Stations and Fiestas

If you don't live in the Las Vegas area, you may not have even heard of Station Casinos. But if you do live in Vegas, you know that Stations is as big in the residential areas as Caesars and MGM are on the Strip. Stations owns and operates seven major properties under the Station brand and two under the Fiesta brand. The same Boarding Pass players card program comprises all of the properties, as well as Stations' neighborhood Wildfire casinos.

If you live near either of the Fiestas, you also live near a Station. Fiesta Rancho is right across the street from Texas Station and not that far from Palace and Santa Fe Stations. Fiesta Henderson is near Sunset Station and Green Valley Ranch, and not a great distance from Boulder Station.

Since before we moved to Vegas we have played at both Station and Fiesta properties. Maximizing the benefits of playing at each is a bit of an art form. A big part of the challenge is knowing what you can get from both Stations and Fiestas, and what you can get from only one or the other.

Most important, you can get separate Stations and Fiestas mailers. The free play, point multipliers and dining and room offers on the Stations calendar can be used at any of the Station branded properties, but not at the Fiestas. Similarly, the offers on the Fiestas  mailer can be used at either Fiesta, but not at the Stations.

But some of the offers that appear on both mailers can be used only at one property. Both the Stations and the Fiestas have seniors days on Wednesdays, including a point multiplier. But you can use that multiplier only at one property, even though it's advertised in both mailers. When the same gift is offered on both mailers, you can generally get only one, at either a Station or Fiesta, but not both. Also, you can swipe your players card every day for free entries to the end-of-month drawing at either a Station or Fiesta, but not at both. The smart thing to do is to pick one or the other and concentrate your entries there.

But there's at least one exception to this rule. H-APP-Y DAYS offers appear on both mailers, and can be redeemed at both properties (these are for bonus points or drawing entries that can be redeemed only by using the Station Casinos smartphone app).

Incidentally, the mailers are usually different enough that it's worth it for many people to play regularly at both a Station and a Fiesta. Many free play and point multiplier offers are good for two or three days, so you might have a reason to go to either a Station or a Fiesta almost every day. And some promotions are at one type of property but not other other. For March, the Fiestas are having point multiplier days on both slots and video poker on two Mondays; Stations are having multiplier days on slots only on two Thursdays. The Fiestas are having drawing the first three weekends; Stations are not.

It's not always easy to figure out what offers are available at the Stations AND Fiestas and which are available at the Stations OR Fiestas. But if you play at both, eventually you'll get a feel for how the offers work, and you'll be able to maximize the benefits of your play at the Stations-owned properties.

Another trip to Reno

Some more offers have led to another trip to Reno, where I am writing this. The first two nights of this trip we stayed at the Eldorado, downtown. This is one of three casinos connected by skyways, the others being the Silver Legacy and Circus Circus.

One of the main purposes of this trip was to try to figure out exactly what we are earning in comps and free play from the casinos we have targeted, at least for now, to play in Reno. Besides the three downtown, the others are the Peppermill and the Atlantis, about three-quarters of a mile from each other on Virginia Street south of downtown.

Compared to most player club systems in Las Vegas, those in Reno are complicated and opaque. At the locals casinos in Vegas, you typically earn points based on coin-in, typically one point for every $1 or $10 played through. Points can be used for free play or comps at a specified rate. At Station
Casinos, for example, 1,000 points equals $1 in comps or free play. Thus, points are worth 0.1 percent and add that much to the payback of the games. There are variations and complications, but for the most part the basic system is easy to understand.

In Reno, the systems are all over the map. Points, if they're involved at all, usually serve only to determine your card tier level. You may earn comps and free play, or only comps, which in some cases can be converted to free play, but usually at a reduced rate. But the big kicker is that at some of the casinos, the comps and/or free play accumulate at different rates on different games, and even at different rates for different players!

To figure out what we are getting at the Peppermill, which has a comps and tier points system (comps can be converted to free play at one-half the value, with restrictions), my spouse and I ran $1,000 through several machines. What we found was that the points and comps accumulated at different rates on different machines, even if we were playing the same game. Of two machines with exactly the same game in the same format, one gave substantially more points and more than 25 percent more in comps.

