A few days ago I wrote about the last couple of weeks in December being a relatively quiet time. This years, in my experience, that was definitely true between the end of the National Finals Rodeo and Christmas. But during the past couple of days, traffic on the roads and activity in the casinos seems to have picked up considerably.
On Friday, we visited Ellis Island, a casino near the Strip. To my amazement, we were told by a security guard stationed at the garage that only four empty spaces remained in the entire structure. The casino wasn't packed, but the restaurants were very busy.
The spouse and tried to figure out what all the cars were doing in the garage. We guessed that most of them belonged to guests at the Super 8 motel adjacent to the casino. We figured that between Christmas and New Year's was probably a good time for a lot of college students and other young people with time off to come to Vegas for a few days, having fulfilled their family holiday obligations.
Also, a lot of businesses close down or slow down during the last week of the year, so a lot of other people have time off as well.
So I will modify my statement that the last two weeks of the year are a quiet time in Vegas. I would still recommend the week and half between the end of the rodeo and Christmas as a time when Vegas is uncrowded and cheap, but not so much the week between Christmas and New Year/s.
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Stupidity at the Plaza
Last night my spouse and I made a rare Saturday night visit to downtown Las Vegas. One of our goals was to use an American Casino Guide coupon for $5 free play at the Plaza, and the check on whether the $1 full-pay (10/7) Double Bonus video poker gives full player club points (some games there that pay less give no points).
After redeeming the coupon at the players' club, we found the two machines carrying the game we were looking for. They had signs on them saying free play was not available. This was not a major surprise because some casinos make free play unavailable on their best games (10/7 pays back over 100 percent with max coins bet and optimum play, which isn't easy to achieve). My spouse put some money in, played a few hands and determined that the game did indeed pay full points.
That was the last good thing we saw at the Plaza.
We still had the $5 free play to use, and started looking for a video poker machine that would allow that. All the machines we saw were labeled ineligible for free play. I went to the players' club and asked whether there were any VP machines that allowed for free play. I was told that as of two months ago, the answer is no. Management decided to exempt all video poker from use of free play.
So we tried to use the free play on a couple of slot machines, and then on a video keno machine. Each time the card reader said my spouse's account was already in use, apparently as a result of having stuck the card in the machine to test the Double Bonus game. We didn't know how long we'd have to wait for the card to be usable again, but we quickly determined that it wasn't worth it to find out.
The Plaza does allow points to be used for cash back instead of free play, but only if you have one of the two top tiers of players' card. If you don't, you're stuck using your points for free play on a slot machine. And if you get promotional free play in a mailer, you're stuck using it on a slot machine no matter what level card you have.
Why, you might ask, would the casino do this? Why would it care what machine its customers play? The answer is that in general, slot machines have a much higher hold for the house than video poker. So by getting video poker players to put some money through on slots, the house can keep a higher percentage of that money.
Great in theory, but the problem is that many video poker players don't want to play slots, either because the the lower return to the players or because they just don't like playing what many of them consider a mindless game of chance as opposed to a game of skill.
And I think it's fair to say that most people don't like to be bossed around. This is a form of bossing around that no other casino I am aware of is engaging in. I am constantly amazed by the arrogance of some casino executives who are apparently blissfully unaware that they are in a highly competitive business that relies on discretionary income. You'd think they's be more concerned about not ticking off their customers, particularly in ways their competitors aren't doing.
The best games at the Plaza are 10/7 Double Bonus and 9/6 Jacks or Better. Both are offered at other downtown casinos where you can earn full points and use free play on the machine of your choice. Where would you rather play these games?
After redeeming the coupon at the players' club, we found the two machines carrying the game we were looking for. They had signs on them saying free play was not available. This was not a major surprise because some casinos make free play unavailable on their best games (10/7 pays back over 100 percent with max coins bet and optimum play, which isn't easy to achieve). My spouse put some money in, played a few hands and determined that the game did indeed pay full points.
That was the last good thing we saw at the Plaza.
We still had the $5 free play to use, and started looking for a video poker machine that would allow that. All the machines we saw were labeled ineligible for free play. I went to the players' club and asked whether there were any VP machines that allowed for free play. I was told that as of two months ago, the answer is no. Management decided to exempt all video poker from use of free play.
