Edit: Video to help explain: https://youtu.be/b51ixKZeJUA
Using the outfit force save* you can use the diamond slots machine to slowly work up money, when you hit your first big jack pot use the force save and continue to hit the machine at full bet - likewise if you run out of chips, do the glitch :: it has made me 4mil in about 20 mins (I continued for another hour but didn’t have much luck) I also started tallying my results for the odds and how often you should expect a decent payout**.

• To do this, you want to get a decent amount of chips - about 25-100k does the job and enter the casino, when you get to the slot, change your outfit and this will trigger a save (shown in the bottom right of the screen with an orange circle); wait for this to go and then sit down at the slot. Hit until you lose everything then disconnect your internet (easy to do on PS4, by going to [settings]>[Network]>[connect to internet] turn it off, wait a second then turn it back on) when you load up GTA again, you will be taken to story - from there load into gta online and you will have all the chips you had when you did the outfit change.. Also whenever you win big or have more chips than what you started with, re-do the force save as a kind of checkpoint. {Also set spawn to last location or a penthouse at the casino}

** 2 big wins (3 of a kinds) 66 small wins (getting one or two diamonds) 320 losses (no match or single diamonds) and 0 jackpots (3 triple diamonds) - however I did get a jackpot approx 400-800 spins before I started the tally
Therefore (approximately): you get a decent win every 160 spins.
Thank you if you read all that lol - I did kinda go on and I hope you go make millions!
Edit: once you have about 700k, it may be useful to use this on the horse races by betting on an unlikely horse until you win or lose everything.

Free tools & menus
Although the majority of free menus ARE viruses, scams, detected etc. As far as I know there is 1 decent free menu, decent as in safe to use any paid menu can easily out-class it and can probably crash there game.
The free tools/menu that I would recommend are
Kiddons Modest Menu - https://www.unknowncheats.me/forum/grand-theft-auto-v/433685-kiddions-modest-external-menu.html
This is the one and only free mod menu out there. Its recovery options and tools are lacking however you can set your own experience level with it. It also has a god mode option and a basic vehicle spawner. You can make a decent amount of cash with this menu by going into Online Services/Casino/Rig Slot Machines and remove the limit. With this play the Egyptian themed slot machine and always bet max. You will win every time and you’ll make around 2.5mil per loop, you can cash out the chips to cash. It’s a slow method but the most effective one with kiddons and it still beats dropping yourself or grinding.
GTAHaX - https://www.unknowncheats.me/forum/grand-theft-auto-v/275597-gtahax-1-52-external.html
This is a stat editor for GTA 5, it’s only really useful for setting your character stats, unlocking locked items and skipping heist preps. You cannot modify your xp or cash with this although there might be a way to modify your health, which would be pointless as all menus include a god option. This is also free, Its not a menu but I still include it as it is a cheating tool.
GTA 5 Online Mechanics to know for modding
GTA 5 is a P2P, or Peer to Peer game for online. There are two special types of players used for this, Host and Script Host. Hosts will be hosting the lobby and most menus, except for kiddons ofc, have an option to use a host kick that will kick ANY player in the game, regardless of what protections they have enabled. This is basically an UNBLOCKABLE kick, this is why becoming host is so valued, some people will even kick ½ the lobby in order to gain host. As a host your game can still be crashed or kicked by other modders though, it depends on whether or not your menu is good enough to withstand the kick. Some mod menu’s. You then only need to kick one person. After host there is script host, you can take this away from any player WITHOUT kicking them, although kicking them also works, Script host has a stronger kick than normal but it can still be blocked, so even though it’s nice to be script host it isn’t required or even super helpful.
Paid Menus and what they are good at
I’ll be listing menu’s then talking about them and what they have pros/cons at. There isn’t an exact tier-list however as it mainly depends on what you want
Luna – This is the mod menu I personally usually use, its quick to update and has pretty good recovery options, kicks and protections. As far as I know it’s got the best protections from other menu’s as well as kicks/crashes. It’s not the most stable menu however and I’ve noticed that I crash more with it than normal, although not an extremely high amount. It costs $25 and can be got from https://lunacheats.org/welcome/ Not taking sides, menu was either taken down by a C&D or it was an exitscam. There is no proof of a C&D, articles use Luna as source and Luna use Articles as source but there is also no proof of an exitscam as menu was doing pretty well at the time they got rid of it.
Impulse – Impulse has a few tiers, I’m not too familiar with the individual tiers however Impulse is usually known for its good trolling options, last I checked its recovery options were not that good however it’s still a good menu if you’re looking to troll. It can cost $15 - $50 depending on what tier you get. You can get Impulse from https://impulse.one/
Disturbed – Disturbed is a medium tier menu in my opinion, its not good at crashing other people or protecting against other menu’s however it has great recoveries and it is cheap. It costs around $10-$15. I would not recommend buying Disturbed VIP as your better off getting a different menu. You can get it from https://www.w1tch.pro/
Phantom-X – Phantom-X is also a cheaper menu, It compares to Impulse in the sense that it’s good for trolling and I’ve even seen some people say its better for trolling. However Phantom-X doesn’t seem to be good at that much else. From what I’ve heard its pretty stable. It can be brought from https://recoverygods.xyz/ there main website is pretty hard to find and after 30 minutes of searching I could not find it’s official website as I’ve not personally used Phantom-X.
Paragon – Paragon is one of the more expensive menus. It’s very stable and has a pretty nice looking menu in my opinion. I’ve used it for a while during the free weekend and liked it. It used to be known for its great protections but recently it’s been lacking in protections. However it has decent trolling options, more recently it seems like an all-around menu. You can get it from https://paragoncheats.com/
Ozark – I haven’t tried Ozark much, it’s a cheaper menu but its also in beta. It looks promising and has some unique features. Apparently it has a WIP Lua Injector which is great news for people who are in special groups or know how to code Lua. You can get it from https://ozark.gg/
2Take1 – 2Take1 is usually considered to be the best menu out there, especially if you know Lua as it is the only menu with a working Lua injector. However it is also the most expensive menu and it also partially uses a subscription model, the menu costs $140 to permanently keep and it can be brought from https://2take1.menu/
Menu’s that you should NEVER get
I’ll just list these off without much elaboration as they are usually stolen code, have poor support or are viruses.
Free Youtube/Ebay/Discord Menus – 99% of these are going to be viruses and the other 1% is going to be detected. Don’t install Kiddons from a youtube video go to the unknowncheats link I posted, make an account and get it from there if you want it.
Kingpin – Pretty bad over-all, usually considered to be the worst menu out there.
Never get any mod menu’s that are new, they can be exit-scams and will usually take the cash
and bail after a month. Examples of these exit scam menu’s are
- Over
- Hypno
- Indara
A lot of these exit scam menu’s are also using stolen code.
Resellers
Since most mod menu’s use bitcoin only there are resellers which can sometimes charge at a slightly higher price but will deliver the menu and accept payment forms like PayPal. These are resellers that I know of/am aware of. If you know of a reseller comment it below and I'll add it.
realdudesync
radiantcheats
recoverygods
freshkeys
​
Disturbed keys can only be brought through there discord. You can find a link through there site (W1tch.pro)
​
Updates: V1.1 Added more Resellers, Crossed out Luna

Last updated 2:00 EST, 27 July
^{RIP my inbox}
All new posts asking about information already provided here will be removed and redirected here to reduce redundancy.

Release

As of 5:15 EST, the update has released on PS4, Xbox One, and PC.

• 3.4GB on PS4
• 3.2GB on Xbox One
• 2.9GB on Steam
• 2.6GB on Social Club.

On the note of releases... Some countries will not be able to access certain content from this update due to gambling laws. Thankfully though, players from these countries will still be allowed to download the update in general.

Money for Diamond Casino

For ways to make money to afford the new DLC content, along with methods to make an empty lobby to do CEO/MC work, check the Mega Guide.
Tips

• You only need $50,000 to register as a VIP! If you have at least that much, you can register as a VIP for 4 hours and get access to VIP missions (which can be done in an invite only session), giving you a lucrative way to save up.
• If you own both a crate warehouse and vehicle warehouse, you could use them together to make more money overtime than you could by using either exclusively. Use your sourcing/exports between crate pickups and sales, and you'll be getting the best of both worlds, gaining from the postive money-making aspects of both.

Content and Prices

Content that has initially released with the update.

Southern San Andreas Super Autos

• Weeny Issi Sport - $897,000
• Vapid Caracara 4x4 - $875,000

Legendary Motorsport

• Annis S80RR: $2.6million
• Enus Paragon R: $905,000
• Obey 8F Drafter: $718,000
• Truffade Thrax: $2.3million

Penthouses

• Cash Pad: $1.5million
• Party Penthouse: $3.78million
• High Roller: $6.5million
• "Design Your Own": $1.5million

Penthouse Customizations

• Colour options: $215,000 or $258,500
• Pattern options: $92,000 - $210,000

Penthouse Addons

• Lounge Area: $400,000
• Media Room: $500,000
• Spa: $800,000
• Bar and Party Hub: $700,000
• Private Dealer: $1.1million
• Office: $200,000
• Extra Bedroom: $200,000
• Garage: $800,000

Gambling

As this is a Casino-centric update, there's plenty of ways to gamble away your hard-grinded money.
The gambling in this game centers around a new form of currency, called Chips. These chips are pretty much like real-world gambling chips, with a one-to-one dollar value, except you keep your chips when you leave the casino. Chips are an actual currency in GTA Online, as they can be used to purchase exclusive items from a shop inside the casino, along with being used to bet with when playing the Gambling Games, listed below

• Slot Machines: There's plenty of options to choose from, but they all perform the same way. Spend some chips, and let the RNG decide whether or not you earn anything from it.
• Blackjack: Casino style blackjack with up to four simultaneous players, all of which play against the dealer. Anyone who beats the dealer individually wins, anyone who the dealer beats individually loses, and if the dealer gets Blackjack (an Ace and 10/face-card), everyone immediately loses. Assuming your initial hand isn't a Blackjack, you have the option of doubling-down, which doubles your initial bet with the caveat of only being able to hit once.
• Poker: Three-card poker. You make your bets, check your hand, and similar to Blackjack, each player wins if their hand is better than the dealer's, and the dealer beats whoever has a worse hand than him. While there is no option to double-down, how much you win does depend on how good of a hand you have. The better your hand, the more you win. Also, while you can fold your hand, you lose your initial bet anyway.
• Horse Racing: Pretty much standard horse racing bettering. You choose a horse, you put your money down, and if you bet correctly, you get double the amount you bet in return. Otherwise, you just lose the amount you bet.

To gain more chips, there is a counter inside the casino where you can buy them, however you are limited in how many you can buy per day (real-world 24 hours). As standard, you can buy a maximum of 20,000 chips per day, but if you own a penthouse of any tier, you can buy up to 50,000 chips per day. Chips can also be traded in for money, but there does not appear to be a limit on this. No matter how many chips you win from gambling, it appears that you can trade them all in at once for the equivalent dollar value.
Lastly, there is the Wheel. It's a roulette wheel that you can only spin once per day, which costs $500 per spin. There are twenty reward slots, and since some rewards are in multiple slots, they have greater chances of being selected. The biggest note about this wheel however is that there is one slot in which you can win a free car! What makes this so significant is that since the car takes a 1/20 slot on the wheel, that means you still have a 5% chance of winning a free high-value vehicle! Compared to most online games, that's pretty much the most generous RNG you can get.

Business and Missions

coming soon

FAQ

Are there any differences between the penthouses
For once, yes! Well, technically... they're the same basic property layout, but each option gives you different addon options.

• The Cash Pad: The basic Penthouse with no property addons available . You cannot purchase a garage, extra bedroom, lounge, etc. with the Cash Pad. You can, however, purchase penthouse customizations (colour and wall patterns).
• The Party Penthouse: Gives you certain of the addon options: the main Penthouse, the Extra Bedroom, the Lounge Area, the Spa, and the Bar and Party Hub. You are locked to these options, no more, no less.
• The High Roller: Gives you all of the property addons as standard, and the most expensive penthouse customization options... this means that you cannot choose your own colour and wall patterns with this version.
• The "Design Your Own": ...What should be the standard option. It gives you the basic penthouse and allows you to choose which addons and customizations you want, with an extra cost for each one, of course. Just get this one. You can also renovate this option later, allowing you to purchase more addons and change your customizations later.

What do the Penthouse Addons do?

• Lounge Area: Allows you to purchase the other Penthouse Addons (except for the Extra Bedroom and Garage, which are the only items addons that can be purchased without a Lounge).
• Media Room: You know the cinemas around Los Santos? The ones that play a few 5 minute animated films on repeat? That, but in a Penthouse.
• Spa: Gives you access to a hot tub and a Personal Stylist. The Stylist's services are the same as the ones spread around Los Santos (hair, contacts, and make up), but they're all free.
• Bar and Party Hub: Allows you to consume drinks that instantly intoxicate your character, along with access to special arcade games that aren't available anywhere else in the game.
• Private Dealer: Allows you to play gambling games in your penthouse.
• Office: Adds a standard computer, a Gun Locker, and a money vault (don't get excited, it's just aesthetic).
• Extra Bedroom: Bedrooms in owned properties in GTA Online are used as spawn points, so why can you pay to have an extra one? Because you can now allow a friend of yours to claim it! The Extra Bedroom allows a friend of yours to use your penthouse as a spawn apparently, though the exact implementation of this is not completely clear.
• Garage: Access to the Penthouse's garage bay.

How do I get the armored car?

• To recieve the Enus Paragon R (Armoured), you have to complete the Diamond Casino's mission series, which you must own a penthouse to access. Once of the missions are complete, you'll be given the vehicle for free! But remember, it's uninsured and you only get it once, so immediately go into passive mode and take it to the nearest Los Santos Customs to insure it, or else you could lose the vehicle permanently.

Passive Mode

Good news, passive mode has been fixed!

