How often after a losing session have you thought, or heard another video poker player say, "I just didn't get enough four-of-a-kinds" or "I hit the deuces but pissed it all away." We tend to blame the cards, and sometimes they can be merciless, but there are three bigger reasons why we lose:
1. We aren't using the proper strategy for the game we're playing. Teacher and author Bob Dancer estimates that half of all video poker players switch among games but use the same or almost the same strategy for all of them. This won't hurt much in some cases, but in others it can be extremely costly. Even different versions of the same game can require significant strategy changes. For example, in some versions of deuces wild, you should hold two pair. In others, you should hold only one of the two pair. It depends on whether the full house pays three or four per coin bet.
2. Because the big-payout hands make up a significant part of the return in all video poker games, you are going to lose most of the time when you don't hit a royal flush, four deuces, four aces, etc. The good news is that when you hit one of the big-payout hands, you are likely to win more in that session than you lose in your losing sessions (although this obviously is not always true).
3. Finally, the main reason we lose is that we are playing games that cannot be beaten. In Nevada, there are still games available with a long-term return, with perfect play, of more than 100 percent. These include full-pay deuces wild, double bonus, double double bonus and loose deuce deuces wild. There are many other games on which a player can achieve an overall return of 100 percent or more if slot club benefits are taken into account. Depending on what a particular casino is offering, most games with a return of 99.5 percent or better fall into this category. These include 9/6 jacks or better and 16/10 "not so ugly" deuces wild. It is sometimes possible to get benefits that bring the return of a 99 percent game above 100 percent.
If you play games with much less than a 99 percent return, you are almost certainly going to be a long-term loser, no matter what the casino gives you for playing. Further, although winning sessions are certainly possible with lousy-paying games, you will have fewer of them than with better games, you will usually lose more money when you lose and you will usually win less money when you win.
Let me give you example. There's a small casino near the Las Vegas Strip called Ellis Island (named for its ower, Gary Ellis). It's known for its steak dinner special, microbrewery, karaoke bar and barbeque. For 40 years it's been popular with locals, particularly employees of other casinos, as well as value-oriented tourists.
My spouse and I have been regular players at "the Island" since we moved to Vegas. For the past couple of years or so, we have played single-line 9/6 jacks or better at the $2 and $5 denominations.
On a recent visit we were disappointed to find that our 9/6 jacks had been downgraded to 9/5. That means instead of paying six coins per coin bet or 30 for a max-coin bet, the game now pays five per coin or 25 for a max-coin bet. For a $5 player betting max coin, that's a pay cut of $25 per flush, from $150 to $125. For a $1 player its's a cut of $5 per flush, and for a quarter player, of $1.25 per flush.
Assuming you're playing proper strategy, the cost per hour or per session depends on how fast you play. Approaching the problem from a different direction, I figured that the cost of this change to a $5 max-coin player playing 600 hands an hour at approximately $150 an hour! (My method was to find the difference in payout between the 9/6 and 9/5 games -- approximately one percentage point -- and multiply it by the amount of money a $5 player runs through the machine at 600 hands an hour. With a max-coin bet of $25 an hour, that comes to $15,000 an hour. One percent of that is $150.)
This shows the importance of checking the pay table of any video poker game before you shovel in your money -- and of knowing what numbers to look for. With video poker, the pay table is the price tag.
You should know the common versions of each game you play regularly and how much they cost the player. As I have pointed out many times, an invaluable resource for this is Jean Scott and Viktor Nacht's Video Poker Scouting Guide.
As for Ellis Island, I don't know whether I'll continue to play there. I do know that I will not be playing 9/5 jacks or better there or anywhere else, barring circumstances so unusual they are difficult to imagine.
Thursday, October 4, 2012
Wednesday, September 19, 2012
A dealt royal -- and an even bigger surprise
I was recently playing $1 Jacks or Better at Hooters in Las Vegas when I hit the deal button and a royal flush popped up. That's a rare event -- about once in every 600,000 hands, or once a year for a full-time player. But what happened next was even more of a surprise.
When a jackpot of $1,200 or more is hit on a machine, it's supposed to lock up. That's because such jackpots are taxable, and casinos have to issue tax forms to the player and the IRS. Employees pay such jackpots by hand, then adjust the machine to remove the equivalent amount of credits.
But the machine at Hooters never locked up -- it just racked up the 4,000 credits for my royal and let me keep playing. I was getting double points, so I kept going for a while. When I was ready to leave I hit the cash out button and the machine printed out a ticket for $4,100.
My intent was to take the ticket to the cage and explain what happened. But before I could leave the machine, a slot attendant approached. I told her what had happened, and she called over one of her co-workers. The two of them reviewed the hands played on the machine as far back as it would let them, which wasn't all the way back to the royal. They then got a supervisor involved and didn't tell me anything about what was happening (language was at least part of the problem). I asked to see a manager and told them I was losing patience and wanted to get the matter resolved.
About a half hour after the royal the slot people reached a manager. They were told to issue the tax forms for the jackpot, pay me by hand and take my cashout ticket. This is exactly how the matter should have been handled, only without the half-hour wait. After I was paid the manager came over and we had a brief chat. I asked him what the maximum ticket amount the cage at Hooters will pay without a hassle, and he said $1,200. Taking my $4,100 ticket to the cage would have set off a process that would have taken longer than what I experienced, he told me.
While I was waiting to be paid, a troubling question crossed my mind: Would the casino claim the machine malfunctioned and refuse to pay me? I was prepared to argue that any malfunction involved only those parts of the machine that are supposed to lock it up for a hand pay, not the random number generator that dealt me the royal. Fortunately, I never had to make the argument because the issue never came up.
When a jackpot of $1,200 or more is hit on a machine, it's supposed to lock up. That's because such jackpots are taxable, and casinos have to issue tax forms to the player and the IRS. Employees pay such jackpots by hand, then adjust the machine to remove the equivalent amount of credits.
But the machine at Hooters never locked up -- it just racked up the 4,000 credits for my royal and let me keep playing. I was getting double points, so I kept going for a while. When I was ready to leave I hit the cash out button and the machine printed out a ticket for $4,100.
My intent was to take the ticket to the cage and explain what happened. But before I could leave the machine, a slot attendant approached. I told her what had happened, and she called over one of her co-workers. The two of them reviewed the hands played on the machine as far back as it would let them, which wasn't all the way back to the royal. They then got a supervisor involved and didn't tell me anything about what was happening (language was at least part of the problem). I asked to see a manager and told them I was losing patience and wanted to get the matter resolved.
About a half hour after the royal the slot people reached a manager. They were told to issue the tax forms for the jackpot, pay me by hand and take my cashout ticket. This is exactly how the matter should have been handled, only without the half-hour wait. After I was paid the manager came over and we had a brief chat. I asked him what the maximum ticket amount the cage at Hooters will pay without a hassle, and he said $1,200. Taking my $4,100 ticket to the cage would have set off a process that would have taken longer than what I experienced, he told me.
While I was waiting to be paid, a troubling question crossed my mind: Would the casino claim the machine malfunctioned and refuse to pay me? I was prepared to argue that any malfunction involved only those parts of the machine that are supposed to lock it up for a hand pay, not the random number generator that dealt me the royal. Fortunately, I never had to make the argument because the issue never came up.
Food stamps
Among the kinds of comps casinos provide their regular players are food credits. These are usually coupons -- my spouse and I call them "food stamps" -- that are part of a monthly calendar of offers sent by the marketing department.
These coupons have advantages and disadvantages over the other common forms of food comps.
At many if not most casinos, table game players (and sometimes slot players) earn comps that can be issued only by a host or pit boss, a process that can take some time. And often players aren't informed of their balances, so a request can result in a frustrating and embarrassing rejection. Using food stamps avoids these difficulties.
Slot points are the other way many players "pay" for food. The advantage of using points is that its easy for players to determine their balances and redeem them. But at most casinos points can be used for other valuable things, such as free play and cash back. So it's smart to use other kinds of comps to pay for food.
Food stamps typically come with conditions. Usually they are valid only on certain dates, or invalid on certain days, such as holidays or weekends. Often they are valid only at some of a casino's restaurants. Sometimes they cannot be combined with other food stamps or other types of comps. They are almost always for a specific player, who must provide ID and sometimes a players card to redeem the coupon.
For us, the most troublesome restriction -- one that's on almost all food stamps -- is that they cannot be used for takeout. This does not mean that you can't order more food than you can eat and take the rest home, but you do have to be seated in a restaurant and eat something. This might seem like it would be embarrassing, but we do it all the time, and have found that servers are more than happy to cooperate in the belief that a bigger check will mean a bigger tip.
But you can only so many meals a month, and with the amount of gambling we do, we always wind up with food stamps we can't use for sit-down dining. Fortunately, we've discovered some ways to get around the dining-in restriction.
At the delis at Sam's Town and Green Valley Ranch the employees have been happy to pull together big orders of stuff for us to take out. One big advantage of being able to "shop" at the delis is that they carry canned and bottled beverages and other items that won't spoil, so we can stock up if we have enough credits to use. Other deli items we buy with food stamps include prepared salads, fruit plates, cakes and pies. Sometimes deli employees spend considerable time helping us make good use of our food stamps. To be considerate of other deli customers, who are often in a hurry, we let them cut in and ask the employees to stop what they're doing for us and take care of the others. We also tip employees who have helped us with a big order.
At most casinos food stamps cannot be used at food court outlets, but in Las Vegas there is at least one exception -- the Palms. All of the outlets there accept Palms food coupons. Also at the Palms, the 24/7 Cafe now has a case displaying sandwiches, salads, fruit plates, pastries and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Food stamps can be used to pay for these items for takeout.
One final tip regarding food stamps: Don't be afraid to ask for exceptions to the rules. We have had some success getting restaurants to accept food stamps from both my spouse and me despite rules against using more than one coupon per party. Signs that appeared within the past few months at the M Resort suggest that expiration dates can also be overlooked: "Unfortunately, we no longer accept expired or post dated coupons." Unfortunately, I never thought to try to use an expired or post dated food stamp at the M when they were being accepted.
These coupons have advantages and disadvantages over the other common forms of food comps.
At many if not most casinos, table game players (and sometimes slot players) earn comps that can be issued only by a host or pit boss, a process that can take some time. And often players aren't informed of their balances, so a request can result in a frustrating and embarrassing rejection. Using food stamps avoids these difficulties.
Slot points are the other way many players "pay" for food. The advantage of using points is that its easy for players to determine their balances and redeem them. But at most casinos points can be used for other valuable things, such as free play and cash back. So it's smart to use other kinds of comps to pay for food.
Food stamps typically come with conditions. Usually they are valid only on certain dates, or invalid on certain days, such as holidays or weekends. Often they are valid only at some of a casino's restaurants. Sometimes they cannot be combined with other food stamps or other types of comps. They are almost always for a specific player, who must provide ID and sometimes a players card to redeem the coupon.
For us, the most troublesome restriction -- one that's on almost all food stamps -- is that they cannot be used for takeout. This does not mean that you can't order more food than you can eat and take the rest home, but you do have to be seated in a restaurant and eat something. This might seem like it would be embarrassing, but we do it all the time, and have found that servers are more than happy to cooperate in the belief that a bigger check will mean a bigger tip.
But you can only so many meals a month, and with the amount of gambling we do, we always wind up with food stamps we can't use for sit-down dining. Fortunately, we've discovered some ways to get around the dining-in restriction.
At the delis at Sam's Town and Green Valley Ranch the employees have been happy to pull together big orders of stuff for us to take out. One big advantage of being able to "shop" at the delis is that they carry canned and bottled beverages and other items that won't spoil, so we can stock up if we have enough credits to use. Other deli items we buy with food stamps include prepared salads, fruit plates, cakes and pies. Sometimes deli employees spend considerable time helping us make good use of our food stamps. To be considerate of other deli customers, who are often in a hurry, we let them cut in and ask the employees to stop what they're doing for us and take care of the others. We also tip employees who have helped us with a big order.
At most casinos food stamps cannot be used at food court outlets, but in Las Vegas there is at least one exception -- the Palms. All of the outlets there accept Palms food coupons. Also at the Palms, the 24/7 Cafe now has a case displaying sandwiches, salads, fruit plates, pastries and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Food stamps can be used to pay for these items for takeout.
One final tip regarding food stamps: Don't be afraid to ask for exceptions to the rules. We have had some success getting restaurants to accept food stamps from both my spouse and me despite rules against using more than one coupon per party. Signs that appeared within the past few months at the M Resort suggest that expiration dates can also be overlooked: "Unfortunately, we no longer accept expired or post dated coupons." Unfortunately, I never thought to try to use an expired or post dated food stamp at the M when they were being accepted.
Wednesday, June 13, 2012
Dirty trick at the Riviera? You decide
I recently returned to the Riviera with my wife to play the remaining $500 in credits I had from their $1,000 loss guarantee for new players club members. I headed to the machine I had played during my first visit, which had what appeared to be $1 8/5 bonus poker on it, which would be the best video poker game in the casino with a long-term payback of 99.17 percent with maximum bets and perfect strategy.
Except that, as my spouse noticed immediately, this game wasn't really 8/5 bonus poker, even though the pay table showed payouts of 8 per coin for the full house and 5 for the flush. What my spouse saw was a very unusual change near the bottom of the pay table. Instead of paying 2 for a full house, this game paid only 1. Because two pair occur very often in bonus poker, this change makes a huge difference in the game's theoretical payback, bringing it all the way down to 86.31 percent -- yes, that's 86, not 96 -- and making it by far the worst video poker game I have ever seen.
This alteration is perfectly legal, as long as it's disclosed on the pay table, which this was. The main lesson here is to look at all the numbers on the pay table before playing any game at any casino for the first time. Most of us are in the habit of looking at certain numbers on the pay table to determine what version of a game is in front of us -- in bonus poker, what varies is typically the payouts for the full house and flush -- but any number on the pay table can be changed. Also of note is that the same change in payout will have a bigger effect on the return of the game the farther down the pay table they are. That's because the closer you get to the bottom of the pay table, the more frequently the hands occur. One coin less for two pair hurts a lot because two pair is a very common hand in bonus poker.
I was glad I was able to avoid playing this awful game but couldn't help wondering if the pay table was the same during my first trip to the Riviera, when I played the same machine. I know I didn't check the bottom of the pay table, but I would hope I would have noticed the short pay for two pair as I played. Maybe the payout for two pair at that time was the standard 2; maybe I didn't notice the short pay. Either way, I hope I'll never fall for something like this in the future.
Since this happened, I've given a bit of thought to the ethics of it. It's standard for casinos to offer different versions of the same video poker games, but usually with the common variations in the pay table. For example, 9/6 jacks or better and 8/5 jacks or better, the first numbers referring to the payout for the full house and the second numbers for the flush. Video poker players with any level of sophistication know about these "standard variations" and look for them before choosing a game to play. The ethics question posed here is whether it is fair for a casino to make a highly unusual change in the pay table, one that most players would never think to look for -- especially one that makes an enormous difference in the payback of the game. In my mind the Riviera's pay table raises the question of what other ways it might try to take advantage of the people who play there (I have seen absolutely no evidence of anything else at all questionable). I'm not sure whether people who would do this are the kind of people I want to do business with.
Incidentally, I got the information on the payback of the Riviera's version of 8/5 bonus poker from the invaluable "Frugal Video Poker Scouting Guide" by Jean Scott and Viktor Nacht. That the Riviera's version of 8/5 bonus poker was in the book indicates that it has been found in other casinos (the book predates the current management regime of the Riviera). That doesn't make it any more fair, but it does reinforce the message of buyer beware when playing any video poker machine for the first time.