So we tried to use the free play on a couple of slot machines, and then on a video keno machine. Each time the card reader said my spouse's account was already in use, apparently as a result of having stuck the card in the machine to test the Double Bonus game. We didn't know how long we'd have to wait for the card to be usable again, but we quickly determined that it wasn't worth it to find out.
The Plaza does allow points to be used for cash back instead of free play, but only if you have one of the two top tiers of players' card. If you don't, you're stuck using your points for free play on a slot machine. And if you get promotional free play in a mailer, you're stuck using it on a slot machine no matter what level card you have.
Why, you might ask, would the casino do this? Why would it care what machine its customers play? The answer is that in general, slot machines have a much higher hold for the house than video poker. So by getting video poker players to put some money through on slots, the house can keep a higher percentage of that money.
Great in theory, but the problem is that many video poker players don't want to play slots, either because the the lower return to the players or because they just don't like playing what many of them consider a mindless game of chance as opposed to a game of skill.
And I think it's fair to say that most people don't like to be bossed around. This is a form of bossing around that no other casino I am aware of is engaging in. I am constantly amazed by the arrogance of some casino executives who are apparently blissfully unaware that they are in a highly competitive business that relies on discretionary income. You'd think they's be more concerned about not ticking off their customers, particularly in ways their competitors aren't doing.
The best games at the Plaza are 10/7 Double Bonus and 9/6 Jacks or Better. Both are offered at other downtown casinos where you can earn full points and use free play on the machine of your choice. Where would you rather play these games?
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Funbooks and other coupons
In my last post, I mentioned staying at South Point Thursday night. We had stayed there a couple of times before, but I forgot that the hotel gives its guest something called a funbook at check-in. When I saw the two funbooks my spouse had picked up with our room keys, it reminded me of my amusement when I first came across the term.
A funbook isn't as much fun as you might think, unless you find saving (usually small amounts of) money particularly entertaining. All it is is a coupon book. In the case of South Point's, the coupons are mostly for food and drink, and require that something be purchased. Some other funbooks we've seen over the years contain gaming offers such as match plays, which are of more interest to us.
It's a good idea, whenever you check into a casino hotel, to ask for a funbook. If you get one, be sure to read the rules. Often the coupons are good only while you're staying at the hotel, and often they are void if detached from the book before use. A player's card may be required when using gaming offers.
Funbooks are only one of many sources of Las Vegas coupons. Others include the "freebie" magazines, daily newspapers, several Web sites and two valuable books, the Las Vegas Advisor Member Rewards and the American Casino Guide. I've written about both books before and, as I use up the coupons in each before they expire at the end of the year, I'm reminded of the value both provide.
A funbook isn't as much fun as you might think, unless you find saving (usually small amounts of) money particularly entertaining. All it is is a coupon book. In the case of South Point's, the coupons are mostly for food and drink, and require that something be purchased. Some other funbooks we've seen over the years contain gaming offers such as match plays, which are of more interest to us.
It's a good idea, whenever you check into a casino hotel, to ask for a funbook. If you get one, be sure to read the rules. Often the coupons are good only while you're staying at the hotel, and often they are void if detached from the book before use. A player's card may be required when using gaming offers.
Funbooks are only one of many sources of Las Vegas coupons. Others include the "freebie" magazines, daily newspapers, several Web sites and two valuable books, the Las Vegas Advisor Member Rewards and the American Casino Guide. I've written about both books before and, as I use up the coupons in each before they expire at the end of the year, I'm reminded of the value both provide.
A quiet time in Vegas
The last couple of weeks of December are a special time in Vegas, and not just because of Christmas, Hannukah, and Festivus. It's an unusually quiet time in the hotels, and the time when the casinos traditionally "give away the store."
My spouse got an unusual invitation from South Point, one of our secondary casinos in amount of play. It was for a room night, which we took Thursday night, and dinner at either the steakhouse or Italian restaurant. We chose Don Vito's and ran up a bill of $100 without even getting the wine and soft drinks that were part of the comp.
The desk clerk told me the hotel, which had been bursting at the seams through the end of the National Finals Rodeo this past weekend, was only 30 percent full. We have been out and about quite a bit in the past few days and almost all the casinos we have visited have been about as empty as we've seen them.