Why? We could only guess. We know that all comp rates can depend on all the games on a machine, and the one that gave us the most had slot games as well as video poker. An otherwise identical machine that gave less had video keno games on it but no slots. Another possibility: because the Peppermill adjusts comp accumulation by player, the system may have loosened up for us because of losses earlier in the day. All I know for sure is that we're going to have to keep working to figure out how the Peppermill's system works and whether it gives us enough to make further play there worthwhile.

I'll have more to say about the player club systems at the other casinos, but right now I'd to share a few general observations.

1. Of the four buffets we've sampled in Reno, we were very impressed with three: the Peppermill, Atlantis and Eldorado. The Eldorado's buffet is a little smaller than the other two but has what I think is the best atmosphere, with a decor based on wood and stone. It also seems a little quieter than most buffets, and you can easily enjoy a conversation with your meal. If this buffet has a specialty, it's barbeque, including the best pork ribs I have ever had in a buffet and very tender, smoky brisket, a rare find in any restaurant, let alone a buffet. The buffet that wasn't as good as others was the Silver Legacy's, but in fairness, we saw some long lines of people waiting to get in, possibly because of player card discounts.

2. Reno has a really stupid slogan: "The biggest little city in the world." Why would that make me want to visit? If I were the mayor, I'd launch a contest for a slogan that says something specific and meaningful about what makes Reno different from every other city.

3. The Circus Circus casino in Reno has its own players club, even through like the CC in Las Vegas it is owned by MGM Resorts. The Reno version is a little less tacky, if you don't take into account the carnival midway above the casino floor. This casino gave me the most unusual premium I have ever received for hitting a taxable jackpot (four deuces for $2,000): two free room nights.

That's going to have to be it for now. Time to hit the casino floor and try to make some money.

Further adventures in Reno

As I've noted before, my spouse and I got interested in Reno because several casinos there offer good video poker games at higher denominations than are generally available in Las Vegas. This weekend we took a trip to Reno for the primary purpose of earning Diamond in a day at Harrah's Las Vegas.

The spouse, who put in some heavy play a while back at the Rio in Las Vegas, got an offer for a free room for a weekend at Harrah's Reno and round-trip airfare for two. This was an attractive proposition because Harrah's Reno offers the best game on which to earn the 5,000 tier credits needed for Diamond status, though the game turned out not to be exactly what we expected.

I'll explain, but first, a little background. Diamond in the second-highest tier level in Caesars Entertainment's Total Rewards program. Most player reward programs have tier levels, but they usually don't mean that much. You might get preferred parking, a discount at the buffet or gift shop, and shorter lines at the players club. A few, such as Boyd Gaming's B Connected, offer players at higher tier levels all-the-time point multipliers, a benefit that has real, quantifiable value.

I am not yet an expert on Total Rewards, but many benefits seem to come to those who achieve diamond status or the top tier, Seven Stars. Among other things, these players get free rooms and show tickets without having to use reward credits. My spouse has gotten several offers for tournaments that require a hotel stay at a Caesars property, but as less-than-Diamond, she has had to pay the (pretty steep) resort fees on her "comped" rooms. These fees are waived for Diamond and Seven Stars players.

Diamond status normally requires earning 15,000 tier credits in a year. On most video poker at Caesars casinos, $10 coin in earns one tier credit. So the requirement for earning Diamond is $150,000 coin in. But, if you earn 5,000 tier credits in one day ($50,000 coin in), Caesars will give you a bonus of 10,000 tier credits and make you Diamond.

The problem is where to earn the 5,000 tier credits. Most of the video poker at Caesars properties is, by our standards, too tight to play. The best games in Las Vegas, at the Rio, require considerably more coin in that $10 to earn a tier credit -- as much as $50. But Harrah's in Reno offers 9/6 jacks or better, with 99.54 percent maximum payback, yielding a tier credit for only $10 coin in. This would allow us each to earn Diamond status at an expected cost of about $250, which equals one-half of one percent of $50,000.

Based on what my spouse saw on VPFree2.com, we expected to find $1, $2 and $5 single-line games of 9/6 jacks or better. The plan was to play for $2, betting $10 a hand at max coin and putting through $50,000 in five to seven hours.

But what we found was the single-line game only at $1. The only other choices were triple play and five play at $5 a hand. It would have taken a very long (and boring day) to put through $50,000 on the $1 game, so we decided to play the triple play -- at $75 a hand.