• Passive Mode can now no longer be active when using a weaponized vehicle
• A Passive Mode cooldown of 2 minutes is now in place for players who have just killed another player
• Players now must wait 5 minutes before they can activate Passive Mode again after disabling it
• Players now must wait 30 seconds before they can disable Passive Mode after activating it

These changes make is so that grievers can no longer abuse passive mode, or at least no where near as easily. If you start to get the upper-hand on a griefer and destroy whatever death-machine they're using to troll you, or if you confront them in a death-machine of your own, they can't abuse Passive Mode to try to get the upper-hand on you!

Solo Session

Check the Mega Guide for ways to push yourself into a public Online session with no one else in it. Keep in mind that some missions and abilities are unavailable if there's no one else with you though!

Bugs and Glitches

• Apparently on PS4 and Xbox One, you must have full size of GTA V available to download the update, so if you have less than ~60GB free, you may have trouble downloading the update. This does not mean that the entire game is re-downloaded, it just means that the update may not download if you don't have that much space available.

Credits

Special Thanks: u/Rebored_Warrior - Sent me the official patch notes link!

• u/LordMcze - Information on countries that restrict players from gambling functions.

Chiliad Mystery Megathread 2020
Welcome to the Chiliad Mystery! It’s hard to really explain what the Chiliad Mystery is, so I will let you figure that out by reading my attempted abridged summary of it.
Full Unorganized Original Megathread
Version 2.
Version 3
This is now the 4th edition. I swear reddit archives posts quicker than they used to.
Please comment with your favorite theories, leads, videos, whatever
Diamond Casino (July, 2019)

• Rockstar released a secret peyote hunt for about a month
  
• You can buy Chiliad Mystery art for your Casino Penthouse along with some other items that were pretty on-the-nose.
  
• They even hid a UFO on a slot machine
  
• In a crossover from Red Dead Redemption 2, Madam Nazar shows up as an arcade fortune teller with mysterious responses.
  

Arena Wars (December, 2018)

• STILL UNSOLVED! More* hidden symbols were added. They appear in three of the SciFi Arena Wars maps.
  
• If you have completed the Gunrunning Alien Egg Mission*, getting wasted at your nightclub can possibly lead to waking up on Mt. Chiliad in your underwear, with a tattoo and a UFO flying off into the distance.
  

After Hours (July, 2018)

• Getting wasted at your nightclub might lead to you waking up at the Epsilon HQ with a new shirt.
  
• Your online character will receive the Epsilon robes and medallion after tipping the nightclub bathroom attendant $577.
  

The Doomsday Heist (December, 2017)

• STILL UNSOLVED! Hidden symbols in Avon/Cliffford's lab under Chiliad.
  
• Rockstar caves and adds the jet pack to the game. (for a few million dollars of course)
  
• There are also a few new murals to check out.
  

Smugglers' Run (August, 2017)

• A new podcast by Ron on Blaine County Radio mentions a Jetpack.
  
• A new back tattoo option is a treasure map, with Bigfoot, spiders, and sea beasts.
  

Gunrunning (June, 2017)

• A secret bunker supply mission was added with an out-of-this-world surprise. To unlock this mission, you must have completed 600 resupplies for your bunker. After that, as long as you start your resupply between 21:00 and 23:00, you have a certain probability of getting this special mission.
  
• You can now buy a rocket bike that is strangely similar to a jetpack.
  
• Ned Luke and Shawn Fonteno continue to troll on social media.
  

Import/Export (December, 2016)

• A new UFO was added, and it still hasn’t been used.
  
• We get a glimpse of an alien invasion in one of the paint options for the garage in the CEO offices.
  
• A super meta Easter Egg was found by a user.
  

Bikers (October, 2016)

• SOS Morse Code was heard on the Rebel Radio tower.
  
• Sewer Gator sounds were located.
  

Further Adventures in Finance and Felony (June, 2016)

• Special Cargo missions became available, including special items like ornate eggs and sasquatch skins.

Freemode Events (September, 2015)

• Jetpack Hash in new scripts
  
• The “Black Cellphone” or EMPDROP/EMPEROR phone number was found, which turns your phone black/grey and creates a small explosion above the character’s head.
  
• A golden peyote was discovered in the game files, but nobody knew what it would do. Nobody could even find the damn thing. But sure enough, a week after it was noticed, it was found by rkRusty, and it turned him into Bigfoot. His replication instructions included how to find the golden peyote every Tuesday morning; what he didn’t know, was there are actually 7 golden peyotes plants, one for each day of the week (but they all turn you into the same version of Bigfoot). rkRusty noticed Rockstar updated the peyote scripts and left a note referring to him personally: “He was wrong to start his hunt on Tuesday.” Although, in hindsight it is a simple solution, at the time nobody bothered to experiment with taking the peyote plants every day of the week. 6 months later, the_stoned_ape decided he needed to restart the investigation, which led to NIC779 eating the golden peyote plants from Monday-Sunday, and finding the dead hunter. A few days later, Mozmachine noticed the Bigfoot had a growl, and when used, something growled back. This furry game of Marco Polo kept going around in circles until a few dedicated hunters dug through the files to figure out the outcome. The growls were actually coming from Teen Wolf, and if you beat him in a scrapyard showdown, you unlock him in Director Mode.
  

How to complete the Sasquatch – Beast Hunt

PC Release (April, 2015)

• New camo/skin option for the Sniper Rifle features a UFO over Chiliad.
  
• In the Lowriders Update, Lamar showed us his love for eggs.
  

Next Gen Release (November, 2014)

• 27 peyote plants were added, including the hidden Golden Peyote.
  
• The satellite dishes in the desert started giving off a very alien glow.
  
• The infamous “Picket Fence” trailer.
  

Beach Bums (November, 2013)

• In the first content update for GTA Online, Rockstar added the Paradise van; the underwater UFO, and Bigfoot were hidden in the background of two of the paintjobs.

GTAV Release (September, 2013)

• There is a cryptic mural at the top of Mt. Chiliad.
  
• 4 flying saucers are found. One sunken off the coast, one hovering over the hippy camp in Sandy Shores, an advanced one floating over the military base, and one above Chiliad that seems like a hologram.
  
• There is an underwater hatch with an old friend inside. He taps you a very familiar message – if you can translate morse code.
  
• The ghost of Jolene Cranley-Evans haunts Mt. Gordo. You can see and hear her from the campsite at the foot of the mountain, or you can climb up and get a closer look.
  
• The Infinite 8 Killer, a serial killer with an obsession with the number 8, allegedly murdered 8 people and dumped their bodies in the ocean North of Paleto Bay.
  
• You can see an alien trapped under the ice in North Yankton. You can only go visit him during the mission Bury the Hatchet.
  
• A drawing in the sand was found near the hippy camp in Sandy Shores, seemingly pointing towards the UFO on Mt. Chiliad.
  
• Someone put their face on Mt. Chiliad, and it was not Jesse Pinkman
  

There is much more in the original megathread,
PLEASE HELP ME ADD TO THIS LIST BY COMMENTING WITH YOUR FAVORITE MYSTERY

GTA Online's brand new Diamond Casino & Resort will be available July 23rd.

News & Information Directly from Rockstar

- GTA Online: The Diamond Casino & Resort (Trailer)

- The Diamond Casino & Resort Grand Opening - July 23rd (Newswire)

[Casino Trailer]
Experience Excellence. The Diamond Casino & Resort opens for your enjoyment in the heart of Los Santos this Tuesday, July 23rd.

Opening Soon

[Casino Image]
The massive construction project on the corner of Vinewood Park Drive and Mirror Park Boulevard is nearing completion, radically changing the skyline of Los Santos forever. When the brand-new Diamond Casino & Resort opens its doors, one and all are welcome inside to play, or just to stay in the most luxurious residence in the entire state. More than just a place to let go of your inhibitions and your sense of the passage of time, The Diamond is the one-stop destination for quality entertainment, high-end living and a range of experiences you won’t find anywhere else.

The Casino

[Roulette Table Image]
If you're looking to dive into the action, the casino floor has a selection of activities to enjoy. Play against the house using Chips in Three Card Poker, Blackjack and Roulette. Slot Machines with a variety of prizes are also at your fingertips, while Inside Track offers a lounge to watch and cheer along with friends as the drama of virtual horse racing unfolds. Spin the Lucky Wheel in the lobby for chips, cash, and clothing or even the new Truffade Thrax supercar that can be found whirling on the podium during opening week. And be sure to check back each week to see what new high-end vehicle can be won. Check Rockstar Support for details and limitations.
Guests looking to push the limits of high-end resort fashion can also choose from the carefully curated rotation of new clothing and accessories in the Casino Store.

The Penthouse

[Penthouse Image]
Sitting atop The Diamond is an oasis of luxury for those shopping for a lavish pied-à-terre or just a feature-laden property in which to entertain friends. The Master Penthouse that sits beside the Roof Terrace with infinity pool and stunning views entitles the owner to VIP Membership status including access to VIP Lounges, High-Limit tables, plus a range of special services via the Penthouse phone including aircraft and limousine services and more. Renovate your residence with several upgradeable floorplans including a private Spa with a round-the-clock personal stylist, a Bar and Party area perfect for hosting raging Member Parties and featuring private retro arcade games, and a Media Room to enjoy games of Don’t Cross the Line and contemporary Vinewood cinema like Meltdown and The Loneliest Robot In Great Britain. As an owner, you can select the Penthouse’s color palette and patterns, and cement a place among the LS nouveau riche with a range of modern art from the Casino Store – from refined portraiture to pop art and daring modern sculpture – that can all be moved and placed around your property.
With a Master Penthouse you’ll also become a member of The Diamond family, and the family business needs your attention. Help property owner Tao Cheng and The Diamond staff protect their investment from the clutches of a corrupt family of Texan petrochemical magnates in a series of all new co-operative missions. Each mission pays out special Awards for first-time completion and hosting the entire story thread will reward you with a highly coveted, brand-new vehicle free of charge. You can also pickup additional work and odd jobs to earn extra cash and chips with a quick phone call to the Diamond’s head of operations, Agatha Baker.

Twitch Prime

[Another Penthouse(?) Image]
As part of the Rockstar Games Social Club x Twitch Prime Benefits program, all GTA Online players who link their Social Club account with Twitch Prime and claim their Twitch Prime benefits by the end of day on July 19th will be able to purchase the Master Penthouse for free in the Diamond Casino & Resort, as well as receive GTA$1.25M and up to 15% extra GTA$ on purchases of Shark Cash Cards.
Visit Twitch Prime and sign up to receive these perks and more coming soon, and visit the Social Club Events page to keep up with all special events, bonuses, and more in GTA Online.

Stay Tuned

[New Supercar Image, presumably the Truffade Thrax]
Visit thediamondcasinoandresort.com to see more details on what The Diamond has to offer, including Penthouse comforts, membership perks, and so much more.
We're also extending last week's bonuses through July 24th, so make the most of your time on the Stunt track – or contract as a Bodyguard/Associate on lucrative Business Battles, VIP Work, Sell Missions and more – and we'll see you at the grand opening.

TheDiamondCasinoAndResort.com

Check out this website. Seriously. It's a real website and it will give you a fantastic "in-character" look at what the update will bring. This website is better designed and more attractive than some real businesses' websites, believe me.

Home

[Imgur Mirror]
Experience Excellence

A Luxury Casino & Resort In The Heart Of Vinewood

You've heard the rumors. You want to believe them, and there's only one way to find out. Abandon your preconceptions. Let go of your inhibitions, your doubts, your sense of proportion, your credit rating. The rumors didn't begin to do it justice. Welcome to The Diamond. Grand Opening July 23.

Membership

[Imgur Mirror]

Casino and Resort Membership

The Diamond is everyone’s playground. Invest in a Standard Membership today and you’ll be a lifelong partner in our project to meaningfully raise the standard of living for the one percent.

VIP Membership

At The Diamond, there are members, and there are members. And if you want to be the latter, you’re only a penthouse key away from enjoying the kind of status that only systemic elitism can provide.
Experience Preeminence

Parking Garage

This is not merely a garage. It’s not merely a maximum security, subterranean storage unit. Think of it as an air-conditioned, custom-built, expertly curated museum, where our clients can admire each other’s collections in peace and comfort.
Experience Accidents

Valet

Step out of our front door, right into your front seat: our valets are available 24/7, and are trained to never to look in the trunk, never to open the glove compartment, and never to ask questions.
Experience Incontinence

Champagne Service

Our client code of conduct states that if any member is seen ordering a bottle of our finest champagne, spraying half of it over the most exclusive clientele in the state, and downing the rest straight from the bottle, our security teams are obliged to loudly applaud.
Experience Turbulence

Aircraft Concierge

Going up? Let our concierge service take care of all your pre-flight checks, so you can step right into the cockpit with the engine ready for takeoff.
Experience Maintenance

Cleaning Service

We recruit our housekeepers from the most respected crime scene cleanup teams in the state. There is no bodily fluid or potentially infectious material they can’t remove in the time it takes you to find an alibi.
Experience Convenience

Limousine Service

Leaving The Diamond can be a traumatic experience, but we know how to cushion the blow. Our resident guests can order a Diamond Limousine to take them almost anywhere in the state, free of charge.
Experience Irrelevance

Members Party

Why go to the party, when the party can come to you? If you’re one of our resident members, you only need to click your fingers and we’ll provide the drinks, the music, and the dozens of close personal friends.
Experience Flatulence

VIP Lounge

Available exclusively to our resident members, this is the inner sanctum of indulgence, the apex of affluence, the pinnacle of privilege, the high point of high society.
Experience Arrogance

High Limit Tables

Welcome to the grown-up table: resident guests are entitled to play in our high-limit suites.

