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Tips and Strategies
Strategy/Tips

Video Poker

Slots

Keno

Blackjack

Craps

Poker

Video Keno

Baccarat

Roulette

Money Wheel


Video Poker

There are two important things to remember in order to win at video poker: bet high and bet often. The professional gamblers who convert video poker into a paycheck say that the only way to win is to hit the progressive jackpot with a Royal Flush. Now, that doesn’t mean you should discard every card that isn’t royalty - you have to win the small pots to stay in the game – but winning at video poker means taking a long-term view of the game. Plan on sticking around for more than a few hands (according to the odds, royal flushes hit once every 40,000 hands). And, most importantly, always, ALWAYS, bet the maximum credits so you don’t earn a measly payoff for the grandest of hands.

As for the not-so-grand poker hands, here are general do’s and don’ts that beginners tend to goof up. First, remember that having a high card like an Ace, King, Queen or Jack doesn’t mean you should keep it at all cost. Example: you have a pair of 10’s, a 6, a 3, and an Ace in your hand. Now, of course you get rid of the 6 and the 3, and you hold onto the pair, but do you keep the Ace, hoping another one shows up? After all, that would give you two pair, an excellent hand. The answer is no. It is a better bet to hold onto your pair and discard the rest. That discarded Ace might get you another 10, turning your hand into three of a kind. This same principal applies if you are holding a high card and three of a kind. Go after four of a kind and forget the high card.


Slots

Beyond the Stars

This game allows you to bet one to three coins. Denominations include 25¢, $1 coins, $5 coins, and $10 coins. To win the progressive jackpot, three spaceships must appear on the pay-line. There is only one payline in this game; it is marked with a thin red line. All payoffs are outlined above the reels according to how many coins were played.

Easy Money

There are three paylines on this game, which means you have three places to win. So, if it takes a one coin bet per payline, why can you play up to four coins on this game? Well, because the fourth coin doubles all your winnings. You can play one, five, ten, or twenty-five dollar coins on this game. The first coin covers you on the centerline, the second coin gives you the payline above it, and the third coin covers the bottom payline. The payoff table, above the reels, remains the same for coins one through three, but doubles when that fourth lucky coin is inserted. Three diamonds, on any line, wins the progressive jackpot.

Ancient Treasures

This game allows you to play one to three coins all on the center payline. There are four reels to match up, in different combinations, with hopes of hitting that progressive jackpot. You can play this game with 25¢, $1, $5, or $10 coins.

Buffet

There are several lines to check for winners if you play the maximum bet. The first coin covers the centerline, the second covers the top row, and the third coin covers the bottom. The fourth and fifth coins cover two di-agonal paylines. You can wager 25¢, $1, $5, or $10 coins. Three dollar sign symbols on any payline wins the progressive jackpot.

Love 2 Win

Everything is coming up roses, but the payoff is better if everything comes up hearts. This game has four reels that spin around flowers, hearts, and some “Bar” symbols as well. Bet one coin on the center payline, the second on the top, and a third coin to cover the bottom. Four hearts will get you the progressive jackpot. You may bet in denominations of 25¢, $1, $5, and $10 coins.


Keno

The house advantage in Keno is difficult to calculate because of the many variations of payoffs according to how many numbers you play, how much you play, and if you play the Special option. But it is generally agreed that in Vegas casinos, which are similar to Vegas Games 2000, the house advantage is 25 percent. If you want to play your lucky numbers, you would do better to stick to roulette, where the house advantage is just over 5 percent. But if Keno really is your game of choice, the best strategy is to keep your wagers low so you can play longer on this hard-to-win game.


Blackjack

In the manual on page 22 you will find a graph that outlines exactly when to take a hit, when to stand, when to double down and when to split. This graph has been compiled using research and statistics. The moves it tells you to make are the strategies that pay off more times than not. The chart refers to “soft” and “hard” hands. A soft hand means one of the cards is an ace, so it can be played as a one or eleven, whichever you prefer. A hard hand means it contains no Ace or that the Ace must be used as one. All the other terms in the chart should be familiar to you. The chart is effective, and should be memorized and followed.

Now, to be honest, I can’t stand charts. I have trouble memorizing them and difficulty matching up the lines to get the answer I’m looking for. For those of you who hate charts as much as I do, I’ve outlined the logic that guides this chart. You can remember the important principles of play and then make your decisions accordingly.