As advantage players, we're always looking for an edge, and fewer people in the casinos creates opportunities where competition is a factor, particularly drawings.Also, if I were a bingo player, I'd be playing whenever I could in next week or so, particularly if there were some unusually bad weather.
This year is shaping up as a very good one for me financially, but we have faced numerous changes and challenges, as is always the case in this line of work. One of the biggest challenges was being being "no mailed," which is when a casino decides not to send you any more marketing offers. This happened to me twice, and much to my surprise, I am still finding opportunities to make money at the casinos in question. There's no guarantee, however, that this will last.
One of the biggest changes we made this year was setting up a spreadsheet system (with invaluable help from my daughter) to track not only our results but, more important, the value of what we receive from each casino we play at. This will help us greatly in the continuous process of figuring out how and where to best spend our time. We also switched our calendars from day planner books to the computer. Thanks to my spouse for a lot of hard work in setting this up.
My biggest goal for next year is to cut down on the time I spend gambling. Having more information and making better use of technology should make that easier.
My spouse got an unusual invitation from South Point, one of our secondary casinos in amount of play. It was for a room night, which we took Thursday night, and dinner at either the steakhouse or Italian restaurant. We chose Don Vito's and ran up a bill of $100 without even getting the wine and soft drinks that were part of the comp.
The desk clerk told me the hotel, which had been bursting at the seams through the end of the National Finals Rodeo this past weekend, was only 30 percent full. We have been out and about quite a bit in the past few days and almost all the casinos we have visited have been about as empty as we've seen them.
As advantage players, we're always looking for an edge, and fewer people in the casinos creates opportunities where competition is a factor, particularly drawings.Also, if I were a bingo player, I'd be playing whenever I could in next week or so, particularly if there were some unusually bad weather.
This year is shaping up as a very good one for me financially, but we have faced numerous changes and challenges, as is always the case in this line of work. One of the biggest challenges was being being "no mailed," which is when a casino decides not to send you any more marketing offers. This happened to me twice, and much to my surprise, I am still finding opportunities to make money at the casinos in question. There's no guarantee, however, that this will last.
One of the biggest changes we made this year was setting up a spreadsheet system (with invaluable help from my daughter) to track not only our results but, more important, the value of what we receive from each casino we play at. This will help us greatly in the continuous process of figuring out how and where to best spend our time. We also switched our calendars from day planner books to the computer. Thanks to my spouse for a lot of hard work in setting this up.
My biggest goal for next year is to cut down on the time I spend gambling. Having more information and making better use of technology should make that easier.
Sunday, December 7, 2014
Casino gifts
One of the standard marketing tools of casinos, particularly locals' casinos, is gifts. Typically, a particular gift will be offered to invited guests on a particular day. Other customers may have an opportunity to earn the gift by playing a certain amount.
There's no doubt that gifts are popular. They get people through the door, a big part of the job of increasing a casino's business. But I have often wondered whether, from the casino's point of view, the typical gift program is worth the trouble.
Regularly giving gifts puts a casino in the retail business, along with all the other businesses its in -- hotel, restaurants, banking (the cage and credit), entertainment, etc. The stuff must be stored somewhere, and employees must be paid to distribute it.
Most locals' casinos do not require that customers entitled to a free gift (is it really a gift if it has to be earned?) to play on the day they pick up their present. If the guest doesn't play, what has the casino accomplished? Not much, I would say. And what about all the customers who don't want the gift? They won't come in, defeating the purpose of the offer.
And then there are mystery gifts given in various promotions. Sometime customers get a choice, sometimes not, Either way, they are often disappointed, again defeating the purpose.
This time of year, the two high-end Stations properties, Red Rock and Green Valley Ranch, are running a special gift program called the Holiday Shop. Adopted to year-round use, this idea could be the basis for a better-than-usual kind of casino gift program.
This is how the Holiday Shop works. A variety of gifts are offered, ranging in price from 750 points to 500,000 points. Players get one Holiday Shop point for every regular point earned ($1 coin-in). Players keep their points. All gifts must be earned in a 24-hour period. There is a limit of three gifts per day. All players can get a minimum of 250 free points a day by swiping their card at a kiosk.
This system benefits customers by giving them of a variety of gifts from which to choose on any one day. It benefits the casino by giving customers an incentive to play.
If this approach were to be adopted year-round, players could be awarded differing amounts of credits on depending on their level of play, as opposed to the usual system on which everyone gets the same gift. They could also be given additional credits for their play. Casinos might allow regular player club points to be used to buy gifts.
