Category: Video Poker

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Found It!

Bob Dancer

A few weeks ago, I wrote that in the hours shortly after New Year’s Eve midnight I was cruising downtown Las Vegas looking for slot attendants resetting machines. Due to the W-2G threshold changing from $1,200 to $2,000 effective January 1, most machines needed to be reset to make them lock up at $2,000 rather than $1,200. My search on January 1 was unsuccessful, as I reported.

One of my readers, Mike, suggested I was off base. The jackpot meters have nothing to do with resets. Well, yes and no. The meters are unrelated to each other, to be sure, but some games need to be reset whenever such a change is made — and a few are positive when this happens. 

Most games, of course, don’t reset at positive levels. With Buffalo Link, for example, the meters reset to a value of 100. At this level, the game returns about 80% and only players oblivious to the meters will play. (There are a lot of such players.) But there are definitely at least two games that reset positively.

On January 17, I found one! Or rather, I found a circular bank of four slot machines which had all been reset. Not immediately before I got there, but not too long before. Maybe a day or two? I can’t be sure.

How do I figure? There were four identical machines with perhaps 40 different combinations of denominations and number of coins required. You could play it for as little as 50¢ per spin — to as much as $50. 

The $50-per-spin games are pretty formidable. Although the player definitely becomes the favorite at the level these meters were at, these are gambling games with considerable variance. Losing more than $10,000 playing a positive game of this size isn’t that uncommon. The vast majority of players who frequent this casino are not in position to play games requiring such bankrolls. The smaller games on these machines, where anywhere between 50¢ and $20 was required to play each hand, had all been played and the meters were no longer attractive. Perhaps by one person who made a day of it. Or perhaps by several people.

But among the four machines, there were five playable games — three for $30, one for $40, and one for $50. I had some money on me, but quite a bit less than $10,000. There was no guarantee I had enough to play one game — let alone all five. Bonnie, however, was with me because we had gone out to dinner together previously using casino comps. As is often the case in such situations, we checked some machines before we went home. If I ran out of money, Bonnie could sit at the machine while I went where I needed to go to get some. We would make sure the machine displayed an unattractive meter amount while Bonnie quietly sat in front of it so anybody walking by would have no reason to challenge her for the chair. I told her about this possibility before we started, and she was fine with it. She was actually pretty excited about us making some “big money.” Regardless of whether the results would be plus or minus, we don’t split gambling results, and this would all be my money we were dealing with. But she’s my biggest fan. Plus, she gets to experience hitting big jackpots with no financial risk to her at all.

When I started playing, I didn’t know there were other positive games on the other three machines because they were occupied. I loaded the first machine with $2,000 before we started. Playing for $30 per pull, it took longer to insert the 20 Benjamins into this machine than it did afterwards to hit a jackpot of $3,700. It took 20 minutes to be paid. I would have shifted over to one of the other machines while I waited, except all three were being played by friends of each other — for either 50¢ or $1. When I hit the jackpot, the players on the other three machines scurried over to take look. They were excited because playing for low stakes, they rarely hit jackpots. One finally saw that I was playing $30 a hand — and even asked me if I knew I was playing for that much! I told her I knew.

Just as we were finished with our first game, (it was the only good one on that machine), one of the other machines opened up. I had Bonnie hold the current machine, without playing, while I checked all the games on the recently vacated machine. Had there been good games on it, I would have had Bonnie hold that chair while I finished off on the machine we were playing. When the third machine opened up, and I found two suitable games, Bonnie sat there until I was available — which came about rather quickly because I hit a jackpot for $2,100 and it was going to take awhile to be paid.

Over the next three hours, we took down all five games — and received a large number of W-2Gs along the way. We ended up ahead a few thousand dollars — but nothing major. It was a decent result — but nowhere near what it could have been. I figure that where we started on those five games, our average expected win for the five was more than $15,000. We got nowhere near that, but I’m still glad we checked those machines that day. Plus, we put thousands of points on both Bonnie’s card and mine and will likely result in bigger mailers in the not-so-distant future.

How am I so sure that these machines were reset only a day or so before I got there? Well, I’m not 100% sure. But close to that.