Basics

First, the very basics: always hit when you have 11 or below, always stand when you have 18 or more. If you have a point total of 11 or less, and the highest card you can draw in blackjack is valued at 10, then you have no chance of going over 21 and losing if you take a hit. There is no risk; take a hit. If you are holding 18 or more in your hand it would be foolish to risk taking another card, as there are so few in the deck that won’t bust your hand. The novice player almost always neglects the next basic rule of blackjack. Consider the dealer’s up card when deciding your actions. The point of blackjack is not to simply come close to 21 points, but to beat the dealer’s hand. If you neglect to take his hand into consideration, you are overlooking a key component to achieving your objective. Because you only know one of the dealer’s cards, you have to make some assumptions about the other. The safest assumption is that there is a ten underneath. Out of 52 cards, 16 have a value of ten; that’s almost a third of the deck. In general, play your hand as if the dealer’s hand contains the up card and a ten. Using that assumption we can group the dealer’s hands into strong, weak and fair hands.

Strong Dealer Hand

Let’s go over the strong dealer hands first. If the dealer has anything above a six showing, he’s sitting on a strong hand. With our assumption that the bottom card is a ten, and remembering the rules of how the dealer must play, he could simply stand with a seventeen, eighteen, or higher hand. When the dealer has this type of strong hand there are a couple things you do and don’t want to do.

First, you don’t want to double-down. Why put up more money against such a strong dealer hand? Second, you do want to be liberal with taking hits. Let’s say you’ve got a 16, a terrible hand to be stuck with. It is always risky to hit on a 16, because there are so few cards in the deck that won’t make you bust, but if you are looking at a strong dealer hand it is actually riskier to stand. The final thing to remember with a strong dealer hand is to be cautious about splitting. Don’t just split anything - it means more money is at risk and you will have to create two great hands to beat the dealer’s strong hand.

Weak Dealer Hand

What constitutes a weak dealer hand? An upcard valued at four, five or six. No matter what card the dealer has underneath, if he has one of these cards facing up, he must take another hit, and hits are risky, especially when one of your cards has a medium value. When a dealer has a bad hand, reverse all the advice you just read about the strong dealer hand. Get all the money out there that you can. Double-down when you can. The same is true of splitting. With a few exceptions, all outlined in the chart, splitting is a good move that lets you get more money out on the table once you know that the odds are in your favor. And finally, don’t take hits on tough hands. If you’ve got a bad hand and the dealer has a bad hand, why take a risk that you know he eventually has to take? Give him the opportunity to bust, stick with your hand.

Fair Dealer Hand

The dealer can also have what we’ll call a “fair hand.” A fair hand is when his top card is a two or a three. This isn’t a great hand for the dealer to have. He will have to take at least one hit, but these hands often turn into something less than a bust for a dealer. Because of the uncertainty, be more cautious with doubling down and splitting, but at the same time, be cautious with hitting on bad hands. After all, we know that the dealer has to take that third card; if it is a bust card, let him take it instead of you.

Totally Unfair Dealer Hand

There is one last type of hand that the dealer can have - one I mentioned earlier. We’ll call it the “downright dangerous” hand. This is when the dealer’s upcard is an ace. When this hand shows up, so does the whole question of whether or not to take insurance. Professional gamblers all agree; insurance is a bad idea. To get a blackjack the dealer would have to have a card valued at ten underneath his top card. As previously stated, that will happen a little less than one in three times. The risk is more than three to one, yet the payoff is two to one. The best thing to do when the dealer has an ace showing is to avoid putting more money on the table. That means don’t take insurance, don’t double down, and most of the time, don’t split. Play according to the card chart or, at least, generally abide by the rules that govern the chart and you have a good chance of holding your own in blackjack, more so than with most other games in the casino.


Craps

Avoid the C&E / Horn bets,  in fact, think of this list as a guide of the best to worst bets.

Pass Line

Don't Pass Line

Come Bets

Don't Come Bets

Field

Big 6 and 8

Hard Way Bets

Horn Bets

C&E

Start out with pass line bets and take all the odds you can. If you don’t play that way, be a wrong-way bettor, because actually the most wrong of ways to play at craps is to take hard-ways and horn bets. The field isn’t a great bet either; it gives the house a five and a half percent edge.