Another alternative I'd consider is doing away with gifts and awarding player club points or gift cards instead. The idea to is give customers something everyone can use, and to eliminate the trouble and expense of an ongoing gifts program.
There's no doubt that gifts are popular. They get people through the door, a big part of the job of increasing a casino's business. But I have often wondered whether, from the casino's point of view, the typical gift program is worth the trouble.
Regularly giving gifts puts a casino in the retail business, along with all the other businesses its in -- hotel, restaurants, banking (the cage and credit), entertainment, etc. The stuff must be stored somewhere, and employees must be paid to distribute it.
Most locals' casinos do not require that customers entitled to a free gift (is it really a gift if it has to be earned?) to play on the day they pick up their present. If the guest doesn't play, what has the casino accomplished? Not much, I would say. And what about all the customers who don't want the gift? They won't come in, defeating the purpose of the offer.
And then there are mystery gifts given in various promotions. Sometime customers get a choice, sometimes not, Either way, they are often disappointed, again defeating the purpose.
This time of year, the two high-end Stations properties, Red Rock and Green Valley Ranch, are running a special gift program called the Holiday Shop. Adopted to year-round use, this idea could be the basis for a better-than-usual kind of casino gift program.
This is how the Holiday Shop works. A variety of gifts are offered, ranging in price from 750 points to 500,000 points. Players get one Holiday Shop point for every regular point earned ($1 coin-in). Players keep their points. All gifts must be earned in a 24-hour period. There is a limit of three gifts per day. All players can get a minimum of 250 free points a day by swiping their card at a kiosk.
This system benefits customers by giving them of a variety of gifts from which to choose on any one day. It benefits the casino by giving customers an incentive to play.
If this approach were to be adopted year-round, players could be awarded differing amounts of credits on depending on their level of play, as opposed to the usual system on which everyone gets the same gift. They could also be given additional credits for their play. Casinos might allow regular player club points to be used to buy gifts.
Another alternative I'd consider is doing away with gifts and awarding player club points or gift cards instead. The idea to is give customers something everyone can use, and to eliminate the trouble and expense of an ongoing gifts program.
Fortunato follow-up
I spoke Saturday night with two slot managers at Green Valley Ranch Station Casino about the malfunction of the Fortunato system progressive. The main main jackpot on this progressive is supposed to hit by $10,000 but a couple of nights ago went over that amount.
As I predicted, the casino resolved the matter by chopping $10,000 among the 16 people who were playing when the progressive reached what should have been its maximum. But a couple of things they said surprised me.
The night of the problem, I was told casino management would call Gaming Control to resolve the issue. To my surprise, the slot managers told me Saturday that Gaming had said the casino didn't have to pay anybody anything because the problem was a malfunction.
If you've ever played a slot or video poker machine, you may have noticed somewhere on the glass the words "malfunction voids all pays and plays." I've never seen or even heard of an instance where this wording was used to deny a payout to a customer. I suppose a machine could go wildly out of control, and I guess the casinos are entitled to protection from an obvious problem that's beyond their control.
I would argue that any malfunction of the Fortunato was not of this nature. My understanding is that when this progressive is hit is determined not by any individual machine, but rather by a computer that shoots a signal to the winning machine.. In any event, the malfunction hurt the players and not the casino, which would have had to pay the jackpot if it had been hit. Whether this or just good public relations was the casino's rationale for paying the players, it did the right thing.
I also asked the gentlemen whether anything would be done for those who had played the progressive before the meter reached $10,000 but who were no longer playing when it exceeded its limit. They said no, which didn't surprise me. But the rationale did. Anyone playing the progressive before it reached its "must hit by" amount could have hit it, one of them said. I think the fact that the progressive didn't hit by $10,000 proves that it couldn't have been hit before then.
The way these progressives work is that as soon as the jackpot is hit, a random number generator picks the amount at which it will pop next. In this case, the system either failed to set an amount or set it at more than $10,000. I think the latter is more likely because until its most recent re-set the Fortunato went up to $30,000.
I asked the slot guys if they knew what the hit amount was set for when the progressive malfunctioned. The said they did not.
On Saturday night the progressive was back in business, with the main meter at a little over $5,000. I'll be watching as the meter climbs.