The Penthouses

[Imgur Mirror]
Experience Residence

The Penthouses

A penthouse at The Diamond is not just a palace. It’s your palace. If you want a private spa, you can have it. Home cinema? Consider it done. Your own personal bar, private arcade cabinets, and office space? Just say the word: Diamond.
Experience Prominence

Master Bedroom

Silk sheets, fresh air bottled on the summit of Mount Chiliad, and round the clock access to the greatest roof terrace in Los Santos.
Experience Adolescence

Spare Bedroom

We all have that one friend. With a spare bedroom, they’ll have somewhere to crash that isn’t your bidet, and with access to their personal wardrobe they won’t have to keep borrowing your clothes.
Experience Fragrance

Spa Room

Your private spa comes with a round-the-clock personal stylist and a hot tub infused with extract of jojoba and a dissociative anesthetic.
Experience Interpretive Dance

Bar & Party Area

Why go to a night club, when a night club can come to you? The most exclusive venue in town is the one where you’re in charge of the guest list.
Experience Incompetence

Arcade Games

Time to dig out the high-waisted jeans and the fluorescent headband: Diamond Casinos have the exclusive rights to classic arcade games Invade and Persuade II and Street Crime: Gang Wars Edition.
Experience Correspondence

Office

Sometimes you need to take care of your affairs, but there’s no reason you should have to leave the lap of luxury to do it. All of our offices come with a gun locker and a hidden safe as standard.

The Casino

[Imgur Mirror]
Experience Affluence

The Casino

Here, your dreams are reality, and your reality is a dream. Here, every whim can be satisfied, every fantasy fulfilled – no impulse control, no windows, no clocks, and no clearly labelled exits. Welcome to the Diamond standard.
Experience Eminence

Table Games

Don't be fooled. Roulette, blackjack, poker - at The Diamond, these aren't games. Every card dealt, every spin of the wheel, every polished quip, every gasp of the crowd, every delusion of grandeur: this is art.
Experience Overconfidence

Slot Machines

Here at The Diamond, we understand the fine art of the slot machine. We recognize the split-second reflexes, the years of research and training, the rock-solid intuition and the towering IQ that make a true master. That’s right. We’ve been waiting for you.
Experience Subservience

Inside Track

Horse racing is the sport of kings, and Inside Track is the only way to experience it – the drama, the majesty, the excitement, the perfectly simulated aroma of freshly cut turf and hot manure - all without leaving the comfort of a bespoke, air-conditioned suite.
Experience Tumescence

Lucky Wheel

Some people say that fortune favors the brave. Here at The Diamond, we’d rather say that destiny favors those with a full membership. Spin the wheel once a day, and you’re guaranteed a massive dose of self-importance every time.

Casino Store

[Imgur Mirror]
Experience Incontinence

Casino Store

Exclusive fashion. Unique designer artwork. There are some things in life that money can’t buy. But don’t fret. Our in-house store offers a rotating selection of tastefully curated items that can be purchased with Chips.

Images

• All images from the Newswire Article
  
• Still shots from the trailer
  

Summary

• The newly renovated casino is located at the racetrack in east Vinewood Hills, by the highway. It is owned by Tao Cheng.
  
• Brucie is making a return as a character in this update
  
• In the casino you can play a number of games, including:
  
  • Three Card Poker
  • Blackjack
  • Roulette
  • Slot Machines
  • Retro Arcade Games (?)
• There is a wheel you can spin once per day in order to earn prizes like RP, GTA$, discounts, clothing, and even high-end vehicles.
  
• There is a horse-racing and betting component, although it is unclear if it is only simulated and interacted with via the "Inside Track" room of the casino, or if the horse racing actually takes place in the game world, instanced or not.
  
• The casino has a penthouse/residential component to it. Owners of the Master Penthouse can upgrade their residence with a private spa, a bar and party area, and a media room. Residents will also be able to spend chips on art and collectibles at the Casino Store which can be used to decorate the penthouse.
  
• As a penthouse resident, you will get access to the business aspect of the casino, requiring you to work with Cheng to prevent a rich Texan family from taking over the casino. In addition to this storyline, you can do side jobs for the casino to earn GTA$ and chips.
  
• The casino has a store that accepts chips as payment. You can use the chips to buy collectibles and decorations for your penthouse as well as clothing and accessories.
  

If you think I should add something to the summary, please let me know in the comments.

Also, if there is any other detailed information I can include elsewhere, I'd love to hear it. Particularly in analyzing the videos and screenshots and identifying new cars, etc.