Consider this: In the previous three months, I have checked those same four machines several dozen times — and have found plays for $20 or higher twice. This time I found five such plays all at once. I figure these games were just too big for casual players and so they remained on the machines. At this casino, the larger denominations don’t get much play.

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Atlantic City Adventure

Bob Dancer

I’ve been to Atlantic City on fewer than 10 occasions. I’ve taught classes at three or four different casinos there and have been there for one or two Seven Stars events. As a player, though, I haven’t played there much. I’ve found Las Vegas, where I live, has better games for me. So why travel 2,500 miles to play lesser games?

That changed in November of 2025. Based on our play in Cherokee, I suppose, Bonnie and I received significant play-up mailers from Atlantic City. A play-up promotion is one where if you play a certain number of points, you receive certain benefits. While we received different offers, I think mine was to play 10,000 Tier Credits and receive $1,000 in free play — repeatable up to 10 times in the month. Plus rooms, food, and some extra Reward Credits.

When we first got the mailers, it was hard to judge whether it would be a good deal or not. I didn’t know what machines were currently available. I didn’t know if they had Next Day Bounce Back (NDB), and if so, at what rate. Did they have any NDB multiplier days? I also didn’t know if they were having any Reward Credit or Tier Credit multipliers. The offer was for any time during the month, and so if we could double up on other promotions, so much the better. To max out the promotion, we’d have to play $2 million coin-in. Since we wanted to do it in three or four days, this meant $25 video poker.

Jimmy Jazz wrote about the promotion and figured it out based on 9/6 Jacks or Better (JoB) — a 99.54% game which requires $25 coin-in to earn one Tier Credit. He concluded that it wasn’t a worthwhile play on those machines. A friend did the same promotion at Caesars Atlantic City a few months before Bonnie and I did and it turns out they have $25 9/6 Double Double Bonus (DDB), a 98.98% game that requires only $10 coin-in to earn a Tier Credit. That game allows us to do the promotion in 40% as much time as on 9/6 JoB. Before the play-up money was received, playing $2 million on 9/6 DDB cost considerably less than playing $5 million on 9/6 JoB. The value of the play-up was more than the cost of earning it. DDB does come with bigger W-2Gs, which was not a factor for me, but may well have been one for Jimmy Jazz. He lives in Michigan and they have a very different state income tax situation than I face in Nevada.

So, we signed up for the promo — went there — and lost a considerable amount. We “forgot” to hit four aces (with or without a kicker) and neither did a royal flush appear on the machines we were playing. We had the edge, I believe, but this time we ended up with a very expensive result. That’s pretty much the nature of DDB. If you don’t hit the big hands this time, you won’t like your score. Still, if they offered us the same promotion again, I’d try it again. 

Based on our play in November, we started to receive mailers for January and February. We each receive $1,000 in weekly free play — plus a free hotel room and more food than we could possibly eat — but of course that free play is only available if we go to Atlantic City. Getting $4,000 free play a month apiece might sound like a lot — but it doesn’t come close to what we lost in November. Still, it’s too much to pass up. As is true on the calendar, the free play week begins on Sunday and ends on Saturday — so if we’re there on the weekend, we can pick up two weeks of free play per trip. It’s a five-hour flight from Las Vegas to either Philadelphia or Newark, which for me is not a lot of fun. If you’re driving, Philadelphia is one hour away from Atlantic City, while Newark is two hours away — but flying into Newark is considerably cheaper than flying into Philadelphia.

On my first such trip there in January, we arrived in Newark at about 6 p.m. on a Saturday — and the trip home left Newark at 7:30 p.m. Sunday. After renting a car I arrived at the casino at about 9 p.m. Saturday night, which was plenty early enough to collect the free play before midnight. Future trips, though, will be lengthier. Weather can delay flights at this time of year and conceivably there could be traffic issues. Getting to the casino too late loses $2,000 in free play. That’s too much to risk cutting it close. If I plan to arrive on Friday night or Saturday morning, that mitigates most of the risk.

Plus, I don’t want to “hit and run,” meaning playing just the minimum amount to pick up the free play and then leaving. (Maybe sometimes, but not all the time.) Casinos offer the free play in order to get you to come in and play — and if you don’t play, some casinos cut you off. My mailers in March and thereafter will likely be larger if I play after picking up the free play. Since there are three separate casinos in Atlantic City that are all connected to this program — Caesars, Harrah’s, and Tropicana — it makes sense for me to walk around all three of them and see what I can find to play. 

