Side Bet, and Vague Meanderings

[mickeymouse]

Here in the nether regions way down below, there are a few interesting oddities on our tables.
Our Spanish 21 tables have a side bet called "Mega Money". This is independent of the game and is essentially a slot machine on the table. The rule is you may place a $2.50 side bet in as many boxes as you like as long as you play at least one box in the main game. Then a button is pressed, and, you may win any one of three jackpots.

The jackpots have a minimum and a maximum and must be won before the maximum is reached. It is rounded up to the next dollar. These trigger at random times.
The mini jackpot is 50-100 and goes up by 40c for every non-winning bet.
The midi jackpot is 200-500 and goes up by 20c for every non-winning bet.
The maxi jackpot is 500-1500 and goes up by 10c for every non-winning bet.

I have surmised by intuition that once the mini jackpot goes above $80 it is a positive EV move to place one side bet per hand. This is because at this point the amount of money wagered before the mini jackpot triggers is less than the expected jackpot value. It is affected by the midi and maxi jackpot as well but I haven't done the math in regard to their relative contribution.

If you place multiple side bets and the jackpot triggers, it will only trigger on ONE bet and the remainder are lost.

These only apply when you are playing heads up. If there are other players you will have to compete with them and your expectation is therefore far less. Nevertheless I have made a couple of hundred dollars playing this side bet judiciously at quiet stretches.

I don't know about the vagaries of theoretical advantage slot play, but I will say that I once won $299 at a casino in Australia when I saw a jackpot at $298 when it had limits of 200-300 (for a minimal wager). If anyone numerate here could do an analysis of the math it would be greatly appreciated.

In regular BJ there is the perfect pairs bet.
Any pair pays 6-1, any colored pair pays 12-1, and any perfect (suited) pair, in this six-deck game, pays 25-1. As far as I am concerned this is a non-viable bet and I have never played it except as cover once in a blue moon. If anyone disagrees please let me know.

In my latest session, I won $850. I was still way down in the hole after the first shoe as always. I hate having to dig. This morning I had a "Spanish Omelette" for breakfast at a café for the princely sum of $21! Oh, the irony.

[BonafideAP]

Where I play you can get pairs or perfect pairs pays 10:1 and 15:1 if tc is -10 or 10 u have a 3% chance of hitting pp

[Three]

An atrocious side bet that has little correlation to any useful count for the main game.

[ZenMaster_Flash]

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A slot machine-like "side bet" IF the Max payoff if UNCAPPED will probably be a fair A.P.
play when it has reached a certain amount, but the variance will be enormously high.

I sometimes play a particular bank of 9/6 J.O.B. in A.C. that offers a Progressive Jackpot.
It takes little to get the inflated jackpot to the point where the return is well above 100%.
Of course these machines are quickly locked up so that one has to grab (or buy) a seat
when the Jackpot gets close to the trigger point, around $2,000