The Covid pandemic pretty much ended my gambling career, which I had been winding down anyway. I stayed away from the casinos almost completely for more than a year because of the reckless conditions under which they reopened. Allowing people to chainsmoke and drink while playing pretty much obviates any protection provided by a mask mandate.
Undoubtedly, the casinos took a big hit from the pandemic. They reacted largely by cutting players' benefits and promotions, which hasn't hurt the bottom line, at least yet. The casinos are benefitting from pent-up demand, which probably won't last forever, especially if people feel that they have been taken advantage of, which is happening throughout Vegas. My advice to prospective visitors is to avoid long lines, lousy service, high prices and continuing closures by staying away for at least six months. Sorry, Convention and Visitors Bureau.
I have been back to a few locals casinos and taken a couple of trips in the past month or so in my new role as a recreational gambler (but still interested in making a little money).
Most of the casinos in Vegas are no longer mailing me offers, and have cut their benefits to the point where there's no reason to play there. The major exception is South Point, which had a decent promotion in June and was very busy throughout the month. South Point is the only locals' casino with an open buffet, which I would have loved to eat at, but the lines were consistently too long for me to bother with. Whether other locals casinos will reopen their buffets is a matter of much speculation (and trepidation). It's clear they don't want to, but I think some will be forced to by popular demand. I hope so, anyway.
My spouse and I got some good offers from the Eldorado in Reno and Harrah's/Harveys Lake Tahoe. We booked a trip and hit the road a day after the high temperature in Vegas reached 117 degrees. Eldorado recently merged its player rewards system into Caesars Rewards, and it was a disaster. There was no communication at either the Eldo or Harrah's/Harveys on how to use our offers, engendering frustration in casino employees as well as us. Basically, no one knew anything. It is hard to imagine a bigger management failure.
In Reno and Tahoe, as well as Vegas, restaurants and other amenities were limited. The buffets at Eldorado and Harrah's were both closed, with no indication that they'll reopen. The Eldo's buffet is one of the best anywhere, and I looked forward to hitting it immediately upon arrival during prepandemic trips.
Everything about the Caesars system is complex and often frustrating from the players' point of view. I was hoping that since Eldorado bought Caesars, the latter would become more like the former, but it looks as if the opposite is going to be the case.
We just got back from another trip, this one to two casinos in Southern California, Pechanga and Pala. We had been to both before the pandemic and got generous offers from them, particular Pala. Pala's offers ran out just before we were able to visit, but we had free roooms, free play and dining at Pechanga. We decided to spend a couple of nights there and play at Pala as well, in hope of restarting the freeplay gravy train.
We were very impressed by Pechanga, a beautiful resort nestled among mountains and with a casino bigger than any in Vegas, including the MGM Grand's. And it's all nonsmoking! We played $5 NSU deuces wild, which is no longer available in Vegas (only one place I know of, South Point, has even $2 NSU).
We found freeplay and dining credits easy to use. Dining credits were accepted everyplace we ate, including the food court and coffee place. There was a swipe card promotion on Tuesday, which awarded $150 in freeplay to my spouse and $125 to me. In Vegas, this type of promotion has ususlly been worth about $5 to us. The only negative is no free alcoholic beverages for players, which was also the case at Pala. I'll gladly trade that for a smoke-free casino!
Pala also had $5 NSU but I played another game there, $2 9/6 jacks or better Super Times Play. I had never seen STP, which adds more than 0.2 percent to the underlying game, on anything better than 8/5 bonus poker, and the ones I used to play in Vegas are long gone. I had an exceptional afternoon at Pala, hitting a 4-of-a-kind with a 4x multiplier for $2,000 and a straight flush with a 10x multiplier for $5,000. My total take was $8,700! We'll see if I get any more of their generous freeplay offers.
In my opinion, anyone wanting a relaxing vacation at a first-class resort hotel would be at least as happy at Pechanga as at Red Rock, the M or the J.W. Marriott in Vegas.
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