Revision as of 12:54, 11 November 2010

Hive Casino

The casino is one of the fun places to visit in the hive. Whatever happens, you will always have a chance at winning/losing tokens. You get 50/75/100 (Depends on whether you have a Silver or Gold Card) free tokens daily so it's always worth a shot. Remember, if you already have 50 tokens or more, you do not get any more the next day.

The casino consists of:

• Top 10 Tokens List
• Token Exchange
• Slot Machines
• Black Jack
• High/Low Cards
• Rat Racing
• Hive Lottery
• Casino Shop

Casino : Token Exchange

Here you can trade 15 credits for 1 token (10 credits for subscribers). It's costly, but if you're nearing the amount of tokens you need for a specific item then it may come in handy. You can purchase anywhere from 5 to 500 tokens at once.

In the past, tokens cost 25c for non-subscribers and 20c for subscriber. The prices were reduced on the 6^th of August 2009, due to a suggestion in the forums.

Player rankings and accomplishments

Top 10 Most Tokens

Here you can view the account names of the current Top 10 players with the most tokens and the amount of tokens they currently have.

You can also view The Casino Bank Account which tells you how many tokens the casino has made this week, and how much profit they have made over the entire span of The Casino's existence.

Most Tokens Earned Top 10

The Hall Of Records in in Sector 1 displays the players who earned the most tokens during the preceding week. Those who make it to the top 10 receive a badge and a banner. Additionally, those who do so may get an achievement if they have not already. (see below)

Achievements

As of the 26^th of August 2010, it is also possible to get achievement points by gambling at the casino. Additional rewards include banners and clothing.

Slot Machines

This game was originally just a time passer for those with tokens to waste since it was virtually impossible to gain any worthwhile profit. However, since October 2010, the rate of return has been greatly increased so that it is now possible, with a little luck and strategy, to gain a significant profit. Nonetheless, the casino would still turn a profit on average even if players used the perfect strategy (as with all the other games).

It costs 6 tokens to play one round, and you get up to two turns to try and get three of the same picture. The Slot Machine has four different possibilities of symbols you can roll:

Symbol	Chance		Payouts (three matching)
	per wheel	match all three
	4/10	6.4%—24.832% (depending on hold strategy)	9 tokens (1:2)
	3/10	2.7%—12.339%	18 tokens (2:1)
	2/10	0.8%—4.256%	36 tokens (5:1)
	1/10	0.1%—0.613%	180 tokens (29:1)

Old slot payouts Note: This section is outdated. It will be fixed in a few days. Originally, the slots cost 3 tokens per round (historical payouts are shown in the table below). At some point, Zorg doubled both the payouts and the costs to play; while doing nothing to improve the poor rate of return, the change did "end player's misery" faster by making them run out of tokens twice as quickly. For several more years, the slots' rate of return remained so low that it would be illegal in almost every (if not every) real-world jurisdiction. As found by CodeHydro in October 2010, the typical player could expect to receive only ~40 percent of their tokens spent on average; even the statistically optimal strategy would return only 55 percent (and those who held only on 7s would get only average 28% in returns!). On October 21, Zorg increased the payouts to numbers based upon CodeHydro's suggestions (which would have given an optimal return of exactly 90 percent though Zorg tweaked them to be multiples of each other, slightly reducing the optimal payout to 88%). On November 9, Zorg reduced the payouts. While the previous payouts were independently confirmed—by Zorg, CodeHydro, and Tibos using both empirical and mathematical methods—to give a casino edge of 11-12.1% over the player, Zorg could not figure out why players, especially Arryn and Tibos, were winning thousands of tokens from the slots on a daily basis. The payout reduction update is among the least popular updates to date. Slot Machines Dates Cost per Play Payouts by Type Optimal Return Ratio 3 x 3 x 3 x 3 x Actual Theoretical Creation — 2008? 3t 10t (7:3) 8t (5:3) 6t (1:1) 4t (1:3) ? 0.5496928 2008? — Oct. 21, 2010 6t 20t (7:3) 16t (5:3) 12t (1:1) 8t (1:3) ? 0.5496928 Oct. 21, 2010 — Nov. 9, 2010 6t 180t (29:1) 36t (5:1) 18t (2:1) 9t (1:2) ? 0.87927717 Nov. 9, 2010 — Nov. 11, 2010 6t 140t (67:3) 28t (11:3) 14t (4:3) 9t (1:2) ? 0.748265226 Oct. 11, 2010 — present 6t 180t (29:1) 36t (5:1) 18t (2:1) 9t (1:2) 0.87927717

Black Jack

Black jack

Black jack is the most popular game in the Hive Casino—not surprisingly as it has the best average returns of the three playable casino activities. It can be a good way to gain fast tokens, but alas, it is a good way of losing them too.

