Monday, May 5, 2014

Back to the Palms

When George Maloof owned the Palms, I was a regular customer. Like all other casinos, it had its annoying quirks, but the Palms offered good games and some attractive promotions. After Mr. Maloof lost control of the property, the management put in by the new owners made a series of decisions that culminated in my severing my business relationship with the Palms.

Since around the first of the year, the Palms has been under new managers, and they have justified my giving the Palms a second chance. The most significant change is that they put in a good game -- $1 "not so ugly" deuces (99.73 percent maximum payback) --  and made it eligible for all promotions. (In the Maloof era, all games with maximum payback of more than 99.54 percent were ineligible for most promotions.)

Another attractive, and innovative, move: Anyone who participates in the Palms' weekly drawing and isn't called now gets $10 in free play, good the next day. That's as much as $50 this month. Because the Palms' points are worth 0.25 percent, making NSU deuces nearly break-even, that's money in the bank.

The last mailer I received before this policy went into effect offered $3 in free play four times in March. This mailer was not adequate enticement to get me into the casino. With the NSU deuces available, $10 a week from the drawings in April was enough to entice me to give the Palms some play and see what I would get the next month. I did get a mailer for May with $10 in free play four times, plus one $5 dining credit. Not terrible impressive, but combined with the free play from the drawings, enough to get me through the door each week this month.

I was disappointed to see that my mailer did not include any free pulls on Megabucks or Wheel of Fortune. In the Maloof era, I would get two pulls on Megabucks three times a week and two on Wheel of Fortune twice a week. These were not high-value promotions but allowed me to go for some fantasy jackpots on machines I would not otherwise play. The Palms also used to have swipe card promotions on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The prizes were often disappointing but once in a while I'd get something of value. Apparently those have been discontinued. The Palms still offers gifts on many Saturdays, which is also the day the free play from the drawings is good, giving two reasons to come to the casino.

Among the Palms' quirks is that it does not offer point multipliers. Instead, it has a more-or-less ongoing promotions called Play for Prizes. The face value of the prizes, which change about every two weeks, is generally 0.25 percent of the coin-in required to earn them on video poker, so if there's a prize that's worth full price to you, the promotion effectively doubles your points. Only play on weekdays is eligible for the promotion.

I am cautiously optimistic that the Palms will work its way back to being a leading locals' casino. For now, I plan to give it a moderate amount of play and see what happens. If anything changes, I'll let you know.