Since the Diamond Casino update, I have seen a large number of 12-year-olds posting Blackjack memes on this sub. As a parent, this has me very worried.
On top of that, I have seen some of the most trustworthy GTA Youtubers giving flawed gambling advice, which can have damaging impact on their gullible audiences.
So that's why I decided to write this up, to educate everyone on the subject, so there will be no more misunderstandings.
(2020 Update down at the bottom.)
If you're one of those Youtubers that wants to use this information in a video, feel free to do so. The more people (especially kids) that become educated about gambling, the better.
But then also please go back and review your own work, and delete or edit the videos that are giving out the wrong advice, like where you're saying you have "a good strategy for making money with roulette", or some other nonsense that I've heard this week. Delete that please.
Before I get into the individual games, I need to discuss a few concepts first, that will make understanding the rest a lot easier.
​
Expected return and variance
A game like Roulette or Slots has a fixed expected return on your bets. This is a percentage that you have no way of influencing. Say you are flipping a coin against a friend, and you both put up $1. The winner gets the pot. Since the odds are even at 50%, in the long run, you will expect to break even. Your expected return is 100% of your bet.
But imagine if you would play this coin flipping game in a casino against the house. On the "house rules" listed at the table they would probably say that you would only get 95 cents back for every win, while you are forfeiting a dollar on every loss. Would you still play?
Sounds stupid to do so, but still, everybody does it. Every bet they place on Roulette, every coin they put into a Slot machine, is based on the same concept.
Those few cents they take on every bet are their profit margin, and has paid for all the Vegas lights, the Mirage volcanoes, and the Bellagio fountains. Make no mistake - casino gambling games are not designed to make you lose, because sure, you can get lucky on a single night, but they are designed to make them win. That's the beauty of it. They can both exist at the same time.
Too many people that don't see how this works, are just destined for disaster. Just because you went on a lucky streak and won 8 games out of 10, does not mean that flipping coins is a profitable game, or that choosing tails is a winning strategy. Always be aware of the house edge, your true chances of winning, and just realize that you got lucky. There is no such thing as a strategy in flipping a coin that will give you a higher expected return, so it's just pure gambling, just like Slots and Roulette.
Most casino games are made in such a way, that your expected return is a little under 100%. This means that from every dollar bet at the tables, the casino expects to keep a few cents. For individual players, results may vary. Some will win, most will lose. But for the house, it doesn't matter. They take millions of bets each day, so for them, the expected average works out a lot sooner. In short: the house always wins.
When looking at the house edge, we're talking about the expected long-term result, based on the game's house rules. But for a player, it can take literally tens of thousands of hands or spins before you also reach this average number. Until that time, you can experience huge upswings and downswings, that are the result of nothing but short-term luck, which is called variance.
Some games and some bets have a much higher variance than others, which means your actual results will differ enormously from what you're expected to be at.
Take for example betting on red/black at the Roulette table. This is a low-variance proposition, because it has a high percentage chance of occurring, and a low payout.
Contrast this with betting single numbers in Roulette, which only win once every 38 spins on average. This bet has a much higher variance, meaning you can easily hit a dry spell, and not hit anything for 200 bets in a row, or you can see a single number hit three times in five consecutive spins. This is not a freak occurrence in high-variance bets.
Even though the expected return in both these bets is exactly the same, there's a huge difference in variance, causing massive differences in short-term results, which can go both ways. You need to be aware of this, before you decide what types of bets you are comfortable with placing.
​
Gamblers' Fallacy
Another thing to realize, is that each individual game, hand, or spin, is completely independent from the one(s) before it, and after it.
Gamblers tend to believe, that the chance of a certain outcome is increased, based on previous results.
The most famous example comes from the Casino de Monte Carlo, where the Roulette wheel managed to land on black 26 times in a row. Gamblers lost many millions during that streak, all frantically betting on red, believing that the odds were in favor of the wheel coming out on red, after producing so many blacks. This is not true. Each round is completely independent, and the odds are exactly the same.
You will hear people say things like a Blackjack table being "hot" or "cold", which is completely superstitious, and should be ignored. The exception was when Blackjack was being dealt from a shoe. It made card counting possible. But with the introduction of shuffle machines, and continuous shuffling like is being used in GTA, this no longer exists.
This is also why "chasing your losses" is a very bad idea. After being on a losing streak for some time, many gamblers believe that now it's their turn to start winning. So they will often increase their bet size, believing that when their predicted winning streak comes around, they will win back their losses, and more.
The reality of it, more often than not, is that people will indeed start playing higher and higher limits, until they are completely broke. Nobody is ever "due for a win". There is never a guarantee that you're about to start winning. In fact, the opposite is more likely to be true. You are, after all, in a casino.
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Betting systems
Some people like to think that they have a fool-proof betting system, like the Martingale system. Simply increase or even double your bet when you lose, and keep doing that until you win. In theory, this system will always win. So that's why table limits were introduced, and where the system fails.
If you start at the Roulette table, playing red/black, with a small 750 chip wager, and just double your bet every time you lose, you only have to lose 6 times in a row, before you will be betting the table limit of 48,000, just to get that 750 chip profit.
Sure, you can go on all evening without this happening, winning 750 chips each time, but this losing streak only has to happen once, and you're bust. Any betting system like this is ill-advised, because you are hugely increasing your so-called "risk of ruin", and that's what we were trying to avoid.
And even if your starting bet is only 100 chips, after only nine straight losses, and nine doubled bets, you are betting the table limit at 50,000 chips. If you lose that bet, you're 100,000 chips in the hole, with no way to recover that with your 100 chip base wager.
So don't believe anyone that says this is the perfect system to always win in the casino. Sooner or later they will understand why they were wrong, when they're asking you for a loan.
​
Set your limits BEFORE you start playing
One final point before we get into the games, a general tip for people that head out to play: money management.
Just like in real life, before you go to the casino, decide on a maximum amount that you are WILLING TO LOSE.
Bet small enough, so that amount can last you through the entire evening, and you will not be tempted to run to the ATM to continue playing.
Considering GTA money, some people will be comfortable losing 1% of their GTA bank balance, some people will be comfortable with gambling away 5% of their total GTA savings. It's up to you what you can handle. Decide for yourself where it will start to hurt, and don't cross that line.
But whatever number you decide on, as soon as you lost that amount, get up and walk away. Don't chase your losses, stick to your limits, and accept that this has not been your day. There is always another game tomorrow. Always agree with yourself on a simple stop-loss rule, how much you would want to lose at most, and simply stop playing when you get there.
Same goes for winning. You can decide on a number, how much profit you would like to take away from the casino. You can go on a hot streak and be up half a million in a short period of time, but if you would continue to play longer, looking for more, chances are that you're going to lose it all back.
Most people are happy with doubling their daily casino budget, for example. Others are looking for 10 bets profit in Blackjack. Whatever you choose, when you hit that number, you can stop playing and bank your profits, or you can continue playing if you're still enjoying the games, but then only just play minimum bet sizes. Then you're just playing for fun, not for money. You've already made your profit, so simply keep it in your pocket, and don't risk losing it again.
Either way, decide on what your money management strategy will be, and STICK TO IT.
​
Casino games in GTA Online
Now, I'm going to dive into the games that you can find at the Diamond casino, ordered from worst to best.
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6) Slots
Generally the rule is this: the less strategy a game has, the worse it is for the player. And with slots, this is definitely the case.
The only influence you have, is choosing what type of machine you're going to play. Basically, there are two types of slot machines:
-high frequency, low payout slots
-low frequency, high payout slots
In the first type, there is no huge (progressive) jackpot on offer, just your average selection of prizes that don't go up to crazy amounts.
This will result in a player having many more spins resulting in a win. The amounts that you win on the bigger prizes, will be smaller, but they do come around more often. This type of slot machine has a lower variance, which means that your money should last you longer, winning many smaller prizes along the way to keep you going.
The second type of slot machine lures you in with the temptation of a huge jackpot prize. Even though the long-term expected return on these machines is the same as the previous type, the prize distribution is hugely different. The large jackpot prize weighs heavily on the scale of expected return, but the chance of it hitting is extremely small. This results in a much higher variance on this type of machine. Usually your money will go down very fast, because the smaller prizes are less rewarding than on the other type of machine.
At the Diamond, the info screen says the player return at slots is set at 98.7%. This means that, on average, for every maximum bet of 2,500 chips, you expect to lose 32.5 chips.
This might not seem like a lot, but the danger of slots is that the game is extremely fast. You can spin about once every 6 seconds, which would result in an expected LOSS of about 20,000 chips per hour of playing.
But again, in this long-term expected number, the large jackpot awards are also factored in, and as long as you don't hit those big prizes, you'll see your money go down a lot faster.
In any case, thank heavens the max bet is only set at 2,500, or else we would see more players go bankrupt at alarming rates.
Optimal strategy for slots:
There is none. Because after betting, you have no more influence over the outcome. The only choices you have, is what type of machine you want to play at, and how much money you are going to risk. And those are all personal preference. As long as you stick to your loss limits, as discussed above, there's no harm in having a go every once in a while, hoping to get a lucky hit. Just realize that you don't have a high chance of scoring a big win, so as soon as you do, get up and walk away.
​
5) Roulette
Roulette is also a game where you have no influence over the outcome. There is zero skill involved. You place your bet, and that's it.
In traditional French roulette, a table has only the single-zero, but of course, for American casinos that wasn't enough of a house edge, so they simply doubled their profits by adding a second zero. The house edge was increased from 1/37 to 1/19, which is huge.
This makes playing on a double-zero roulette table by definition a sucker's play.
The payouts scale evenly, which means that a bet on a single number, and a bet on half of the numbers, and everything in between, yields the same expected return. The only difference, again, being the variance that you are willing to subject yourself to.
The player return for double-zero Roulette for all bets is 94.74%.
Except for the 5-number bet, which can only be made by placing a bet on the two top rows that contain 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3. The expected return on this bet is lower: 92.1%. This is because it only pays out 6-1. Why? Well, the number 36 isn't divisible by 5, so the greedy people that came up with double-zero Roulette had to round it off someway, and as expected, it wasn't going to be in the players' favor.Just remember that that 5-number bet is the worst bet at the table, and should be avoided. All other possible bets have the same expected return.
So it really doesn't matter how you spread your bets, if you bet only one chip, or if you litter the entire table with a bucketload of chips. Each chip you put out there, has the same expected return, so there is no strategy that will improve your long-term results.
Assuming that you're betting the maximum table amount of 50,000 chips, you will be looking at an expected loss of about 2,630 chips per spin. Considering that a round takes about 45 seconds to complete, your expected LOSS at the GTA Roulette tables will be around 200,000 chips per hour of playing.
Optimal strategy for double-zero roulette:
Stay away. Stay far away.
​
4) Three Card Poker
With Three Card Poker, we come across the first game where there is actually some strategy involved. You get to look at your cards, and then decide if you want to fold, and surrender your ante, or double your bet.
Additionally, you can choose to place a side bet on "Pair Plus", which offers progressive payouts.
There are some websites out there that ran all the numbers with computer simulations, and even though I would like to quote the source here, these websites are understandably littered to the max with online casino ads, so that's why I have decided against doing that.
Optimal strategy for Three Card Poker:
For this game you only have to remember one strategy rule: Always bet on any high card queen-six-four or better, and fold any high card queen-six-three or lower. That's it. Just don't forget to double check if you're not folding a straight or a flush, and you'll be fine.
This strategy will result in an expected return of 96.63%.
The Pair Plus sidebet, with the payout table that is used at the Diamond casino, gives you an expected return of 97.68%, which is actually a bit better than the main ante bet.
So by playing both wagers, you're reducing your expected losses per bet, but since you're betting more, you're also increasing your expected loss per hour.
My advice would obviously be to not play this game at all, but if you do, put as much of your bet as possible on the Pair Plus, while making our Ante bet as small as you can.
To be able to compare it to the other games at the Diamond, let's stay on that 50,000 maximum wager, meaning making your ante bet 35,000, and your pair plus bet 15,000, if the table would allow it.
This results in an expected loss of about 1,525 chips per hand, and with a round taking about 45 seconds, this adds up to an expected LOSS of around 120,000 chips per hour of playing. In comparison, if you would only play the ante bet for 50,000 per hand, you expect to lose 1,685 chips per hand, which means an expected LOSS of about 135,000 chips per hour. So the more out of that 50,000 wager you can put on the "Pair Plus" sidebet, the better.
Even though it may be fun to try out this game for a bit, since there's only one simple strategy rule to follow, you'll soon find yourself robotically grinding down your bankroll until it has vaporized. You're not missing out on anything if you skip these tables, there is no real challenge.
Just like with Roulette and Slots, if you want to try it out nonetheless, you can just bet the minimum amounts and only play for fun, so it won't matter if you win or lose.
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3) Blackjack
Blackjack is the most complicated game by far. Simply because the player has to make a series of decisions, which will largely decide the outcome. Luckily, there is such a thing as an optimal strategy, which will be outlined below.
However, the strategy is also dependent on the house rules. These not only affect your expected return, but in some places also your decisions.
Here are the house rules at the Diamond casino:
-The game uses 4 standard decks, and a continuous shuffle.
-Blackjack pays 3 to 2, dealer checks for early blackjack.
-No insurance offered, no surrender.
-Dealer stands on soft 17.
-Double down on any two cards.
-Player can split only once, but doubling after split is allowed.
-Seven-Card Charlie.
Under these rules, and following the "basic strategy" chart, your expected return at Blackjack is a shade under 99.6%, which is extremely good for a casino game, that's why Blackjack should be your table game of choice.
But it comes at a price: you are going to have to memorize the relatively complicated strategy chart, or at least stick it to your monitor until you have it in your head. But in case you ever stumble into a real-life casino, you won't regret having this table memorized, so I would definitely advise you to work on that.
The strategy chart might look complicated at first, but you will be able to notice certain patterns. Your decisions are mainly based on the dealer's upcard, which is basically divided into a weak card (2 to 6), and a strong card (7 to ace).
When a dealer shows a strong card, you will be hitting more often with the risk of going bust, but when a dealer shows a weak card, you're not taking that risk, and you will be standing more, but also doubling and splitting more. You want to increase your bets when the odds are in your favor, and get out cheap when they're not.
But it also helps to take some time to think about why a certain advice is given. For example, why does it say that you always have to split two eights, even against an ace. Well, that's because two eights equals 16, which is the worst total you can have. It's better to split them up, and give yourself a chance of finding a 17, 18 or 19 with the next card. Once you see the logic in that, you'll have one less thing to memorize.
The playing advice in the basic strategy chart is a result of computer simulations that ran all possible outcomes against each other, and produced the most profitable decision for each situation. So you can't go wrong following it.
Optimal strategy for Blackjack with Seven-Card Charlie
The added house rule of Seven-Card Charlie, adds a small advantage for the player, and it does influence a few strategy decisions. For example, you might have a 14 with 6 cards, against the dealer's 5 upcard.
Normally this would be an automatic stand, but if you're only one card away from the Seven-Card Charlie, meaning an instant win for the player, regardless of the dealer's hand, it turns it into a hit.
Here's the most optimal strategy chart to follow for the Diamond Casino house rules: https://prnt.sc/olct6g
You'll see that two fives are missing from the chart, and that's because you never split them. You treat them as a regular 10. You also never split tens. Just stand on 20.
If you follow this strategy religiously, even with a maximum wager of 50,000 chips, you only expect to lose about 215 chips per hand, and with rounds taking about 30 seconds, that amounts to an expected LOSS of 26,000 chips per hour, which is only half a bet. A small price to pay for an hour of entertainment.
But since the expected return is so extremely close to 100%, you will see more positive short-term results than with other games. But obviously it can also swing the other way. Again, this is supposed to be the game where your money lasts you the longest, but always set your loss and win limits before you sit down. That rule simply always applies.
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Still, even with optimal strategies applied, all these games are expected to lose you money in the long run. So betting any kind of large amounts is not advised. If you simply want to enjoy playing these games, there's nothing wrong with betting a minimal amount. Playing these games for a longer period of time will already cost you money anyway, since your daily property fees will still be charged while you're playing in the GTA casino. As long as you can play for fun, there's nothing wrong, but when you see yourself betting insane chunks of your entire bank balance to try to recoup some unfortunate losses, you're doing it wrong.
As the commercials in Britain all correctly say: when the fun stops, stop.
​
2) Virtual Horse Racing
Now onto the good stuff. I ran some numbers, and I believe Rockstar has made a mistake with the horse racing game. Because as it stands, and if I read the numbers correctly, this game is actually profitable for the player. You can actually make money with this, at least, until Rockstar figures out their mistake and patches it.
If anyone wants to jump into the math and double check this to make sure, please do so. I will add any corrections to this post. This is one of those "to good to be true" things, so I keep thinking that I might have overlooked something. So please verify it if you can.
The setup is this. There is a pool of 100 horses, each with their own attached payout. These are divided into 3 groups, ranked by their odds. From each group, 2 horses are randomly selected to provide a pool of six runners for you to bet on.
Now it's not an actual race you're looking at. You are looking at a raffle. This is important to realize.
Each horse gets awarded a certain number of raffle tickets. The favorites get awarded more tickets than the underdogs, and therefore, have a higher chance of winning.
If this distribution works like it does in the real-life casinos, then the raffle tickets are awarded according to the betting odds.
Example 1: imagine a race with 3 runners, all have 2/1 odds, representing a 33.3% chance of winning. (Because 2/1 means 2 AGAINST 1, so 3 total.) In this case, each horse gets one third of the raffle tickets, giving them an equal chance to win.
Example 2: imagine a race with 3 runners, one has 1/1 odds (or EVENS), representing a 50% chance of winning, and the other two horses are marked up as 3/1, with a 25% chance of winning. The favorite gets half the tickets, the other two get a quarter of the tickets each.
A ticket is drawn, and you'll have a winner.
It doesn't matter in this game which horse you bet on, because the expected return is always the same: 100% or break-even, for the above examples.
Now, what happens if the percentages don't exactly add up to 100%?
They must add up to 100%, because there will always be a winner. And only one winner.
So when this is the case, the actual winning chances of the horses are adjusted to meet the 100% requirement, using their payout odds to determine the scale.
So, if the represented percentages add up to more than 100%, the actual winning chances of the runners will be DECREASED, resulting in all bets becoming losing propositions for the players.
Example: In a 6-horse race, all runners are listed at 4/1, representing a 20% chance. Only with six runners that amounts to 120%. So all chances are scaled down by 1/6th, to end up at 100%.
This means your horse's chances are reduced from 20% to 16.67%, turning it into a losing bet: 5 times you will lose your bet, and 1 time you will win, but only get 4 bets back in this instance, instead of 5. A losing bet in the long run.
This is the type of odds that you find in regular casinos, with fields as large as 15 runners to bet on, where the assumed winning chances always add up to more than 100%, therefore are decreased for all runners, resulting in a house edge.
​
But in GTA Online's Inside Track, there are other scenarios, because of the small field, and the way that they are put together.
In some cases, the represented percentages when added up, are LESS than 100%, meaning that the actual winning chances of all runners, are INCREASED.
This creates profitable bets for the players, because in the long run, you're expecting to win more money than you lose. This is a gambler's dream, pure and simple.
So, according to the in-game information, the three groups of horses are divided as follows:
-Favorites: EVENS to 5-1
-Outsiders: 6-1 to 15-1
-Underdogs: 16-1 to 30-1
​
Let's take the two most extreme examples to show what's happening.
The worst possible field to bet on: two runners at EVENS, two runners at 6-1, and two runners at 16-1.
EVENS represents a 50% chance, 6-1 is 14.29%, and 16-1 is 5.88%. Add those up and you land on a total of 140.34%.
This means that the actual winning chances of the horses are decreased by 28.75% (to get that 140% down to 100%), which makes betting on this field extremely unwise.
A horse at EVENS will only come in as a winner 35.63% of the time, instead of 50%,
a horse at 6-1 will only win 10.18% of the time,
and an underdog at 16-1 will only win 4.19% of the time.
​
The expected return on a bet on any of the horses in this field is only 71.26%, so a maximum bet of 10,000 chips on any of these horses holds an expected LOSS of 2,875 chips.
These returns are the same, because the winning chances are scaled equally, according to the payout numbers. So it really doesn't matter which horse you bet on, in the long run, you expect the same results.
But as explained before, it does influence variance, and therefore your short-term result, which can swing both ways.
​
But now, the best possible field to bet on: two runners at 5-1, two runners at 15-1, and two runners at 30-1.
Odds at 5-1 represents a winning chance of 16.67%, 15-1 odds means 6.25% chance, and 30-1 odds means a 3.23% chance of winning. Add these six horses together, and you only get 52.285%.
This means that, to get from 52% to 100%, the actual winning chances of these horses will be almost doubled! Multiplied by 1.91 to be exact.
So the 5-1 favorites will now win 31.88% of the time, instead of 16.67%,
the 15-1 runners will win 11.95% of the time,
and the underdogs at 30-1 odds will still win 6.17% of the time.
When betting on this field, the expected return on your bet is 191.25%!
This means that a max bet of 10,000 chips will result in an expected PROFIT of 9,125 chips.
This is printing money, if there ever was such a thing.
Optimal strategy for Virtual Horse racing
So all you have to do, is only bet high on the games where you have an expected positive return, and bet the absolute minimum on the games where your expected return is negative. Or back out of the racing game to refresh the field.
If you don't have a way to quickly add up all the percentages, and until somebody shows up here with a neatly formatted table, just use a few general rules of thumb:
-Always bet the maximum on a race with favorites at 2/1 and 3/1 or higher in it.
-Simply skip all races with two favorites at EVENS in it, and at EVENS and 2/1. Or bet the minimum, if you can't skip or refresh the field.
-To decide if you should play races with other favorite combinations EVENS and 3/1, EVENS and 4/1, EVENS and 5/1, or two favorites at 2/1, the payouts on the other four runners determine whether or not it's profitable to play them. The results of betting on these fields vary from an expected 1,330 chip loss (worst-case) to an expected 1,680 chip win (best-case), with a max bet of 10,000 chips.
But if you're not looking for another strategy chart, you might just want to skip these borderline cases, and just cherry pick the best ones, which are easy to recognize, and with which you can never go wrong.
It's difficult to put a number on an expected win-rate, because it all depends on which fields you get presented with, but it's not unreasonable to state that you can maintain a steady win-rate of around 200,000 chips per hour, with about 50 seconds per race.
Remember, you're not trying to win every race. You're trying to win the most money per hour. So don't sweat it when you bet on a 4/1 favorite, and lose a couple of races in a row. It will still be more profitable in the long run. You have the math on your side.
To reduce negative variance, always bet on the favorite, when betting on profitable fields. We're not gambling anymore, we're grinding out a steady profit. We want to keep the swings to a minimum.
I contacted Rockstar support to verify if this is indeed how it works, but the only reply I got after 6 weeks is that they were "looking into it".
User u/Garsant made a useful Excel-worksheet, available for you to download, where you can quickly type in the payouts on the horses, to see if it produces a profitable bet or not. You can find it in his post here: https://www.reddit.com/gtaonline/comments/ekp8na/gta_online_inside_track_odd_calculato
​
1) Wheel of Fortune
The number one profitable casino game in GTA Online is obviously the Wheel of Fortune, because it costs you nothing to play.
Unfortunately, you only get one free spin per day, but it holds great value, so make sure you do it.
With a chance to win a super car, vehicle discounts, expensive mystery prizes (which also can be vehicles), and a lot of cash and chips, the expected return on a single spin is around $100,000 in value.
So don't forget your daily spin, it's definitely worth your time.
​
2020 Update:
As of the Diamond Casino Heist update, the Inside Track horse racing is confirmed to still be as profitable as outlined above.The only thing that seems to be changed, is that you can't refresh the field anymore by backing out of the screen. This does affect your hourly rate in a negative way, but does not change the fact that this game has a huge positive expected return, and should be your go-to when you're trying to take money from the house, without having Lester's nagging voice in your ear. That should also be worth something.
​
And with that, I conclude my 5,000 word essay on gambling in GTA. Questions, comments, feel free to add your input to this guide.
​
Cliffs:
-Gambling games should only be played for fun, not for big money. You should expect to lose in the long run. The house always wins.
-A casino game doesn't have a memory, and betting systems don't work.
-Set your limits before you start, how much you are willing to lose or win, and then walk away when you get there.
-Don't play slots, roulette, or three card poker.
-Only play blackjack following a basic strategy chart (https://prnt.sc/olct6g).
-Inside Track betting can be played profitably, if you only bet on fields WITHOUT a heavy favorite.
-Wheel of Fortune is always your best bet, because it's a free bet.