In the game, the goal is to get the highest card value possible without going over 21 ("bust") in order to beat the dealer's hand. Assuming the player has not already busted by getting higher than 21, the dealer will always hit if his hand is below 17 and always stand when it is higher. When the dealer has exactly 17, he will stand if the value of his hand is hard and hit if soft. (A soft hand is when an Ace—worth either 1 or 11—may be counted as 11 without busting.)

Bets may range from 5 to 150 tokens a hand, and the payout ratios are as follow:

• 1:1 - On a Win
• 3:2 - On Natural Black Jack (150% X your bet)

The dealer's sole advantage comes from the requirement that the player must go first (since the dealer can't bust if the player already has). Nonetheless, it is fairly easy to achieve a better return on black jack than on either the slots machines or higher and lower. Even with a strategy as simple as "copy the dealer" (hit on soft 17) would yield an average return of 94.5 percent. More advanced strategies have an average return above 98 percent by doubling when the odds are favorable and standing with a hand below 17 in some situations—options that are unavailable to the dealer. (Were splitting allowed, it would be possible to get just under 100%, but alas the dealer does not give us that option).

21 pushes a dealer blackjack. Also shows the Balls Of Steel achievement.

Full rules and quirks

The Hive Casino's black jack has certain—possibly unexpected—quirks that differentiate it from blackjack that may be played elsewhere. Some of these rule variations help the player, while others favor the dealer.

In the past, the dealer would still draw cards even as the player got blackjack, allowing him to push with a regular 21. After much complaint regarding unfairness, the dealer now always stands on when the player has a blackjack and so would only push with a blackjack of his own.

High/Low Cards

"High/Low" - screenshot shows the 3:2 payout while the description incorrectly says, "you win double your bet."

Higher or Lower, often referred to as High/Low, has historically been the second most used form of gambling in the hive (though this may have changed after the slot machine payout increase in October 2010). Due to its high betting limit, this game has the highest potential single-win payout of the three casino's interactive games—three times higher than doubling with the max bet for black jack and over five times higher than matching three 7s on the slots. It also has the lowest average rate of return as it requires four correct guesses in a row as to whether the next card will be higher or lower than the last card drawn. Fortunately, it counts as a correct guess to draw a card of equal value.

You may bet anywhere from 5 to 600 tokens and the payout ratios are as follows:

• 3:2 - On a Win

When guessing properly, one may expect to win just over once per three games. With the current 3:2 payout, the average rate of return while card counting comes out to 84.54 percent of tokens spent. Because of the low average rate of return, the game is generally only played with higher bets since streaks of luck may best defy the law of averages when fewer hands are dealt. Additionally, betting an odd number of tokens will cheat the player of 0.5 tokens per win since the 3:2 payout always rounds down.

Historically, the payout used to be 2:1 until it was reduced to the current ratio. The former payout actually made it possible to attain 101.5 percent in average returns, meaning the casino would lose tokens on average if players guessed properly. Even though the payout has long since been reduced, the game description still says incorrectly that one can "win double your bet" (this may change after a ticket that CodeHydro posted just before writing this). The 2:1 payout was available for at least a couple of years.

Rat Racing

Rat Racing

Every day at 9am and 9pm, the race is run. The rat which has won is announced in a system message on side chat. If you were not online for the Side Chat message, you will know if you won depending on your tokens, and will be able to check how much you won exactly via the Player news link on the main page. If you place a bet before midnight then you cannot change it. It lists which rat last won the race, how many people won tokens on the last race, and how many times each rat has won.

You can bet anywhere from 1 to 200 tokens and the payout ratios are as follows:

• Rat 1 - 1:1
• Rat 2 - 2:1
• Rat 3 - 3:1
• Rat 4 - 4:1

There are seven different types of rats to bet on:

Image	Name	Description	Stats
			Wins	Recorded
	Nippon	Not a rat, more PaulTech's pet mouse and he is faster than any rat in the hive.	?	?
	Rocket Rat	Some call it cheating, others call it amusement. The rat doesn't have to survive.	574/1462	11 Nov 2010
	Zorg Junior	Watch out for the blur of blue as this rat races past.	469/1411	11 Nov 2010
	Robo-Rat	The product of years of wasted time, the remote control rat.	435/1404	10 Nov 2010
	Where He Go	A fast rat on the race course, the problem is catching it after.	389/1428	11 Nov 2010
	Road Kill	He may only have 3 legs, but he sure can hop like a kangaroo.	292/1440	10 Nov 2010
	Old Sparky	Magnetically charged this rat glows yellow with electricity.	225/1446	11 Nov 2010
	Hamster in Disguise	Speed and agility are good descriptive words. But not for this rodent.	125 / 1443	11 Nov 2010

Hive Lottery

Hive Lottery (Click to Enlarge)

The lottery costs two tokens to buy a ticket and when you buy a ticket there are four different numbers to choose from that all range from 0 to 9. Each week there is a different amount of tokens available to be won based on how many players have bought a ticket since the last pot was won. The winner is drawn on Wednesdays and Sundays at 3:00pm server time.