1. Online Casinos
  2. Ten Things You didn’t Know about NZ Casinos

Even before history was documented correctly, archaeology has recorded six-sided dice games in Mesopotamia and tiles in Ancient China. From rudimentary games of chance in ancient civilizations to the first-ever registered casino located on the Grand Canal in Venice, Il Ridotto. The most fashionable place to be in 17th Century Venice, high society would wear their best and gather together for long and lazy afternoons gambling with Biribi, a lottery-style game, and Basetta, a cross between Blackjack, Poker, and Gin Rummy.

From its humble beginnings and forwards to today’s online casinos, ever since the day when gambling began, it seems that the whole world has changed. Maybe it has, but the lure and thrill of gambling will never change. It remains just as exciting as it always was. Here are ten fun facts you didn’t know about NZ Casinos.

1. Keno, that’s some House Edge!

Online casino enthusiasts always ask the same question, what casino game has the highest house edge? Today we can tell you that it’s Keno. The house edge for Keno varies considerably, but it constantly fluctuates between 25% to 29%. This means that the house will always keep 29% of the cash that’s bet on the game, while 71% is returned to players. Compare Keno’s house edge to European Roulette with a 2.70% house edge, American Roulette with its double zero has a 5.26% house edge, Blackjack offers a house edge of just 0.28%, and Baccarat sits at a house edge of 1.24%.

2. Liberty Bell – The First Ever Pokie

Liberty bell pokie machine
Classic Liberty Bell pokie machine

The first-ever pokie game was not designed to attract players but rather to keep clients entertained. In the late 1890s, Mr. Charles Fey, a car mechanic from San Francisco, was looking for a way to keep his customers happy while they waited for their car repairs to be completed. He invented a machine that had symbols and spinning wheels, and if his customers landed a winning combination, they were paid out with candy and cigarettes. Mr. Fey called his fun-filled invention the Liberty Bell after one of the symbols on the reel. Casinos saw the value of Liberty Bell and offered My Fey plenty of money to purchase the rights. Casinos decided that it would be a great way to keep players entertained while waiting for a place on one of the gambling tables. Despite significant advances in pokie technology, Liberty Bell’s three-reel model is still used today.

3. Psychological Tactics Online Casinos

Did you know that land-based casinos use a variety of subliminal triggers to keep players engrossed? Many years ago, casinos discovered that players’ psychology and reaction have much to do with retaining them at their casino. Take, for example, the coin drop sound. Many casinos play this sound on speakers to create a winning scenario. This encourages pokie players to keep gambling for that big win. Every sound, video effects, and pokie theme is designed to attract players and make them feel special while spinning the reels. Colours are also used to influence the player’s state of being. Green on the tables gives players calm and security, while the red colours in casinos excite players and speed up their heartbeat.

4. Roulette, the Devil’s Game?

Sometime during the 1860s, the very prominent Blanc family created the Monte Carlo Casino in Monaco and established an elite gambling mecca for Europeans. The most popular game was Roulette, and one innovation by this French entrepreneur was the introduction of the single 0 style Roulette wheel in 1843. This allowed Monte Carlo Casino to compete against casinos in Paris who offered the traditional Roulette wheel with both single and double zero house pockets. Legend has it that François Blanc bargained with the devil to get the secrets of Roulette as the sum of all the numbers on the Roulette wheel from 0 to 36 equal 666, which is the “Number of the Beast” as outlined in the Bible in Revelations 13 verse 18.

5. The Man Who Staked it All

The man who bet it all
Ashley Revell

We all love tales of gambling enthusiasts that win massively high payouts. Back in 2004, 32-year-old Ashley Revell, an English professional gambler, sold all his possessions with the goal to stack all his money on one turn of a Roulette wheel. After selling all his possessions, he raised $136,000,00. In a carefully planned outing which was televised live, Mr. Revell went to the Plaza Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas and invested his entire life’s savings on red. The ball landed on number 7, red, and the crowds went wild. Revell had doubled his money. His monumental win inspired a reality show called Red or Black, created by Simon Cowell.

6. Ben Affleck Banned From Vegas

Who says celebrities don’t cheat while playing table games like Poker and Blackjack? Famous American actor Ben Affleck visited the Las Vegas Hard Rock Casino in 2014 and won loads of cash just by playing Blackjack. It turns out that Ben has a powerful memory, and according to the casino’s security team, he was caught counting cards, which is illegal. If a famous person can’t get away with counting cards, cheating at casinos is not recommended!

7. First-Ever NZD Casino

Online casino gaming enthusiasts in New Zealand enjoy nothing more than playing pokies or table and card games. In 1994, the first casino in New Zealand opened in Christchurch. While gambling has been popular in New Zealand for as long as people can remember, with the first legal casino opening in the entire country, everything changed. Suddenly New Zealand had a luxurious casino where Kiwis and tourists could spend the day and night enjoying some good food and exciting pokies and casino games. Today New Zealand boasts six land-based casinos and hundreds upon hundreds of top-quality online NZ$ casinos, for example, SkyCity Casino.

8. The longest game of Poker

Playing Poker is a lot of fun, whether it’s played with family and friends at home or online. Poker is a card game that can be played for hours, but how long was the longest Poker game? Believe it or not, the longest poker game in history has lasted eight years! In 1881, in the basement of an Arizona theatre, Poker was played 24 hours a day, and this lasted for 8 years, 5 months, and 3 days.

9.Swallowing The Dice

In 18th-century England, casinos were also known as “houses of sin” and were subject to regular police raids. To keep the dice away from the police and hide their illicit activities, casinos hired professionals to swallow the dice. Their only job was to swallow the dice whenever the police showed up, no evidence, no case!

10. How FedEx was saved by Gambling

In a very inspiring story for aspiring gamblers and small business owners, this is the story of how FedEx was saved from bankruptcy thanks to Blackjack. The Founder of FedEx, Frederick Smith, was once so desperate to save his company that in I973, he took his last $5,000 and turned it into $32,000 by Gambling in Vegas. Although this isn’t good business advice in general, Smith’s gamble paid off, and this allowed FedEx to last long enough and eventually earn its first profits in 1976.

Conclusion

It is documented that just one percent of Kiwi players play casino games more than once a week, and ten percent play every week. Are you among the Kiwis that love casino games? Look through our exceptional, safe, and secure reviewed casinos, make your deposit and start gambling online with casino bonus cash and free spins, go for gold!