James Ernest: Casino Games, an Introduction

Published: Fri 24th Oct

James Ernest (Cheapass Games / Crab Fragment Labs) explains some of the basics of popular casino games, from the perspective of a hobby gamer.

James Ernest is a game designer with more than 150 published games, including several gambling games such as Ricochet Poker and the Fable II Pub Games. This lecture explores the origins and basic rules of popular games, an introduction to probability theory, and discussion of the mathematics and psychology of casino games.

Apologies for the background noise. It's like you're really there.

Sections:

00:01:06 Defining Gambling Games
00:02:26 House Games (PvE)
00:03:24 Ring Games (PvP)
00:04:02 Class I Games (Everything Else)
00:04:27 Probability Theory
00:04:52 Casino Games Don't "Cheat"
00:05:49 Origins of Probability Theory
00:06:25 Example Game, Roulette
00:11:12 The Gambler's Fallacy
00:14:25 Games in the Casino, Introduction
00:15:15 Blackjack
00:20:01 Craps
00:24:18 Baccarat
00:27:06 Slot Machines
00:35:03 Poker
00:38:02 Working the System
00:39:58 More to Explore
00:41:03 Questions

Crab Fragment on Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/crabfragment
Crab Fragment Labs: https://www.crabfragmentlabs.com/
Lecture Hall: https://crabfragmentlabs.com/lecture-hall

This video was recorded at RinCon 2025. Note that many of the statements in this lecture are generalizations and are not true in every case. (We are gamers, not regulators.)

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