As I predicted, the casino resolved the matter by chopping $10,000 among the 16 people who were playing when the progressive reached what should have been its maximum. But a couple of things they said surprised me.
The night of the problem, I was told casino management would call Gaming Control to resolve the issue. To my surprise, the slot managers told me Saturday that Gaming had said the casino didn't have to pay anybody anything because the problem was a malfunction.
If you've ever played a slot or video poker machine, you may have noticed somewhere on the glass the words "malfunction voids all pays and plays." I've never seen or even heard of an instance where this wording was used to deny a payout to a customer. I suppose a machine could go wildly out of control, and I guess the casinos are entitled to protection from an obvious problem that's beyond their control.
I would argue that any malfunction of the Fortunato was not of this nature. My understanding is that when this progressive is hit is determined not by any individual machine, but rather by a computer that shoots a signal to the winning machine.. In any event, the malfunction hurt the players and not the casino, which would have had to pay the jackpot if it had been hit. Whether this or just good public relations was the casino's rationale for paying the players, it did the right thing.
I also asked the gentlemen whether anything would be done for those who had played the progressive before the meter reached $10,000 but who were no longer playing when it exceeded its limit. They said no, which didn't surprise me. But the rationale did. Anyone playing the progressive before it reached its "must hit by" amount could have hit it, one of them said. I think the fact that the progressive didn't hit by $10,000 proves that it couldn't have been hit before then.
The way these progressives work is that as soon as the jackpot is hit, a random number generator picks the amount at which it will pop next. In this case, the system either failed to set an amount or set it at more than $10,000. I think the latter is more likely because until its most recent re-set the Fortunato went up to $30,000.
I asked the slot guys if they knew what the hit amount was set for when the progressive malfunctioned. The said they did not.
On Saturday night the progressive was back in business, with the main meter at a little over $5,000. I'll be watching as the meter climbs.
Friday, December 5, 2014
A little more about Reno
Two more things they do differently in Reno ...
When my wife and I hit jackpots at the Peppermill and the Eldorado, the slot attendants re-set the machines when they first arrived. Everywhere we have hit in Vegas, the attendants leave the machines locked up until they come back to pay you and give you your tax form.
Usually having the machine remain locked is not a problem. If you want to keep playing, there's usually another machine with the same game nearby. But not always. And sometimes all the other machines are taken. This can be a problem if you're playing for drawing tickets or need to earn a certain number of points by a set time for some promotion.
Why they do this differently in Vegas and Reno is a mystery to me.
I also found a difference in the way some double-deck blackjack is dealt. After I sat down at the Peppermill, the dealer shuffled the cards, I cut them and he placed the cut card at least 85 percent of the way to the bottom of the pack. It looked as if I was going to get the best penetration I had ever seen!
Then the dealer took all the cards under the cut card and put them in the discard rack, effectively "burning" all of them. The cut card was now at the bottom of what was left of the two decks. The cards were dealt until the dealer decided it was time to stop. I couldn't tell exactly how many cards were left, but total of cards burned and not dealt must have amounted to 40 percent or more of the two decks, making for mediocre penetration at best. I saw the same thing at the Atlantis.
At the Eldorado, in contrast, the double deck was dealt as it is in Vegas, After a player cuts the cards, the dealer places a cut card somewhere in the two decks, them deals until the cut card comes out. At the Eldorado the card was placed about 75 percent into the two decks, making for good penetration.
I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing the dominance of the single-deck game in Reno is responsible for the different way some double-deck is dealt there. A cut card in not usually used in single-deck; the number of rounds dealt is determined by the number of players at the table. I think some of the casinos in Reno are just trying to make double-deck more like single-deck for their dealers.
When my wife and I hit jackpots at the Peppermill and the Eldorado, the slot attendants re-set the machines when they first arrived. Everywhere we have hit in Vegas, the attendants leave the machines locked up until they come back to pay you and give you your tax form.
Usually having the machine remain locked is not a problem. If you want to keep playing, there's usually another machine with the same game nearby. But not always. And sometimes all the other machines are taken. This can be a problem if you're playing for drawing tickets or need to earn a certain number of points by a set time for some promotion.
Why they do this differently in Vegas and Reno is a mystery to me.
