​How Do Group Slot Pulls work?

 I suppose I always just assumed people would figure it out by watching the videos, but turns out this is a very popular question to ask. How do Group Slot Pulls work? I’m hoping this will answer all questions I’ve seen in the comments of my past videos.
 
First off, I have to get permission from a casino to be able to record there. Some casinos have open filming policies, so they reap the benefits of my attendance.
 
Basic rules are simple:

1. You must be of legal age to play.
2. There is no cost to join for Rudies Members, however I have instituted a $10 fee for non-members to deter people from signing up and then cancelling last second. It’s always a shame when I have to turn away dozens of people to then find out I would have had room for them. I always get 10% who drop out the day before and another 10% who just don’t show up. So I try to offer more tickets to compensate, but if everyone does show up (which has happened), there are too many of us! Each participant will receive 2 souvenirs from the event!
3. Everyone puts in the exact same money, myself included! This means that on days when I’ve held 6 group pulls of $200 to $1000 a group, I’m putting in $2,400!
4. Everyone splits the wins (or losses) equally. It fascinates me the number of people who watch my group pulls and think that I actually take all the winnings for myself, haha.

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How do you choose the Games?
As far as the games we play, I usually narrow down the options to 3-5 games and have the participants vote on them. The games I choose are based off of denomination, bet amounts, as well as location in the casino. I have to ensure there will be enough space around a machine for a large group without causing an issue for other patrons or staff in the casino. I also try to make it so that each participant gets around 6-10 spins each. The minimum amount of spins I want to have on a single machine is 40. I figure that generally speaking that should be enough spins to get at least one bonus (sometimes we get multiple and other times none at all!). On occasion a casino will require that I choose the slot machines in advance so that they can inform security where we will be or even turn that machine off for us to play which is awesome. In those cases, I use my best judgement in choosing the machine for the group.
 
Legal Issues
Legally speaking, there are some things I do to ensure no one leaves the casino with all the money on a spin they did. I will only use my players card in the machine. Sure, I get the points from it which results in me getting maybe $10-$20 in freeplay – but I do that to safeguard the money. (And believe me, I don’t run these huge events to make an extra $20, and I play enough on my own to already be in the top tiers). More importantly, some states say whosever card is in the machine is responsible for the money and the taxes. Imagine if you’re in a group of 20 people you’ve never met and one person spins the wheel and hits $10,000. They could easily demand that it’s their money and leave with it. Some casinos are really awesome and provide me with a specific players card for the group which will equally allow us to all share in the players points. I wish they all were able to accommodate this. The other safeguards I use is making everyone sign a waiver agreeing to our terms (where they also agree to having their image in my videos online).

I live far away, can I send you money to be in included in the group pull?
It sounds like an awesome idea to include a ton of people, however sadly it is against the law to gamble with other peoples money and then split the money. The person legally must be in the casino.
 
Who Pays the taxes?
I agree to cover up to $5,000 worth of wins in taxes. What that means, for my group pulls, is that if the group hits $10,000 in overall wins, I will personally cover the taxes on the first $5,000, and as a group, we would split the taxes on the second half. If however we hit $6,000 in hand pays but our overall win is only $1,000, then I won’t hold back anything. In general, we do not go over $5,000 in overall wins, in fact it has only happened once. That group only had to share a couple hundred dollars in taxes among 25 people which was around $20/person.

In some States, whoever does the SPINNING is responsible for paying the taxes. In those instances, I always leave it up to the player if they want to take that chance. I also keep it to just American residents to spin so we avoid any immediate tax withholdings from those in other countries. Canadians for example have to pay taxes immediately on the spot. So if they spun a jackpot, they’d pay hundreds in taxes and end up leaving the group pull negative! To avoid that hassle and headache, in such States, I regretfully keep it to just American residents - but I'll still call them up and do the spins in their name. 
 
Bottom line, everything I do is to safeguard each other and myself. These events are put on for the enjoyment of others to not only get a chance to gamble with myself, #priceless haha, but more importantly give people the opportunity to play high limit slots when they otherwise may not have had that chance. And also give them their 5 seconds of fame!
 
Do you tip on the hand pays?
Just like in my own play, we always tip the slot attendants. Rather than pay them after every single hand pay, I pay them at the end. So if a group of 20 people is left with $5086.46, rather than pay them each back $254.32, each person would get $250 and the remaining $4.32 (or $86.40) would go to the staff as a thank you.
 
So do you WIN or LOSE overall in your Group Pulls?
When you consider that high limit slot machines have an average payout percentage of around 92% or so, you should really expect the same from a group pull. I’d say that most of the group pulls end up in a loss of around $20 a person, with a quarter of group pulls coming away winners of around $25 a person. On occasion we’ve had the group each walk away with over $100 in profit, once over $500 each in profit, and twice, we’ve had horrible a payback where we lost most of our money. To me (and most participants), it’s about the journey, the experience and the excitement! We play for 30 minutes to an hour spinning strictly high limit slots. We cheer, we jeer, we drink and we scream!! That in itself is an awesome value for your money. And if you walk away with some profit or a small loss – it’s all worth it in the end. If you read the comments on these videos from the participants, they always say they look forward to the next one! The camaraderie is infectious. Why go to the batting cages when you can play with a team! Heck, I will lose $200 in 1 minute on my own, I’m only so happy to lose $20 in 45 minutes!
 
To find out about upcoming Group Pulls or Events, it’s best to visit the Events page. To be the first person to find out about them, be sure to SIGN UP for our bi-weekly newsletter!
 
Here’s a look at BIGGEST Payout Percentage WIN as a group aboard our Rudies Cruise in 2018, and our BIGGEST Profit as a group in Las Vegas.
 
Next week we will delve into the world of payout percentages and what that means to a player…
 
Brian xoxo ❤️
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