Except that, as my spouse noticed immediately, this game wasn't really 8/5 bonus poker, even though the pay table showed payouts of 8 per coin for the full house and 5 for the flush. What my spouse saw was a very unusual change near the bottom of the pay table. Instead of paying 2 for a full house, this game paid only 1. Because two pair occur very often in bonus poker, this change makes a huge difference in the game's theoretical payback, bringing it all the way down to 86.31 percent -- yes, that's 86, not 96 -- and making it by far the worst video poker game I have ever seen.
This alteration is perfectly legal, as long as it's disclosed on the pay table, which this was. The main lesson here is to look at all the numbers on the pay table before playing any game at any casino for the first time. Most of us are in the habit of looking at certain numbers on the pay table to determine what version of a game is in front of us -- in bonus poker, what varies is typically the payouts for the full house and flush -- but any number on the pay table can be changed. Also of note is that the same change in payout will have a bigger effect on the return of the game the farther down the pay table they are. That's because the closer you get to the bottom of the pay table, the more frequently the hands occur. One coin less for two pair hurts a lot because two pair is a very common hand in bonus poker.
I was glad I was able to avoid playing this awful game but couldn't help wondering if the pay table was the same during my first trip to the Riviera, when I played the same machine. I know I didn't check the bottom of the pay table, but I would hope I would have noticed the short pay for two pair as I played. Maybe the payout for two pair at that time was the standard 2; maybe I didn't notice the short pay. Either way, I hope I'll never fall for something like this in the future.
Since this happened, I've given a bit of thought to the ethics of it. It's standard for casinos to offer different versions of the same video poker games, but usually with the common variations in the pay table. For example, 9/6 jacks or better and 8/5 jacks or better, the first numbers referring to the payout for the full house and the second numbers for the flush. Video poker players with any level of sophistication know about these "standard variations" and look for them before choosing a game to play. The ethics question posed here is whether it is fair for a casino to make a highly unusual change in the pay table, one that most players would never think to look for -- especially one that makes an enormous difference in the payback of the game. In my mind the Riviera's pay table raises the question of what other ways it might try to take advantage of the people who play there (I have seen absolutely no evidence of anything else at all questionable). I'm not sure whether people who would do this are the kind of people I want to do business with.
Incidentally, I got the information on the payback of the Riviera's version of 8/5 bonus poker from the invaluable "Frugal Video Poker Scouting Guide" by Jean Scott and Viktor Nacht. That the Riviera's version of 8/5 bonus poker was in the book indicates that it has been found in other casinos (the book predates the current management regime of the Riviera). That doesn't make it any more fair, but it does reinforce the message of buyer beware when playing any video poker machine for the first time.
Follow-up on HRH point confiscation
I'm happy to say that my host came through and restored the points the Hard Rock Las Vegas took to pay for a comped room. He indicated that the policy may change but as for now it is still in effect, so Hard Rock customers are advised to use up all their points each session and ask for comps for anything they want.
This story won't be over until the HRH changes its system so points aren't seized for comped hotel rooms. If and when I become aware of any change, I will report it.
This story won't be over until the HRH changes its system so points aren't seized for comped hotel rooms. If and when I become aware of any change, I will report it.
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Follow-up on the Palms
As predicted, the 50-cent full pay deuces have been removed from the Palms.
This violates the general rule that it's better for a casino not to offer something attractive to players and yank it away, then never to offer it at all.
One clue that the 50-cent deuces wouldn't last was that there were a number of them adjacent to one another, making it possible for several people at once to play two machines at a time. And these machines were fast! The set-up was a magnet for advantage players.
When new management took over from founder George Maloof at the Palms, it removed the 25-cent full-pay deuces progressive (and other potential advantage plays). Why the new management thought the 50-cent deuces wouldn't hurt the bottom line as much as the quarter deuces is beyond me.
I was told a few months ago the new management's changes in video poker at the Palms were over. Apparently that wasn't true.
This violates the general rule that it's better for a casino not to offer something attractive to players and yank it away, then never to offer it at all.
One clue that the 50-cent deuces wouldn't last was that there were a number of them adjacent to one another, making it possible for several people at once to play two machines at a time. And these machines were fast! The set-up was a magnet for advantage players.
When new management took over from founder George Maloof at the Palms, it removed the 25-cent full-pay deuces progressive (and other potential advantage plays). Why the new management thought the 50-cent deuces wouldn't hurt the bottom line as much as the quarter deuces is beyond me.
I was told a few months ago the new management's changes in video poker at the Palms were over. Apparently that wasn't true.
A rude shock at the Hard Rock
My monthly mailer for May for the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas offered two free midweek room nights, with an upgrade to a suite if available. Near the end of the month I called my host there and asked for a room if one was available. Despite the hotel's hosting a gigantic meeting, he came through not with a room, but with a pool villa. Sweeter than a suite!
A couple of days after checking out, I went to the HRH to play video poker, I stuck my players' card in the machine and the reader said I had no points. I checked my records and confirmed that I should have been shown a substantial points balance. I went to the players' club expecting to be told there was some technical problem and my points would be restored.
Instead, I was told that when the Hard Rock revamped its players' club, it went to a system in which there are no longer comps -- everything must be paid for with points. I had taken advantage of room offers in the past and never was charged, and was not given notice of this alleged change when I made the room reservation, when I check in, or at any other time. I later reviewed the brochure describing the new players' club benefits and didn't see anything there indicating such a drastic change in policy. The only thing that might have been a hint something was amiss came when I tried to check out using the TV in the suite. Usually when you have a comped room the charges come up as $0.00, but what looked like a normal hotel bill with charges for each night, taxes, etc., came up instead. I have had mistaken charges show up in the past and they have always been removed with a call to the front desk. I did that at the HRH and the clerk confirmed that my room was comped and I owed nothing.
After my points disappeared, I called my host and told him everything that had happened. He said this was wrong, my points should not have been taken, and he would try to get them back. He also said, however, that he is advising his local players to use up their points at every visit. This indicates to me that other people also have experienced disappearing points.
In the past few years I have seen casino executives do some pretty stupid things, but this is probably the worst. It's hard to imagine anything more certain to piss off a casino's customers. I'm not an expert on the gaming regulations, but it is my understanding that Nevada authorities don't allow the confiscation of points a player has earned. Given the lack of any advance disclosure in this case, "confiscation" is a mild word to describe what happened.
I'll post again with further developments.
A couple of days after checking out, I went to the HRH to play video poker, I stuck my players' card in the machine and the reader said I had no points. I checked my records and confirmed that I should have been shown a substantial points balance. I went to the players' club expecting to be told there was some technical problem and my points would be restored.
Instead, I was told that when the Hard Rock revamped its players' club, it went to a system in which there are no longer comps -- everything must be paid for with points. I had taken advantage of room offers in the past and never was charged, and was not given notice of this alleged change when I made the room reservation, when I check in, or at any other time. I later reviewed the brochure describing the new players' club benefits and didn't see anything there indicating such a drastic change in policy. The only thing that might have been a hint something was amiss came when I tried to check out using the TV in the suite. Usually when you have a comped room the charges come up as $0.00, but what looked like a normal hotel bill with charges for each night, taxes, etc., came up instead. I have had mistaken charges show up in the past and they have always been removed with a call to the front desk. I did that at the HRH and the clerk confirmed that my room was comped and I owed nothing.
After my points disappeared, I called my host and told him everything that had happened. He said this was wrong, my points should not have been taken, and he would try to get them back. He also said, however, that he is advising his local players to use up their points at every visit. This indicates to me that other people also have experienced disappearing points.
In the past few years I have seen casino executives do some pretty stupid things, but this is probably the worst. It's hard to imagine anything more certain to piss off a casino's customers. I'm not an expert on the gaming regulations, but it is my understanding that Nevada authorities don't allow the confiscation of points a player has earned. Given the lack of any advance disclosure in this case, "confiscation" is a mild word to describe what happened.
I'll post again with further developments.
Saturday, June 2, 2012
No points may not mean no comps
A disturbing trend I've noticed in some casinos is eliminating some machnines from eligibility for earning slot club points. The first time I saw this was at the Gold Coast, maybe a year and a half ago. Labels were placed on the 100 percent-plus payback machines saying something like "This machine does not award slot club points." Soon after that, the machines were gone. A while back player at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut told me that casino had stopped awarding points for play on the full-pay pick 'em poker machines, which return just under 100 percent. We discussed the situation and decided he would try to find out if no points meant no comps at all. He spoke with his host and learned that the casino would still track his play if he used a players' club card, and he would still get free play and other offers. This has turned out to be true, and the benefits have proven to be fairly substantial.
I recently noticed that the virtual blackjack games at Casino Monte Lago at Lake Las Vegas were labeled as not awarding points. Previously, craps and roulette machines at that casino had such labels. I was told that the reason was that offsetting bets could be made on those machines, allowing players to amass lots of points with minimal risk. That's not possible with blackjack, but the house edge on the games offered is slight enough that the casino couldn't offer points and make the profit it expected from those machines. I was told by a casino executive, however, that the casino would still track rated play on the blackjack machines and award appropriate benefits through players' mailers.
Not being able to earn points is a big deal. At Monte Lago, unmultiplied points at 0.25 percent to the return of the game. The casino awards double points several days a month, which made the blackjack game a hair over break-even for a perfect basic strategy player, not counting the mailer and promotions. It's possible but unlikely this game will be worth more than 100 percent without points.
One of the advantages of points is that they're easy to put a value on. It's not always possible to predict how much free play a casino will give you for a particular amount of play, so that benefit, though real, can be hard to figure in. The value of other benefits, such as drawing entries, can be even more difficult to pin down. The bottom line is, if you're looking to get the most value for your gambling dollars, figure out as best you can the total return of the games you're interested in and play the one that offers the best total return, regardless of whether players' club points are part of that return.
I recently noticed that the virtual blackjack games at Casino Monte Lago at Lake Las Vegas were labeled as not awarding points. Previously, craps and roulette machines at that casino had such labels. I was told that the reason was that offsetting bets could be made on those machines, allowing players to amass lots of points with minimal risk. That's not possible with blackjack, but the house edge on the games offered is slight enough that the casino couldn't offer points and make the profit it expected from those machines. I was told by a casino executive, however, that the casino would still track rated play on the blackjack machines and award appropriate benefits through players' mailers.
Not being able to earn points is a big deal. At Monte Lago, unmultiplied points at 0.25 percent to the return of the game. The casino awards double points several days a month, which made the blackjack game a hair over break-even for a perfect basic strategy player, not counting the mailer and promotions. It's possible but unlikely this game will be worth more than 100 percent without points.
One of the advantages of points is that they're easy to put a value on. It's not always possible to predict how much free play a casino will give you for a particular amount of play, so that benefit, though real, can be hard to figure in. The value of other benefits, such as drawing entries, can be even more difficult to pin down. The bottom line is, if you're looking to get the most value for your gambling dollars, figure out as best you can the total return of the games you're interested in and play the one that offers the best total return, regardless of whether players' club points are part of that return.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Notes and thoughts on a few new things:
1. The Orleans has changed its Tuesday seniors program to include a drawing at 4 p.m. This drawing is unusual in a couple of a little unusual. You don't have to activate your tickets -- everyone who has played during the eligibility period is entered automatically. But you do have to present to win. Three names are called. Each winner who is there gets $1,000. Any money that isn't claimed carries over to the following week. The first week, none of the three winners was there. I suspect the prizes will sometimes be substantial, but with everyone who has played during the earning period entered, the chances of winning are reduced. I plan to time my visits to the Orleans to be there for this drawing and see how it goes. Incidentally, exactly what the earning period is is unclear. It was announced in the casino that it's just the day of the drawing, but I was been clicking the "drawings" button on the kiosks and finding tickets for this drawing on other days. Next chance I get, I'll review the written rules, which are on a sign in front of the players' club.
2. I was very disappointed in a promotion at the M Resort that started Friday night. The deal was, earn up to five swipes by putting $250 coin in on video poker. Some swipes would award free play. In my case, five swipes resulted in nothing. My wife got a total of $10. A near-Strip resort has been running a similar promotion this month and the same week I got nothing at the M I got $140 in free play at the other place (which I am not naming because to keep competition at its drawings, which have been very good to me, to a minimum). At both places I play 15/9 "pseudo not so ugly" deuces for $1 on the five-play machines, betting $25 a hand. I would think that kind of play would earn something, especially on the first day of a promotion. I cannot understand why casino executives implement promotions that will tick people off instead of promoting the casinos' business. In fairness to the M, its seniors' drawing on Tuesdays offers a good chance of winning meaningful prizes, but this new promotion appears to be a big stinker. Another disappointment at the M: The convenience store on the property apparently has been sold and no longer accepts M slot club points for payment for gas or other purchases.
3. Guess what's back at the Palms? After all the 100-percent payback games had been removed, two or three weeks ago I walked over the area where the $2 "not so ugly" 16/10 deuces were and found them replaced by two rows of 100-percent-plus payback machines, with big signs on top advertising their presence. The games on two rows of machines are double bonus, double double bonus and deuces wild at 25 and 50 cents. Points are earned at one-quarter the rate on other games, making them worth 0.625 percent. Double bonus, which is very difficult to play accurately, and double double bonus, which pays back barely over 100 percent with perfect play, are still fairly common in Las Vegas and can be found in denominations as high as $1. Deuces wild, which pays back 100.76 percent with perfect play, has become relatively rare even at quarters and is found at 50 cents only in two small casinos in Henderson that don't have slot clubs. So the 50-cent full-pay deuces at the Palms is quite a find. Unfortunately, if history is a guide, it won't last long, so enjoy it while you can.
4. Stations continues its comeback with a surprisingly strong promotion this month. Each day through May 28, players' club members can swipe their card at a kiok for prizes. When Stations has run this type of promotion in the past, the prizes have often been disappointing. In particular, they would often be drawing tickets, which were worse than worthless because any edge an individual would get would be swamped by the extra entries awarded other players. Other prizes included slot club points, dining credits and free play. This time, the types of prizes are the same, but in my and my wife's experience, the prizes are many times more valuable than they have been in the past. Point prizes have ranged from 5,000 to 25,000; free play from $10 to $100, and dining credits from $10 to $50. This promotion is been run in conjunction with daily drawings in which five people at each of the eight Stations and two Fiestas wins $500 and a chance to win a Cadillac in a drawing held that night. Winners who are present get an extra $500. The best news about the swipe card part of the promotion is that the drawing ticket prizes have become quite rare and the number of tickets awarded enough to give the winner a real advantage. I was awarded drawing tickets only once in this promotion and the 5,000 extra entries may have been responsible for me winning one of the $1,000 prizes that night (the free drawing tickets, unlike tickets earned during the promotion, are good for one night only). Kudos to Stations for running a promotion that gives its customers something of real value every day they come in.