I did kiddions casino glitch where you rig the slot machines and spent about 30 mil, it says that GTA V Is offline and that social club is currently experiencing technical difficulties and online services have been temporarily disabled, or is this an issue that other people have been having?

This is not mine, the creator of this is u/enderpiet
​
Since the Diamond Casino update, I have seen a large number of 12-year-olds posting Blackjack memes on this sub. As a parent, this has me very worried.
On top of that, I have seen some of the most trustworthy GTA Youtubers giving flawed gambling advice, which can have damaging impact on their gullible audiences.
So that's why I decided to write this up, to educate everyone on the subject, so there will be no more misunderstandings.
(2020 Update down at the bottom.)
If you're one of those Youtubers that wants to use this information in a video, feel free to do so. The more people (especially kids) that become educated about gambling, the better.
But then also please go back and review your own work, and delete or edit the videos that are giving out the wrong advice, like where you're saying you have "a good strategy for making money with roulette", or some other nonsense that I've heard this week. Delete that please.
Before I get into the individual games, I need to discuss a few concepts first, that will make understanding the rest a lot easier.
Expected return and variance
A game like Roulette or Slots has a fixed expected return on your bets. This is a percentage that you have no way of influencing. Say you are flipping a coin against a friend, and you both put up $1. The winner gets the pot. Since the odds are even at 50%, in the long run, you will expect to break even. Your expected return is 100% of your bet.
But imagine if you would play this coin flipping game in a casino against the house. On the "house rules" listed at the table they would probably say that you would only get 95 cents back for every win, while you are forfeiting a dollar on every loss. Would you still play?
Sounds stupid to do so, but still, everybody does it. Every bet they place on Roulette, every coin they put into a Slot machine, is based on the same concept.
Those few cents they take on every bet are their profit margin, and has paid for all the Vegas lights, the Mirage volcanoes, and the Bellagio fountains. Make no mistake - casino gambling games are not designed to make you lose, because sure, you can get lucky on a single night, but they are designed to make them win. That's the beauty of it. They can both exist at the same time.
Too many people that don't see how this works, are just destined for disaster. Just because you went on a lucky streak and won 8 games out of 10, does not mean that flipping coins is a profitable game, or that choosing tails is a winning strategy. Always be aware of the house edge, your true chances of winning, and just realize that you got lucky. There is no such thing as a strategy in flipping a coin that will give you a higher expected return, so it's just pure gambling, just like Slots and Roulette.
Most casino games are made in such a way, that your expected return is a little under 100%. This means that from every dollar bet at the tables, the casino expects to keep a few cents. For individual players, results may vary. Some will win, most will lose. But for the house, it doesn't matter. They take millions of bets each day, so for them, the expected average works out a lot sooner. In short: the house always wins.
When looking at the house edge, we're talking about the expected long-term result, based on the game's house rules. But for a player, it can take literally tens of thousands of hands or spins before you also reach this average number. Until that time, you can experience huge upswings and downswings, that are the result of nothing but short-term luck, which is called variance.
Some games and some bets have a much higher variance than others, which means your actual results will differ enormously from what you're expected to be at.
Take for example betting on red/black at the Roulette table. This is a low-variance proposition, because it has a high percentage chance of occurring, and a low payout.
Contrast this with betting single numbers in Roulette, which only win once every 38 spins on average. This bet has a much higher variance, meaning you can easily hit a dry spell, and not hit anything for 200 bets in a row, or you can see a single number hit three times in five consecutive spins. This is not a freak occurrence in high-variance bets.
Even though the expected return in both these bets is exactly the same, there's a huge difference in variance, causing massive differences in short-term results, which can go both ways. You need to be aware of this, before you decide what types of bets you are comfortable with placing.
Gamblers' Fallacy
Another thing to realize, is that each individual game, hand, or spin, is completely independent from the one(s) before it, and after it.
Gamblers tend to believe, that the chance of a certain outcome is increased, based on previous results.
The most famous example comes from the Casino de Monte Carlo, where the Roulette wheel managed to land on black 26 times in a row. Gamblers lost many millions during that streak, all frantically betting on red, believing that the odds were in favor of the wheel coming out on red, after producing so many blacks. This is not true. Each round is completely independent, and the odds are exactly the same.
You will hear people say things like a Blackjack table being "hot" or "cold", which is completely superstitious, and should be ignored. The exception was when Blackjack was being dealt from a shoe. It made card counting possible. But with the introduction of shuffle machines, and continuous shuffling like is being used in GTA, this no longer exists.
This is also why "chasing your losses" is a very bad idea. After being on a losing streak for some time, many gamblers believe that now it's their turn to start winning. So they will often increase their bet size, believing that when their predicted winning streak comes around, they will win back their losses, and more.
The reality of it, more often than not, is that people will indeed start playing higher and higher limits, until they are completely broke. Nobody is ever "due for a win". There is never a guarantee that you're about to start winning. In fact, the opposite is more likely to be true. You are, after all, in a casino.
Betting systems
Some people like to think that they have a fool-proof betting system, like the Martingale system. Simply increase or even double your bet when you lose, and keep doing that until you win. In theory, this system will always win. So that's why table limits were introduced, and where the system fails.
If you start at the Roulette table, playing red/black, with a small 750 chip wager, and just double your bet every time you lose, you only have to lose 6 times in a row, before you will be betting the table limit of 48,000, just to get that 750 chip profit.
Sure, you can go on all evening without this happening, winning 750 chips each time, but this losing streak only has to happen once, and you're bust. Any betting system like this is ill-advised, because you are hugely increasing your so-called "risk of ruin", and that's what we were trying to avoid.
And even if your starting bet is only 100 chips, after only nine straight losses, and nine doubled bets, you are betting the table limit at 50,000 chips. If you lose that bet, you're 100,000 chips in the hole, with no way to recover that with your 100 chip base wager.
So don't believe anyone that says this is the perfect system to always win in the casino. Sooner or later they will understand why they were wrong, when they're asking you for a loan.
Set your limits BEFORE you start playing
One final point before we get into the games, a general tip for people that head out to play: money management.
Just like in real life, before you go to the casino, decide on a maximum amount that you are WILLING TO LOSE.
Bet small enough, so that amount can last you through the entire evening, and you will not be tempted to run to the ATM to continue playing.
Considering GTA money, some people will be comfortable losing 1% of their GTA bank balance, some people will be comfortable with gambling away 5% of their total GTA savings. It's up to you what you can handle. Decide for yourself where it will start to hurt, and don't cross that line.
But whatever number you decide on, as soon as you lost that amount, get up and walk away. Don't chase your losses, stick to your limits, and accept that this has not been your day. There is always another game tomorrow. Always agree with yourself on a simple stop-loss rule, how much you would want to lose at most, and simply stop playing when you get there.
Same goes for winning. You can decide on a number, how much profit you would like to take away from the casino. You can go on a hot streak and be up half a million in a short period of time, but if you would continue to play longer, looking for more, chances are that you're going to lose it all back.
Most people are happy with doubling their daily casino budget, for example. Others are looking for 10 bets profit in Blackjack. Whatever you choose, when you hit that number, you can stop playing and bank your profits, or you can continue playing if you're still enjoying the games, but then only just play minimum bet sizes. Then you're just playing for fun, not for money. You've already made your profit, so simply keep it in your pocket, and don't risk losing it again.
Either way, decide on what your money management strategy will be, and STICK TO IT.
Casino games in GTA Online
Now, I'm going to dive into the games that you can find at the Diamond casino, ordered from worst to best.
6) Slots
Generally the rule is this: the less strategy a game has, the worse it is for the player. And with slots, this is definitely the case.
The only influence you have, is choosing what type of machine you're going to play. Basically, there are two types of slot machines:
-high frequency, low payout slots
-low frequency, high payout slots
In the first type, there is no huge (progressive) jackpot on offer, just your average selection of prizes that don't go up to crazy amounts.
This will result in a player having many more spins resulting in a win. The amounts that you win on the bigger prizes, will be smaller, but they do come around more often. This type of slot machine has a lower variance, which means that your money should last you longer, winning many smaller prizes along the way to keep you going.
The second type of slot machine lures you in with the temptation of a huge jackpot prize. Even though the long-term expected return on these machines is the same as the previous type, the prize distribution is hugely different. The large jackpot prize weighs heavily on the scale of expected return, but the chance of it hitting is extremely small. This results in a much higher variance on this type of machine. Usually your money will go down very fast, because the smaller prizes are less rewarding than on the other type of machine.
At the Diamond, the info screen says the player return at slots is set at 98.7%. This means that, on average, for every maximum bet of 2,500 chips, you expect to lose 32.5 chips.
This might not seem like a lot, but the danger of slots is that the game is extremely fast. You can spin about once every 6 seconds, which would result in an expected LOSS of about 20,000 chips per hour of playing.
But again, in this long-term expected number, the large jackpot awards are also factored in, and as long as you don't hit those big prizes, you'll see your money go down a lot faster.
In any case, thank heavens the max bet is only set at 2,500, or else we would see more players go bankrupt at alarming rates.
Optimal strategy for slots:
There is none. Because after betting, you have no more influence over the outcome. The only choices you have, is what type of machine you want to play at, and how much money you are going to risk. And those are all personal preference. As long as you stick to your loss limits, as discussed above, there's no harm in having a go every once in a while, hoping to get a lucky hit. Just realize that you don't have a high chance of scoring a big win, so as soon as you do, get up and walk away.
5) Roulette
Roulette is also a game where you have no influence over the outcome. There is zero skill involved. You place your bet, and that's it.
In traditional French roulette, a table has only the single-zero, but of course, for American casinos that wasn't enough of a house edge, so they simply doubled their profits by adding a second zero. The house edge was increased from 1/37 to 1/19, which is huge.
This makes playing on a double-zero roulette table by definition a sucker's play.
The payouts scale evenly, which means that a bet on a single number, and a bet on half of the numbers, and everything in between, yields the same expected return. The only difference, again, being the variance that you are willing to subject yourself to.
The player return for double-zero Roulette for all bets is 94.74%.
Except for the 5-number bet, which can only be made by placing a bet on the two top rows that contain 0, 00, 1, 2 and 3. The expected return on this bet is lower: 92.1%. This is because it only pays out 6-1. Why? Well, the number 36 isn't divisible by 5, so the greedy people that came up with double-zero Roulette had to round it off someway, and as expected, it wasn't going to be in the players' favor.Just remember that that 5-number bet is the worst bet at the table, and should be avoided. All other possible bets have the same expected return.
So it really doesn't matter how you spread your bets, if you bet only one chip, or if you litter the entire table with a bucketload of chips. Each chip you put out there, has the same expected return, so there is no strategy that will improve your long-term results.
Assuming that you're betting the maximum table amount of 50,000 chips, you will be looking at an expected loss of about 2,630 chips per spin. Considering that a round takes about 45 seconds to complete, your expected LOSS at the GTA Roulette tables will be around 200,000 chips per hour of playing.
Optimal strategy for double-zero roulette:
Stay away. Stay far away.
4) Three Card Poker
With Three Card Poker, we come across the first game where there is actually some strategy involved. You get to look at your cards, and then decide if you want to fold, and surrender your ante, or double your bet.
Additionally, you can choose to place a side bet on "Pair Plus", which offers progressive payouts.
There are some websites out there that ran all the numbers with computer simulations, and even though I would like to quote the source here, these websites are understandably littered to the max with online casino ads, so that's why I have decided against doing that.
Optimal strategy for Three Card Poker:
For this game you only have to remember one strategy rule: Always bet on any high card queen-six-four or better, and fold any high card queen-six-three or lower. That's it. Just don't forget to double check if you're not folding a straight or a flush, and you'll be fine.
This strategy will result in an expected return of 96.63%.
The Pair Plus sidebet, with the payout table that is used at the Diamond casino, gives you an expected return of 97.68%, which is actually a bit better than the main ante bet.
So by playing both wagers, you're reducing your expected losses per bet, but since you're betting more, you're also increasing your expected loss per hour.
My advice would obviously be to not play this game at all, but if you do, put as much of your bet as possible on the Pair Plus, while making our Ante bet as small as you can.
To be able to compare it to the other games at the Diamond, let's stay on that 50,000 maximum wager, meaning making your ante bet 35,000, and your pair plus bet 15,000, if the table would allow it.
This results in an expected loss of about 1,525 chips per hand, and with a round taking about 45 seconds, this adds up to an expected LOSS of around 120,000 chips per hour of playing. In comparison, if you would only play the ante bet for 50,000 per hand, you expect to lose 1,685 chips per hand, which means an expected LOSS of about 135,000 chips per hour. So the more out of that 50,000 wager you can put on the "Pair Plus" sidebet, the better.
Even though it may be fun to try out this game for a bit, since there's only one simple strategy rule to follow, you'll soon find yourself robotically grinding down your bankroll until it has vaporized. You're not missing out on anything if you skip these tables, there is no real challenge.
Just like with Roulette and Slots, if you want to try it out nonetheless, you can just bet the minimum amounts and only play for fun, so it won't matter if you win or lose.
3) Blackjack
Blackjack is the most complicated game by far. Simply because the player has to make a series of decisions, which will largely decide the outcome. Luckily, there is such a thing as an optimal strategy, which will be outlined below.
However, the strategy is also dependent on the house rules. These not only affect your expected return, but in some places also your decisions.
Here are the house rules at the Diamond casino:
-The game uses 4 standard decks, and a continuous shuffle.
-Blackjack pays 3 to 2, dealer checks for early blackjack.
-No insurance offered, no surrender.
-Dealer stands on soft 17.
-Double down on any two cards.
-Player can split only once, but doubling after split is allowed.
-Seven-Card Charlie.
Under these rules, and following the "basic strategy" chart, your expected return at Blackjack is a shade under 99.6%, which is extremely good for a casino game, that's why Blackjack should be your table game of choice.
But it comes at a price: you are going to have to memorize the relatively complicated strategy chart, or at least stick it to your monitor until you have it in your head. But in case you ever stumble into a real-life casino, you won't regret having this table memorized, so I would definitely advise you to work on that.
The strategy chart might look complicated at first, but you will be able to notice certain patterns. Your decisions are mainly based on the dealer's upcard, which is basically divided into a weak card (2 to 6), and a strong card (7 to ace).
When a dealer shows a strong card, you will be hitting more often with the risk of going bust, but when a dealer shows a weak card, you're not taking that risk, and you will be standing more, but also doubling and splitting more. You want to increase your bets when the odds are in your favor, and get out cheap when they're not.
But it also helps to take some time to think about why a certain advice is given. For example, why does it say that you always have to split two eights, even against an ace. Well, that's because two eights equals 16, which is the worst total you can have. It's better to split them up, and give yourself a chance of finding a 17, 18 or 19 with the next card. Once you see the logic in that, you'll have one less thing to memorize.
The playing advice in the basic strategy chart is a result of computer simulations that ran all possible outcomes against each other, and produced the most profitable decision for each situation. So you can't go wrong following it.
Optimal strategy for Blackjack with Seven-Card Charlie
The added house rule of Seven-Card Charlie, adds a small advantage for the player, and it does influence a few strategy decisions. For example, you might have a 14 with 6 cards, against the dealer's 5 upcard.
Normally this would be an automatic stand, but if you're only one card away from the Seven-Card Charlie, meaning an instant win for the player, regardless of the dealer's hand, it turns it into a hit.
Here's the most optimal strategy chart to follow for the Diamond Casino house rules:https://prnt.sc/olct6g
You'll see that two fives are missing from the chart, and that's because you never split them. You treat them as a regular 10. You also never split tens. Just stand on 20.
If you follow this strategy religiously, even with a maximum wager of 50,000 chips, you only expect to lose about 215 chips per hand, and with rounds taking about 30 seconds, that amounts to an expected LOSS of 26,000 chips per hour, which is only half a bet. A small price to pay for an hour of entertainment.
But since the expected return is so extremely close to 100%, you will see more positive short-term results than with other games. But obviously it can also swing the other way. Again, this is supposed to be the game where your money lasts you the longest, but always set your loss and win limits before you sit down. That rule simply always applies.
Still, even with optimal strategies applied, all these games are expected to lose you money in the long run. So betting any kind of large amounts is not advised. If you simply want to enjoy playing these games, there's nothing wrong with betting a minimal amount. Playing these games for a longer period of time will already cost you money anyway, since your daily property fees will still be charged while you're playing in the GTA casino. As long as you can play for fun, there's nothing wrong, but when you see yourself betting insane chunks of your entire bank balance to try to recoup some unfortunate losses, you're doing it wrong.
As the commercials in Britain all correctly say: when the fun stops, stop.
2) Virtual Horse Racing
Now onto the good stuff. I ran some numbers, and I believe Rockstar has made a mistake with the horse racing game. Because as it stands, and if I read the numbers correctly, this game is actually profitable for the player. You can actually make money with this, at least, until Rockstar figures out their mistake and patches it.
If anyone wants to jump into the math and double check this to make sure, please do so. I will add any corrections to this post. This is one of those "to good to be true" things, so I keep thinking that I might have overlooked something. So please verify it if you can.
The setup is this. There is a pool of 100 horses, each with their own attached payout. These are divided into 3 groups, ranked by their odds. From each group, 2 horses are randomly selected to provide a pool of six runners for you to bet on.
Now it's not an actual race you're looking at. You are looking at a raffle. This is important to realize.
Each horse gets awarded a certain number of raffle tickets. The favorites get awarded more tickets than the underdogs, and therefore, have a higher chance of winning.
If this distribution works like it does in the real-life casinos, then the raffle tickets are awarded according to the betting odds.
Example 1: imagine a race with 3 runners, all have 2/1 odds, representing a 33.3% chance of winning. (Because 2/1 means 2 AGAINST 1, so 3 total.) In this case, each horse gets one third of the raffle tickets, giving them an equal chance to win.
Example 2: imagine a race with 3 runners, one has 1/1 odds (or EVENS), representing a 50% chance of winning, and the other two horses are marked up as 3/1, with a 25% chance of winning. The favorite gets half the tickets, the other two get a quarter of the tickets each.
A ticket is drawn, and you'll have a winner.
It doesn't matter in this game which horse you bet on, because the expected return is always the same: 100% or break-even, for the above examples.
Now, what happens if the percentages don't exactly add up to 100%?
They must add up to 100%, because there will always be a winner. And only one winner.
So when this is the case, the actual winning chances of the horses are adjusted to meet the 100% requirement, using their payout odds to determine the scale.
So, if the represented percentages add up to more than 100%, the actual winning chances of the runners will be DECREASED, resulting in all bets becoming losing propositions for the players.
Example: In a 6-horse race, all runners are listed at 4/1, representing a 20% chance. Only with six runners that amounts to 120%. So all chances are scaled down by 1/6th, to end up at 100%.
This means your horse's chances are reduced from 20% to 16.67%, turning it into a losing bet: 5 times you will lose your bet, and 1 time you will win, but only get 4 bets back in this instance, instead of 5. A losing bet in the long run.
This is the type of odds that you find in regular casinos, with fields as large as 15 runners to bet on, where the assumed winning chances always add up to more than 100%, therefore are decreased for all runners, resulting in a house edge.
But in GTA Online's Inside Track, there are other scenarios, because of the small field, and the way that they are put together.
In some cases, the represented percentages when added up, are LESS than 100%, meaning that the actual winning chances of all runners, are INCREASED.
This creates profitable bets for the players, because in the long run, you're expecting to win more money than you lose. This is a gambler's dream, pure and simple.
So, according to the in-game information, the three groups of horses are divided as follows:
-Favorites: EVENS to 5-1
-Outsiders: 6-1 to 15-1
-Underdogs: 16-1 to 30-1
Let's take the two most extreme examples to show what's happening.
The worst possible field to bet on: two runners at EVENS, two runners at 6-1, and two runners at 16-1.
EVENS represents a 50% chance, 6-1 is 14.29%, and 16-1 is 5.88%. Add those up and you land on a total of 140.34%.
This means that the actual winning chances of the horses are decreased by 28.75% (to get that 140% down to 100%), which makes betting on this field extremely unwise.
A horse at EVENS will only come in as a winner 35.63% of the time, instead of 50%,
a horse at 6-1 will only win 10.18% of the time,
and an underdog at 16-1 will only win 4.19% of the time.
The expected return on a bet on any of the horses in this field is only 71.26%, so a maximum bet of 10,000 chips on any of these horses holds an expected LOSS of 2,875 chips.
These returns are the same, because the winning chances are scaled equally, according to the payout numbers. So it really doesn't matter which horse you bet on, in the long run, you expect the same results.
But as explained before, it does influence variance, and therefore your short-term result, which can swing both ways.
But now, the best possible field to bet on: two runners at 5-1, two runners at 15-1, and two runners at 30-1.
Odds at 5-1 represents a winning chance of 16.67%, 15-1 odds means 6.25% chance, and 30-1 odds means a 3.23% chance of winning. Add these six horses together, and you only get 52.285%.
This means that, to get from 52% to 100%, the actual winning chances of these horses will be almost doubled! Multiplied by 1.91 to be exact.
So the 5-1 favorites will now win 31.88% of the time, instead of 16.67%,
the 15-1 runners will win 11.95% of the time,
and the underdogs at 30-1 odds will still win 6.17% of the time.
When betting on this field, the expected return on your bet is 191.25%!
This means that a max bet of 10,000 chips will result in an expected PROFIT of 9,125 chips.
This is printing money, if there ever was such a thing.
Optimal strategy for Virtual Horse racing
So all you have to do, is only bet high on the games where you have an expected positive return, and bet the absolute minimum on the games where your expected return is negative. Or back out of the racing game to refresh the field.
If you don't have a way to quickly add up all the percentages, and until somebody shows up here with a neatly formatted table, just use a few general rules of thumb:
-Always bet the maximum on a race with favorites at 2/1 and 3/1 or higher in it.
-Simply skip all races with two favorites at EVENS in it, and at EVENS and 2/1. Or bet the minimum, if you can't skip or refresh the field.
-To decide if you should play races with other favorite combinations EVENS and 3/1, EVENS and 4/1, EVENS and 5/1, or two favorites at 2/1, the payouts on the other four runners determine whether or not it's profitable to play them. The results of betting on these fields vary from an expected 1,330 chip loss (worst-case) to an expected 1,680 chip win (best-case), with a max bet of 10,000 chips.
But if you're not looking for another strategy chart, you might just want to skip these borderline cases, and just cherry pick the best ones, which are easy to recognize, and with which you can never go wrong.
It's difficult to put a number on an expected win-rate, because it all depends on which fields you get presented with, but it's not unreasonable to state that you can maintain a steady win-rate of around 200,000 chips per hour, with about 50 seconds per race.
Remember, you're not trying to win every race. You're trying to win the most money per hour. So don't sweat it when you bet on a 4/1 favorite, and lose a couple of races in a row. It will still be more profitable in the long run. You have the math on your side.
To reduce negative variance, always bet on the favorite, when betting on profitable fields. We're not gambling anymore, we're grinding out a steady profit. We want to keep the swings to a minimum.
I contacted Rockstar support to verify if this is indeed how it works, but the only reply I got after 6 weeks is that they were "looking into it".
User u/Garsant made a useful Excel-worksheet, available for you to download, where you can quickly type in the payouts on the horses, to see if it produces a profitable bet or not. You can find it in his post here: https://www.reddit.com/gtaonline/comments/ekp8na/gta_online_inside_track_odd_calculato
1) Wheel of Fortune
The number one profitable casino game in GTA Online is obviously the Wheel of Fortune, because it costs you nothing to play.
Unfortunately, you only get one free spin per day, but it holds great value, so make sure you do it.
With a chance to win a super car, vehicle discounts, expensive mystery prizes (which also can be vehicles), and a lot of cash and chips, the expected return on a single spin is around $100,000 in value.
So don't forget your daily spin, it's definitely worth your time.
2020 Update:
As of the Diamond Casino Heist update, the Inside Track horse racing is confirmed to still be as profitable as outlined above.The only thing that seems to be changed, is that you can't refresh the field anymore by backing out of the screen. This does affect your hourly rate in a negative way, but does not change the fact that this game has a huge positive expected return, and should be your go-to when you're trying to take money from the house, without having Lester's nagging voice in your ear. That should also be worth something.
And with that, I conclude my 5,000 word essay on gambling in GTA. Questions, comments, feel free to add your input to this guide.
Cliffs:
-Gambling games should only be played for fun, not for big money. You should expect to lose in the long run. The house always wins.
-A casino game doesn't have a memory, and betting systems don't work.
-Set your limits before you start, how much you are willing to lose or win, and then walk away when you get there.
-Don't play slots, roulette, or three card poker.
-Only play blackjack following a basic strategy chart (https://prnt.sc/olct6g).
-Inside Track betting can be played profitably, if you only bet on fields WITHOUT a heavy favorite.
-Wheel of Fortune is always your best bet, because it's a free bet.