These three casinos are not next door to each other. I’ll have a car, so traveling among them is not a big issue, and there is also a free shuttle that runs in a continuous loop among the three casinos. For our trip in November, we didn’t have a car, and we learned it can be a fairly lengthy wait before the next shuttle comes.

Since our normal practice is to spend up to two weeks at a time in Cherokee, it makes sense for us to bookend our Cherokee trips with Atlantic City visits. While these two cities are about 650 miles apart from each other, they are both in the Eastern time zone — three hours earlier than Las Vegas. As I write this, I haven’t yet made the 2½-week trip from Las Vegas to Atlantic City to Cherokee to Atlantic City to Las Vegas — but one is scheduled soon. If we’re still getting Atlantic City mailers in March and beyond, we’ll do this trip more than once.

This makes for a long and intense gambling experience — which is definitely not for everybody. I thought such trips would be over for us because of the tax situation, but I’m glad we found a way to continue.

Author’s note: After I wrote this, I scheduled a trip starting on Saturday, January 24, to do the Newark to Atlantic City to Newark to Cherokee to Newark to Atlantic City to Las Vegas trip I mentioned above. Beginning January 25, there was a huge snowstorm affecting many parts of the country. Because flights were cancelled and I still wanted to get to all of those locations, I ended up with a much longer journey than I had planned. I’ll write about it in a few weeks.

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I Thought About It

Bob Dancer

When you list the financial reasons to intelligently gamble at video poker, it starts with the return on the game itself and the slot club. Promotions get added in, and it’s not too long before you consider mailers.

Mailers aren’t guaranteed, and if a casino decides to reduce or eliminate your mailers, you have no recourse. From the casinos point of view, mailers are a way to encourage you to come and play again — and hopefully lose. From the player’s point of view, mailers are a reward for past play.

If you quit playing, the mailers will stop. If you stiff the casino, meaning you go and pick up goodies but don’t play, the mailers will stop. 

In my case, as regular readers know, I was planning on giving up gambling forever because of the new tax bill. It was only a matter of time before all my mailers disappeared. Still, collecting a few of them before they were cut off seemed to be a potentially lucrative approach. So how would I go about it?

My biggest mailers come from Harrah’s Cherokee, where Bonnie and I make 4-or-5-times-a-year visits. Typically, we stay 10 or 12 days and play considerably more than $1 million in coin-in split between video poker and slots. We get sizeable mailers for doing this — which figures.

Picking up the mailers isn’t easy. It’s a four-hour flight to either Atlanta (three driving hours away from Cherokee) or Ashville (one driving hour away but far fewer flights). Would I be better off coming in and staying a few days without playing, or do a quick hit-and-run and not stay there? Renting a car and a hotel room elsewhere are relatively small costs compared to the size of the mailers.

While the casino offers free rooms, it does so with the expectation that you’ll play. If I don’t play, possibly they’ll charge me for the room — at not-so-friendly prices. To get around that, perhaps it makes sense to book a room somewhere else.

I considered flying in on the last day of a mailer time period, arriving at the casino at 10 p.m. and picking up the expiring mailer money and sticking around for the new mailer time period that begins at midnight. And then leaving.

I could do that, I suppose, but the mailers will be coming in wintertime, and Cherokee is in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. Weather can play havoc with airline schedules. A plane delay could remove my chance of getting there before the free play period ends.

I usually get free food “on my card.” Probably I could redeem that while I’m there, but I’m not sure. While I possibly wouldn’t check into the hotel and leave a credit card, I’ve been there enough that there’s one of my credit card numbers “on file.” How much they would charge me, if at all, for eating on the comp without playing is an unknown,

I have a line of credit at that casino. At no time did I consider taking out a marker for, say, $50,000 and then not repaying it. Markers are negotiable instruments. Not only would the casino collect, but my credit score would take a significant hit. No thanks.

Plus (in the hypothetical world where I would be quitting gambling), there’s always a chance that the law would be changed, and I’d want to go back there in the future. They would remember if I had significantly stiffed them before.  

