Buy Your Own Video Poker Machine Online

A friend told me about some of his “harrowing” video poker experiences (he almost lost $1000 one night but got back most of it) and we started talking about what it would take to become a “video poker king”, someone who has a pretty good chance of beating the machines.  All things considered, video poker is considered to be one of the “safest” gambling machine games because it has to use the same rules as a face-to-face poker game.

Anyway we decided that what you need is your own video poker game to practice on.  And that made me wonder if you can really buy them.  After all gambling is illegal in a lot of states but I suppose if the machines are rigged so you can’t gamble with them, then maybe they’ll be okay.  So we checked eBay and sure enough we found some video poker machines for sale.

And so there you have it: the answer to your dreams of becoming rich from video poker.  Just buy one of these machines, plug it in, and you’re ready to start practicing in the comfort of your own home.  You’ll be a video poker king overnight.  Or maybe not.

I’m not really sure it makes sense to practice playing an electronic game that depends on a random number generator.  You can learn the basic rules of the game that way but you won’t necessarily develop some skill at beating video poker machines.

One of the notable things about gambling is that it is often associated with addiction and other problems.  This article on gambling safely online (on a video poker Website) reminds us to take care of our mental health.  I’m not sure if you’re delusional that you are in the proper state of mind to take care of your own mental health, but maybe in that final lucid moment as you descend into the dream state of delirious self-destruction you could do one last sanity check and perhaps pull yourself back from the brink.

Video poker illustrates the illusory concept of winning at gambling.  Can you really win even in a game of skill where the other player is a machine?  What kind of skill does a video poker machine have?  What will it be like when we have artificial intelligence built into our gambling games.  I mean real AI where the machines can bluff you and make human-like calculations.

This is seriously worth considering.  Several years ago Scientific American published a story about scientists creating an artificial intelligence that could predict the bets gamblers make.  Imagine what happens when the casino gets hold of this technology.  There should be a law against that.  I mean, really, there needs to be a law against that.

So before you go out and start buying gambling machines, think about how outdated they must be if they are up for sale on eBay.  This is old, used merchandise that is probably using yesterday’s algorithms.  What is lurking under the consoles of the latest machines that were just installed in the casinos this year?