5. A small casino in Henderson, Club Fortune ticked me and at least a couple of other players off a couple of weeks ago. At this casino it has long been possible to download free play only on certain machines, but these included virtually every machine in the high-limit room. I walked in one day to find labels on almost all the machines in this room saying "this machine does not accept free play." My wife, who preceded me into the room, heard one player saying he was going to the players' club to complain. I tracked down a slot attendant and asked to speak with a manager. The explanation I got was that the slot director wanted to spread the availablilty of free-play compatible machines throughout the floor to give more people a chance to use free play on their favorite machines. This might have made some sense if I had not also been told that the move was made in conjuction with a doubling of the number of machines available for free play. The only sense I could make of this move is that it is a crude attempt to force customers to play at least their free play on machines with worse pay tables, but I did not express this opinion to the manager I spoke with, because it can be hazardous to become known to casino management as a player who knows too much. At any rate, this appears to be a particularly petty, stupid move by a casino's management in terms of possible gain versus irritation of bigger players. Here are two good rules for casino executives to keep in mind: 1. People don't like to have things taken away, even relatively minor conveniences, and 2. People don't like to be told they can't do something at your casino that they can do at other casinos (at most casinos, free play can be used at all or a vast majority of machines).
1. The Orleans has changed its Tuesday seniors program to include a drawing at 4 p.m. This drawing is unusual in a couple of a little unusual. You don't have to activate your tickets -- everyone who has played during the eligibility period is entered automatically. But you do have to present to win. Three names are called. Each winner who is there gets $1,000. Any money that isn't claimed carries over to the following week. The first week, none of the three winners was there. I suspect the prizes will sometimes be substantial, but with everyone who has played during the earning period entered, the chances of winning are reduced. I plan to time my visits to the Orleans to be there for this drawing and see how it goes. Incidentally, exactly what the earning period is is unclear. It was announced in the casino that it's just the day of the drawing, but I was been clicking the "drawings" button on the kiosks and finding tickets for this drawing on other days. Next chance I get, I'll review the written rules, which are on a sign in front of the players' club.
2. I was very disappointed in a promotion at the M Resort that started Friday night. The deal was, earn up to five swipes by putting $250 coin in on video poker. Some swipes would award free play. In my case, five swipes resulted in nothing. My wife got a total of $10. A near-Strip resort has been running a similar promotion this month and the same week I got nothing at the M I got $140 in free play at the other place (which I am not naming because to keep competition at its drawings, which have been very good to me, to a minimum). At both places I play 15/9 "pseudo not so ugly" deuces for $1 on the five-play machines, betting $25 a hand. I would think that kind of play would earn something, especially on the first day of a promotion. I cannot understand why casino executives implement promotions that will tick people off instead of promoting the casinos' business. In fairness to the M, its seniors' drawing on Tuesdays offers a good chance of winning meaningful prizes, but this new promotion appears to be a big stinker. Another disappointment at the M: The convenience store on the property apparently has been sold and no longer accepts M slot club points for payment for gas or other purchases.
3. Guess what's back at the Palms? After all the 100-percent payback games had been removed, two or three weeks ago I walked over the area where the $2 "not so ugly" 16/10 deuces were and found them replaced by two rows of 100-percent-plus payback machines, with big signs on top advertising their presence. The games on two rows of machines are double bonus, double double bonus and deuces wild at 25 and 50 cents. Points are earned at one-quarter the rate on other games, making them worth 0.625 percent. Double bonus, which is very difficult to play accurately, and double double bonus, which pays back barely over 100 percent with perfect play, are still fairly common in Las Vegas and can be found in denominations as high as $1. Deuces wild, which pays back 100.76 percent with perfect play, has become relatively rare even at quarters and is found at 50 cents only in two small casinos in Henderson that don't have slot clubs. So the 50-cent full-pay deuces at the Palms is quite a find. Unfortunately, if history is a guide, it won't last long, so enjoy it while you can.
4. Stations continues its comeback with a surprisingly strong promotion this month. Each day through May 28, players' club members can swipe their card at a kiok for prizes. When Stations has run this type of promotion in the past, the prizes have often been disappointing. In particular, they would often be drawing tickets, which were worse than worthless because any edge an individual would get would be swamped by the extra entries awarded other players. Other prizes included slot club points, dining credits and free play. This time, the types of prizes are the same, but in my and my wife's experience, the prizes are many times more valuable than they have been in the past. Point prizes have ranged from 5,000 to 25,000; free play from $10 to $100, and dining credits from $10 to $50. This promotion is been run in conjunction with daily drawings in which five people at each of the eight Stations and two Fiestas wins $500 and a chance to win a Cadillac in a drawing held that night. Winners who are present get an extra $500. The best news about the swipe card part of the promotion is that the drawing ticket prizes have become quite rare and the number of tickets awarded enough to give the winner a real advantage. I was awarded drawing tickets only once in this promotion and the 5,000 extra entries may have been responsible for me winning one of the $1,000 prizes that night (the free drawing tickets, unlike tickets earned during the promotion, are good for one night only). Kudos to Stations for running a promotion that gives its customers something of real value every day they come in.
5. A small casino in Henderson, Club Fortune ticked me and at least a couple of other players off a couple of weeks ago. At this casino it has long been possible to download free play only on certain machines, but these included virtually every machine in the high-limit room. I walked in one day to find labels on almost all the machines in this room saying "this machine does not accept free play." My wife, who preceded me into the room, heard one player saying he was going to the players' club to complain. I tracked down a slot attendant and asked to speak with a manager. The explanation I got was that the slot director wanted to spread the availablilty of free-play compatible machines throughout the floor to give more people a chance to use free play on their favorite machines. This might have made some sense if I had not also been told that the move was made in conjuction with a doubling of the number of machines available for free play. The only sense I could make of this move is that it is a crude attempt to force customers to play at least their free play on machines with worse pay tables, but I did not express this opinion to the manager I spoke with, because it can be hazardous to become known to casino management as a player who knows too much. At any rate, this appears to be a particularly petty, stupid move by a casino's management in terms of possible gain versus irritation of bigger players. Here are two good rules for casino executives to keep in mind: 1. People don't like to have things taken away, even relatively minor conveniences, and 2. People don't like to be told they can't do something at your casino that they can do at other casinos (at most casinos, free play can be used at all or a vast majority of machines).
Monday, April 30, 2012
'We want the hardcore gambler ...'
The above is an unusual, almost heretical, statement by a casino executive, yet it was made by Noah Acres, the Riviera's director of player development (more about this ironic title later), in material aimed not at industry insiders but at new players at his casino.
The reason such statements are so rare is that the "gaming" industry has taken great pains to paint gambling as just another form of entertainment, one with minimal negative effects on the communities where casinos are found. Casinos stress that they love winners, but what they really love are ignorant players who win by dumb luck. Anyone who knows enough not even to win but just to lose less than most is considered a threat by many if not most gaming executives.
Of course, the ugly truth about gambling is that it ruins lives. Not many, as a percentage of those who gamble, but undoubtedly thousands each year in the United States. The extent to which the gaming industry is responsible for creating, enabling and increasing addiction is beyond the scope of this post, because it is beyond my knowledge of these issues. But I do know that the industry does everything it can to disassociate itself from anything hinting at exploitation of addicted gamblers.
The context of Mr. Acres' statement was an information card on a promotion at the Riviera offering new and some inactive players a $1,000 loss guarantee. There's nothing new about this kind of promotion but in five years in Las Vegas I have never seen one this big.
The idea is simple. You sign up for a players' club card and go play a slot or video poker machine until you have had enough or lost $1,000. If you are unlucky enough to win, it's as if the promotion didn't exist. You cash out as usual and that's it. If you lose, you get half your loss back immediately in the form of free slot play and half on your "next visit" (if you take advantage of this promotion, be sure to ask when the second installment becomes available and how long your have to use both installments of your free slot play).
Before we went to the Riviera, my wife and I listened to a discussion of this promotion on the radio program "Gambling with an Edge." Based on the discussion among hosts Bob Dancer and Mike Shakelford and guest Richard Munchkin, we set a goal of winning $2,000 or busting out trying. Losing, say, $300 would be taking advantage of only 30 percent of the value of the promotion. We made sure to get to the casino early in the evening to give ourselves plenty of time to run through $1,000 each.
Several types of slot, video poker and virtual table game machines have been excluded from this promotion. We both decided to play video poker at the highest denomination available, $1 single line. My spouse opted to play double double bonus even though the pay table, 8/5, is horrendous (we looked it up later and found the payback was less than 97 percent). This game offers a lot of opportunities for big hits, including $2,000 for four aces and a kicker, meaning that if she got lucky, she could reach $4,000 without hitting a royal flush. The downside of this strategy is that if she didn't get many four-of-a-kinds she could go down quickly. Of course, with the loss guarantee, the downside risk was greatly reduced. I took a more conservative approach, playing the best game available, 8/5 bonus poker (slightly over 99 percent payback). I knew I'd need a royal flush to hit $2,000, but I planned to alter my strategy a bit to increase the chance of hitting a royal (but in the process decrease the statistical return of the game). I hoped that playing a game with a higher return and less variance would keep me alive longer, giving me more of a chance to hit the royal. Another factor is that I am more comfortable playing bonus poker than double double bonus, though I have played the latter in tournaments.
In retrospect, I think both decisions were defensible, but my wife's was better -- and not just because she wound up hitting four aces with a kicker (after hitting four aces without, which kept her going awhile). I wound up losing $1,000 in less than two hours. At that point she was up a couple of hundred. I went and got my first $500 in free play and ran it through the machine. We decided I'd take advantage of some opportunies at other casinos and come back in a couple of hours. A half hour, maybe 40 minutes later she called me and said she had hit the four aces with a kicker. She was down only about $200, so if she quit right then she'd lock in a $1,800 win. The alternative under our plan was to try to win more or lose a full $1,000, and there probably wasn't time for that. So she "settled" for a win that was $200 short of her goal.
The reason her strategy was probably better than mine is because she had more chances to win. She also had much more of a chance of losing, but the entire loss would be reimbursed. Of course, had she actually lost, she would have played the free play much more conservatively because at that point any losses would be hers, and real.
Now, a word about the title of that executive who said he wanted "the hardcore gambler." To the unititated, "director of player development" might sound like someone in charge of educating players, making them better. But this is the last thing the casinos want. The development in this title refers to the casinos' business, not the quality of its players (unless quality is defined as losing more).
As for Mr. Acres, I think he's got quite a challenge ahead of him. The Riviera, one of the oldest casinos on the Strip, is, by today's standards, a dump. Think the Tropicana before its recent makeover. Furthermore, it's in a really bad neighborhood, by Strip standards, stuck amid closed casinos, failed projects and that butt of jokes, Circus Circus.
The loss guarantee will bring tourists in and maybe some locals. But whether they'll come back is another issue. The Riviera has introduced some better-than-usual games, for the Strip, including single zero roulette. But the games mostly aren't as good as those available in locals' casinos. I'll be back to play my second $500 in free play, but after that Mr. Acres and his colleagues will have to come up with something else to hook me as a regular.
I wish them luck in trying to revive the Riviera, and I'm afraid they're going to need it.
The reason such statements are so rare is that the "gaming" industry has taken great pains to paint gambling as just another form of entertainment, one with minimal negative effects on the communities where casinos are found. Casinos stress that they love winners, but what they really love are ignorant players who win by dumb luck. Anyone who knows enough not even to win but just to lose less than most is considered a threat by many if not most gaming executives.
Of course, the ugly truth about gambling is that it ruins lives. Not many, as a percentage of those who gamble, but undoubtedly thousands each year in the United States. The extent to which the gaming industry is responsible for creating, enabling and increasing addiction is beyond the scope of this post, because it is beyond my knowledge of these issues. But I do know that the industry does everything it can to disassociate itself from anything hinting at exploitation of addicted gamblers.
The context of Mr. Acres' statement was an information card on a promotion at the Riviera offering new and some inactive players a $1,000 loss guarantee. There's nothing new about this kind of promotion but in five years in Las Vegas I have never seen one this big.
The idea is simple. You sign up for a players' club card and go play a slot or video poker machine until you have had enough or lost $1,000. If you are unlucky enough to win, it's as if the promotion didn't exist. You cash out as usual and that's it. If you lose, you get half your loss back immediately in the form of free slot play and half on your "next visit" (if you take advantage of this promotion, be sure to ask when the second installment becomes available and how long your have to use both installments of your free slot play).
Before we went to the Riviera, my wife and I listened to a discussion of this promotion on the radio program "Gambling with an Edge." Based on the discussion among hosts Bob Dancer and Mike Shakelford and guest Richard Munchkin, we set a goal of winning $2,000 or busting out trying. Losing, say, $300 would be taking advantage of only 30 percent of the value of the promotion. We made sure to get to the casino early in the evening to give ourselves plenty of time to run through $1,000 each.
Several types of slot, video poker and virtual table game machines have been excluded from this promotion. We both decided to play video poker at the highest denomination available, $1 single line. My spouse opted to play double double bonus even though the pay table, 8/5, is horrendous (we looked it up later and found the payback was less than 97 percent). This game offers a lot of opportunities for big hits, including $2,000 for four aces and a kicker, meaning that if she got lucky, she could reach $4,000 without hitting a royal flush. The downside of this strategy is that if she didn't get many four-of-a-kinds she could go down quickly. Of course, with the loss guarantee, the downside risk was greatly reduced. I took a more conservative approach, playing the best game available, 8/5 bonus poker (slightly over 99 percent payback). I knew I'd need a royal flush to hit $2,000, but I planned to alter my strategy a bit to increase the chance of hitting a royal (but in the process decrease the statistical return of the game). I hoped that playing a game with a higher return and less variance would keep me alive longer, giving me more of a chance to hit the royal. Another factor is that I am more comfortable playing bonus poker than double double bonus, though I have played the latter in tournaments.
In retrospect, I think both decisions were defensible, but my wife's was better -- and not just because she wound up hitting four aces with a kicker (after hitting four aces without, which kept her going awhile). I wound up losing $1,000 in less than two hours. At that point she was up a couple of hundred. I went and got my first $500 in free play and ran it through the machine. We decided I'd take advantage of some opportunies at other casinos and come back in a couple of hours. A half hour, maybe 40 minutes later she called me and said she had hit the four aces with a kicker. She was down only about $200, so if she quit right then she'd lock in a $1,800 win. The alternative under our plan was to try to win more or lose a full $1,000, and there probably wasn't time for that. So she "settled" for a win that was $200 short of her goal.
The reason her strategy was probably better than mine is because she had more chances to win. She also had much more of a chance of losing, but the entire loss would be reimbursed. Of course, had she actually lost, she would have played the free play much more conservatively because at that point any losses would be hers, and real.
Now, a word about the title of that executive who said he wanted "the hardcore gambler." To the unititated, "director of player development" might sound like someone in charge of educating players, making them better. But this is the last thing the casinos want. The development in this title refers to the casinos' business, not the quality of its players (unless quality is defined as losing more).
As for Mr. Acres, I think he's got quite a challenge ahead of him. The Riviera, one of the oldest casinos on the Strip, is, by today's standards, a dump. Think the Tropicana before its recent makeover. Furthermore, it's in a really bad neighborhood, by Strip standards, stuck amid closed casinos, failed projects and that butt of jokes, Circus Circus.
The loss guarantee will bring tourists in and maybe some locals. But whether they'll come back is another issue. The Riviera has introduced some better-than-usual games, for the Strip, including single zero roulette. But the games mostly aren't as good as those available in locals' casinos. I'll be back to play my second $500 in free play, but after that Mr. Acres and his colleagues will have to come up with something else to hook me as a regular.
I wish them luck in trying to revive the Riviera, and I'm afraid they're going to need it.