Based on Beginners guide: Properties ranked by Necessity by CretaceousFossil. Related: GTA Online property location guide, if you are wondering what the difference is between locations. For moneymaking specifics see /gtaonline's pinned weekly Mega Guide thread.

1. An Apartment, Stilthouse, or Penthouse: The #1 property every player should have by Level 30 is an apartment. While they may be less effective property for earning money, they definitely have advantages. You can spawn there safely, not having to worry about spawn killing by griefers. If another player is relentlessly chasing you down, even if you own no other properties, you can evade them. And finally, its nice to feel like an actual resident of Los Santos. Also its the only way to do the regular heists as a host.
   
2. CEO Office or Biker Clubhouse: It mainly comes down to what you like. You might like the clean, authoritative, high-rise feel of being a CEO, or you might like the gritty, street-level, rock'n'roll style of an MC president. However one or the other, is the second property you should invest in or at least prioritize. With the CEO Office, you won't need to make sure you have your 50,000 dollars every-time you join the game. Although the missions that come with the CEO are monotonous and underwhelming, so many of the other properties on this list require you to be a CEO or MC President to operate. As an MC president you have the ability to spawn in any bike you own, next to you with, no cooldown (except for the Oppressor Mk2); and as a CEO you have the ability to spawn in Organization vehicles (see #Organization_Vehicles on how to unlock them). You can also get free snacks at the Assistant in the Office.
   