I didn’t reach any conclusions as to what I would do. I have thought about it, but am still not sure what I would do.

I suspect I would do nothing of the kind of things I’ve been discussing here. At the end of the day, my integrity is important to me. Hustling an extra few thousand dollars out of a casino on my way out the door doesn’t feel right to me. I might get away with it, but if I felt bad about doing it, what’s the point?

I understand that not everybody would reach this same conclusion. What would you do?

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Searching for a Reset

Bob Dancer

As part of the Big Beautiful Bill which passed Congress and then signed by the president in July of 2025, the W-2G rules changed effective January 1, 2026. The threshold used to be $1,200 and now it’s $2,000. Most slot and video poker players believe that $2,000 isn’t nearly high enough, but that’s a decision for another Congress to address.

On December 31 there was one set of rules for W-2Gs. On January 1 there was another. The machines had to be reset to lock up at $2,000 instead of $1,200 as soon as possible after the clock on New Year’s Eve struck midnight.

The thing is, this has to be done manually, machine by machine on at least some machines. While most slot machines at reset start off with meter numbers that are much too low to be of interest to advantage players, that’s not always the case. Some games reset in positive territory — meaning that if you’re the first knowledgeable player on such a machine when it gets turned back on — you usually have several games where you have the advantage. 

Often these games will have four or more denominations, and five or more “number of coins” settings for each denomination. Some games have way more than this. There are games where you will have 50 different games, all in positive mode, whenever the machine is reset. This could easily mean $10,000 or more in EV if you have the bankroll to play all of the games, including the ones at $50 a hand or more. 

You aren’t guaranteed to win on these — it is gambling, after all, with variance — but the odds are in your favor. 

So, shortly after midnight (early New Years Day), I planned to be in a major casino looking for slot techs making adjustments to machines. On most machines, resetting the machines won’t create an exploitable situation, but on a few machines they will. I had a list of machines that I thought might qualify — but I’m sure there were others that I didn’t know about.

Once I found a team of slot techs working on games that I thought would turn positive at reset, it would simply be a matter of sitting down and waiting until they finished — and then being the first player there. 

Most players were not aware of this opportunity, but surely some were. The thing is, I believe there were relatively few pros “in on” this deal — and lots of casinos to cover. I figured if I picked a casino with a number of the machines I liked, my chances were pretty good to get one or more of the lucrative resets. 

If at 1 a.m. somebody hit a jackpot for, say, $1,500, and the machines had not been reset yet, the machine would lock up. When an attendant game, they would just pay off the jackpot without issuing a W-2G. There are relatively few jackpots higher than $1,199 and less than $2,000, so not too many players would be inconvenienced by this. And the ones that were would be delighted to not get a tax form with their money.

And there is always a problem with staffing. When are the slot techs scheduled to work? And how many of them partied for New Years Eve? Maybe the casino would want to wait until 8 a.m. or so to start. If these slot techs were making changes to hundreds of machines, the casino certainly would want them to be at their best.

Plus, in the early hours of January 1, casinos are very busy with more-than-the-usual-number-of-inebriated players looking to get lucky. Casinos very well might not want to shut down any machines in order to maximize their profits from this party-like atmosphere.

I decided to go downtown at about 3 a.m. There are lots of casinos within walking distance which would all be affected by the new tax bill. While I don’t have player cards at all of them, if I can get on a reset machine I’ll happily play without a card. Better with a card, of course, because slot club points and mailers are valuable, but a reset machine could potentially be worth more than $10,000 and I wasn’t going to be a stickler about whether I got every slot club point.

On December 31, Bonnie and I went to a quiet NYE shindig at a nearby residence. I had one glass of wine starting about 7 p.m. and cut myself off so I’d be at my best later. We told the hosts we were going to leave at 9 p.m., no matter what state the party was in, and we did. I was in bed by 9:30 — setting my alarm for 2 a.m.

I got up with the alarm, did my morning routine, and was on the road by 2:40. It’s about 15 minutes from our house to the downtown casinos — so I was right on time with my plan.

I started at Circa because that’s the downtown casino with the most suitable slots. I walked around five casinos over the next half hour looking for working slot techs. Nothing! There were relatively few customers at this time of morning, and no slot techs changing machines that I could see.