Unfortunately, we both lost a lot of money in a short time. The result could have been just as bad as if we had played all day for $1, but it seemed worse because it came in such a short time. I think we put enough money through that we didn't fall victim to a very negative short-term swing, and the fact that we were playing three hands at a time evened out our results some (decreased our variance, in technical terms). I think we made the right decision, though the price we paid was a lot higher than we had hoped for. It is normal for gambling results in the short term to vary wildly from mathematical expectations. Had either of us hit a royal flush on any one line, it would have paid $20,000, pushing our results much further in the opposite direction.

I'm going to start something new in these postings: tips to casino management. The first one is based on what happened in Harrah's high limit room when we finished playing and went to cash out our slot tickets. The employee said "pretty good" or something like that when presented my spouse's ticket for more than $1,000. She informed him that it wasn't good, it was what was left of a lot more money. I have had the similar experience many times of being congratulated by a casino employee on what was actually a losing slot ticket or stack of chips. The tip is simply to train employees never to assume based on the amount being cashed out that a player has won.

Finally, a word about Harrah's hotel in Reno. This place may not quite qualify as a dump, but it's pretty close, especially the East Tower. The casino in that building contains some very strange things, including a single bowling lane; an area that looked like a sparsely equipped basement rec room; a closed sundries shop containing a dusty old craps table and some wrecked fixtures; and what a guest told us was an abandoned noodle bar with an old banquet table and chairs. It's inconceivable to me that the latter two areas weren't at least walled off so guests couldn't see them. They made that area look like something from 'Hotel Impossible."

Evaluating a new offer from the Silverton

My February mailer from the Silverton contains a new "bonus offer" that requires some evaluation to determine whether it's worth pursuing. I've decided to share this process to give anyone interested an idea of the considerations involved, which are more complex than they might first appear, as well as the math, which is not as difficult as it might first appear (if I can do it, almost anyone can do it).

The offer is simple: "When you earn at least 60,000 slot point during the month of February, we'll give you $105 in Free Slot Play!"

First, we have to know how much coin in is required to earn 60,000 points. For the Silverton, that's an easy calculation: $1 coin in earns 1 point on most video poker. Remember, coin in is money run through the machines, including recycled wins, not money actually inserted.

Next we have to figure the cost of playing $60,000 through. The best video poker game at the Silverton is 8/5 bonus poker, with a maximum payback of 99.17 percent. For simplicity and to account for less-than-perfect play, let's use 99.1 percent as our payback percentage, giving the house a hold of 0.9 percent. We multiply that by $60,000 to get the cost of playing enough to get the bonus. The answer is $540. So far, it looks like a lousy deal -- lose an expected $540 to get $105 in free play.

But there's more to consider. Points at the Silverton are worth 0.3 percent and can be used for free play, which is a cash equivalent if we're going to play at that casino anyway. 0.3 times 60,000 is 180, so we reduce our expected loss by that amount: $540 - $180 = $360. We're closer, but still quite far from from profitability.

The next thing I would consider is how much coin in I would play at the Silverton anyway to continue to get a mailer and take advantage of promotions. My records for recent months show that I played an average of less than $30,000 a month at the Silverton. I'm assuming I would play about my usual amount without the bonus offer, so I'm going to figure the cost of the additional play to see if the bonus offer is worthwhile. Let's use a round number of $35,000. Again, we multiply by the house's hold of 0.9 percent, giving us a gross cost of $315.Than we multiply $35,000 by the value of the Silverton's slot points, 0.3 percent, to get an offset of $105. We subtract that from $315 to get $210, which I would consider the approximate actual cost of earning the $105 in free play. This amount might be further offset by getting more free play in one or more future mailers because of the additional coin in. But this possibility isn't enough to sway me to play at a loss.

If the numbers had come out in favor of taking up the offer, I would have considered one more factor: the time required for the additional play. At the Silverton, 8/5 bonus poker is offered in many forms, including 10-play and 100-play that allow a lot of money to be put through in relatively little time. I'm not going to figure out exactly what I would have played, but if the offer had been profitable, I'm sure I could have made it work out time-wise. At other casinos, time might be much more of a factor.

I like the kind of offer the Silverton made, sometimes called a "points challenge," but not the specific numbers. This offer doesn't work for me, and I doubt it will work well for the Silverton, either. It doesn't seem realistic to me to expect many players to more than double their usual amount of play at a casino, unless that usual amount is very small. Setting rewards, possibly on a sliding scale, for increases of, say, 20, 35 and 50 percent, probably would get a better response.