3. Bunker: If you are beginner or someone who doesn't own a ton of Mk2 weapons or weaponized vehicles, the money is definitely the best part. The resupply missions are fairly easy (but once you have both production upgrades, you should buy supplies), and most of the sell missions without rival players are a breeze. Whenever you are online and you have supplies in the Bunker, it is passively producing. This allows you to do other activities in the meantime. However besides the money, if you wish to own a lot of Mk2 Weapons and maybe a weaponized vehicle, the research does pay off. Also this property allows you to buy an MOC. While the interior may seem like a bunch of gray, drab, ugly, concrete tunnels at first, once you get the golf carts, sleeping quarters, shooting range, upgrades, and the yellow paint job its gives a nice industrial/laboratory feel.
   
4. Vehicle Warehouse: Import/Export is one of the best solo money-making methods. There is no upfront cost as with Special Cargo but if done correctly it can still net a good $200k per hour (or more, combined with VIP jobs). The Specialized Vehicles stored in the basement are rather lackluster though, Rockstar introduced much more powerful weaponized vehicles since then, most of them even cheaper and customizable.
   
5. (Special Cargo) Warehouse or MC Business: The warehouse's drop-shipping style buy & sell formula makes it the most straightforward and it's a good way to introduce beginners to selling. However, there are definitely some flaws with this option. While the selling yields good profits, if you lose your cargo, your losing time and money. Open-Road Businesses are similar in idea to gunrunning. Steal or buy supplies and wait for your stock to build up. However they don't pay that well, and are obsolete compared to other businesses.
   
6. Nightclub: The nightclub definitely has some very good benefits. You get a free Speedo Custom right off the bat, which at first is a "so-so" vehicle, but once you have all the vehicle upgrades, the armor plating, the minigun, and mines, it's a very fun and effective vehicle. While the cargo accrues quite slowly, if you are patient and play the business battle missions, you will have some considerable stock. Plus you can purchase the Terrorbyte, more info on it below. For the Nightclub to be most effective you should own (and run, that is not have it shut down) other businesses, as the stock is generated from linked businesses. Keeping the Nightclub at higher levels of popularity will put more money every 24 ingame hours (48 minutes IRL) into your safe. Every ingame day decreases the popularity by 5% (1/4 of a popularity bar), changing DJs for $10k (once you unlocked them for $100k - this maxes out popularity) will up your popularity by 10% (half of a bar). Or you may wait a couple ingame days and do a popularity mission which increases popularity by 1.5 bar. You can see how much cash gets added into your safe (capacity: $70k) every day: https://gta.fandom.com/wiki/Nightclubs#Cash
   
7. Terrorbyte (requires Nightclub): The Terrorbyte is a really great vehicle. Besides having a literal base inside in a truck, which is sweet, it is incredibly functional. The missions have awesome pay considering the level of effort/hassle needed to complete them, plus you can remotely launch resupply missions for any of your businesses. If you decide to buy this truck, make sure you have over $1.2m extra, to get the drone station and missiles (though the latter is not very useful), and you if don't own a Mk2 weapon workshop, getting one with the terrorbyte is a good idea.
   
8. Arcade: The Arcade provides another passive income (max $5k per day) to the player while also giving the player the ability to host Casino Heists which pay really well if the player knows what they are doing. The passive income depends on how many games are placed, you may even just place the same games in every slot to achieve the highest possible payout, you don't have to buy all the machines. Owning a Terrorbyte makes you able to hire Paige as hacker, which is necessary for good Casino Heist runs to max out the time you can spend grabbing loot (or you may alternatively unlock Avi Schwartzman as a hacker).
   
9. Facility: The facility although one of the more expensive properties, can get you some serious cash and XP from the Doomsday Heists, plus the front desk has free snack. This is my favorite property just because of how expansive it is. With the wall designs, color scheme, fully upgraded quarters, and statues you get after the heists, its very aesthetically pleasing and is a good way to impress.
   
10. Garage (standalone property): If you are too broke to afford an apartment because you don't that much time to play or apartments are not your thing, put this at number 1 over the apartment as the first property to buy. However although being able to to store cars, garages are obsolete considering you can add garages and garage levels to nightclub, and apartments and the facilities include garages. Also you can't set your spawn location to standalone garages.
    
11. Mobile Operations Center (MOC) or Avenger): While both have a better bang for your buck than the warehouse, they aren't that crucial for beginning players. The MOC at first is very barebones and while there are missions that can be launched from it, they require multiple players and can't be launched in freemode. The Avenger can be a useful vehicle for freemode jobs (such as Hangar missions or Facility/Arcade preps) but it's definitely not necessary.
    
12. Hangar: If you love flying in GTA Online and want to spend all your money on planes, this is the property for you. However, if you want to make money, it's not a very good option. Crates are only worth $10k each and the missions require some flying skills, and only give 1 crate per player in the MC or Organization, with a maximum of 4. The sale missions also require flying skills, some even more than the sourcing missions and some of them can't really be done solo.
    
13. Arena Workshop: With the paint job, decals, and office, the Arena Workshop can be made to look very cool, and with the weapons workshop you can add weapons to vehicles and upgrade guns. You also have access to the Arena War career, which allows you to unlock discount prices for outfits and vehicle mods (albeit randomly, so it's not a very effective model), and the base prices for the upgardes are very steep. This property is over a million, so unless you are planning to buy a ton of discounted items or you just love Arena War, wait out on this one or skip it altogether.
    
14. Casino Master Penthouse: Basically a very expensive apartment, with very expensive modular upgrades and decorations. You can also add a 10-car garage for $900k. It also lets you do the Casino Missions (from Agatha Baker) as a host, which upon completion awards the player with the Paragon R (Armored)) car, which is exclusively available from here.
    
15. CEO Office Garage: Unless you are super rich and own more cars than you know what to do with, make this property dead last. It costs millions to add more levels. You can add a Custom Auto Shop (for even more money) with it to custom your cars straight from the garage though.
    
16. Yacht: Big floating apartment on water, gives you the option to play one extra type of VIP job. Not a priority.
    

Do you guys think that when Rockstar inevitably announces GTA VI that they will also put in teases in GTA Online (e.g. TV adds promoting Vice City, cars to be featured in the game, radio adverts etc.)? GTA Online's world is dynamic or continuously changing unlike Single Player where its static and minor teases can be added.
On a related note, I think the Vice City P.I. slot machine in the casino is already a tease. Thoughts?