Hardway bets are bad bets; they give the house a nine to eleven percent advantage. If hardways are bad, horn bets are downright terrible; some of them give the house an advantage of as much as 16 percent. Your best bets are on the odds; once you make a point make sure you back up your bet with as many odds as you feel you can afford.

Come Bets

The first time you roll the dice it is called your come-out roll. Bet a “come” bet on your come-out roll by placing your wager on the Pass Line. A Pass Line wager wins one of two ways. First, it automatically wins if a seven or eleven is rolled on the come-out roll. Second, the Pass Line wins if the player makes his “point.” A point is established if the come-out roll is a 4, 5, 6, 8, 9 or 10. The appropriate point (whatever the number of the come-out roll was) will be marked in the number boxes at the top of your screen with the white “ON” marker. If that point is rolled again before you roll a seven, the Pass Line bet wins. Whether you win by an automatic seven or eleven, or through the long journey of es-tablishing and making a point, Pass Line bets pay even odds.

Once a point is rolled, the Pass Line bets cannot be removed. If, on the next roll, the player rolls another number besides the point, the Pass Line bet stays in place – it does not win or lose, it simply stays on the line until the point is made and the wager pays off, or a seven is rolled and the wager loses. A Pass Line bet also loses on the come-out roll if a two, three, or twelve is rolled. Getting one of those numbers is also called getting craps, or “crapping out.”

Let's say the come out roll is a Nine. A bet on the Pass Line only pays if a nine is rolled before a seven is rolled. Before we roll again, trying to get that nine, there are a few more bets to consider. The first is called “odds.” An odds bet is a bet placed behind your bet on the Pass Line. Different casinos allow different amounts of odds bets, anywhere from two times to 100 times. Vegas Games 2000 allows ten times odds, which means you can bet up to ten times your original Pass Line bet. When you place an odds bet, you add a wager on your point, in this case, nine. But instead of getting paid even money as you do on the front-line, you get paid “true odds” on your odds bet. True odds means you are paid off what your risk is worth. If your point only comes out one time out of three, you are paid two dollars on a one dollar bet, taking away all casino advantage. Here is the breakdown of odds payments: if your point is a four or a ten and you make it, an odds bet will pay you 2-1. If your point is a five or a nine, the payoff is 3-2. If your point is a six or eight, your payoff is 6-5. You don’t have to take odds on your bet, but you can do so at anytime after the point is established. You can also remove an odds bet at anytime,until a seven is rolled.

Other Come Bets

Now that you’ve mastered a Pass Line wager, it shouldn’t be too difficult to learn the next wager, especially since it is the same type of bet. It is placed in the Come box, under the place where the points are lined up. If you try to place a bet there on the come-out roll, the computer signals that this is disallowed by beeping at you. Likewise, the computer disallows a bet on the Pass Line after the point has been made. The Come box is where fresh come bets should be placed after the come-out roll. Making a bet here is just like making a Pass Line bet, only bets don’t stay in that box after a point is made. Instead, the dealer moves the bet up to the point’s number on the table. Just like the front-line bet, you may take odds on your bet by clicking your cursor on top of the bet, once it is on one of the points. On the computer screen, if you place odds you only see your odds bet totaled, not the bet lying under the odds. To see a better view of bet and odds, put your cursor over the point box and hold your left mouse button down for a few seconds. A close-up shot of all the bets on that spot will appear. One more thing should be noted about this type of bet. let’s say that the Pass Line bet is yours and its point is nine. Let’s also say that a Come bet which is sitting on five, is yours. You roll a nine, making the front-line a winner. What happens to Come bet that's on the five? The answer is nothing - it just sits there, waiting for the next roll. But on the next roll, the rules change a little. The white point marker is moved to the side and turned over to the black side. Sometimes in Vegas, the point marker will read “Off” on the black side, meaning that all odds are off. They don’t count on the come-out roll for the front-line. If a seven comes in on the come-out roll, you lose the regular bet that was sitting on five, but your odds are returned to you. If five comes in, you are paid 1-1 for your regular bet, but you won’t be paid the normal 3-2 that you would get for the odds; they are simply returned to you.