I also found a difference in the way some double-deck blackjack is dealt. After I sat down at the Peppermill, the dealer shuffled the cards, I cut them and he placed the cut card at least 85 percent of the way to the bottom of the pack. It looked as if I was going to get the best penetration I had ever seen!
Then the dealer took all the cards under the cut card and put them in the discard rack, effectively "burning" all of them. The cut card was now at the bottom of what was left of the two decks. The cards were dealt until the dealer decided it was time to stop. I couldn't tell exactly how many cards were left, but total of cards burned and not dealt must have amounted to 40 percent or more of the two decks, making for mediocre penetration at best. I saw the same thing at the Atlantis.
At the Eldorado, in contrast, the double deck was dealt as it is in Vegas, After a player cuts the cards, the dealer places a cut card somewhere in the two decks, them deals until the cut card comes out. At the Eldorado the card was placed about 75 percent into the two decks, making for good penetration.
I don't know for sure, but I'm guessing the dominance of the single-deck game in Reno is responsible for the different way some double-deck is dealt there. A cut card in not usually used in single-deck; the number of rounds dealt is determined by the number of players at the table. I think some of the casinos in Reno are just trying to make double-deck more like single-deck for their dealers.
A "must hit by" progressive fails to hit
An interesting thing happened at Green Valley Ranch Station Casino Thursday night.
That casino has a slot progressive called the Fortunato, which is a bit unusual in two ways. First, most slot and video poker progressives accumulate a pot that can grow (theoretically, at least) without limit. The Fortunato has four meters, all of which have upper limits. The big pot starts at $5,000 and must hit by $10,000 -- or so the sign says. Second, it is what's called a system progressive. The pot does not grow on the machines and a player need not hit the top-paying combination on a machine to win it. The way it works is that a signal is sent out when the meter reaches a randomly predetermined amount. The player at the first machine it hits with a player's card inserted wins the jackpot.
This type of progressive becomes more valuable the closer the jackpot amount gets to the maximum. I was at the Ranch late Thursday afternoon and noticed that the meter was over $9,600. I saw a total of maybe three or four people playing on the 16 machines. I decided to do a few other things on my list and return to the Ranch on my way home, hoping to get on the progressive as it got closer to its maximum -- and knowing that it could be hit before I got there.
I arrived a little after 9 p.m. The meter read $10,018! I had grossly misjudged when the meter would reach $10,000, All the machines were taken, and a few people were still playing. Apparently some slot attendant told them they could still win.
I hung around for a while, talking to some players and other observers. The big question was what the casino should do for the 16 people who were playing when the meter reached what should have been its maximum. Gaming Control was called to make this determination . The names and player's card numbers of all who were playing were taken down, and the machines were all shut down.
One man thought all 16 people who were playing when the meter hit should get $10,000. All of them, he argued, had a chance to win that amount, and the malfunction cost them all that opportunity.
No way that's going to happen, in my opinion. Only one person was going to hit the jackpot. There is no way of knowing who that was going to be. The other 15 people would get nothing. The average of $10,000 plus 15 x 0 is 10,000 divided by 16, or $625. My guess is that gaming will order the Ranch to pay each player that amount. (This assumes all 16 people had a player's card active. Anyone not playing with a card was not eligible to win. If anyone was playing without a card, that share should be divided among the other players.)
This would be a practical solution, but it is not perfect. It doesn't do anything for all the people who played with a card from the time the meter started at $5,000 until it reached $10,000. This took a number of weeks. Everyone who played the progressive with a card during that time had a chance to hit the jackpot, but that chance was very small. I doubt there's enough information available to calculate what the failure to hit actually cost these people, but my guess is for most of them it is a matter of cents, not dollars. Anyone who put in a lot of play in the last day or two might reasonably claim a bigger loss. (How much anyone actually lost is irrelevant, because that loss would have been the same if the jackpot had been hit by $10,000. What we're talking about here is the loss of the chance to hit the progressive, not any loss on the machines.)
If I were the boss of the Ranch, I would add some slot club points or free play to the accounts of those who had played the Fortunato before it should have hit but who were not playing when it reached $10,000. I would give a little more to those who played it more and to those who played it the last day or two, because they had a better chance of hitting it and therefore "lost" more.
