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).