There is one final bet to talk about in the Come family called a “Place” bet. Place bets can be made on the lower half of the 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, or 10. You are betting that one particular number will be rolled before a seven is rolled. Wagers should be placed on the number you think will come in. Place bets on four and ten pay 9-5, place bets on five or nine pay 7-5, and place bets on six or eight pay 7-6. You may wager and remove Place bets at any time during the game.

Don’t Come Bets

People who bet on the Don’t Pass Line and in the Don’t Come box are often called wrong way bettors. They are hoping for everything that the “Come” bettors are dreading. The Don’t Pass Bar is called the back-line, and bets placed there work similarly to bets placed on the Come’s front-line. On the come-out roll the back-line wins if a two or three shows up on the dice. If a 12 is rolled, it is considered a tie, and a roll of seven or 11 counts as a loss. If any other number comes up, a point is established. If a seven comes up before that point shows up again, the wrong way bettor wins. If the bettor feels that the seven is unlikely to be rolled, he can choose to reclaim his Don’t Pass bet after the point has been established. Where the Come bettor can take odds, the Don’t Come bettor calls it “giving” odds, and he puts them behind his original bet, just as the Come bettor does. The big difference is the payoff. If the wrong way bettor gives odds that a seven will come in before a point of four or ten, he is paid $1 for every $2 he bets. If the point is a five or nine he is paid 2-3, and if the point is a six or eight, his payoff is 5-6. After the shooter has established a point, new Don’t Come bets must be placed in the Don’t Come box. Once these bets establish a point they are placed in their appropriate point box above the Double Line. These types of bets are the inverse of come bets described earlier, all the same nuances apply.

Finally, the Don’t Come equivalent to a Place Bet is a “Lay Bet.”, placed in the lower half of the upper numbered boxes, just above the double line. If we have a Lay Bet sitting on four, we are betting that a seven will be rolled before a four. Lay Bets can be placed or removed at any time during play. A five-percent commission is given to the casino on Lay Bets, and then it pays true odds. But, remember, the odds of a seven coming up are higher than the odds of any other number coming up, and you bet that the seven will appear. Thus, your payoff is always smaller than the amount you wagered.

Horn Bets/One Roll Bets

Many bets on the craps table have nothing to do with the game you just learned to play. These bets usually depend on one roll of the dice, sometimes more. They are fun bets to take, but the casino edge is greater than betting in the two manners previously described. Let’s go through them one by one.

Field Bets

To bet on the field, put your wager in the box in the middle of the screen marked “Field,”. This is a one-roll bet. If 3, 4, 9, 10, or 11 comes up on the dice, you are paid even odds. If two or 12 comes up, you are paid 2-1.

Big 6 and 8

A bet on Big 6 is hoping that a six will come up before a seven does. If the six comes up we are paid 1-1. A bet on the Big Eight would be wagering that an eight would do the same thing. If you plan to put $6 on either Big Six or Eight you could make a better bet by “Placing” the six or the eight, in which case the payoff is 7-6, not 1-1.

Hard Way Bets

On the upper left-hand side of the craps table you will see a bet showing double fives. This square and the three squares closest to it are the “hardway bets.” To win a hardway bet your number not only has to be rolled before a seven, but it has to be rolled a certain way, the “hardway.” A hard ten, which means that two fives have to come up, a hard four means two twos, a hard six means two threes, and a hard eight means two fours. These bets will stay up until either a seven is rolled or a “softway” version of that number is rolled. A roll of a six and a four would lose on the hard ten. These bets pay ten to one.

Horn Bets

These bets at the bottom half of the box on the left side are one-roll bets that have big payoffs because they seldom come in. These are one roll bets on different dice combinations. The dice combinations drawn on the table spell out the bet you are making and tell you what the bet pays. The Big Seven is also considered a horn bet; it sits on the top of the box and pays four to one if a seven appears on the dice in the roll that follows the placing of the wager.

C & E

The two strings of circles that read “C” and “E” on the table are where you place these one-roll bets. If you are on “C” circle you will be paid 8-1 if a two or three is rolled. If you are on an “E” circle you will be paid 15 to one if an 11 comes in.

Note:

You will see the word "for" used on this table's layout. For instance "ANY CRAPS" pays "8 for 1". You may be familiar with some layouts saying "7 to 1". Either way it's the same payoff. The use of the word "for" was adopted by many casinos because it gives the impression of a larger payoff.