I’ve been playing WoW since mid-2005 and began my Warcraft journey in Tides of Darkness. I’ve been through many ups and downs throughout WoW’s history. For the first time during yesterdays Q&A, I felt completely disillusioned and disheartened with the direction the game is headed. I’ve been disappointed and frustrated before, but there is an overwhelming sense that the Dev’s just don’t get it. Every decision seems to be coming from a Developer mindset, not a Players mindset.
It became clear to me that the core fundamental issues of the game aren’t going to be addressed any time soon because they aren’t even on the Dev’s radar. I have my conjecture as to why that is, but it’s not really constructive to the discussion at hand. I intend for this post to be constructive feedback, not an assault on why the Dev’s seem to be disconnected.
So let me address the Q&A point-by-point from the perspective of a Player (the ones that effect gameplay design):(1) RNG. No one likes it. Not casuals. Not hardcore. Not moderates. We all know that RNG has been a part of the game since the beginning, however, it was not the bedrock that the loot system was based upon. Telling us that RNG has always been a part of the game is a partial truth, at best.
Its RNG if I get a gem socket. Its RNG if it has Leech or Indestructible. Its RNG if I warforge/titanforge. Its RNG from the boss drops. Its RNG from the weekly chest. Its RNG from the World Quests. Today, every single piece of loot is RNG based. RNG dictates everything.
It’s obvious to all of us that you are trying to trigger the dopamine receptor action(s) from random rewards just like a slot machine in a casino or a Hearthstone card pack. That is fine in regards to rare items (ie; mounts or the scythe off of Argus), but not when every single piece of gear in the game is subject to degrees (plural) of RNG. It makes the game obfuscated and confusing even to veterans. The goal should be to make the game more intuitive, not less.
When I look at a loot table, I want to know if an item has a gem slot (TBCs colored gem socket bonuses were awesome by the way - bring that back!), what it’s item level is, and what secondary stats or procs it triggers. I don’t want there to be any guesswork in the item. The only RNG should be whether the item dropped or not. Period. I’d rather run a dungeon a 100x with something I know that I need (see; Maw of Souls) then random dungeons a 100x with no guarantees that I will get what I want.
In regards to rewards we work towards, like World Quests or Weekly Mythic Cache, I’d rather get a known quantity of Residuum than any random items. When I open a chest 3 weeks in a row and get 3 belts in a row, it makes me want to quit this game forever. It is that frustrating. If I wanted WoW to be an RNG extravaganza, I wouldn’t have been playing WoW in the first place.
(2) Gear Reset. The power gap between tiers has become insane. People are doing more than double the DPS in regular BoD (20k+) than they were in regular Uldir (roughly 10k). This is unacceptable. That stat squish is a bandaid that covered the infection underneath without treating it. Not only that, but you completely made Uldir gear obsolete.
Uldir is now trivial in difficulty to most of us. We could carry our friends, who lack the skill level, through Uldir for gear if it wasn’t a complete waste of time because a World Quest chest over in Stormsong offers high ilvl than Heroic G’huun! It’s absolute madness. When raids become more trivial, its also a great training ground for players just not up to par for current content. In Cata, we used to do the old raids that were one tier behind for casuals so they could get the experience of the raid and the comradery of being part of a guild event. Now, if those people want that experience they get to do the current raid, but its in LFR with a bunch of random toxic strangers. Hardly a community experience. When I was a casual in WotLK, I had no problem running Ulduar to catch-up with gear while the serious people were in ToC. When did this become a problem for Devs? I never used to hear casuals complain about casuals not being able to set foot into the new raid on Day 1. For most of us, it was a month or two before we did and we were OK with it.
We, the players, have been telling you, the Devs, that we want all Tiers in the current expansion to be meaningful. If I’m coming into BFA today, I want to have a reason to progress through Uldir before I ship off right away to BoD. Its part of the story and the immersion. Anyone hitting 120 right now in BFA won’t see Uldir, and thats a shame. I loved having a reason to go back and raid Karazhan all expansion long. You’re trying to fill that void by having 4 difficulty levels in a single tier. Problem is, there is nothing exciting about defeating Jaina in Normal or Heroic if I’ve already beat her in LFR.
I understand that you don’t want us feeling like we need to go back and farm an old raid to progress in the current raid, but there are ways around this. You already experimented with it, perhaps unknowingly, with Reorigination Array that benefits it only in that new raid. If you’re worried about a particular piece of gear outperforming new loot, slap an incentive like Reorigination Array (ie; instance specific buff) on the new piece to discourage the old piece you’re worried about. You avert the problem Dragonspine Trophy caused if you put something like Reorigination Array on Madness of the Betrayer while you’re in the Black Temple instance.
You’re breaking the pacing of the game and the importance of GeaLoot in it. Gear is the fundamental cornerstone of any RPG. When the gearing in it is bad, the RPG is bad. It is why BFA is in the state it is (not good). When people say BFA is worse than WoD, they are being hyperbolic. BFA is a good expansion with a terrible gearing problem. There are a ton of great things in BFA (lore, story, zones, music, art, questing, raids), but none of it matters. Why? Gearing in BFA stinks. It is so incredibly clumsy and unintuitive. We literally need addons for our addons to understand Azerite traits and which secondary stat is on what piece. Imagine being a new player whose never touched WoW understanding this gearing system. Good luck! I struggle being a 14 year veteran.
There are too many difficulties per raid tier which is part of the cause of this problem. A normal and a mythic are all we need. In many cases in Uldir, I actually found normal groups faster in the new LFG tool and ran it faster, easier and with more community interaction than LFR. LFR has outlived its usefulness. Heroic is barely harder than Normal, so it really doesn’t fill a purpose. The new Normals difficulty should fall between current LFR and Normal for the first half of bosses, and between Normal and Heroic for the last half, with a transitional boss or 2 in the middle.
(3) Fun. Stop using engagement as a metric. Just because a lot of us are doing something does not mean that we are enjoying it (see; ilvl 400 Warfront loot). Just because we are logging in to do a specific piece of content doesn’t mean its fun to us. It means its the path of least resistance to get what we want.This is the main point where most of us feel the disconnect with the Dev’s. If they were actively playing the game and as passionate as we are about it, the problems the community has would be self-evident. They would never make it past Beta or the PTR. Being at the complete mercy of chance isn’t fun. Doing mindless activities (Islands and Warfronts) just because they have geatransmog isn’t fun.
Legendary items were fun. I loved them. I just didn’t like how I acquired them. There was no potential way to target them. They should have been all craftable through professions. They could have still been a low percentage RNG drop if we could just acquire them eventually over time through farming or by buying it on the AH from a crafter. It would have given an endgame progression to professions in this game (which are in an abysmal state, I might add, not that WoWs professions have ever been good compared to other MMOs). Instead of ironing out the one wrinkle of the system, you threw it in the bin instead. All it took was a little bit more iteration. The system was almost there, and now its gone. Blizzard has a long history of abandoning great systems that work to force new systems that don’t. Striving for streamlining and accessibility is coming at the cost of engagement and enjoyment. I have no clue why, but it’s very frustrating to me. The endless quest for streamlining and balance is just sucking the life out of the game for me.
(4) PvP Rewards. The very fact that you had to explain that the little bar you fill on the top of PvP LFG is a participation reward reveals its unintuitive. Many people that want the reward probably don’t even know that bar is there. Perhaps its time to give us a new button on the Micro Menu that tracks progress on Mythic Caches, PvP rewards, season rankings, etc. A one-stop-shop for everything we need to know and follow. Please include the Island Expedition weekly bar in there as well.
To be fair, most of the UI at this point is unintuitive. It’s stuck in 2004. The very fact that we have to mod it through AddOns just to make it palatable shows how much work needs to be done to it. It’s a bit like how Bethesda relies on its community to fix its bugs in Skyrim without patching it themselves. Blizzard has relied on its community to fix its lackluster UI through self-modding for too long. It’s time to bring the UI into 2019 and make it module without AddOns, like SWTOR does.
With all of that said, I’m sad that Random BGs hold almost no value now. At least in Legion I had a chance of getting a Legendary to drop in them. Now, it’s just a complete waste of time. It’s fun, but pointless. There is nothing I can get in it that I can’t get faster or easier somewhere else.
(5) Item Stats. Haste. Mastery. Crit. Versatility. Boring. All boring. I’m not excited when I get a specific stat. I don’t care what it does.Once upon a time I was excited to get a big Haste item for my Shadow Priest and Crit for my Fire Mage. The right or wrong stat compositions would result in a HUGE performance difference - anywhere from 25% to 150%. That time is long gone. There is no reason to care now unless your a Mythic Raider. Most of the time, I find myself just looking at item level because I can’t be bothered, because min-maxing optimization versus just selecting whatever is just a 10-15% difference. Ambivalence is not a great feeling in an RPG.
WoD was a major gaffe in many departments, but experimenting with Multistrike, Indestructible, Avoidance, Leech, Speed… those were good things. You should have continued iterating on that instead of scrapping half of it. We need more of this, not less. It makes gearing more interesting. This handholding that Blizzard is doing for the sake of the “average user” (since casual is a dirty word to Blizzard) is who this hurts most - the average user. The hardcore only care about min-maxing. Stats are just and end to a means for the hardcore. Its the average user who would get excited for hitting their Defense rating or Hit cap back in WotLK. I understand why things like Armor Penetration was removed for balance, but at the same time it made the game feel like a gutted RPG when it was taken out. It made the game lose its flavor.
Fun is more important than balance, and lets be honest - a game as vast and complex as WoW is never going to be truly balanced. Striving for perfection in balance leads to homogenization and uninteresting gameplay. I’d rather be lousy for a raid tier and be unique than to have my classes all feel the same. Every class has a builder and spender now. We’re all Rogue-lite. We all have some version of Combo Points. The classes and specs that aren’t Combo Points seem to be Proc based. Those are our two play styles now. It just feels bad. My Fire Mage feels like my Elemental Shaman. My Ret Paladin feels like my Rogue and my Death Knight (all specs).
(6) Portal Removal. This is going to be unpopular with many reading, but you made the right decision on removing most portals. This is an MMO world and instant traveling anywhere was a problem. With that said, this decision was premature. There was no need to implement it at a time when there is really nothing to do other than farm old raids in these areas. If we had current content in these areas that effected 110-120 gameplay. The fact we don’t have World Quests across Azeroth to me is a bit mind boggling to me. I believe that is why most were excited for World Quests when Legion was announced. I hoped it would reinvigorate old zones, not just replace Daily Quests.
(7) Allied Races. When you announced the Allied Race system, people were hoping for races like Jinyu, Ogres, Vrykul, High Elves… the races we’ve gotten to quest for and with over the years. Tom Chilton once said adding Draenei was a mistake because they weren’t built-up. He said that Blizzard learned their lesson and wouldn’t make that mistake with adding a new race again… and then we received Void Elves. I get that the creative-minded artists want to do crazy, new, interesting things, but I’m not going to get excited over adding races I’ve just found out about like Void Elves (which had no story before they were added) or Kul Tirans (which are a retcon to Warcraft 2 and 3) in the same way I was excited for Nightborne, who had story build-up before hand. I want to care about the race I’m playing, or it just feels like an empty shell I’m running around in. To be fair, you’ve done a decent job making up for it retroactively with Void Elves with the War Story in Zandalar.
(8) Leveling. While I would like a level squish, it doesn’t fix the underlying problem that leveling in WoW is not rewarding. This is just another band-aid solution. Making less levels doesn’t mean you can give us something more interesting. I think that is a false logic. Not only that, but now its going to take 2x as long for people to gain a single level. It will feel like walking through mud to people who’ve become used to speed at which they gain a level. Personally, this wouldn’t bother me, but I highly doubt the community would be thrilled with this.
The Dev’s really need to study what Elder Scrolls Online is doing in this department. While ESO isn’t perfect, I always feel rewarded for spending time and effort on my character. There are only 50 levels in the game, but there are another 810 levels once you hit 50 (ie; Paragon in Diablo 3) that give you small, incremental rewards. That’s all people need. It’s not about the size of the carrot-on-a-stick, it’s about having any carrot-on-a-stick. WoW currently doesn’t have one. It’s psychology 101.
I could write a book on all the things I would like to see improved in WoWs leveling, but I’ll refrain for another time. It used to be what attracted me most to WoW. Now it’s thing thing I like least about it. The entire process needs to be reworked. Creating a brand-new toon and running through an empty Kharanos and Ironforge makes the game feel dead to new and veteran players alike. It’s a bad experience. If I was a new player today, I would think the game is dead and promptly quit. One of the successes of Cataclysm is that new players felt like they were part of an alive world. Players of all levels were all around them as soon as they left Northshire Abbey. That’s important in the immersion and attraction of an MMO. I strongly believe this philosophy of concentrating players in a few select zones is outdated, especially with the new phasing technology. Its a philosophy stuck in a time when we were all relegated to one server. I think that needs to be rethought. I really believe spreading players out would be better for the game for immersion and interaction, but also server performance. These 20v20 WPvP battles in Kul Tiras/Zandalar shouldn’t be bringing the servers to their knees. No MMO should perform poorly in that scenario.
(9) Old Design Philosophies. I’ve been banging this drum since early-MoP. This game has completely streamlined almost every single element of an RPG out of it. The analogy I liked to use with my friends is that Classic WoW was this delicious loaf of Sourdough bread. In an effort to streamline and make it more digestible to a larger audience, it has been slowly flattened over time. Have you ever tasted a squished loaf of bread? How about pureed bread? I used to work at a Nursing Home. I’ve tasted it. It’s not bread anymore. It loses all of its character, flavor, texture and nuances. Its effectively not bread anymore. WoW is effectively not an RPG anymore in the same way.
Here is an example: Players liked the immersion of ammunition (or soul shards/relics), they just didn’t like the inconveniences that came with it. There are ways around that, however. Hunter ammunition was annoying because you couldn’t stack enough of it and you’d have to fill your bags with it before a raid (in Classic, my Mage was like a second quiver for one of our Hunters). Instead of scrapping quivers though, maybe it should have gotten a unique slot like a Paladins Relic where you could customize and augment the ammunition you used for extra range, procs, a larger quiver, longer trap durations, etc. It helps separate the Hunters from the fantasy of other classes. If Hunters could have held larger stacks of ammunition or have a way to acquire ammunition mid-raid (like collecting X% of arrows back off the boss/mob you just killed or summoning an ammo vendor [like a spotter for big game hunters - carries the ammo and binoculars]), this would have never been a change people would have cried for. The fantasy of crafting ammunition as an Engineer on my Hunter was a huge draw to playing the class and the profession together. It could also be an interesting way to differentiate guns from bows and cross bows (bullets/arrows/bolts). Heavens, it’s what made Thori’dal, the Stars’ Fury so awesome in TBC - partly the convenience, but also that it gave you something special if you acquired the weapon that made you unique compared to other Hunters. Again, instead of iterating on how to make Ammo work, it was scrapped.
(10) Guilds and Communities. When Ion said (paraphrasing) that guilds were the most important part of WoW, I’ll admit I laughed a bit. Everything Blizzard has done since Cataclysm has been to disempower and undermine Guilds and Guild Leaders in lieu of the single-player crowd. For Master Loot being scrapped, to convenience systems like LFR and LFD, to having a Guild Recruitment tool developed during the MySpace age… Blizzard has effectively let guilds and the importance of guilds wither and die. Many people who currently play Modern WoW like that guilds are irrelevant unless you Mythic Raid. There are also many people who quit the game when guilds and communities stopped being relevant. There are even quite a few of us who still linger in this game who want to have a Guild, but shrug and say to ourselves “What’s the point? Everyone is just going to PuG or instant queue everything solo anyways.”
During this Q&A when Ion states that community is the big thing they are taking away from Classic development, but they want people in Modern WoW to still be able to solo everything… that’s never going to work. That philosophy is trying to mix oil with water. You either want to make this a Co-op Online game or you want to make it an MMO. You can’t have both. The reason the games community is so toxic and floundering right now is that fact that every one can solo everything. I don’t need anyone else to kill a Rare mob, craft a flask or gem, or organize and lead a group. I can do it all myself. Convenience is the enemy of engagement and immersion. If you want to foster a strong community in WoW, people are going to have to interact with other people. That means forming groups organically, not through random matchmaking.
In regards to the Communities feature, lets be honest - it was a half-baked attempt at social media in WoW. It’s great for WoW content creators, but it does nothing that Discord doesn’t do better. If you want to make it relevant, find a way to let it interact with Discord, Wowhead and Raider .io
(11) Gold. If anything in this game needs a squish, its Gold and Golds value. When was the last time you thought about how much Copper or Silver you have? WotLK? They’ve become as important as a Penny. Can’t remember the last time I used one of those for a transaction. I think I only receive them as change now. When I’m repairing my gear now, I feel like I’m spending Japanese Yen. ¥700 for a Big Mac isn’t expensive, but it feels like it looking at it at a glance, although it’s really only $6 US dollars. That’s what buying things in WoW feels like right now.
I agree that Blizzard will never be able to control markets in WoW, all you can do is regulate them. Banning them just leads to sketchy underground markets. With that said, there is ton here to do. Gold making used to be a huge part of WoW that isn’t anymore. It used to be its own endgame progression for a lot of people. When professions ceased being relevant, the only thing that kept it afloat was Potions, Flasks, Transmog items and Pets.
With all the problems WoW currently has, I strongly believe that the state of professions is what is hurting this game the most. It hurts the games economy. It hurts character immersion. It hurts character progression. It hurts raiding. It hurts casuals. It hurts Gold Makers. While WoWs professions have never been as good as other MMOs (IMHO), it was a huge endgame draw for “average users” - more so than Raiding or Mythic Plus. If Blizzard gave each profession the same sort of love that Class Order Halls in Legion received, it would reinvigorate a huge portion of the game for most players. I miss being a Gnomish Engineer and it adding flavor to my gameplay. Being unique is what draws me to RPGs. I would hazard a guess that is true for most people playing MMOs as well.
Some additional feedback on the Q&A:
Lore, there is no need to (man, do I hate this term…) “mansplain” to the community watching. Please stop interpreting what the question is, rewording it, and paraphrasing it back to us. Sometimes you even do this to the answers Ion gives. We don’t need you to translate for us what is written or spoken in plain English. We don’t need it spelled out for us. Both you and Ion professed those who are watching are the more hardcore WoW audience. To be honest, most of us probably play the game far more than you right now. When you spend that much time streaming GTA 5 RP (which you’re very good by the way - love Legs MacCready) you can’t have time for WoW at the level most of us play. That’s fine, but you shouldn’t be scolding or preaching to us about your Shamans rotation or how it took you X long to get X item in Black Temple when you’re not actively engaged in the modern game. The points you make are irrelevant to the question and it’s nothing more than giving us a “whataboutism” answer. Moreover, it has nothing to do with BFA. These responses come off as nothing more than condescending and sometimes even snide. Smug tweets aren’t helpful to this image either.
Also, we understand how casuals experience the game, but just because they log in for an hour or two once-in-a-while does not mean the game needs to be tailored specifically to them. Just because they pay for a subscription doesn’t mean they are entitled to geamounts/titles/etc. This entitlement and socialism culture is not beneficial to an MMORPG. Ironically, I’m pseudo-socialist IRL, but it just doesn’t work in WoW. This is an MMORPG - a genre that is all about status symbols. Time and effort are a currency here. By its very concept MMORPGs are a hardcore gamer genre. Trying to appease the non-MMORPG audience means you appease no audience. That doesn’t mean there isn’t a space for casuals, but designing a hardcore game and genre to target a casual audience is akin to selling a ketchup popsicle to a woman in white gloves (+1 point if you get the reference). It makes no sense. They aren’t your target demographic. They aren’t the group that stays loyally subbed for 15 years straight. Don’t try to sell Miley Cyrus to a Death Metal crowd.
Some quick-fire suggestions to improve BFA
Island Expeditions: Move all the RNG in BFA to IE, and take all the RNG out of everywhere else. Have Normal give 340 ilvl, Heroic 355 ilvl, Mythic 370 ilvl and PvP give 385 ilvl cache with chances of extra transmogs/mounts/toys/pets. Add a single IE “boss” that whoever defeats it, automatically wins. It gives it a catch-up mechanic, you can remove the Mario Kart rubber banding, and teams will have to pay attention to make sure the other team isn’t trying to kill the “boss”. For this to work, the boss will have to be very difficult to kill with 1-shot mechanics that will eliminate you if you mess up. If you have a weak team, it might be best to just avoid to boss and collect azerite off the smaller mobs in the IE. In other words, the boss is optional, but you need to at least defend it from being defeated.
Warfronts: Make it a story mode. Right now its LFR for the people who think LFR is too difficult (are there really any of those people out there?). That’s fine, but make it lore and story heavy, not light. I want random dynamic lore events that happen spontaneously, but don’t always trigger. I want to interact with Alliance soldier on the frontline and hear their stories. I want to follow Trollbane around the rebuilt city of his ancestors and talk to me about it. I want Warfronts to be an ingame novel covering the characters in it. Even the story of the land. Lets get some lore about the Troll Wars, for example.
Azerite: You’re already working on the necklace, so I’ll let this be until I see what you have in mind, Blizzard.
Professions: Make Expulsom and Breath of Bwonsamdi BoE. Making it BoP just funnels people into raiding who don’t want to raid. Not all crafters are raiders. Give Gold Makers a way to make gold in BFA. Let us use Residuum to upgrade our crafted items in steps of +5 ilvls. This will keep crafted items relevant against loot drops.
There is more I could add, but this is probably far too long as is. Thanks for reading. Throw your suggestions back at me. Happy to discuss and debate anyone being respectful.
https://us.forums.blizzard.com/en/wow/t/q-a-and-bfa-feedback-for-the-devs/132689