There is precedent for this. A few weeks ago at Fiesta Henderson, another Station property, a drawing scheduled for 4:15 p.m.was delayed for about an hour and half due to technical problems before it was rescheduled for 8;15, when a second drawing was held. We were surprised to get a letter of apology and points added to our accounts -- a very nice gesture. (Incidentally, I'm surprised at how often computerized drawings are delayed because of technical problems. That never happened with drums full of paper tickets.)
One last point: How could the Fortunato screw-up have happened? I'm sure it had something to do with a change made after the last time it was hit. The big meter used to start at $10,000 and run to a maximum of $30,000. Apparently someone screwed up in reprogramming the system to accommodate the new $10,000 limit.
If I can find out what Gaming orders the Ranch to do, I'll let you know.
That casino has a slot progressive called the Fortunato, which is a bit unusual in two ways. First, most slot and video poker progressives accumulate a pot that can grow (theoretically, at least) without limit. The Fortunato has four meters, all of which have upper limits. The big pot starts at $5,000 and must hit by $10,000 -- or so the sign says. Second, it is what's called a system progressive. The pot does not grow on the machines and a player need not hit the top-paying combination on a machine to win it. The way it works is that a signal is sent out when the meter reaches a randomly predetermined amount. The player at the first machine it hits with a player's card inserted wins the jackpot.
This type of progressive becomes more valuable the closer the jackpot amount gets to the maximum. I was at the Ranch late Thursday afternoon and noticed that the meter was over $9,600. I saw a total of maybe three or four people playing on the 16 machines. I decided to do a few other things on my list and return to the Ranch on my way home, hoping to get on the progressive as it got closer to its maximum -- and knowing that it could be hit before I got there.
I arrived a little after 9 p.m. The meter read $10,018! I had grossly misjudged when the meter would reach $10,000, All the machines were taken, and a few people were still playing. Apparently some slot attendant told them they could still win.
I hung around for a while, talking to some players and other observers. The big question was what the casino should do for the 16 people who were playing when the meter reached what should have been its maximum. Gaming Control was called to make this determination . The names and player's card numbers of all who were playing were taken down, and the machines were all shut down.
One man thought all 16 people who were playing when the meter hit should get $10,000. All of them, he argued, had a chance to win that amount, and the malfunction cost them all that opportunity.
No way that's going to happen, in my opinion. Only one person was going to hit the jackpot. There is no way of knowing who that was going to be. The other 15 people would get nothing. The average of $10,000 plus 15 x 0 is 10,000 divided by 16, or $625. My guess is that gaming will order the Ranch to pay each player that amount. (This assumes all 16 people had a player's card active. Anyone not playing with a card was not eligible to win. If anyone was playing without a card, that share should be divided among the other players.)
This would be a practical solution, but it is not perfect. It doesn't do anything for all the people who played with a card from the time the meter started at $5,000 until it reached $10,000. This took a number of weeks. Everyone who played the progressive with a card during that time had a chance to hit the jackpot, but that chance was very small. I doubt there's enough information available to calculate what the failure to hit actually cost these people, but my guess is for most of them it is a matter of cents, not dollars. Anyone who put in a lot of play in the last day or two might reasonably claim a bigger loss. (How much anyone actually lost is irrelevant, because that loss would have been the same if the jackpot had been hit by $10,000. What we're talking about here is the loss of the chance to hit the progressive, not any loss on the machines.)
If I were the boss of the Ranch, I would add some slot club points or free play to the accounts of those who had played the Fortunato before it should have hit but who were not playing when it reached $10,000. I would give a little more to those who played it more and to those who played it the last day or two, because they had a better chance of hitting it and therefore "lost" more.
There is precedent for this. A few weeks ago at Fiesta Henderson, another Station property, a drawing scheduled for 4:15 p.m.was delayed for about an hour and half due to technical problems before it was rescheduled for 8;15, when a second drawing was held. We were surprised to get a letter of apology and points added to our accounts -- a very nice gesture. (Incidentally, I'm surprised at how often computerized drawings are delayed because of technical problems. That never happened with drums full of paper tickets.)
One last point: How could the Fortunato screw-up have happened? I'm sure it had something to do with a change made after the last time it was hit. The big meter used to start at $10,000 and run to a maximum of $30,000. Apparently someone screwed up in reprogramming the system to accommodate the new $10,000 limit.
If I can find out what Gaming orders the Ranch to do, I'll let you know.
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