Poker

Seven Card Stud

In Seven Card Stud, players are dealt a total of seven cards, from which they must build a strong five-card hand. To start everyone is dealt three cards, two face down and one up. You can view all of your cards and the cards dealt “up” to the other players. Then, a round of betting ensues. The player with the lowest card showing starts the bet. All players may bet, call, raise, fold, or, if the betting has yet to begin, pass. Then another card is dealt, face up, to each player who stays in the game. You can now see two cards in your opponents’ hands. Another round of betting ensues. This time, and all subsequent times, the betting starts with the person who has the best hand showing. A total of four cards are dealt face up, each followed by a round of betting. Finally, the seventh card is dealt face down and the final round of betting is made. The player with the strongest five-card hand wins.

Five Card Stud

In this game, there is no cushion to your hand. You must make a strong five-card hand out of the first five cards you are dealt. After the antes are made, two cards are given to each player, one card up, one card down, and a round of betting begins, started by the person with the lowest card showing. The third card is dealt, face up, to each player still in the game, and another round of bets is made. This time and hereafter the bet starts with the player who has the best hand showing. A fourth card is distributed, also dealt “up.” You can now see what four of the cards in your final hand will be, plus three of your opponents’ four cards, and everyone bets again. After the fifth card is dealt, again face up, a final round of betting ensues before the hands are tallied and the winnings are awarded.

Five Card Draw

There are fewer rounds of betting in this game, so the wagers and winnings tend to be smaller. After antes are placed, five cards are distributed to each player, but the only hand you can see is your own. One round of betting is then held, after which you must choose which of your five cards you want to keep and which you want to discard. Click on the cards you wish to discard. They will be placed above those you wish to keep, on the screen. After you have clicked on all cards you wish to discard, click on the “Ready” button in the middle of the screen. The discarded cards are replaced with new cards from the top of the dealer’s deck. Another round of betting takes place and then the winnings are awarded. Remember, in this game you never see what another player is holding. The only thing you see is how many cards he chooses to discard and how many he keeps.

Texas Hold-‘Em

This game is currently the most popular poker variation played in Nevada. In this game the players receive two individual cards, but also share common cards which are dealt into a box at the top of the screen. You hope that the few cards you have individually supplement the shared cards better than the individual cards your opponents hold. The game begins differently than the other poker variations, because there is no ante. Instead, you must click the “Ready” box, at which point two cards will be dealt face down to all players (you can only see your own two cards).Bets are automatically placed by two of the players - sometimes that player will be you. These are forced bets, placed by designated players, called the “Little Blind” and “Big Blind.” After every hand these designated positions rotate, so everyone at the table gets an equal turn at being the Little or Big Blind. If you are designated as the “Little Blind,” this means you are the first player and forced to make the minimum table bet. To the left of the Little Blind is the “Big Blind.” The Big Blind must raise the Little Blind’s bet in each game. If the minimum bet is $3, the Little Blind has to bet $3, and the Big Blind has to raise the bet to $6. The rest of the first round of betting then proceeds normally with the other players deciding whether to call, raise or fold. Three shared cards are then dealt at the top of the screen. Another round of betting follows, after which another shared card appears at the top of the screen. Betting begins again and is followed by the final shared card being placed. One final round of betting then ensues. The player who makes the strongest five-card hand out of his two individual cards and the shared five cards wins the pot.

Jacks or Better

This game is different from the other games because one player must have a decent hand in order for the round to be played. To begin, each of the players is dealt five cards, all down. If you do not have a pair of Jacks or better within the first five cards you are dealt, you must click the “Pass” button. If everyone at the table is forced to pass, a new set of antes is added to the pot and new cards are distributed, beginning a new game. When one of the players finally receives a pair of Jacks or better, the betting begins. At this point everyone can play his hand; you do not have to have Jacks or better to stay in the game, just to open. After the first round of betting the “Ready” box appears on the screen. As in Five Card Draw, click on the cards you do not wish to hold, and they will be discarded for new ones when you click on “Ready.” Another round of betting then begins, after which all cards are turned over, and the winner is decided.


Video Keno

The odds for Video Keno are similar to regular Keno, and those odds, again, are no good. The only strategy that I can offer, short of heading directly to that empty Baccarat table across the casino, is to play around with the numbers you are playing. No, not play around with the numbers you are playing - your lucky numbers are technically as good as the next guy’s - but play around with the amount of numbers you are playing. If you are playing with three numbers and turning up with no hits, why not try picking 12 numbers to see if you still don’t get any hits.


