The machines guaranteed that you would get your money back if you played ten hands without a win. Good gimmick. They had counters that showed consecutive losses. If the counter hit ten, you got back your ten coins. Of course, you could lose eight coins and then get a winner of one coin, and the counter would reset. So, they still had a house advantage. But, players that didn’t understand the machines would walk away with a counter at nine. At that point, you can’t lose on the next hand. And with lower counters than nine, you still had odds heavily in your favor.
Problem is, some really grimmy looking locals were often hanging around the machines and the casinos had to spend time chasing them off as it was creepy. Here's a situation where I think it makes perfect sense for a casino to ban an AP. These guys didn't actually change the overall edge. But, it started looking like the lobby of a flophouse.
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