Sunday, April 29, 2012
A new supermarket
For a city with a plethora of restaurants of all kinds, Vegas has what seems to me to be a lot of supermarkets. Major chains include Albertson's, Smith's and Vons. There's a low-price chain called Food 4 Less. Wal Mart has a major share of the market with several 24-hour supercenters. Warehouse clubs -- Costco and Sam's Club -- sell lots of groceries. And there are niche players such as Whole Foods, Trader Joe's and a couple of Spanish chains.
So it surprised me to see that a big store called WinCo had opened in Hederson, on Stephanie Street just north of I-215. It's hard for me to imagine a group of supermarket executives sitting around saying, "Gee, the Las Vegas market could really use some more major supermarkets." I was also interested because I had never heard of WinCo, and I though I was familiar with at least the names of all the big supermarket chains.
The other night I stopped into WinCo to pick up a few things. I was a little surprised to find the interior similar to that of a Food 4 Less, with items stacked still in their boxes and concrete floors. This store is clearly going for the lower-end business. That may not be a bad strategy even in relatively well-off Henderson given Southern Nevada's still sky-high unemployment and foreclosure rates.
But maybe the fact that a company would even make the kind of investment WinCo did in Southern Nevada is a sign of hope for the region's economy and future growth. I certainly hope so.
So it surprised me to see that a big store called WinCo had opened in Hederson, on Stephanie Street just north of I-215. It's hard for me to imagine a group of supermarket executives sitting around saying, "Gee, the Las Vegas market could really use some more major supermarkets." I was also interested because I had never heard of WinCo, and I though I was familiar with at least the names of all the big supermarket chains.
The other night I stopped into WinCo to pick up a few things. I was a little surprised to find the interior similar to that of a Food 4 Less, with items stacked still in their boxes and concrete floors. This store is clearly going for the lower-end business. That may not be a bad strategy even in relatively well-off Henderson given Southern Nevada's still sky-high unemployment and foreclosure rates.
But maybe the fact that a company would even make the kind of investment WinCo did in Southern Nevada is a sign of hope for the region's economy and future growth. I certainly hope so.
Saturday, April 28, 2012
Related to gambling (but not very closely)
This item is related to gambling because the car I won in a casino drawing came with Sirius XM satellite radio.
When I was growing up in northern New Jersey in the 1960s the big pop-rock radio station was 77 AM WABC in New York City. And the biggest DJ on WABC was "Cousin" Bruce Morrow. I remember listening to Cousin Brucie on a small transistor radio many nights when I was supposed to be concentrating on my homework.
Sometime before leaving New Jersey for college in the early '70s I stopped listening to AM radio and to Cousin Brucie, and I didn't give him much thought during the ensuing decades.
But one Saturday night while listening to '60s on 6 in my new car, I heard that unmistakable voice from the past. It was Cousin Brucie, just as if I was 12 years old again.
I did some quick mental arithmetic and figured that if he was in his early 30s when I was a regular listener, he must be at least 80 now. The first chance I got I looked him up in Wikipedia and found that he was 76, which means he probably cracked the New York market when he was under 30. Good for him.
I wish that I could say the years have given me a greater appreciation of the Cousin and what he meant, but there really wasn't that much to what he did. The guy with the right schtik at the right time in the right place, I guess.
Still, I listen to him most Saturday nights when I'm in my car and enjoy a link to my past that I never expected to find.
When I was growing up in northern New Jersey in the 1960s the big pop-rock radio station was 77 AM WABC in New York City. And the biggest DJ on WABC was "Cousin" Bruce Morrow. I remember listening to Cousin Brucie on a small transistor radio many nights when I was supposed to be concentrating on my homework.
Sometime before leaving New Jersey for college in the early '70s I stopped listening to AM radio and to Cousin Brucie, and I didn't give him much thought during the ensuing decades.
But one Saturday night while listening to '60s on 6 in my new car, I heard that unmistakable voice from the past. It was Cousin Brucie, just as if I was 12 years old again.
I did some quick mental arithmetic and figured that if he was in his early 30s when I was a regular listener, he must be at least 80 now. The first chance I got I looked him up in Wikipedia and found that he was 76, which means he probably cracked the New York market when he was under 30. Good for him.
I wish that I could say the years have given me a greater appreciation of the Cousin and what he meant, but there really wasn't that much to what he did. The guy with the right schtik at the right time in the right place, I guess.
Still, I listen to him most Saturday nights when I'm in my car and enjoy a link to my past that I never expected to find.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Finding an answer for ourselves
As I have noted in previous posts, getting reliable information from casino employees can be difficult. All too often they are eager to answer your questions, whether they know the correct answer or not. When possible its best to get answers in writing. Often materials are available concerning players' club policies and rules for drawings and promotions, but sometimes they are not. In these cases getting reliable information can be difficult.
A case in point: There is a chain of small casinos throughout Nevada called Dotty's. Each week a drawing is held and a number of people are awarded $20 each. Regular players receive coupons in the mail for drawing entries for that week in addition to those earned by playing. The coupons can be dropped off at any Dotty's, but my wife wanted to know whether the entries would be good at only one location or at all of them. She asked at several locations and received contradictory answers.
To determine whether the drawings are at each location or company-wide, she wrote down the players' card numbers of a couple of the winners posted at one location. Then she went to a different Dotty's -- they're about as close together in Las Vegas as Walgreens -- and looked at the winners' players' card numbers posted there.
The numbers were different, indicating separate drawings for each Dotty's and that the extra entries are probably good only at the location where the coupon is dropped off. But why don't all the employees -- there's usually only one at a time at each Dotty's -- know this?
A case in point: There is a chain of small casinos throughout Nevada called Dotty's. Each week a drawing is held and a number of people are awarded $20 each. Regular players receive coupons in the mail for drawing entries for that week in addition to those earned by playing. The coupons can be dropped off at any Dotty's, but my wife wanted to know whether the entries would be good at only one location or at all of them. She asked at several locations and received contradictory answers.
To determine whether the drawings are at each location or company-wide, she wrote down the players' card numbers of a couple of the winners posted at one location. Then she went to a different Dotty's -- they're about as close together in Las Vegas as Walgreens -- and looked at the winners' players' card numbers posted there.
The numbers were different, indicating separate drawings for each Dotty's and that the extra entries are probably good only at the location where the coupon is dropped off. But why don't all the employees -- there's usually only one at a time at each Dotty's -- know this?
A surprising find
Across Blue Diamond Road from the Silverton, just west of Interstate 15, is a bigt truck stop and gas station. The building has a sign saying "casino" but that isn't surprising because, in Nevada, many gas stations, as well as convenience stores, drug stores, supermarkets and other businesses have small casinos inside.
A couple of weeks ago my wife stopped for gas at the truck stop across from the Silverton. She went inside to pay with cash and much to her surprise she saw a table games pit with two blackjack tables and a live poker table. The blackjack games were both single deck with blackjacks paying 3-to-2. The minimums were $5 and $10.
A couple of days ago we were in the area and needed gas, so we stopped there. I went inside and saw that the casino was much larger than most in other kinds of business. There was even a players' club window. I checked one of the multi-game video poker machines and found, at $1, 9/5 jacks or better, 8/5 bonus poker and 15/9 "pseudo not so ugly" deuces wild. These are not the best games around but they are not the worst, either, and could even be profitable depending on players' club benefits, which I did not look into during this visit.
The point of this story is that despite the spread of casino gambling throughout the United States, Nevada and Las Vegas are still, and likely always will be, different because of the dominance of gambling in the economy and the culture here. Other states may have major casinos that rival those in Vegas, but where else can you play video poker while waiting for a prescription to be filled? Or a a few hands of blackjack while your truck's oil is being changed?
A couple of weeks ago my wife stopped for gas at the truck stop across from the Silverton. She went inside to pay with cash and much to her surprise she saw a table games pit with two blackjack tables and a live poker table. The blackjack games were both single deck with blackjacks paying 3-to-2. The minimums were $5 and $10.
A couple of days ago we were in the area and needed gas, so we stopped there. I went inside and saw that the casino was much larger than most in other kinds of business. There was even a players' club window. I checked one of the multi-game video poker machines and found, at $1, 9/5 jacks or better, 8/5 bonus poker and 15/9 "pseudo not so ugly" deuces wild. These are not the best games around but they are not the worst, either, and could even be profitable depending on players' club benefits, which I did not look into during this visit.
The point of this story is that despite the spread of casino gambling throughout the United States, Nevada and Las Vegas are still, and likely always will be, different because of the dominance of gambling in the economy and the culture here. Other states may have major casinos that rival those in Vegas, but where else can you play video poker while waiting for a prescription to be filled? Or a a few hands of blackjack while your truck's oil is being changed?
Backed off
Last week I was backed off while playing blackjack at the Silverton. It was the third time I have been backed off but the first time in at least three years, a pretty good record considering how much blackjack I have been playing.
For the unfamiliar, being backed off means being told you can't play. It is the most common way (but not the only way) casinos deal with blackjack players they believe can beat them legally in the long run. (Cheaters are a whole different story; in Nevada, they are considered suspected criminals and treated as such.)
For card counters, the vast majority of advantage blackjack players, being backed off is part of life. Card counters make their money by putting out bigger bets when the count indicates the remaining pack of cards is rich in aces and those with a value of 10. A card counter can be detected by observation by someone competent at card counting. A few pit bosses can count, but the vast majority cannot and are not expected to detect card counters as part of their jobs. For the most part detection is the province of the so-called eye in the sky. Surveillance is allowed to use computer programs to help detect counters; apparently an observer enters the cards played and the bets made and the computer determines whether the player being watched is raising his bets when the count rises. Incidentally, players are not allowed to use any computing or mechanical device to aid their play in any way. Doing so is considered cheating in Nevada and could lead to liability for a crime.
Obviously surveillance doesn't track every blackjack player looking for card counters. So when one gets backed off, the question always is: What could have caused it? In this case, I have a couple of theories. First, the Silverton is a pretty low-roller place. The highest minimum for blackjack I have ever seen there is $25, and I have never seen more than one table with this minimum. By playing at this table I was making it far more likely that I would be watched than if I had been playing at a $10 table and betting mostly red chips.
Another factor was that I was varying my bets with the count, though not to the full extent my system calls for because suspected I was likely to be watched at this casino. In retrospect, the small adjustments I made probably provided no meaninful cover and I should have just gone all out and made as much money as I could.
Another tip-off that a player is counting is that he is winning, which I was on this partiuclar night. After about a half hour of play I had about two and half times as much in front of me as I had bought in for -- a nice win but nowhere near off the charts. This may have been a factor, especially in light of my won-loss history at that casino. I haven't reviewed my records but I remember having a couple of fairly big wins, and I would guess that I am ahead there for this year, the only period in which I have played there with any regularity.
I made it easy for the Silverton to track my wins and losses by always presenting my players' club card when I played there. I almost always play with a card because I want the comps and benefits that come with playing. At the Silverton and some other casinos, these include free bets that add considerably to the value of the game. I would not have played regularly at the Silverton without the incentive of the four free bets a month my play was earning (the amounts varied but this month were $20 each). The reason for that is that the double deck game there had lousy penetration. Until a few weeks ago the dealers did not use a cut card but most dealt out fifty percent of the cards or not much more. Lately they have been using a cut card and it has been placed consistently in the middle of the two decks, which is about as bad as it gets. (Good double deck penetration is about 75 percent of the cards being dealt out.)
Another way players conceal the amounts they are winning is by "rat holing" or secretly pocketing chips. I have never done this, mostly for fear that it would do more harm than good if I were caught. At the places I usually play and the amounts I usually play for, I don't think rat holing has been necessary. Maybe I'll have to re-think that.
Of course, the most important thing we can do to avoid being detected is to keep our sessions short, generally meaning to less than an hour. I'm sure length of session was not a factor in my back-off at the Silverton because I had been playing only about a half hour when the pit "critter" whose native language obviously is not English delivered the news: "You cannot play table games here." (Why the Silverton would not want me to play any table game other than blackjack is a compete mystery.)
In one respect the Silverton's back off was favorable -- casinos sometimes wait until a player has incurred a
big loss to lower the boom. Had I been allowed to play another twenty minutes I might have given back much of the money I had won.
In another resepect, though, the back off came at a bad time. The Silverton is running a series of drawings this month, and my wife and I have been playing video poker there every day -- way more than we normally would -- to make sure we accrue the maximum number of tickets for each week's drawing. Normally what happened to me would be irrelevant to this, but the Silverton has an unusual provision in the rules for all of its promotions that gives it the right to disqualify anyone it deems an "advantage player." I will be very interested to see if the casino tries to inoke this rule if I win a prize in the drawing. Stay tuned for further developments.
For the unfamiliar, being backed off means being told you can't play. It is the most common way (but not the only way) casinos deal with blackjack players they believe can beat them legally in the long run. (Cheaters are a whole different story; in Nevada, they are considered suspected criminals and treated as such.)
For card counters, the vast majority of advantage blackjack players, being backed off is part of life. Card counters make their money by putting out bigger bets when the count indicates the remaining pack of cards is rich in aces and those with a value of 10. A card counter can be detected by observation by someone competent at card counting. A few pit bosses can count, but the vast majority cannot and are not expected to detect card counters as part of their jobs. For the most part detection is the province of the so-called eye in the sky. Surveillance is allowed to use computer programs to help detect counters; apparently an observer enters the cards played and the bets made and the computer determines whether the player being watched is raising his bets when the count rises. Incidentally, players are not allowed to use any computing or mechanical device to aid their play in any way. Doing so is considered cheating in Nevada and could lead to liability for a crime.
Obviously surveillance doesn't track every blackjack player looking for card counters. So when one gets backed off, the question always is: What could have caused it? In this case, I have a couple of theories. First, the Silverton is a pretty low-roller place. The highest minimum for blackjack I have ever seen there is $25, and I have never seen more than one table with this minimum. By playing at this table I was making it far more likely that I would be watched than if I had been playing at a $10 table and betting mostly red chips.
Another factor was that I was varying my bets with the count, though not to the full extent my system calls for because suspected I was likely to be watched at this casino. In retrospect, the small adjustments I made probably provided no meaninful cover and I should have just gone all out and made as much money as I could.
Another tip-off that a player is counting is that he is winning, which I was on this partiuclar night. After about a half hour of play I had about two and half times as much in front of me as I had bought in for -- a nice win but nowhere near off the charts. This may have been a factor, especially in light of my won-loss history at that casino. I haven't reviewed my records but I remember having a couple of fairly big wins, and I would guess that I am ahead there for this year, the only period in which I have played there with any regularity.
I made it easy for the Silverton to track my wins and losses by always presenting my players' club card when I played there. I almost always play with a card because I want the comps and benefits that come with playing. At the Silverton and some other casinos, these include free bets that add considerably to the value of the game. I would not have played regularly at the Silverton without the incentive of the four free bets a month my play was earning (the amounts varied but this month were $20 each). The reason for that is that the double deck game there had lousy penetration. Until a few weeks ago the dealers did not use a cut card but most dealt out fifty percent of the cards or not much more. Lately they have been using a cut card and it has been placed consistently in the middle of the two decks, which is about as bad as it gets. (Good double deck penetration is about 75 percent of the cards being dealt out.)
Another way players conceal the amounts they are winning is by "rat holing" or secretly pocketing chips. I have never done this, mostly for fear that it would do more harm than good if I were caught. At the places I usually play and the amounts I usually play for, I don't think rat holing has been necessary. Maybe I'll have to re-think that.
