Casino House Always Wins

'The House Always Wins' is episode 3 of season 4 in the television show Angel. Written by David Fury and directed by Marita Grabiak, it was originally broadcast on October 20, 2002 on the WBtelevision network.

Because of expected value. Contrary to what a lot of people have been saying, sometimes the odds are 50/50. But yes, indeed, the house, still, always wins, and the reason is Expected value. You might be sitting at a Pai Goa Poker table, for example, and noticed that you and the dealer both have an equal chancing of winning any given hand. For a number of reasons. Overall, a casino takes more than it gives based on the odds. With every wager, the casino moves closer to the exact amount of profit percentage that their games are designed to generate. For that reason, it can be said th. It’s a cliche, but it’s important: The house always wins. “I worked in the restaurant of a casino,” wrote UncleWray. “We had a mother and daughter who were regulars but not there every day. Maybe once or twice a week, they’d come in and spend at least eight hours on the slot machines.” “One time, they hit it big. Does the house really always win? The top of his list: so-called 'carnival games,” which are table games other than the traditional casino fare such as blackjack, craps, and baccarat.

In 'The House Always Wins', Angel Investigations takes a road trip to Las Vegas to enlist Lorne's help in returning higher being Cordelia to their dimension. While in Vegas, they learn the owner of the Tropicana Casino has been coercing Lorne into reading people's destinies, which the owner sells on the black market in a literal 'futures' trading scheme. Angel falls under the influence of the house games, while back in Los Angeles Wesley tries to take advantage of Angel's absence to steal his clients.

Plot[edit]

As Angel watches Connor stake a vampire, Cordelia shouts he should focus on rescuing her from her boring life as a higher power. When Fred and Gunn confront Angel on the issues of Connor, Angel realizes he has made life difficult for his friends, and he takes them on a trip to Las Vegas.

They arrive at the Tropicana Casino, where Lorne headlines, complete with scantily clad back-up singers known as the Lornettes. Lorne entices audience members to sing along and ignores Angel and the others. As Lorne rests in his private suite, he receives a visit from his employer and casino owner, Lee DeMarco. Lorne is forced to identify the futures of the people who sang in the audience. Gunn and Fred play Blackjack while Angel worries about Lorne. One of the Lornettes offers one of the singing audience members from Lorne's show, Vivian, a special chip to play in a Spin to Win game. Fred continues to worry about Angel and Lorne; they investigate Lorne's situation to help ease Fred's mind. To get past the guards at Lorne's door, Gunn has Fred dress as one of the Lornettes. Lorne takes a minute to recognize her but he is grateful to see her. He informs her Lee DeMarco is blackmailing him for his psychic abilities.

Vivian walks in a trance-like state across the casino's driveway and is nearly run over by a taxi, but Angel rescues her. He sneaks into the special Spin to Win game area. Lee hands him a chip, which Angel tosses away, but it slides onto the table; when the house wins, Angel loses his destiny. Fred runs from Lorne's room and hysterically convinces the guards outside to enter the room. Lorne escapes, and the three run out into the casino to find Angel. He is playing slot machines in a zombie-like state and ask him to pose a distraction while they rescue Lorne. Angel is too entranced with his gambling to comprehend the plan. DeMarco is pleased when he receives information that Angel is a souled vampire, realizing Angel's destiny will be profitable.

Lorne confesses he tells Lee about the people with bright futures so that they can be lured into the Spin and Win game. Their destinies are sucked into the chip they play and later sold on the black market. Guards spot them; to pose a distraction, Lorne sings a high-pitch noise into a microphone. After they escape, Gunn angrily assumes that Lorne told Lee about Angel. Lorne corrects him by revealing that he is being blackmailed, and if he refuses to cooperate, people will be killed. When Gunn realizes that Angel's destiny has been taken away, he returns to the casino and finds Angel at one of the slot machines. As Spencer arrives with Lorne and Fred held in the custody of his security guards, Angel resumes gambling. The rest of the group is brought into the back room, where Lee orders Fred and Gunn killed and Lorne to return to his work. Meanwhile, Cordelia manipulates Angel's slot machine to win a jackpot so he can be brought into the back room with the others. Lee is angered someone won, but Angel has no explanation.

When one of the men pulls a gun on Fred, it brings out the demon in Angel. He beats up Lee's men, and during the distraction Lorne smashes the glass ball holding the chips, causing all of the destinies to return to their rightful bodies. Back in L.A., the gang is glad to be home, although Angel questions what caused his jackpot. As they head inside the hotel, they freeze when they see Cordelia standing in the middle of the lobby; she does not recognize them.