I was surprised. I thought I had outsmarted most other players — but it turned out that whatever my calculations were, they were wrong. Oh well. Not the first time.

While I was out and about, I checked around for some machines that were in winning position. After all, a whole mess of players went through in the past few hours, and a lot were out-of-towners who were clueless about winning at slots. Maybe they left something!

I found a number of small plays and one “sorta big” play requiring a $10-per-spin input. I loaded it with $1,000 and began to play. I hit three or four $500+ intermediate jackpots, including a final one of $1,100. 

The game ended up showing $3,400 in credits which included the $1,100 final win — and the machine locked up! The attendant came and asked for ID. I told her I didn’t hit any jackpot — the $3,400 was accumulated credits. She “corrected” me, telling me that it was a $3,400 jackpot. I quietly told her that the last score was “only” $1,100 and that there was no taxable event.

She was unsure and said she’d have to talk to her supervisor. She took my player card and told me she’d be back. Five minutes later she correctly paid me the $3,400 that I was owed. 

At first, I thought the machine had been reset incorrectly and instead of the W-2G amount being set for $2,000 they set the machine lockup amount when you tried to cash out for that amount. Other casinos have similar features. I hadn’t experienced it at this casino before. Maybe this was a long-standing policy there. 

Although I did make $2,400 on this particular play, and a bit more on other plays, I didn’t find the reset opportunity I had hoped to get. I had planned my work, worked my plan, and it all came to naught. This happens sometimes.

Over the next few days, I continued to look for working slot tech teams. The change didn’t have to be done in the wee hours of the new year, and it would be just as valuable to me on January 2 or 3 if I could be there when it happened. But no. I failed to find any.

I didn’t have to tell you about this “failure.’ You would have never known had I not written about it. But the winning process, for me anyway, has included a number of these one-of-a-kind situations. When I find one, I try to figure out the best way to exploit it. This one didn’t pan out, but maybe the next one will.

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What Will I Do for Bonnie?

Bob Dancer

Author’s Note: When I originally wrote this, I was planning to quit gambling January 1. Since then, I’ve changed my mind about that, as I wrote in my 12/23 blog. When I was still in my “I’m going to quit gambling” mode, several readers asked me what I was going to do after I quit. Since many gamblers will be quitting, I decided to run this one anyway.

Before we were married, I told Bonnie that I was not a guy who would give her presents on traditional days (birthday, anniversary, Christmas, etc.) but I often received gifts from casinos which I would pass along to her, and she wouldn’t be shortchanged gift-wise. Although this initially struck her as odd, and not at all what she was used to with her first husband before he died, she decided she could put up with that.

When Bonnie comes along with me on casino trips (which is my hobby, not hers), often I find a way to reward her. When we went to the ROW in Reno, we’d each get $400 in Resort Credit a month, which Bonnie usually spent at one of the gift shops, and sometimes they had purse or jewelry giveaways which she enjoyed. She found herself well “taken care of.”

At Harrah’s Cherokee, we each got $200 in spa credit a month and most of our trips crossed monthly boundaries, so she would have two $400 spa days every trip, which we usually took four times a year or so.

Every additional casino I play at gives me something she can enjoy — whether it’s gift shop credit, free shows, meals, or whatever.

During our 11 years together, we’ve spent an average of three weeks a year cruising on NCL in balcony suites courtesy of casino largesse.

While in Las Vegas, I get free meals to the tune of $1,500 a month or so. In addition to feeding Bonnie, she has some in-town and out-of-town relatives, and we regularly treat them too. 

I didn’t provide this list to say, “See, what a nice husband I am” or “See how rich I am.” I provided it to indicate that when I stop gambling, all of these goodies will be going away. Some will linger awhile until the casinos figure I’m not coming back, but eventually they will all terminate. Casinos aren’t in the business of providing goodies to former players. 

I may periodically receive a “come back again” present from a casino. Going in to collect those things without playing at all is the surest way to stop receiving them in the future.

So, what will I do to keep Bonnie happy? The answer is some version of, “I haven’t figured it out yet.” It would probably cost $40,000 a year or more to give Bonnie what she’s used to receiving “for free.” While I still have some revenue from non-gambling sources and some accumulated capital (which I’m used to thinking of as “bankroll”), spending money on things I used to get for free requires developing some new habits and procedures.