Of course, the most important thing we can do to avoid being detected is to keep our sessions short, generally meaning to less than an hour. I'm sure length of session was not a factor in my back-off at the Silverton because I had been playing only about a half hour when the pit "critter" whose native language obviously is not English delivered the news: "You cannot play table games here." (Why the Silverton would not want me to play any table game other than blackjack is a compete mystery.)
In one respect the Silverton's back off was favorable -- casinos sometimes wait until a player has incurred a
big loss to lower the boom. Had I been allowed to play another twenty minutes I might have given back much of the money I had won.
In another resepect, though, the back off came at a bad time. The Silverton is running a series of drawings this month, and my wife and I have been playing video poker there every day -- way more than we normally would -- to make sure we accrue the maximum number of tickets for each week's drawing. Normally what happened to me would be irrelevant to this, but the Silverton has an unusual provision in the rules for all of its promotions that gives it the right to disqualify anyone it deems an "advantage player." I will be very interested to see if the casino tries to inoke this rule if I win a prize in the drawing. Stay tuned for further developments.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
Playing for a living
A few weeks ago it occurred to me that I'm part of a pretty elite group in American society. What most people do for a living is called working. What I, along with rich and famous athletes and entertainers, do is called playing.
There are both similarities and differences between what I do and what athletes and entertainers do. The biggest difference is that what they do, they do for the entertainment of an audience, which pays directly (for tickets) or indirectly (in the higher cost of products advertised on television, for example) to see them at work. Audiences are willing to pay because these people are exceptionally talented and can do what very few other people can. And, they work in fields -- arts, entertainment and sports -- that are inherently interesting and aesthically pleasing to the masses.
I am not exceptionally talented, and very few people could distinguish what I do at a blackjack table or video poker machine from what the average ploppie is doing. I have been told that my overall approach to gambling and how I decide where, when and what to play would interest some people, but I know that the nuts and bolts of it would not.
One thing I do have in common with athletes and entertainers is that what we do requires a lot of work and discipline even though it is called play. Maybe we call certain kinds of work "play" because we consider it inconsequential. I plead guilty to that, concerning what I do. And most of what most athletes and popular entertainers do is merely diversion, though as a society we spend exhorbitantly on it. Work is what we say is more important, even though we reward it less (teachers vs. baseball players).
Like most people, I have no exceptional talent in the arts or athletics. I can offer little of entertainment to others (except, I hope, my writing). But somehow I have fallen into the situation of having something in common with those who receive the worship of crowds -- even if it's only a word that's applied to what we, and few others, do for a living.
There are both similarities and differences between what I do and what athletes and entertainers do. The biggest difference is that what they do, they do for the entertainment of an audience, which pays directly (for tickets) or indirectly (in the higher cost of products advertised on television, for example) to see them at work. Audiences are willing to pay because these people are exceptionally talented and can do what very few other people can. And, they work in fields -- arts, entertainment and sports -- that are inherently interesting and aesthically pleasing to the masses.
I am not exceptionally talented, and very few people could distinguish what I do at a blackjack table or video poker machine from what the average ploppie is doing. I have been told that my overall approach to gambling and how I decide where, when and what to play would interest some people, but I know that the nuts and bolts of it would not.
One thing I do have in common with athletes and entertainers is that what we do requires a lot of work and discipline even though it is called play. Maybe we call certain kinds of work "play" because we consider it inconsequential. I plead guilty to that, concerning what I do. And most of what most athletes and popular entertainers do is merely diversion, though as a society we spend exhorbitantly on it. Work is what we say is more important, even though we reward it less (teachers vs. baseball players).
Like most people, I have no exceptional talent in the arts or athletics. I can offer little of entertainment to others (except, I hope, my writing). But somehow I have fallen into the situation of having something in common with those who receive the worship of crowds -- even if it's only a word that's applied to what we, and few others, do for a living.
Goodbye, old buddy
One of my favorite ongoing casino promotions, the Wheel of Winners at the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino (formerly the Las Vegas Hilton), is no more. The wheel was a drawing held Thursday nights that offered five people a chance to win from $1,000 to $5,000 each. Weekend drawings with a chance to win $10,000 were also offered several times a year.
The best thing about this drawing was that the tickets were paper, which prevented the ticket inflation that has become rampant since most casinos started doing their drawings electronically. The Wheel favored bigger players because tickets had to be earned, but low rollers got a break because the first ticket each day required less play than the rest of them.
Another good thing about this drawing was the prizes. Most of the big locals' casinos that have drawings offer top prizes of $4,000 or $5,000, but the lesser prizes are often as low as $250 or $500. At a Coast or Station Casinos drawing with five winners, maybe one or two typically win $1,000 or more. At the LVH, everyone called won at least $1,000, and the average was probably well over $2,000.
Finally, the number of participants in this drawing was smaller than for most drawings at the big locals' casinos, so it seemed like everyone had a decent chance of winning. Any individual's actual chance of winning, of course, depended upon the number of tickets he or she had in the drum that week. And, I think, that's what did in the Wheel. There were too many repeat winners, some week after week. I do think the promotion caused regular players to play more than they otherwise might have, to earn more tickets. But it didn't seem to bring in a lot of new business for the casino (probably because it wasn't advertised to the public much outside the property).
The LVH still has a lot to offer in competition with the locals' casinos. It has decent blackjack, sometimes for as little as $5. The video poker is actually better than at many locals' casinos, with many games returning more than 99.5 percent. The race and sports book is the biggest in the world. Locals get 25 percent off at all restaurants, which are excellent. But perhaps most important is the LVH's program of tournaments, which is hands down the best in Vegas, with many of the events free to regular, local players.
Meanwhile, concerning weekly drawings, other casinos have picked up the mantle, at least temporarily. Stations, which for at least a year during its financial difficulties ran no drawings, is now offering them at several properties. Perhaps the best drawing this month is at the Silverton, which is giving away an Audi (actually a gift certificate to a dealer for $32,500) each week. Second prize each week is $5,000, which typically is first place in similar drawings.
The best thing about this drawing was that the tickets were paper, which prevented the ticket inflation that has become rampant since most casinos started doing their drawings electronically. The Wheel favored bigger players because tickets had to be earned, but low rollers got a break because the first ticket each day required less play than the rest of them.
Another good thing about this drawing was the prizes. Most of the big locals' casinos that have drawings offer top prizes of $4,000 or $5,000, but the lesser prizes are often as low as $250 or $500. At a Coast or Station Casinos drawing with five winners, maybe one or two typically win $1,000 or more. At the LVH, everyone called won at least $1,000, and the average was probably well over $2,000.
Finally, the number of participants in this drawing was smaller than for most drawings at the big locals' casinos, so it seemed like everyone had a decent chance of winning. Any individual's actual chance of winning, of course, depended upon the number of tickets he or she had in the drum that week. And, I think, that's what did in the Wheel. There were too many repeat winners, some week after week. I do think the promotion caused regular players to play more than they otherwise might have, to earn more tickets. But it didn't seem to bring in a lot of new business for the casino (probably because it wasn't advertised to the public much outside the property).
The LVH still has a lot to offer in competition with the locals' casinos. It has decent blackjack, sometimes for as little as $5. The video poker is actually better than at many locals' casinos, with many games returning more than 99.5 percent. The race and sports book is the biggest in the world. Locals get 25 percent off at all restaurants, which are excellent. But perhaps most important is the LVH's program of tournaments, which is hands down the best in Vegas, with many of the events free to regular, local players.
Meanwhile, concerning weekly drawings, other casinos have picked up the mantle, at least temporarily. Stations, which for at least a year during its financial difficulties ran no drawings, is now offering them at several properties. Perhaps the best drawing this month is at the Silverton, which is giving away an Audi (actually a gift certificate to a dealer for $32,500) each week. Second prize each week is $5,000, which typically is first place in similar drawings.
Monday, March 19, 2012
When it's good to be old (or at least middle-aged)
Seniors days have long been a staple of locals' casinos marketing, but now is a particularly good time to be 50 or older if you're a gambler who lives in the Las Vegas area. Casinos are competing as heavily as I've seen in my nearly 5 years here for the weekday business of older customers.
These programs differ in details but their staples have been slot tournaments, dining discounts, point multipliers and drawings. Different casinos' programs may be better for some players than others. Here's a brief summary of what's offered. Essential information is often available on signs in the casinos and details can be obtained at the players' clubs.
Sam's Town offers a complete program on Thursdays comprising a $3,500 slot tournament, a $3,000 drawing, 5 times points on video poker and 7 times points on reels, half-price buffet and a free variety show. Low rollers with time on their hands might find value in the slot tournament. The formula for determing the long-term value of (or your average win in) such promotions is the total of prizes divided by the number of entries. In this case it's likely to be less than $5. Another consideration for some is the time it takes to play in the tournament plus the amount of time spent waiting to play. For higher rollers, the point multipliers and drawings can offer more value. Sam's Town recently has added a scaled-down Monday seniors day to compete with the new offering of its neighbor, the Eastside Cannery.
The Eastside Cannery's program, which runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays, is unusual in that the qualifying age is 55, not 50. Enrollment at the players' club is required. Benefits are a 3 times point multiplier, half-price dining at selected restaurants and, after 300 base points are earned, a card swipe with prizes from $10 in free play to $1,000 in cash. Play on machines in the Classic Slots room does not qualify for the point multiplier.
The Palms also recently added a seniors program, on Thursdays, which includes dining and movie discounts and promotions. At least for now there are slot tournaments and drawings.
Station Casinos, including the Fiestas, have a $3,000 slot tournament at each property and half-price dining with payment in points until 6 p.m. Signs indicated that, as a special for this month, the program also includes a bonus point day, bringing points earned from the usual 3 per $1 coin-in to 10 for reels and 6 for video poker. Let's hope this "special" becomes a regular part of the program, as a point multiplier used to be. And, Stations, how about bringing back the drawings you used to have?
The M Resort has a drawing for seniors at 6 p.m. Tuesdays. The unusual thing about it is that you do not need to play, or activate your tickets, on Tuesday, and you need not be present to win. Tickets can be earned any day of the week and must be activated at a kiosk on the day earned. The winners' names are posted shortly after 6 and all prizes must be claimed at the satellite rewards center by 7 p.m.
The Silverton has two seniors drawings on Monday. Tickets must be earned that day but prizes can be picked up until 6 p.m. Tuesday. There are 50 winners in each drawing, and each winner gets a minimum of $50 and maximum of $500. A player may win twice each week, once in each drawing. Although the prizes are modest (expect $50 most of the time), it appears that this promotion offers an unusually good chance of winning something.
The Gold Coast recently cut the point multiplier on video poker for its Monday seniors day from 5 times to 4 times, but that's still a good deal given that casinos' inventory of strong games. Reel players get 10 times points. A maximum of 10,000 points on video poker and 100,000 points on reels are eligible for promotional multipliers at the Gold Coast. Seniors day there also includes a bingo special and a small video poker tournament.
The Orleans offers 7 times points and a card swipe after earning 50 base points, both from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays. My prizes from the card swipe have included two dinner buffets, two ticket to Big Al's Comedy Club, 5,000 points and 10,000 points. The great things about this swipe are that, opposed to the slot tournaments and drawings at other casinos, almost no time is involved in participating and everyone wins something.
South Point this month added a $5,200 slot tournament for seniors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays. This is a relative large prize pool and the tournament could be attractive to more players than those at Stations and Sam's Town, depending on how many people participate.
In addition to gambling- and dining-related promotions, some seniors days include movie ticket specials. Often the qualifying age for these is 60.
A few tips regarding casino seniors programs: As with any casino promotion, these may be altered or discontinued at any time. Most if not all require that you be enrolled in the program, not just that you have a players card and meet the age requirement. Many will put a small sticker on your players card showing that you qualify for discounts and other offers. Beware of time time limits and other restrictions on promotions. This information should be available at the players club.
These programs differ in details but their staples have been slot tournaments, dining discounts, point multipliers and drawings. Different casinos' programs may be better for some players than others. Here's a brief summary of what's offered. Essential information is often available on signs in the casinos and details can be obtained at the players' clubs.
Sam's Town offers a complete program on Thursdays comprising a $3,500 slot tournament, a $3,000 drawing, 5 times points on video poker and 7 times points on reels, half-price buffet and a free variety show. Low rollers with time on their hands might find value in the slot tournament. The formula for determing the long-term value of (or your average win in) such promotions is the total of prizes divided by the number of entries. In this case it's likely to be less than $5. Another consideration for some is the time it takes to play in the tournament plus the amount of time spent waiting to play. For higher rollers, the point multipliers and drawings can offer more value. Sam's Town recently has added a scaled-down Monday seniors day to compete with the new offering of its neighbor, the Eastside Cannery.
The Eastside Cannery's program, which runs from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. Mondays, is unusual in that the qualifying age is 55, not 50. Enrollment at the players' club is required. Benefits are a 3 times point multiplier, half-price dining at selected restaurants and, after 300 base points are earned, a card swipe with prizes from $10 in free play to $1,000 in cash. Play on machines in the Classic Slots room does not qualify for the point multiplier.
The Palms also recently added a seniors program, on Thursdays, which includes dining and movie discounts and promotions. At least for now there are slot tournaments and drawings.
Station Casinos, including the Fiestas, have a $3,000 slot tournament at each property and half-price dining with payment in points until 6 p.m. Signs indicated that, as a special for this month, the program also includes a bonus point day, bringing points earned from the usual 3 per $1 coin-in to 10 for reels and 6 for video poker. Let's hope this "special" becomes a regular part of the program, as a point multiplier used to be. And, Stations, how about bringing back the drawings you used to have?
The M Resort has a drawing for seniors at 6 p.m. Tuesdays. The unusual thing about it is that you do not need to play, or activate your tickets, on Tuesday, and you need not be present to win. Tickets can be earned any day of the week and must be activated at a kiosk on the day earned. The winners' names are posted shortly after 6 and all prizes must be claimed at the satellite rewards center by 7 p.m.
The Silverton has two seniors drawings on Monday. Tickets must be earned that day but prizes can be picked up until 6 p.m. Tuesday. There are 50 winners in each drawing, and each winner gets a minimum of $50 and maximum of $500. A player may win twice each week, once in each drawing. Although the prizes are modest (expect $50 most of the time), it appears that this promotion offers an unusually good chance of winning something.
The Gold Coast recently cut the point multiplier on video poker for its Monday seniors day from 5 times to 4 times, but that's still a good deal given that casinos' inventory of strong games. Reel players get 10 times points. A maximum of 10,000 points on video poker and 100,000 points on reels are eligible for promotional multipliers at the Gold Coast. Seniors day there also includes a bingo special and a small video poker tournament.
The Orleans offers 7 times points and a card swipe after earning 50 base points, both from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesdays. My prizes from the card swipe have included two dinner buffets, two ticket to Big Al's Comedy Club, 5,000 points and 10,000 points. The great things about this swipe are that, opposed to the slot tournaments and drawings at other casinos, almost no time is involved in participating and everyone wins something.
South Point this month added a $5,200 slot tournament for seniors from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Thursdays. This is a relative large prize pool and the tournament could be attractive to more players than those at Stations and Sam's Town, depending on how many people participate.
In addition to gambling- and dining-related promotions, some seniors days include movie ticket specials. Often the qualifying age for these is 60.
A few tips regarding casino seniors programs: As with any casino promotion, these may be altered or discontinued at any time. Most if not all require that you be enrolled in the program, not just that you have a players card and meet the age requirement. Many will put a small sticker on your players card showing that you qualify for discounts and other offers. Beware of time time limits and other restrictions on promotions. This information should be available at the players club.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
The best fake thing in Vegas
Vegas is a city of fabulous fakes -- a fake volcano, fake Venice, fake pyramid. Rumor even has it thatcertain anatomical features of some cocktail waitresses are fake.