Baccarat

In Baccarat, the Bank’s hand has a slight advantage over the player’s hand because the dealer plays out his hand last. This small edge is chipped away by something called a “Commission.” When you win while betting on the Bank’s side of the betting line, you will notice that some of your winnings drift up to the top left-hand side of your screen to a box labeled “Commission.”

In Baccarat, five percent of all winning bets on the Bank go back to the casino in the form of this commission. However, no commission is charged to wins on the player’s hand, which wins 49.3 percent of the time. The question, when betting, is whether or not you want the slightly advantageous hand of the banker (it wins 50.7 percent of the time), or if you want to avoid that commission and take a bet that, by a very small margin, is less likely to win.

When all is said and done, no matter which bet you make out of the two, you are making one of the best bets in the entire casino. The casino edge is wonderfully low in this game (just slightly over one percent); in fact, there is really only one bad move you can make in Baccarat, and that move is betting on the tie. Ties pay eight to one, but the odds of any hand resulting in a tie are actually ten to one. This means the casino payback is only 81.5% of what the odds are. If you keep your bets somewhere in the center of the table and out of the “tie” box, then you can’t go wrong in Baccarat.


Roulette

In roulette, the house has a 5.26 percent advantage over the player. That means, all things being equal, you pay the casino 5.26¢ on every dollar just to sit at the table — unless you are playing the five-number bet we just discussed, in which case you pay the casino 7.89¢ on the dollar. So if there is one surefire strategy, avoid the five-number bet.

The other main strategy comes into play when all things aren’t equal; namely, when the wheel is slightly off kilter and the ball is more likely to fall into certain slots. Because this is a computerized game, you are unlikely to encounter this player advantage, but if you take your roulette know-how to the big city, it might be worth it to see where the ball is consistently falling, and bet those numbers. Remember, the numbers aren’t lined up consecutively on the wheel, so the area the number falls into won’t be the 5-6-7 area, but perhaps the 14-35-23 area. As with Vegas Games 2000, there are usually numbered boards at casinos telling you what num-bers the ball most recently fell into. If one area of numbers comes up more frequently than others, you might be onto something.

Another gaming strategy that you might want to try on roulette is the good old “double-up” strategy. With this type of play, you start out with a low bet, say $1, on one of the even money outside bets. You can actually use this strategy on any type of roulette bet, but you will soon see why it is more logical to do it on an even money bet. Let’s say we are betting on red. We bet $1, and if it wins, fine, we take our $1 winnings and leave our original bet out there. But if it loses, double-up the original bet to $2. Then, with $2 out there, if we win this time we not only win last round’s loss back, but we win another dollar.

The thing about the double-up is, if you hit a losing streak, doubling-up is a lot more painful than that initial double-up from $1 to $2. After just six consecutive losses your next bet is to $64, and we all know that doubling up again means a $128 wager out there on red. But you eventually have to end up with a win, right? You would think so, but what if you reach the table limit? Then you are stuck with your losses and no way to double-up again. And let’s say you do win with something close to the table limit on the line. You have won a total of $1 for all the stress of placing bank-busting wagers on the table. But, yes, you have won a dollar; I’ll give you that. The double-up strategy is one to think about, but not for long.


Money Wheel

All Vegas games are games of chance, whether the chance you take is on a hand of cards, a throw of dice, or a spin of the Money Wheel. The trick to winning is finding a game where you are well rewarded for taking that chance. If you bet that the sky will turn green tonight, you should make sure that a small wager pays a very large pot, if indeed the sky does turn green.

The problem with the Money Wheel is that all the bets are underpaid in relation to the chance of payoff. For instance, you put a dollar on the joker. The joker has a one in 54 chance of coming up. For every one time the joker comes up, there are 53 times it won’t. So if the casino paid true odds, a one-dollar wager on the joker would pay off $53. But as you can see on the table, the payoff on a $1 bet on the joker is $40. While true odds aren’t easy to come by in most casino games (certain bets in Craps are the exception), the casino advantage on the Money Wheel is the worst of any game in Vegas Games 2000, and probably in the city of Vegas itself.