Thank you, South Point

South Point is a huge locals' casino on Las Vegas Boulevard south of where that road becomes the Strip. It's owned by one guy, Michael Gaughan, rather than a big corporation. And in most ways, that's a very good thing.

Mr. Gaughan is the son of the lengendary Jackie Gaughan, long-time owner of El Cortez, one of the oldest casinos in downtown Las Vegas. Michael got his start with the Barbary Coast, which is now the Cromwell at Flamingo Road and the Strip. The profits from that venture allowed him to build the Gold Coast, the Orleans, the Suncoast and the South Coast, now South Point.

That group of casinos was bought by Boyd Gaming, a major publicly traded corporation. The geniuses at Boyd decided they didn't want the South Coast, in part because there was no Interstate 15 interchange at the cross street it's on, Silverado Ranch Road. So they sold the South Coast back to Mr. Gaughan. The interchange was built a couple of years later and the casino continues Michael's record of success in bringing in the crowds.

South Point is one of the places I play regularly. The main attraction is 16/10 "not so ugly" deuces wild, which is available in denominations up to $2. At most other casinos that have this 99.7 percent payback game, the most you can play it for is dollars. Points at South Point are worth a competitive 0.3 percent (1,000 points = $3). Double points on video poker (and higher multipliers on reel slots) are offered on average about once a month, with no limit on points you can earn. (But don't play only on point multiplier days or you might find that your players card no longer works.)

This month (January 2017) South Point offered a great promotion. It's similar to ones offered before, so I would expect to see it again, possibly with modification. Here's how it worked:

Each Sunday, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, players earning 500 points on reel slots or 2,000 points on video poker ($1 coin in = 1 point) would get a virtual wheel spin for prizes ranging from $5 to $100 in free play or 2,500 to 100,000 players club points, worth from $7.50 to $300. Players could earn up to four spins each day of the promotion.

One nice thing was that the virtual wheel appeared when the required points were earned right on the little screen showing points earned. You pushed a button, the wheel spun, and the prizes were added to your account. Free play could be used immediately.

From my own and my spouse's experience, the prizes were worth an average of about $10 a spin. (It's possible that the wheel was weighted differently for different players.) Because the game we were playing was break even with base points earned (99.7 percent payback plus players club points worth 0.3 percent), this meant a profit of $40 each day of the promotion or $160 a week. On the $2 deuces, earning the four spins took about an hour (and actually required less than $7,500 coin in, not the $8,000 specified).

The wheel was definitely weighted toward the lower prizes. My spouse once got $50 free play, and we got $25 a few times. Most point prizes were 2,500 but 5,000 came up pretty often, with a few 10,000s. But here's the great thing: Neither one of us got the lowest prize, $5 free play, even once. We've been conditioned by experience in casino promotions to get the least valuable prize the vast majority of the time. Pleasantly surprising your customer is a marketing technique rarely practiced in such an across-the-board fashion anymore.

Today's mail brought a final "prize" in January's promotion -- a crazy good February mailer resulting from all the play I put in during the month. My January mailer gave me $10 a week in free play, one $15 dining credit, a two-for-one breakfast or lunch buffet and 25 percent off show tickets. For February I'm getting $50 a week in free play, one $150 dining credit plus a $75 credit for the Mexican restaurant, two free buffets and two free show tickets. Woo-hoo!