I have to admit that I like a lot of the fake stuff, even some of the kitsch. And I fail to see what the Luxor, for example, has gained from its "de-theming."
But my favorite fake thing in Vegas -- technically in Henderson -- is Lake Las Vegas. The "lake" is really a fake bay created by extending a fake lake, Lake Mead, the body of water collected behind Hoover Dam. But Lake Las Vegas is also a fake Italian Village and surrounding high-end residential developments.
The Village's lakeside downtown includes a nice hotel, shops and restaurants and a small but elegant casino, Casino Monte Lago. The casino reopened last year under new ownership after being closed for maybe a couple of years. It has a reasonable variety of video poker and up-to-date slots. Where the first incarnation of the casino had table is a collection of electronic table games -- blackjack, craps, roulette, Three-Card Poker and Ulitmate Texas Hold 'Em.
The decor is inspired by an Italian winery, with rows of barrel ends high on the walls, below wood and painted ceilings. There's an elegant and excellent small restaurant, Harry's, which is open until 12:30 a.m.; a sports bar; and a snack bar, Harry's Cart, that's open when the restuarant is closed. Above the casino floor is a sports bar that serves pizza and bar food. Across the street from the back of the casino is a small Chinese restaurant owned jointly with casino.
The owners of Monte Lago have an arrangement with the adjacent hotel, a former Ritz-Carlton now operated by a company called the Dolce Group, which runs some of the restaurants at the Hard Rock Hotel. The hotel, in turn, can arrange for customers to play the one golf course of the original three in Lake Las Vegas that remains open.
Lake Las Vegas has been hit hard by Vegas' economic and real estate woes, and the casino appears to be struggling a bit. I hope it can make it until the area rebounds. If I were a recreational gambler, I would likely do most of my playing at Monte Lago. It's a little gem in a lovely setting, a world away from the noise, traffic and banality of so much of the rest of Vegas.
I don't know how long the casino will last, so if you live in Vegas or are coming here soon, I urge you to check it out. It's only about a half hour from the airport. Just follow Interstate 215 east, continuing on Lake Mead Parkway to the entrance on your left. Follow the main road past the traffic circle and take your first right. Shortly, the casino will be on your left.
I have to admit that I like a lot of the fake stuff, even some of the kitsch. And I fail to see what the Luxor, for example, has gained from its "de-theming."
But my favorite fake thing in Vegas -- technically in Henderson -- is Lake Las Vegas. The "lake" is really a fake bay created by extending a fake lake, Lake Mead, the body of water collected behind Hoover Dam. But Lake Las Vegas is also a fake Italian Village and surrounding high-end residential developments.
The Village's lakeside downtown includes a nice hotel, shops and restaurants and a small but elegant casino, Casino Monte Lago. The casino reopened last year under new ownership after being closed for maybe a couple of years. It has a reasonable variety of video poker and up-to-date slots. Where the first incarnation of the casino had table is a collection of electronic table games -- blackjack, craps, roulette, Three-Card Poker and Ulitmate Texas Hold 'Em.
The decor is inspired by an Italian winery, with rows of barrel ends high on the walls, below wood and painted ceilings. There's an elegant and excellent small restaurant, Harry's, which is open until 12:30 a.m.; a sports bar; and a snack bar, Harry's Cart, that's open when the restuarant is closed. Above the casino floor is a sports bar that serves pizza and bar food. Across the street from the back of the casino is a small Chinese restaurant owned jointly with casino.
The owners of Monte Lago have an arrangement with the adjacent hotel, a former Ritz-Carlton now operated by a company called the Dolce Group, which runs some of the restaurants at the Hard Rock Hotel. The hotel, in turn, can arrange for customers to play the one golf course of the original three in Lake Las Vegas that remains open.
Lake Las Vegas has been hit hard by Vegas' economic and real estate woes, and the casino appears to be struggling a bit. I hope it can make it until the area rebounds. If I were a recreational gambler, I would likely do most of my playing at Monte Lago. It's a little gem in a lovely setting, a world away from the noise, traffic and banality of so much of the rest of Vegas.
I don't know how long the casino will last, so if you live in Vegas or are coming here soon, I urge you to check it out. It's only about a half hour from the airport. Just follow Interstate 215 east, continuing on Lake Mead Parkway to the entrance on your left. Follow the main road past the traffic circle and take your first right. Shortly, the casino will be on your left.
Monday, February 27, 2012
Some questions about a new game
On a recent visit to the Las Vegas Hotel and Casino -- formerly the Las Vegas Hilton -- I couldn't help but notice a new game just inside the entrance to the race and sports book (I also saw this game downtown at the Four Queens). Called "Triple Towers Greyhound Racing," It's a two-sided big-screen TV surrounded by betting stations. Every few minutes an animated dog race is run on the TV. It's fun to watch, but I wouldn't think of playing unless I had the answers to these questions:
How is the order in which the dogs finish each race determined? If it's random, how is randomization achieved? If it's not random,what factors are involved? The game designates some dogs as favorites or underdogs, based on the results of their past five races. But if the race results are random, this information means nothing.
What is the casino's takout from the bets made? In other words, what is the average percentage return on each bet to the players? How does this compare with what actual dog tracks take out?
Triple Towers is an offshoot of the trend toward electronic table games, including blackjack, roulette, craps and three-card poker. Judging by their increased presence on casino floors, these games appear to be popular with players, possibly in part because of their usually lower minimum bets than their real-like counterparts. But do these games offer players a good value?
My concern in this regard, which also applies to the greyhound race game, is that the house edge (or track takeout) on the "real" games (or race bets) reflects the cost of operating those games, particularly paying the dealers, pit clerks, supervisors and other employees involved. These costs should be much less for the electronic versions, so the odds should be better for the players, right?
I haven't done any systematic study, but my casual observation suggests that this is not usually the case. The craps and roulette set-ups I've seen offer the same payouts as their real-life counterparts. In the case of roulette, this means a double-zero game (exception: some upright slot-like rouletter machines I've seen are single-zero). The blackjack games have varying rules, some paying 6-to-5 for blackjack, which is to be avoided in all manifestations of the game. Some of the blackjack games have very good rules, including surrender. The one downside is that they cannot accommodate re-splitting of hands, so players are limited to splitting each hand once.
Another downside is that at some casinos craps and roulette machines don't take players' cards, meaning no comps for playing these games. One casino worker explained to me that this is to prevent people from making offsetting bets such as both black and red on roulette and racking up lots of points while losing little money.
On the other hand, there is no dealer to tip, which saves some players money.
At one small casino, Monte Lago at Lake Las Vegas in Henderson, what had been a live table games pit under previous ownership now consists entirely of electronic games. I don't expect to see this happen soon at larger casinos, but the electronic versions are likely to replace some of the lower-limit (and less profitable) table games.
Particularly with the blackjack games, players should review the rules carefully before playing. And they should play the other games only if they're willing to give the house the same edge its gets on the live versions. In most cases, that's too much for me.
How is the order in which the dogs finish each race determined? If it's random, how is randomization achieved? If it's not random,what factors are involved? The game designates some dogs as favorites or underdogs, based on the results of their past five races. But if the race results are random, this information means nothing.
What is the casino's takout from the bets made? In other words, what is the average percentage return on each bet to the players? How does this compare with what actual dog tracks take out?
Triple Towers is an offshoot of the trend toward electronic table games, including blackjack, roulette, craps and three-card poker. Judging by their increased presence on casino floors, these games appear to be popular with players, possibly in part because of their usually lower minimum bets than their real-like counterparts. But do these games offer players a good value?
My concern in this regard, which also applies to the greyhound race game, is that the house edge (or track takeout) on the "real" games (or race bets) reflects the cost of operating those games, particularly paying the dealers, pit clerks, supervisors and other employees involved. These costs should be much less for the electronic versions, so the odds should be better for the players, right?
I haven't done any systematic study, but my casual observation suggests that this is not usually the case. The craps and roulette set-ups I've seen offer the same payouts as their real-life counterparts. In the case of roulette, this means a double-zero game (exception: some upright slot-like rouletter machines I've seen are single-zero). The blackjack games have varying rules, some paying 6-to-5 for blackjack, which is to be avoided in all manifestations of the game. Some of the blackjack games have very good rules, including surrender. The one downside is that they cannot accommodate re-splitting of hands, so players are limited to splitting each hand once.
Another downside is that at some casinos craps and roulette machines don't take players' cards, meaning no comps for playing these games. One casino worker explained to me that this is to prevent people from making offsetting bets such as both black and red on roulette and racking up lots of points while losing little money.
On the other hand, there is no dealer to tip, which saves some players money.
At one small casino, Monte Lago at Lake Las Vegas in Henderson, what had been a live table games pit under previous ownership now consists entirely of electronic games. I don't expect to see this happen soon at larger casinos, but the electronic versions are likely to replace some of the lower-limit (and less profitable) table games.
Particularly with the blackjack games, players should review the rules carefully before playing. And they should play the other games only if they're willing to give the house the same edge its gets on the live versions. In most cases, that's too much for me.
Palms update
At the Palms the other night I bumped into a slot manager and started what became a lengthy conversation between him and my wife and me about the recent changes at the Palms. First, the good news: According to this particular executive, the removal of good video poker games is over. But like anything else said by any casino employee, this must be taken with a grain of salt. Everthing in a casino is always subject to change, and from my outside perspective, internal communication within casinos and casino companies appears to be generally terrible, so employees are not always aware of what is going on or coming down the pike.
This manager admitted that many customers have complained about the changes and that the Palms has recently lost some business to the Gold Coast, a casino across the street that now has a generally stronger video poker lineup than the Palms. He also said that many of the complainers are still coming to the Palms, out of habit, if nothing else. Significantly, while defending the changes from a business point of view, he admitted that they were handled poorly from a public relations point of view. I'm not sure what the best way is to handle a situation where you're taking something away from people, but the Palms has done little to soften the blow, making at least some longtime customers feel their business is no longer appreciated (the executive made it clear that concerning some customers, this is in fact the case).
He also said that machines have been removed because too many were underused. Casinos pay a state fee for each machine on the slot floor, and of course have many other expenses, so a machine that doesn't get enough play is less valuable than empty floor space (maybe that explains the open prairies at the M Resort). Separted from the issue of the types of games and pay tables offered, this strikes me as simply good management and was an aspect of running a casino I had been unaware of. Of course, players don't care if machines they don't play are removed.
But there's no question that games many serious video poker players played are now gone, including the 25-cent full-pay deuces wild progressive, the 10/7 double bonus progressive and, now, all the 16/10 deuces wild on triple play/five play machines. The Palms was the last casino in Vegas to offer the latter, and they were what I usually played. I mentioned this, and my disappointment, to the slot manager, and he replied that some players had "hammered" the casino on these games. I pointed out that they are negative-return games (to the players), even with perfect play and taking into account the value of slot club points. Further, play on these machines has long been ineligible for qualifying for promotions, and for point multipliers. A few players might have been able to gain a very slight edge if you included the value of their mailers and promotions such as free pulls on Megabucks and Wheel of Fortune, but I can't see how anyone could have "hammered" the Palms on these machines. He really didn't have an answer when I pointed this out. In my opinion, the value to the Palms of continuing to be the only casino offering these enormously fun-to-play games would have been worth any small losses the casino might have incurred as a result of the play of a very few people.
One interesting thing the slot manager shared was his view of the difference between slot (reel) players and video poker players. He described slot players as seeking entertainment and excitement, and not concerned about coming out ahead in the long run as long as they get the excitement of chasing after (mostly small) bonuses and jackpots and occasionally winning. Video poker players, on the other hand, he clearly saw as economic adversaries -- people who expect to win and to get everything they can from the casino. For example, he said that many, many more reel players play without a players' club card, giving away any comps and marketing offers they might be entitled to. Many more video poker players use a card, he said, and use all the points they accrue. I think his views may be colored by the Palms' history as a mecca for serious video poker players. What he says is undoubtedly true for a segment of video poker players, but they are probably a small minority in most casinos. Many, many video poker players don't use players' cards, don't know much if anything about pay tables or game strategy, and believe that winning is just as much a matter of luck in video poker as it is in playing reels.
Still, his attitude is one that seems to reflect the thinking in the industry, which has become less generous to video poker players in the six or so years I've been playing that game. Video poker players used to get the same benefits as reel players -- the same point multipliers, the same coin-in requirements to qualify for gifts and benefits, etc. This has changed at most casinos, and I can't say it's entirely unfair. Even bad video poker players playing bad games lose less than most reel players, and video poker machines are generally faster than reel machines, meaning players can accumulate points faster. But casino mangers should keep in mind that the reel players who lose more may lose interest in gambling -- or run out of gambling money -- sooner. To the extent that the industry squeezes video poker players it jeopardizes a part of its customer base that is likely to provide a more stable, long-lasting source of income.
So what am I going to do now about the Palms? Barring further changes in the video poker lineup, I plan to continue playing there. The Palms still has a couple of games I'm interested in playing -- 16/10 deuces wild at $2 and 9/6 jacks or better at 25 cents on 10-play machines. Both of these games return more than 99.5 percent (the Palms' slot club points add 0.25 percent), and play on the jacks qualifies for promotions. At least one positive game is still available -- 10/7 double bonus. Compared to what the Palms used to have, it's current lineup is very disappointing. Compared to what most other casinos offer, its lineup is still competitive, especially combined with its promotions, even just those available to players of "non-promotional" machines. And I was surprised to find in my March mailer that my free play and dining offers had doubled in value from February. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the Palms is only a short walk across the street from the Gold Coast, a casino I usually visit several days a week.
However, just about any further cuts to the video poker at the Palms could change my plans. The slot manager I spoke with pointed out that players have a right to vote with their feet. That's a right I reserve, but hope not to have to use, concerning the Palms.
This manager admitted that many customers have complained about the changes and that the Palms has recently lost some business to the Gold Coast, a casino across the street that now has a generally stronger video poker lineup than the Palms. He also said that many of the complainers are still coming to the Palms, out of habit, if nothing else. Significantly, while defending the changes from a business point of view, he admitted that they were handled poorly from a public relations point of view. I'm not sure what the best way is to handle a situation where you're taking something away from people, but the Palms has done little to soften the blow, making at least some longtime customers feel their business is no longer appreciated (the executive made it clear that concerning some customers, this is in fact the case).
He also said that machines have been removed because too many were underused. Casinos pay a state fee for each machine on the slot floor, and of course have many other expenses, so a machine that doesn't get enough play is less valuable than empty floor space (maybe that explains the open prairies at the M Resort). Separted from the issue of the types of games and pay tables offered, this strikes me as simply good management and was an aspect of running a casino I had been unaware of. Of course, players don't care if machines they don't play are removed.
But there's no question that games many serious video poker players played are now gone, including the 25-cent full-pay deuces wild progressive, the 10/7 double bonus progressive and, now, all the 16/10 deuces wild on triple play/five play machines. The Palms was the last casino in Vegas to offer the latter, and they were what I usually played. I mentioned this, and my disappointment, to the slot manager, and he replied that some players had "hammered" the casino on these games. I pointed out that they are negative-return games (to the players), even with perfect play and taking into account the value of slot club points. Further, play on these machines has long been ineligible for qualifying for promotions, and for point multipliers. A few players might have been able to gain a very slight edge if you included the value of their mailers and promotions such as free pulls on Megabucks and Wheel of Fortune, but I can't see how anyone could have "hammered" the Palms on these machines. He really didn't have an answer when I pointed this out. In my opinion, the value to the Palms of continuing to be the only casino offering these enormously fun-to-play games would have been worth any small losses the casino might have incurred as a result of the play of a very few people.
