Brad and I had a wonderful visit with our family in Columbus, GA. It was great to forget about fuzzy casino promotion details and complex Free Play schedules – and I barely touched a computer keyboard.   We mostly just plugged into the family’s busy routine.   It was fun to celebrate Zachary getting his driver’s license, which Angela and Steve viewed with mixed emotions – help with the family taxi duties, but a little more worry too. And they won’t get a break from worry - Kaitlynn is counting the days until she gets her learner’s permit in August. 

Their household is rich in friends who stop by, from Angela’s work and especially Steve’s old military buddies. And I especially enjoyed the teenage friends who hung around. They can run up a grocery bill big time, but Ang and Steve have always wanted their house to be a welcoming haven for their kids’ friends.   So when Steve fires up the grill, you never know how many will show up!    It was always fun bedlam.    

But after a week of living in “Grand Central Station,” we were ready to come home to a quieter environment, albeit almost as busy. I had a stack of mail to go through – lots of August casino offers coming in already so there is intense calendar work to be done. (I like it when casinos plan ahead because I like to plan ahead!) Advance planning and organizing is probably one of the most important keys to successful gambling. Although I imagine most gamblers now make up their schedule on a computer calendar, I do mine the old-fashioned way – on a hard copy monthly DayMinder. I do it in pencil and go through a lot of erasers as things change throughout the month. I guess I’ve just been doing it this way too many years to change. 

Brad had a busy day today, with 6 casino stops to pick up free play that would be expiring tonight. And then came a quick stop at our nearby Food For Less, the store (along with Wal-Mart) with the overall cheapest grocery prices. Contrary to what many people think, we don’t eat in casinos all the time, so grocery trips are a part of our routine. 

We plan to go swimming in our condo pool tonight, unless predicted showers interfere. 

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Gambling Podcasts

Steve Bourie interviews many well-known gambling names on his monthly podcasts, Anthony Curtis, Max Rubin, John Grochowski, to name a few. This month he and I talk about getting the most for your money when visiting a casino. Also last March we talked about gambling and taxes.  You can see the list at http://americancasinoguide.com/podcasts.shtml and click on any to listen.

Mini-slot Tournaments

Excalibur is starting midday mini slot tournaments Thursdays through Sundays. I know there are others held at Ellis Island, Terrible’s, NY-NY, to name a few. There are more listed at http://lasvegasadvisor.com/tourneyresults.cfm. However, for up-to-date information on any of these, you might want to call the casino near the time you plan to participate. These mini-tournaments have a habit of coming and going with little or no publicity. Some are free; others have a small entry fee, typically $20.

Shuttle To/From New M Resort 

There is a shuttle between the M and the Fashion Show Mall, 7 days a week. Call for schedule near the time you want to ride for up-to-date information.

Machine Stickers

For years on all video poker machines at any Harrah’s property it took $10 to earn one point. Recently in Atlantic City, a few of the video poker machines with better paytables (mainly 9/6 JoB) were changed to give one point for $20 coin-in. Fortunately the machines have a sticker informing the players of this change.

In fact, putting stickers on video poker machines is a relatively new development that players must watch for. The Palms and the new M sticker machines that aren’t eligible for promotions.  Stations casinos sticker their Optimum Play machines stating that they require $4 to earn one point (versus 1 for 1 on other machines). 

I’m all for stickers on bad-schedule video poker machines. What about this sticker: “You cannot win on this machine!"

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In today’s LVA QOD, I discussed the subject of casino “daily average,” one that always generates a lot of e-mails.

A couple of notes before I continue: Remember, anyone can always read the current Question of the Day on the actual day it appears.  However, only LVA subscribers can access past QODs in the archives.  So that link above will not work tomorrow unless you are a LVA subscriber.

And do you not like the black background on the LVA site? I’ve had some e-mails complaining that it was hard on the eyes, and it was giving me some eyestrain. I just realized you can change to a white background by clicking on “Screen Color” in the list on the left side of the page. TA-DA! Like magic, it is clearer for my old eyes to read and maybe yours too!

Okay, now back to the subject of “daily average.”  In my QOD answer I said that there were “nice” casinos that don’t care how often you come in or how much you play on any one day. They reward you with bounce-back/comps in a logical manner by looking at your total play for one month or even longer periods of time.

Then there are the other casinos that punish you if you play often but smaller amounts each time. They “trip” you (call it a play day whether you play or just use your points for a meal or do other “business” in their casino). They give out rewards based on your daily average of all “tripped” days, no matter how high your total play might be for their look-back period.

Someone wrote to the QOD editor with a wish that many gamblers have expressed in their e-mails to me:

“Based on Jean Scott's answer about the trap of daily average: Is there anywhere that one can find out which casinos do not use this as a basis for determining the level of offers? Such information would be a huge benefit to gamblers, and a terrific means of "communicating" to casinos as numbers of us prefer the more rational systems.”

Well, I use my blog to try to publicize players’ gripes about a lot of things. I know some casino employees read Internet blogs and forums but whether this gets to the top, where policy is decided, I don’t know. But I plan to keep trying.

About a list of casinos and what each uses to determine which players get what: If there were such a thing, yes, it would be wonderful for all players. And it would be especially wonderful for me because I could retire from all this writing!! But there are insurmountable problems here. Many casinos want to keep this information a secret – they think gamblers will play more to try to get to some mystery higher level. I have always strongly disagreed with this theory. If the various levels are known and it is clear what you get at each level and how much you have to play to get there, I believe many, even most, casino customers would play more.

A second problem would be maintaining such a list. For years I have been drumming this same tune – the only consistency with casinos is change! Marketing executives love to fiddle with details, and now that most things are computerized there is an unending number of details that can be changed, rearranged, shuffled around and re-organized.

That being said, there are some details that I do know about specific casinos.  I will share some of that information in a few days.  Stay tuned.

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