Bonnie is not a greedy lady. She can understand why casinos won’t be giving us as much in the future. But still, she is used to a certain standard of living, largely supplied by me, and that was part of an implied contract when she agreed to marry me. Taking all that away from her is like a form of punishment she did nothing to deserve. Nor did I “screw up” somehow to cause this problem.

Bonnie brought assets into the relationship — some of which provide an income stream. I’ve paid for the bulk of expenses because I had both more assets and more income — and got a lot of things “for free.” We’ll probably shift to a more equal sharing of expenses. How we will do that, and how she will react to that, is unknown at this point. We haven’t had that conversation yet.

We’re both relatively frugal and figuring out how to do this is a puzzle to solve together. We’ll work it out somehow. We’re nowhere near destitute. We’re old enough that our assets will probably outlast us. (Hopefully. Unless the doomsday clock strikes midnight.) And the relationship works well for both of us. 

This is one of my blogs with more questions than answers. But that’s all I have for now.

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If I’m Already There …

Bob Dancer

As regular readers of mine know, I play somewhat regularly at Harrah’s Cherokee even though it is more than 2,000 miles away from where I live. The primary reasons are: $5 NSU, daily Next Day Bounce Back (NDB), and significant monthly mailers if you play there enough. The mailers usually include monthly cash, weekly cash, a $200 spa credit, and some food credit.

Other sizeable promotions they periodically have are: NDB multiplier days, Tier Credit multipliers, and Reward Credit multipliers. Bonnie’s and my trips usually last 10 – 14 days or so and we typically get one or two of these periodic promotions during our trip. 

Our trips are usually scheduled so we cross weekly or monthly time periods. On one Sunday each month, you will receive free Reward Credits for swiping at a kiosk. The beginning of the weekly benefits sometimes begins on Mondays, so we might begin our trip on the last Sunday of one month, and stay long enough to still be there for at least the first Sunday of the next month. That gives us two monthly rewards and a few weekly ones as well. It also gives Bonnie two separate $400 spa days during the trip, and food for several days each month.

During each week, the casino usually has two or three “piddly” promotions — such as play 250 points between noon and six p.m., swipe your card at the kiosk, and collect $25 in free play — or spin a wheel at the kiosk — or collect a gift card — or $20 food credit, or something else relatively small.

There is no way that I would make an extra trip to collect one of these small rewards, or even come one day early or stay one day later for a gift that small. But if I’m already there, I make sure I pick them up.

Playing at the Caesars Sports Book while I’m there is also a “If I’m already there . . .” situation. I’m not a sports bettor per se, but betting there is a fairly efficient way to convert Reward Credits to cash. I could convert those RCs to free play in the casino at a 50% rate, but doing so by betting sports does it at a 95% or so rate. And Bonnie and I each receive a free monthly $150 bonus bet in North Carolina in addition to collecting one each month in Nevada. 

As I write this, next Saturday is a “Hot Seat” promotion where every 15 minutes between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. two players are rewarded with free play. The amount of free play ranges from $250 if you are a Gold member to $1,000 if you’re a Seven Stars member. 

While rewards like this would be nice if they’re collected, there will probably be between 500 and 1,000 players playing during the promotion, so the chances of an individual player being called are pretty small. I suspect that if you multiply the size of the prize by the probability of collecting it, this promotion isn’t much different EV-wise than one of the piddly promotions discussed above.

But since I’m already going to be there and I play more than three hours daily, I’ll plan to be playing at a machine during that promotion. I don’t expect to be called this time, but over an entire career, I’ve put myself in these positions hundreds of times and sometimes have collected.

Our “normal” dinnertime when we’re in Cherokee is 6:30 p.m. But that Saturday we’ll eat before or after the Hot Seat promotion times. Bonnie and I are flexible enough in our schedule that eating at different times on different days is no big deal.

The following Saturday is some kind of Christmas show for which we have tickets. There will also probably be a drawing in the casino where they call names every 15-30 minutes between 5 p.m. and 8 p.m. and Bonnie and I will both have more than an average number of tickets in the drum because we’ve played a lot for several days before the event. We might be in the casino playing (and listening for our names) until 6:30 p.m. or so and then go to the show. Even when they’re giving away $10,000 or bigger prizes, multiplying that times the probability of being called gives us a small EV. Not negligible, and actually higher than most of the other players there, but still small. 