One interesting thing the slot manager shared was his view of the difference between slot (reel) players and video poker players. He described slot players as seeking entertainment and excitement, and not concerned about coming out ahead in the long run as long as they get the excitement of chasing after (mostly small) bonuses and jackpots and occasionally winning. Video poker players, on the other hand, he clearly saw as economic adversaries -- people who expect to win and to get everything they can from the casino. For example, he said that many, many more reel players play without a players' club card, giving away any comps and marketing offers they might be entitled to. Many more video poker players use a card, he said, and use all the points they accrue. I think his views may be colored by the Palms' history as a mecca for serious video poker players. What he says is undoubtedly true for a segment of video poker players, but they are probably a small minority in most casinos. Many, many video poker players don't use players' cards, don't know much if anything about pay tables or game strategy, and believe that winning is just as much a matter of luck in video poker as it is in playing reels.
Still, his attitude is one that seems to reflect the thinking in the industry, which has become less generous to video poker players in the six or so years I've been playing that game. Video poker players used to get the same benefits as reel players -- the same point multipliers, the same coin-in requirements to qualify for gifts and benefits, etc. This has changed at most casinos, and I can't say it's entirely unfair. Even bad video poker players playing bad games lose less than most reel players, and video poker machines are generally faster than reel machines, meaning players can accumulate points faster. But casino mangers should keep in mind that the reel players who lose more may lose interest in gambling -- or run out of gambling money -- sooner. To the extent that the industry squeezes video poker players it jeopardizes a part of its customer base that is likely to provide a more stable, long-lasting source of income.
So what am I going to do now about the Palms? Barring further changes in the video poker lineup, I plan to continue playing there. The Palms still has a couple of games I'm interested in playing -- 16/10 deuces wild at $2 and 9/6 jacks or better at 25 cents on 10-play machines. Both of these games return more than 99.5 percent (the Palms' slot club points add 0.25 percent), and play on the jacks qualifies for promotions. At least one positive game is still available -- 10/7 double bonus. Compared to what the Palms used to have, it's current lineup is very disappointing. Compared to what most other casinos offer, its lineup is still competitive, especially combined with its promotions, even just those available to players of "non-promotional" machines. And I was surprised to find in my March mailer that my free play and dining offers had doubled in value from February. Of course, it doesn't hurt that the Palms is only a short walk across the street from the Gold Coast, a casino I usually visit several days a week.
However, just about any further cuts to the video poker at the Palms could change my plans. The slot manager I spoke with pointed out that players have a right to vote with their feet. That's a right I reserve, but hope not to have to use, concerning the Palms.
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
A solution to smoke?
After spending most of the past two-plus years in Southern Nevada casinos, I can tell you without a doubt that the worst thing about it has been the smoke-filled air in most of them. Nevada casinos are among the few business premises left in which smoking is tolerated. In fact, it is encouraged, by cigarette comps, ever-present ashtrays and a culture that accepts smoking as the norm, rather than the exception. Many casinos, especially smaller ones, have ventilation systems inadequate to the task of keeping the air breathable. Some have established nonsmoking areas, but these are usually too small to be effective and/or they contain a limited selection of machines, rarely including the best in the casino (One notable exception is Green Valley Ranch Station Casino, which has an entire nonsmoking wing that contains some of its best video poker machines.)
Casino owners must know they're losing business from nonsmokers who either won't put up with the smoke or who gamble less than they would if the air were clean. But almost unanimously they have shown that they fear more the loss of business that would result if they were to bar smoking in large areas. Given the number of gamblers who seem to chain smoke as they plan, that may be true. But it does often lead to unpleasant and unhealthy conditions for employees and nonsmoking customers.
This weekend I experienced what may be the solution to this dilemma. A locals' casino in Henderson, Club Fortune, has installed what it calls "an innovative system from Moleculair Technologies that removes second hand smoke and other odors from the indoor environment." A blurb in the casino's monthly mailer invites players to "experience our natural, clean-smelling environment."
In the past, this casino has been one of the smokiest I've experienced. On Saturday night I stopped in to pick up my wife's and my free play, and my initial impression of this new system is that it works as promised. I made it a point to walk the entire casino floor, and the air throughout was clean and fresh-smelling. The casino was not at its busiest -- this was after the drawings had ended at 11 p.m. -- but there were quite a few people playing and smoking. I will visit during a different, and I hope busier, time of day this week to test the air again. But based on my experience Saturday, I'm very hopeful that Moleculair Technologies has come up with a product that will improve greatly the experieces of casino customers and employees.
Club Fortune's mailer gives a phone number for information on Moleculair Technologies: (702) 566-5555, extension 128.
Casino owners must know they're losing business from nonsmokers who either won't put up with the smoke or who gamble less than they would if the air were clean. But almost unanimously they have shown that they fear more the loss of business that would result if they were to bar smoking in large areas. Given the number of gamblers who seem to chain smoke as they plan, that may be true. But it does often lead to unpleasant and unhealthy conditions for employees and nonsmoking customers.
This weekend I experienced what may be the solution to this dilemma. A locals' casino in Henderson, Club Fortune, has installed what it calls "an innovative system from Moleculair Technologies that removes second hand smoke and other odors from the indoor environment." A blurb in the casino's monthly mailer invites players to "experience our natural, clean-smelling environment."
In the past, this casino has been one of the smokiest I've experienced. On Saturday night I stopped in to pick up my wife's and my free play, and my initial impression of this new system is that it works as promised. I made it a point to walk the entire casino floor, and the air throughout was clean and fresh-smelling. The casino was not at its busiest -- this was after the drawings had ended at 11 p.m. -- but there were quite a few people playing and smoking. I will visit during a different, and I hope busier, time of day this week to test the air again. But based on my experience Saturday, I'm very hopeful that Moleculair Technologies has come up with a product that will improve greatly the experieces of casino customers and employees.
Club Fortune's mailer gives a phone number for information on Moleculair Technologies: (702) 566-5555, extension 128.
Sunday, February 12, 2012
Slot tournaments, big and small
One of the staples of casino promotions is the slot tournament. This involves a group of people playing, for a specified time, slot machines set up to record scores rather than pay out money. The participants might play one session or several, all at the same time or spread out over a number of sessions. The winner is usually the player with the highest score or the highest combined score for all his sessions, though there are variations. Many tournaments are free, giving players the attractive option of playing to win the casinos' money without risking any of their own.
Slot tournaments may be part of larger promotions, such as the senior days that have proliferated in Las Vegas-area locals' casinos. Station, in particular, advertises the $30,000 in slot tournament prizes it gives away to senior each week. So how excited should we be about this, and are these tournaments worth the time they take?
Station's $30,000 is broken down among 10 properties, which award $3,000 each. First prize is $1,000 and it drops off precipitously after that. Purses and prizes at the Coast properties that have senior tournaments are not radically different.
The formula for determining how much a tournament is worth to each player is simple (in theory): Total prize money divided by number of entries. Determining the prize money is usually easy; determing the number of entries can come down to a guess. I have asked the attendants at one tournament I used to attend regularly how many people that casino typically got and was told it was often more than 1,000. And many of those people earned as many as two additional entries with a minimal amount of slot play. So I figured this tournament might typically have 1,500 entries or more, making its mathematical value about $2. I used to go to this tournament at a Station property when that company's senior days also included a point multiplier and drawing, a package that make it worthwhile to spend several hours there. Now the point multiplier and drawing are gone, and so am I from Station casinos most Wednesdays.
Now just because the mathematical value of this tournament -- the average amount each player will win each time in the long run -- is only about $2 doesn't mean the tournament wouldn't be worth more than that to some people, even if they knew the mathematical value (my guess is that the vast majority don't). The first prize is an amount that's meaningful to most people, even if their chances of winning it are slim. It's a free roll, a reason to get out of the house and go somewhere nice for lunch, maybe meet friends, etc., etc.
As a professional, I'm more interested in the monetary value, and $2 just doesn't cut it, especially considering that there's also a time expediture involved. Although senior and other small slot tournaments seem to draw people in, at least one Vegas locals' casino has come up with what I think is a better option for both the players and the house. At the Orleans, earning 50 points on Tuesdays gets seniors a chance to spin a virtual wheel on a promotional kiosk. The prizes I've received include 10,000 slot club points (worth $10 in cash back or free play), two free buffets (worth about $20 taking into account the discount I receive as an Emerald-level player) and two tickets to Big Al's Comedy Club (which probably would be available to me and many other players as a comp). So the average is probably about $10, which combined with seven times points makes the Orleans' senior day a worthwhile stop for any oldster who plays there anyway. And the casino doesn't have the expenses of setting up and running a slot tournament, and the players save the time it would take to play. A proverbial "win-win," it seems to me.
Although the Orleans has found a good alternative to small slot tournaments, I don't think the wheel spin would be an acceptable replacement for the bigger tournaments, which often are part of a weekend package and require each participant to play in several sessions, making sure they'll all be in the casino at least a minimum amount of time. And there is genuine excitement and anticipation when a player scores well in one or two sessions and faces one more to determine his fate. Count me in, as long as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow makes it worth my time.
Slot tournaments may be part of larger promotions, such as the senior days that have proliferated in Las Vegas-area locals' casinos. Station, in particular, advertises the $30,000 in slot tournament prizes it gives away to senior each week. So how excited should we be about this, and are these tournaments worth the time they take?
Station's $30,000 is broken down among 10 properties, which award $3,000 each. First prize is $1,000 and it drops off precipitously after that. Purses and prizes at the Coast properties that have senior tournaments are not radically different.
The formula for determining how much a tournament is worth to each player is simple (in theory): Total prize money divided by number of entries. Determining the prize money is usually easy; determing the number of entries can come down to a guess. I have asked the attendants at one tournament I used to attend regularly how many people that casino typically got and was told it was often more than 1,000. And many of those people earned as many as two additional entries with a minimal amount of slot play. So I figured this tournament might typically have 1,500 entries or more, making its mathematical value about $2. I used to go to this tournament at a Station property when that company's senior days also included a point multiplier and drawing, a package that make it worthwhile to spend several hours there. Now the point multiplier and drawing are gone, and so am I from Station casinos most Wednesdays.
Now just because the mathematical value of this tournament -- the average amount each player will win each time in the long run -- is only about $2 doesn't mean the tournament wouldn't be worth more than that to some people, even if they knew the mathematical value (my guess is that the vast majority don't). The first prize is an amount that's meaningful to most people, even if their chances of winning it are slim. It's a free roll, a reason to get out of the house and go somewhere nice for lunch, maybe meet friends, etc., etc.
As a professional, I'm more interested in the monetary value, and $2 just doesn't cut it, especially considering that there's also a time expediture involved. Although senior and other small slot tournaments seem to draw people in, at least one Vegas locals' casino has come up with what I think is a better option for both the players and the house. At the Orleans, earning 50 points on Tuesdays gets seniors a chance to spin a virtual wheel on a promotional kiosk. The prizes I've received include 10,000 slot club points (worth $10 in cash back or free play), two free buffets (worth about $20 taking into account the discount I receive as an Emerald-level player) and two tickets to Big Al's Comedy Club (which probably would be available to me and many other players as a comp). So the average is probably about $10, which combined with seven times points makes the Orleans' senior day a worthwhile stop for any oldster who plays there anyway. And the casino doesn't have the expenses of setting up and running a slot tournament, and the players save the time it would take to play. A proverbial "win-win," it seems to me.
Although the Orleans has found a good alternative to small slot tournaments, I don't think the wheel spin would be an acceptable replacement for the bigger tournaments, which often are part of a weekend package and require each participant to play in several sessions, making sure they'll all be in the casino at least a minimum amount of time. And there is genuine excitement and anticipation when a player scores well in one or two sessions and faces one more to determine his fate. Count me in, as long as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow makes it worth my time.
Saturday, February 4, 2012
Bad news at the Palms
Since founder George Maloof lost control of the Palms, things have been going downhill, video poker-wise. First the full-pay deuces wild progressive came out; the $1 10/7 double bonus progressive was downgraded to 9/7, then removed; the $2 10/7 double bonus -- to my knowledge, the only positive game available in Vegas for more than $1 -- bit the dust. The $2 jack or better between the high-limit room and the Mint high-limit lounge, gone -- along with all the other video poker in that area, all replaced by slot machines.
On Wednesday I visited the Palms and went to play what has become my favorite game there, the $1 five-play "not so ugly" (16/10) deuces. For at least a couple of years, the Palms had been the only place you could play this good version of deuces on triple play/five machines. There was a group near the center of the casino and a couple more in the high-limit slot room. After playing my free Megabucks pulls on Wednesday I went to one of the triple play/five play machines on the main floor. Seeing the "this machine does not qualify for any promotions" sign still on the machine, I assumed the deuces were still 16/10 and began playing. Soon I noticed the deuces had been downgraded to 15/9, a reduction of about 0.9 percent to the players' return. In video poker this is a big deal.
I immediately cashed out and headed to the high limit room, where I was shocked to find an empty space where the last two triple play/five play machines had been. I asked the slot attendant what was going on and found here unsually forthcoming. She said she didn't know whether the triple play/five play machines were coming back but speculated they wouldn't, given the direction the new management was going. She said their focus was on penny slot players -- among the most helpless, pathetic gamblers (my words, not hers) -- and noted that all signs were that the Palms was headed toward becoming something like another Caesars Entertainment property. She said so many regular video poker players had left -- many of them in anger -- that she was surprised to still have a job.
It will be interesting to see what else the new management does to what had been one of the best places in the world to play video poker. If they stop the negative changes now, there's a good chance the Palms will still be worth visiting, though maybe not as often as before. But given what I've seen and heard, I can't be too optimistic that six months from now the Palms will still be on my dance card.
On Wednesday I visited the Palms and went to play what has become my favorite game there, the $1 five-play "not so ugly" (16/10) deuces. For at least a couple of years, the Palms had been the only place you could play this good version of deuces on triple play/five machines. There was a group near the center of the casino and a couple more in the high-limit slot room. After playing my free Megabucks pulls on Wednesday I went to one of the triple play/five play machines on the main floor. Seeing the "this machine does not qualify for any promotions" sign still on the machine, I assumed the deuces were still 16/10 and began playing. Soon I noticed the deuces had been downgraded to 15/9, a reduction of about 0.9 percent to the players' return. In video poker this is a big deal.
I immediately cashed out and headed to the high limit room, where I was shocked to find an empty space where the last two triple play/five play machines had been. I asked the slot attendant what was going on and found here unsually forthcoming. She said she didn't know whether the triple play/five play machines were coming back but speculated they wouldn't, given the direction the new management was going. She said their focus was on penny slot players -- among the most helpless, pathetic gamblers (my words, not hers) -- and noted that all signs were that the Palms was headed toward becoming something like another Caesars Entertainment property. She said so many regular video poker players had left -- many of them in anger -- that she was surprised to still have a job.
It will be interesting to see what else the new management does to what had been one of the best places in the world to play video poker. If they stop the negative changes now, there's a good chance the Palms will still be worth visiting, though maybe not as often as before. But given what I've seen and heard, I can't be too optimistic that six months from now the Palms will still be on my dance card.
