I guess I got a little hyper two days ago when I was talking about the good but frustrating Bounce Back Bonus promotion that the Stations is running at Green Valley Ranch and Palace Station. 

I try to never lose my cool with casinos. After all, I spend a lot of very enjoyable time in them and they provide Brad and me with enough comps to allow us to live a very luxurious life. So that wasn’t very nice to say that I was going to go out and try to beat them to death. In fact, that isn’t our style at all. I know casinos are not non-profit organizations – at least they don’t plan to be! I know they are companies that are trying to make a profit and I accept that. And Brad and I never entered the gambling arena with the goal of “making a fortune.” In fact, let me quote from the summary chapter of my first book, The Frugal Gambler. It is titled “Breaking Even is a Terrific Thing.” 

This was written when we still lived back in Indianapolis and were mainly just quarter VP players. People would ask us how we did when we returned from an extended stay in Vegas. Very often we would say that we broke even on the gambling and got all our expenses paid.  People would be disappointed that they wouldn’t hear a dramatic story that involved large sums of money changing hands. “Breaking even is about as undramatic as it gets,” I wrote. 

“But here’s how we figure it. At the end of the year, we’ll have spent up to five months in casino towns. If we stay free most nights, eat free once or twice a day, see a few free shows, play up to eight hours a day, and recoup what we do spend out of pocket, we’ve actually made money by breaking even. We haven’t had to spend any of our own money, so our ordinary income continues to go into the bank and pile up. Anything we don’t spend is the same as winnings.” 

Of course that was 1997 and many things have changed. We now live in Vegas. We play much higher than quarters and we don’t have the energy to play long hours any more. We have been lucky and won some big amounts at times, but our goal to “break even” really has never changed. We have never “beaten any casino to death.” Our biggest hit, ½ million in a Caesars tournament, didn’t hurt the casino – they were going to give that to one player anyway. 

So playing an hour or two at Green Valley Ranch or Palace Station on some days during this promotion is not going to be a death threat to their bottom line, by any stretch of the imagination.. We hope to grind out a small profit, of course, but if we only break even, we will still be happy gamblers. 

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