Production details[edit]

This episode was filmed on location in Las Vegas. 'We shot from six at night to six in the morning for five nights,' recalls writer/producer David Fury. 'It was like a movie shoot, we were real stars.'^[1] The Tropicana Casino at which Lorne headlines is an actual casino on the Strip,^[2] although creative license was taken with its location and history. For example, as the group flees the guards, they exit the casino onto Fremont Street (nicknamed Glitter Gulch), which is miles from the actual location of the Tropicana. In addition, Elvis and Priscilla Presley had their wedding reception at the Aladdin Casino, not the Tropicana as Angel claimed.^[3] While filming this episode, members of the crew took the opportunity to gamble; camera assistant Adam Ward won $10,000 in a Super Bowl bet.^[4]

There are several inside jokes hidden in this episode. During the first shot into the audience during the scene where Lorne is on stage singing, David Fury and Angel script supervisor Petra Jorgensen are sitting in the first row. 'I'm holding a little miniature Kelly Manners,' Fury says. One of the scrolling banners in the soul-trading room reads DEAL WITH DISNEY TO RUN NEW ABC SERIES, referring to co-creator David Greenwalt, who left Angel earlier that year to produce Miracles.^[1]

Casino House Always Wins Survivor Winners At War

Writing[edit]

Writer/producer David Fury explains on the DVD commentary that early on, this episode emotionally establishes the characters, reminding viewers that Connor - although not integral to the story - is indeed 'Angel Jr.'^[1]

The scene in which Wesley has phone sex with Lilah was written by creator Joss Whedon when the episode came in short. Actor Alexis Denisof, who plays Wesley, explains that throughout this season his character is 'flirting with and investigating the dark side of himself. He's looking at his relationships with all the people and with Angel, and he's definitely looking at his whole purpose and trying to figure out how he wants to be. There are going to be some things that really surprise the audience, that they'd never expect of Wesley.'^[5]

In an essay linking themes in Angel to classic literature, Joshua Sherman points out that the motif of the stolen soul is dealt with elsewhere in mythology, such as the Soul Cage in Cornwall folklore, or Pakistani stories in which caged birds represent souls.^[6]

Acting[edit]

Casino House Always Wins Publishers Clearing House

• Andy Hallett, who played Lorne, said this episode was his 'favorite-favorite-favorite!' because the cast and crew got to go on location to Las Vegas. He said, 'I've always wanted to have like a Vegas show, so it's like a real Vegas show...except that all the people sitting in the audience were getting paid to be there.'^[7]
• Amy Acker had to dress as a Lornette for the scene in which she helps Lorne escape; Hallett says Acker kept joking, 'Andy, I have to overact and act bad - can you give me any tips?'^[1]

Arc significance[edit]

• Cordelia finally returns from the higher plane without her memory. Her return plays a major role in the rise of Jasmine.
• Lorne returns with Angel and co. to Los Angeles, after leaving at the end of Season 3.

Cultural references[edit]

• Name-dropping: Angel comments on his former friendships with Bugsy Siegel and the Rat Pack, and the fact that two members of the Blue Man Group are demons. He also attended Elvis and Priscilla Presley's wedding.

Music[edit]

• Actor Andy Hallett, who portrays Lorne, sings three songs in the episode—'It's Not Easy Being Green', 'Lady Marmalade' and 'Viva Las Vegas'.

Reception and reviews[edit]

This episode was criticized for being a 'throwaway' episode, serving mostly as a plot device to get Lorne and Cordelia back into the series,^[3] and for its 'thinly veiled' and heavy-handed allegory using magic to show how people can lose their dreams and ambitions by throwing money away in the casinos.^[8]

References[edit]

1. ^ ^abcdBratton, Kristy, ANGEL Season Four DVD Collection REVIEW, archived from the original on 2007-12-18
2. ^Tropicana Hotel Location, archived from the original on 2006-12-31, retrieved 2007-01-01
3. ^ ^abStafford, Nikki (2004), Once Bitten: An Unofficial Guide to the World of Angel, ECW Press, pp. 251–253, ISBN1-55022-654-1
4. ^Kerns, Dan (2004), 'Angel by the Numbers', in Glenn Yeffeth (ed.), Five Seasons of Angel, BenBella, p. 29, ISBN1-932100-33-4
5. ^Porter, Rick (July 16, 2002), 'Angel's' Denisof: Fourth-Season Debut 'Just Nuts', archived from the original on June 30, 2013, retrieved 2007-12-28
6. ^Sherman, Joshua (2004), 'Angel or Devil', in Glenn Yeffeth (ed.), Five Seasons of Angel, BenBella, p. 171, ISBN1-932100-33-4
7. ^Gill, Mika (7/3/2004), Lovelorn: An exclusive interview with Andy Hallett, Angel's Lorne, retrieved 2007-09-23Check date values in: date= (help)
8. ^Wray, M; Miller, M; Gurvey, J; Carroll, J; Kawachi, I (Dec 2008), 'Leaving Las Vegas', Social Science & Medicine, Slayage.com, 67 (11): 1882–8, doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.09.002, PMID18938005

External links[edit]

Casino House Always Wins Labor Of Love

• 'The House Always Wins' on IMDb
• 'The House Always Wins' at TV.com

For most seasoned gamblers brutally honest with themselves, they’ve come to accept the supposed number 1 rule in gambling; ‘the house always wins!’

