Over on the blog of Dave McKee, my fellow writer’s latest entry discusses the critical condition of Las Vegas Sands stock – hitting a two-year low today – and how the future of the Palazzo is particularly gloomy.  Well, Sheldon Adelson hasn’t asked me for help in getting back and/or increasing business at the Palazzo – but I have never been shy about giving casinos advice on how to run their companies more successfully, whether they ask for it or not. 

Recently, the Palazzo downgraded every decent video poker machine on the floor, except for a few high denomination machines in the High Limit room which require playing at least $50 a hand. Until this Sherman’s-march-to-the sea machine scorching, there were around 80 machines, with hundreds of game and denomination choices, that offered decent video poker schedules. I’m not talking about paytables that would allow a skilled player to play at over 100% and have a good chance to “beat the casino.” I’m talking about VP paytables that gave you a good chance of at least making your bankroll last longer – especially 9/6 JoB that is a favorite of many recreational players. This and other “good” games were offered all over the floor, in denominations that ranged from $1 on up, in single line and in many new game formats which are popular– multi-line, SpinPoker, and Multi-Strike to name a few. 

Now, I ask you, Sheldon – do you mind if I call you Sheldon? – do you think a few high rollers in the High Limit room, one that is a morgue most of the time when I’ve walked by, will give you as much profit as the hundreds of players who used to play on the decent VP machines? All of those machines were so heavily played that sometimes we had to wait around to get on our favorites. And they were popular both with visitors and with locals who usually eschew the traffic of the Strip.  Okay, Sheldon, some players don’t know a VP paytable from a coffee table and they will play at your VP machines no matter how lousy the schedules. But the news of this downgrade hit the Internet like a tsunami and scores of players gave their reactions, the most common being that there were other properties which offered better games, even other “nice” casinos on the Strip. And the locals were going to go back to their off-Strip casinos. 

Sheldon, if I thought you might take my advice and bring back decent VP, I might gamble and buy some Las Vegas Sands stock!

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