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.