Well, there’s always the skeptical lot, but sooner or later, that is a rule they come to accept the hard way. It’s a lesson every gambler gets to learn on their gambling journey, and the earlier you understand this rule, the smoother your future gambling endeavors might get. Simply said, you can boost your odds against the house by understanding why they win most of the time.

Now to answer your question ‘why does the house always win?’ read on to learn more!

Human Emotions

Part of being human means dealing with emotions. Unfortunately, not all these emotions play in our favor. If still unsure about that check out the ‘too emotional’ gamblers and see just how that works for them.

If you are the guy who is always chasing after your losses, without giving it much of thought simply because you are ‘too angry’, I don’t see how the casino won’t keep on winning.

Let’s say you’ve got a cool $1000 which you would want to start saving with your bank. For each year, the bank tells you will be earning 20%. This would translate to $200, and you obviously would be very happy about it. However, if you were to take a weekend trip to Vegas, entered a casino with $1000, and won $200 within less than an hour, you probably wouldn’t be satisfied.

For most players, they want more, and more. Before you realize it you make your first loss… But you are still ahead so you want to continue playing. The losses follow and before you realize it, you’ve lost it all in a matter of hours, sometimes, even minutes!

It does depend on why you were gambling in the first place. If it is for fun, well, and good because you are open to your game going either way. However, if you were hoping to make a reap off a casino, the advisable thing to do would be to walk away when you are still ahead.

Casino House Always Wins Prizes

Statistics show that up to 95% of players are ahead at some point in their game. But whenever one feels luck is on their side, we are tempted to push it a little further. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work out for most players.

The House Edge

The best way to understand a house edge would be by first acknowledging that a casino is a business. By that, it would mean that for them to remain operational, they have to ensure that they are running on a profit. For this, they design a small edge that will favor the house.

With the house edge, there’s nothing like a 50/50 chance. It ensures that the players’ probability of winning is slightly lower than those of the casino winning. Although the house edge might vary from game to game, it is still done with a lot of consideration to ensure that it is not set too high as it would discourage most gamblers from playing.

Examples of house edge are the number zero in roulette, or an early surrender when playing blackjack. Others examples include;

Blackjack: Casino 51% vs Player 49%

Roulette: Casino 52% vs Player 48%

Casino House Always Win

Craps: Casino 50.5% vs Player 49.5%

In short, even if you made some good wins in the short run, the casino would still catch-up with you in the long-run –provided you continued playing.

The Law of Large Numbers and Gambler’s Ruin Concepts

The statistical law of large numbers may have slightly varying definitions depending on the area of use. However, in business, this law is used to show or express the relationship that exists between growth rate and scale.

In casinos, the house always wins because of the large number of bets placed. Without going too much into technical details, I will try to explain its application in casinos.

Taking roulette as an example, there are 37 numbers; 18 red, 18 black, and the number ‘0’. But even when the house has a rough edge ranging from 2-3%, it would not be a big surprise if a casino lost on some nights. However, since the edge is low, sometimes the players win and come back day 2 to keep on gambling.

In the long-run, the law of large numbers will ensure that the casino keeps on winning.

Let’s explore the Gamblers’ ruin concept in simple terms too. Assume that the outcome of a casino game has a 50/50 chance, meaning that the house edge is 0%. A gambler walks into a casino with $100. There’s a 100% probability that the gamblers’ bankroll will run into $0 before that of the casino.

This is simply because the casino has an unlimited bankroll which will exhaust the player off their money if they stick around long enough. The chances of the gambler exhausting their bankroll are even higher when there’s an active house edge.

Different Casino Games have Varying House Edge

As aforementioned, the house edge is what ensures that the casinos have slightly added advantage against the player. However, it is important to note that this house edge varies with different games.

For slots and keno, they carry the highest house edge with up to 25% and 17%, respectively. This would explain why slots account for 80% of profits made in a casino. With Blackjack, the house could go as low as 0.5% if a player followed perfect betting.

Similarly, Craps and baccarat players could enjoy low house odds of up to 0.8% and 1.06% respectively provided they play the odds perfectly. As you have already guessed, only a few people can achieve this. Hence, the house edge increases whenever players are not playing expertly.

The House Always Wins Casino

Final Take

It might be true that the house always wins in the long-run. However, this shouldn’t work to disappoint you as an avid gambler. Rather, this should help you understand the common pitfalls and how you can avoid them.