Saturday, January 28, 2012
The Rio's marketing to locals
The Rio is one of the casinos in Las Vegas owned by Caesars Entertainment, formerly Harrah's, known to advantage players and other knowledgeable and value-oriented gamblers as The Evil Empire. Caesars' other Vegas properties are on the Strip and cater almost exclusively to out-of-towners. The company and its mostly second-rate properties are known for lousy games, chintzy comps and high prices, especially compared with the locals' casinos. It's been widely rumored for some time that the company would like to unload the Rio, and it has been marketing the property to locals for the past couple of months.
The Rio is part of a geographic cluster of three casinos west of the Strip on Flamingo. The others are the Palms and Gold Coast, both of which offer much better video poker but rather unattractive (to me) blackjack. I was surprised to learn a few months ago that the Rio offers a decent version of the game I prefer, double-deck with a $25 minimum. The main thing that makes the Rio's game attractive is the good penetration provided by most dealers, which makes up for the petty rule prohibiting doubling after split. I also like the absence of a side bet, which can slow the game down considerably, and the relatively liberal rules on spreading hands (playing two hands is allowed at any time with a bet of least twice the table minimum).
One of the few good things about Caesars overly complex yet stingy comp system (called Total Rewards) is that it is relatively transparent. I have asked about my comp balance a couple of times at the players' clubs. From this experience I have concluded that my blackjack play at an average $50 bet is worth less than $2 an hour in comps. But a couple of months ago I was surprised to get from the Rio not just the free bets that some other casinos send their table games players, but an entire mailer offering free slot play, gifts and hotel room nights. Conspicuously absent were any dining offers.
The three $20 free bet coupons I received for a one-month period required that I go to the cage, which exchanged each one for two $10 coupons to use at the tables. I was delighted to discover that these coupons were "play 'til you lose," not "one bet only, win or lose," like most other free bet and match play coupons. The dealers at the Rio let the coupons ride on winning bets and pushes, greatly increasing their value. The typical coupon is taken by the dealer after any hand except a push.
My most recent mailer also included "mystery" free slot play. I was surprised to see this because I had never played any slots or video poker at the Rio and had not played any video poker at any Caesars property in probably a year. At any rate, I was expecting a minimal amount, $3, maybe $5. I was surprised to get $10, although I had to earn it by standing on line at both the players' club and the cage, which took the coupon I received at the club and issed me a ticket to put into a machine. This is an unbelievably cumbersome and labor-intensive process that would break down if the Rio had a significant number of local customers trying to get their free play at any one time. (By comparison, free play at most casinos is loaded on players' accounts and avaible for download on most slot and video poker machines.)
Another problem is where to use the ticket. The best games in dollars at the Rio are 8/5 bonus poker and 9/7 double bonus, with 9/6 jacks or better at $5 in the high limit room. The dollar games in particular, at just over 99.1 percent return, are not competitive with those at the nearby Palms and Gold Coast, which have a wide selection of games returning very close to 100 percent.
I recently took up the Rio on an offer of two free room nights. The Rio is an all-suite hotel, and my room was large and comfortable. I was put off when making my reservation when the agent tried to charge me a $10 "processing fee," which is unbelievable chutzpah in view of the Caesars billboards in Vegas attacking other operators' resort fees. I protested this fee and it did not wind up on my bill.
On the plus side, the TV channel lineup included MSNBC, which in my experience is rarely available in Las Vegas hotel rooms, although Fox News almost always is. On the down side, Caesars squeezes the lemon when it comes to in-room coffee, making K cups available at three for $8.
A couple of brief news items concerning the Rio: 1. KJ, a new seafood and dim sum Chinese restaurant, has opened where the small bowling alley was, between the poker room and Carnival World Buffet. I'll review it when I earn enough comps for a dinner, in maybe three or four years. 2. A new, supposedly faster, beverage service system divides tasks of taking orders and delivering drinks between new "beverage ambassadors" -- a number of them male -- with electronic tablets and the traditional cocktail servers. The order-taking ambassadors are not allowed to take tips.
I first played blackjack at the Rio not expecting much except a game I could beat in the long run. Although the Rio remains uncompetitive with the locals' casinos in many crucial ways, it has provided me with surprising value and likely will remain on my rotation as long as I'm allowed to play blackjack there.
The Rio is part of a geographic cluster of three casinos west of the Strip on Flamingo. The others are the Palms and Gold Coast, both of which offer much better video poker but rather unattractive (to me) blackjack. I was surprised to learn a few months ago that the Rio offers a decent version of the game I prefer, double-deck with a $25 minimum. The main thing that makes the Rio's game attractive is the good penetration provided by most dealers, which makes up for the petty rule prohibiting doubling after split. I also like the absence of a side bet, which can slow the game down considerably, and the relatively liberal rules on spreading hands (playing two hands is allowed at any time with a bet of least twice the table minimum).
One of the few good things about Caesars overly complex yet stingy comp system (called Total Rewards) is that it is relatively transparent. I have asked about my comp balance a couple of times at the players' clubs. From this experience I have concluded that my blackjack play at an average $50 bet is worth less than $2 an hour in comps. But a couple of months ago I was surprised to get from the Rio not just the free bets that some other casinos send their table games players, but an entire mailer offering free slot play, gifts and hotel room nights. Conspicuously absent were any dining offers.
The three $20 free bet coupons I received for a one-month period required that I go to the cage, which exchanged each one for two $10 coupons to use at the tables. I was delighted to discover that these coupons were "play 'til you lose," not "one bet only, win or lose," like most other free bet and match play coupons. The dealers at the Rio let the coupons ride on winning bets and pushes, greatly increasing their value. The typical coupon is taken by the dealer after any hand except a push.
My most recent mailer also included "mystery" free slot play. I was surprised to see this because I had never played any slots or video poker at the Rio and had not played any video poker at any Caesars property in probably a year. At any rate, I was expecting a minimal amount, $3, maybe $5. I was surprised to get $10, although I had to earn it by standing on line at both the players' club and the cage, which took the coupon I received at the club and issed me a ticket to put into a machine. This is an unbelievably cumbersome and labor-intensive process that would break down if the Rio had a significant number of local customers trying to get their free play at any one time. (By comparison, free play at most casinos is loaded on players' accounts and avaible for download on most slot and video poker machines.)
Another problem is where to use the ticket. The best games in dollars at the Rio are 8/5 bonus poker and 9/7 double bonus, with 9/6 jacks or better at $5 in the high limit room. The dollar games in particular, at just over 99.1 percent return, are not competitive with those at the nearby Palms and Gold Coast, which have a wide selection of games returning very close to 100 percent.
I recently took up the Rio on an offer of two free room nights. The Rio is an all-suite hotel, and my room was large and comfortable. I was put off when making my reservation when the agent tried to charge me a $10 "processing fee," which is unbelievable chutzpah in view of the Caesars billboards in Vegas attacking other operators' resort fees. I protested this fee and it did not wind up on my bill.
On the plus side, the TV channel lineup included MSNBC, which in my experience is rarely available in Las Vegas hotel rooms, although Fox News almost always is. On the down side, Caesars squeezes the lemon when it comes to in-room coffee, making K cups available at three for $8.
A couple of brief news items concerning the Rio: 1. KJ, a new seafood and dim sum Chinese restaurant, has opened where the small bowling alley was, between the poker room and Carnival World Buffet. I'll review it when I earn enough comps for a dinner, in maybe three or four years. 2. A new, supposedly faster, beverage service system divides tasks of taking orders and delivering drinks between new "beverage ambassadors" -- a number of them male -- with electronic tablets and the traditional cocktail servers. The order-taking ambassadors are not allowed to take tips.
I first played blackjack at the Rio not expecting much except a game I could beat in the long run. Although the Rio remains uncompetitive with the locals' casinos in many crucial ways, it has provided me with surprising value and likely will remain on my rotation as long as I'm allowed to play blackjack there.
Monday, January 16, 2012
A good use for comps at the LVH
Comps, or complimentaries, are the things casinos give their customers to keep them coming back -- meals, room nights, show tickets, etc. Casinos use a variety of systems for tracking play and awarding comps, but there has been a trend in recent years to award slot and video poker players with points that can be used for comps and, in many cases, cash back or free play.
The Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, until early this month the Las Vegas Hilton, has a system that's a little unusual. Slot and video poker players earn both comp dollars and points. Comp dollars can be used only for stuff such as meals and show tickets. Points can be used only for free play. This system replaced one a few months ago that awarded only comps, but those comps could be converted to cash. Now there's no way to get cash back from the LVH except by running free play through a machine and cashing out what's left.
In the case of my wife and myself, the comps have been accumulating faster than we can use them for food or entertainment. But we've figured out a way to monetize them -- not necessarily dollar for dollar, but in a way that should be very beneficial in the long run.
One of the reasons we've been regular players at the LVH is the casinos' regular schedule of tournaments. Typically each month there are tournaments with prize pools of $35,000 and $75,000. We are sometimes given free entries to the smaller tournaments and sometimes offered the chance to buy entries for $19 or $39 in comp dollars. Because these tournaments often pay at least $50 to everyone who participates, this is a positive-equity play. This is true even if each comp dollar is worth an actual dollar.
In our case, comp dollars are worth only a small fraction of their face value because we get dining coupons in our monthly mailers from the LVH (and many other casinos). The LVH's restaurants are excellent, but we just don't get many opportunities to use our comp dollars there. So this moth, for the first time, we decided to use $119 each in comp dollars to enter the LVH's $75,000 tournament, which we played in this weekend. I was told the tournament had about 300 entrants, which would make each contestant's equity $250, less the cost of entry. (Equity in a tournament or drawing is the average amount to be won by each participant, determined by dividing the total amount of prizes by the number of participants. If there's a cost of entry, that must be subtracted from the result.)
A couple of other things made this an attractive proposition. Each participant in the tournament was guaranteed $50 in free play, so it couldn't be a total loss. And play during the tournament weekend would give us extra entries in drawings. I don't know how much we won, but whether this was a good use of our time didn't depend on that. Whether a tournament or drawing is worth taking part in must be determined in advance, before you can know how much you'll win. Making a good judgment requires having an idea of what your equity would be. It's often not possible to determine the exact amount because the number of contenstants isn't known or can't be determined. But if you have a rough idea you can determine whether this expectation is worth the time and effort involved. This time, you probably will win a lot more or less that your equity. But in the long run, that's about what you can expect to average in the tournaments and drawings you enter. So that's what you use each time to make a decision.
The Las Vegas Hotel and Casino, until early this month the Las Vegas Hilton, has a system that's a little unusual. Slot and video poker players earn both comp dollars and points. Comp dollars can be used only for stuff such as meals and show tickets. Points can be used only for free play. This system replaced one a few months ago that awarded only comps, but those comps could be converted to cash. Now there's no way to get cash back from the LVH except by running free play through a machine and cashing out what's left.
In the case of my wife and myself, the comps have been accumulating faster than we can use them for food or entertainment. But we've figured out a way to monetize them -- not necessarily dollar for dollar, but in a way that should be very beneficial in the long run.
One of the reasons we've been regular players at the LVH is the casinos' regular schedule of tournaments. Typically each month there are tournaments with prize pools of $35,000 and $75,000. We are sometimes given free entries to the smaller tournaments and sometimes offered the chance to buy entries for $19 or $39 in comp dollars. Because these tournaments often pay at least $50 to everyone who participates, this is a positive-equity play. This is true even if each comp dollar is worth an actual dollar.
In our case, comp dollars are worth only a small fraction of their face value because we get dining coupons in our monthly mailers from the LVH (and many other casinos). The LVH's restaurants are excellent, but we just don't get many opportunities to use our comp dollars there. So this moth, for the first time, we decided to use $119 each in comp dollars to enter the LVH's $75,000 tournament, which we played in this weekend. I was told the tournament had about 300 entrants, which would make each contestant's equity $250, less the cost of entry. (Equity in a tournament or drawing is the average amount to be won by each participant, determined by dividing the total amount of prizes by the number of participants. If there's a cost of entry, that must be subtracted from the result.)
A couple of other things made this an attractive proposition. Each participant in the tournament was guaranteed $50 in free play, so it couldn't be a total loss. And play during the tournament weekend would give us extra entries in drawings. I don't know how much we won, but whether this was a good use of our time didn't depend on that. Whether a tournament or drawing is worth taking part in must be determined in advance, before you can know how much you'll win. Making a good judgment requires having an idea of what your equity would be. It's often not possible to determine the exact amount because the number of contenstants isn't known or can't be determined. But if you have a rough idea you can determine whether this expectation is worth the time and effort involved. This time, you probably will win a lot more or less that your equity. But in the long run, that's about what you can expect to average in the tournaments and drawings you enter. So that's what you use each time to make a decision.
A good year
2011 was my second year as a professional gambler. Although I haven't yet added everything up, I can say that I earned more money last year than I ever had in a "legitimate" job -- by a long shot. Counting the car I won in a drawing but not comps, I cleared more than $100,000. Of course, my job comes without the usual benefits -- health insurance, paid vacation, retirement -- but does come with show tickets, gifts of all kinds and all the restaurant meals I could eat. Perhaps the best benefit is that I don't have to answer to anyone and at the places I do business I am treated like a valued customer, not an employee. The biggest downsides are the uncertainty, the frustration caused by losing steaks and the sheer amount of time required to succeed. In the latter regard the job is like that of a medical resident -- seven days a week, 10 or more hours a day. Not all of it feels like work but the amount that does seems to be growing. My main goal for this year is to make about as much money as last year but to take less time doing it.
During 2010, my first year as a pro, I occasionally had doubts about whether I would be able to make a living, long-term, by gambling. I now believe I have found a mix of methods that works for me and should continue to work for the foreseeable future. I am also convinced that, despite the long-term trend of casinos worsening the games they offer, there will be opportunties to make a living gambling for years to come. Two years of ground-level observation of casino operations has taught me that to attract and hold the vast majority of their customers, casinos must offer opportunites that can be exploited by the few people with the time, understanding and motivation to take advantage of them. One of the analogies I use to help people understand what I do is that of advantage player (long-term winning gambler) to super coupon shopper. A big part of my job is keeping track of "sales" offered by casinos in the form of point multipliers, free play and the like. I even use actual coupons from the casinos and other sources to obtain free bets and other "savings." I guess supermarkets and many other businesses have very careful customers they lose money on in the long run. This is definitely true of the casinos, at least in a highly competitive market such as Las Vegas. I intend to continue being one of those customers this year.
During 2010, my first year as a pro, I occasionally had doubts about whether I would be able to make a living, long-term, by gambling. I now believe I have found a mix of methods that works for me and should continue to work for the foreseeable future. I am also convinced that, despite the long-term trend of casinos worsening the games they offer, there will be opportunties to make a living gambling for years to come. Two years of ground-level observation of casino operations has taught me that to attract and hold the vast majority of their customers, casinos must offer opportunites that can be exploited by the few people with the time, understanding and motivation to take advantage of them. One of the analogies I use to help people understand what I do is that of advantage player (long-term winning gambler) to super coupon shopper. A big part of my job is keeping track of "sales" offered by casinos in the form of point multipliers, free play and the like. I even use actual coupons from the casinos and other sources to obtain free bets and other "savings." I guess supermarkets and many other businesses have very careful customers they lose money on in the long run. This is definitely true of the casinos, at least in a highly competitive market such as Las Vegas. I intend to continue being one of those customers this year.
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