lose, lose, win (LLW) then the player will bet $10, $20, $40. He lost the $10 and $20 bets for a net loss of $30, but he won $40 for an overall gain of $10. For a longer sequence, consider

LLWLWLLWWLLLLLLLLLLW

It is easy to figure out the profit for the player: it is his minimum bet times the total number of wins in the sequence, in this case $10 5 wins = $50.

How can there be anything wrong with this logic? Just leave on a win and the player walks away with profit in his pocket every time.

However, for many reasons, the player can’t always leave on a win. For example, in the previous sequence, the player was actually down $10,190 on the wager before the final win. Very few people can sustain this type of loss and keep on playing. The player placed a wager of $10,240 on the last bet in an effort to win $10. The situation of losing 10 hands in a row is not rare. It occurs about once every 1,540 hands (or 15 hours of play). A series of 10 consecutive losses is almost a certainty on any prolonged trip to Las Vegas. What if the sequence of losses was 15 hands? Then the player will need to wager $327,680. At blackjack, a sequence of 15 losses in a row occurs on average about once in every 100 hours of play. What if he needed to split and double down? What if he lost that hand?

One final comment is appropriate about table limits. Table limits are not in place to defeat the Martingale betting system. It is a losing system. Table limits are in place to protect the casino’s bank from the effects of a single large wager, where collusion might be involved. These limits also help separate the premium players from the pack. Nevertheless, most table limits allow at most seven or eight Martingale double-ups.

The result of a Martingale system is that most players will come away a small winner most of the time because they did not endure a long string of losing wagers. But, on those rare times the player cannot walk away a winner, his losses will be huge.

A system where wagers are raised after a losing bet is called a "negative progression." The hook of this type of betting system is the frequency of winning sessions. Almost every session, the player will be able to leave on a win and therefore bank a small win. The sinker is that some rare losing sessions can be catastrophic for the player. The player most fears a long series of losses. In the long run, the wins and losses add up to the house edge. The player cannot overcome the "Wagering Law."

The other type of betting system that many players use is a "positive progression system," also known as pyramiding your profit, a bet parlay, or letting it ride. Players often think of their winnings as house money, and are willing to gamble more freely with this money in an effort to win even more. In this type of betting system, the player is willing to accept many frequent small losses in an attempt to bank a single huge win. The player needs less capital (since he is not chasing loses), so the downside risk is smaller for each session and the upside potential is huge.

For example, a common progression among blackjack players is to "almost" double up after a win. The player will wager a base amount, say $10 on a blackjack hand. After a single win, he will wager $15 (he doubles his $10 bet, and then removes $5 to add to his "winnings" pile). After two wins, WW, he will wager $25 (he doubles the $15 bet, and then brings $5 back to his "winnings" pile). After three wins in a row, WWW, his wager is $45 = $25 + $25 - $5. If he loses this bet, he then brings his bet back to $10 and starts again.

A typical sequence of ten wagers might look something like WWLLWLLLWW. Our player won bets of $10, $15, $10, $10, and $15. He lost bets of $25, $10, $15, $10, $10. His net for this sequence is a loss of $10. He endured a small loss while looking for a big win.

What is the player hoping for? How about WWWWWWWWWW, followed by leaving? In this case the player has made and won wagers of $10, $15, $25, $45, $85, $165, $325, $645, $1,285, and $2,565. And as far as he is concerned, it is all house money. He has hit the jackpot, winning $5,165 on his $10 initial wager. He leaves the table with the applause of those around him. He is humbly asked to share his wise and mysterious winning ways. He writes a book about his system and the lore of this one magical evening helps him sell a million copies. Don’t buy this book!

The hook of a positive progression betting system is the lure of the big win. The player is hoping for that rare but life changing event that will forever prove the power of the system: a long series of wins. The sinker is that the big winning sessions are very rare. The usual outcome of an evening’s play is a small loss. The effect to the player is very much like a slot machine and the mathematics are the same as well. In the long run, the wins and losses add up to the house edge. The player cannot overcome the "Wagering Law."

Betting systems are not a tool of advantage players and will not help you beat blackjack; they are used by naïve gamblers who have been sold a bill of goods about an easy "winning" system. The house edge is not just another number; it’s The Law.