Taking Bonnie to the show provides me with more value than sticking around for each drawing. She’s a really good sport for accompanying me while I’m “living my dream life” and when there’s something to do that is enjoyable to her, I try to find a way to do it.

I don’t know if they still have it, but on Friday afternoons between something like 3 p.m. and 4:30 p.m. they used to have a Seven Stars “meet the hosts” mixers with decent enough food and free drinks. This is similar to an “If I’m already there . . .” moment, but the inclusion of alcohol makes it slightly different. 

If I’m done with my play for the day, I might well enjoy the food and have a glass of wine or two. Or if I’m not done for the day, I might have a glass of wine, watch a movie in the room, and go to bed early — and then get up at 3 a.m. to finish my play before the casino day ends at 6 a.m. For me, this is a perfectly acceptable plan. But playing $5 NSU immediately after having a drink or two is not an option for me. 

Most of my readers are not $5 NSU players at Harrah’s Cherokee, but other casinos have their own “If I’m already there . . .” promotions periodically. Having a plan on what to do with them is part of a successful gambling career.

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A Change in Plans — Maybe

Bob Dancer

Ever since the “Big Beautiful Bill” was signed into law in July, and Russel Fox appeared on Gambling with an Edge explaining that I’d have to pay income tax on 10% of my W-2Gs whether I won or lost during the year, I knew I’d have to quit gambling come January 1, 2026. 

I received more than $6 million in W-2Gs both this year and last. In 2025, I made money but would be minus after this extra tax. In 2024, I lost quite a bit of money gambling and would still have this big tax bite under the new law. No thanks. 

Since July, I’ve at least mentioned this in numerous blogs, so this decision is no surprise to any of my regular readers.

While I was in Cherokee in early December this year, my gambling partner was a fly-on-the-wall during a Zoom call with Gary Kondler, who works for the Kondler and Associates CPA firm, which specializes in taxes for gamblers. It is Kondler’s belief that if gamblers use the session method of itemizing their wins and losses, mentioned in Shollenberger vs Commissioner, the BBB tax bill isn’t such a big deal. Yes, the tax bite will increase — but not outrageously so. Your W-2Gs, whose total must still be listed on your tax form, are not relevant in how much you have to pay.

Tell me more!

This is something I want very much to be true — and there are a variety of proverbs that warn you to be very careful if something seems too good to be true. I tried to do as much “due diligence” as I could.

It turns out that Gary’s father, Ray Kondler, was a guest on Gambling with an Edge in 2013. This was when GWAE was an hour-long radio show on Thursday nights rather than a podcast, but you can still listen to this show on YouTube by searching for “Ray Kondler.” While this show ran twelve years before the BBB tax bill, when I listened to it recently, Kondler impressed me and I came to the conclusion that I would like his firm to represent me.

Also on YouTube, when I searched for “Gary Kondler,” I found that he has appeared on several gambling related podcasts since the BBB came out, and I’m still convinced I want these guys representing me.  You can listen to these podcasts as well if you like. My financial advisor has contacts with the Nevada Board of Accountancy and found out that the Kondler and Associates firm has a solid reputation. Richard Munchkin and I are interviewing him on GWAE the day this article is posted, and the podcast will probably be posted Wednesday December 24.

I’m convinced enough that I plan to hire the firm and continue my gambling career. I am not an expert in this field, and everybody’s tax situation is different. Keep in mind that I am making no recommendation for you or anybody else. 

If I’m wrong on trusting Kondler’s methodology, continuing gambling could be a very expensive decision for me. It will be a few years before anybody knows for sure, because we’re taking about the 2026-and-beyond tax years and it takes a while after returns are filed to go through the system. And while the BBB is still the law today, who knows if it will be changed along the way?

I am willing to take that risk — for myself. Whether it’s correct for you to do similarly is something you’ll have to decide for yourself.

If you write emails to me, or post responses to this column, or ask me tax questions, my response will always be “I’m not a tax expert and I’m not qualified to answer your questions.”

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Before New Year’s Eve

Bob Dancer

Three weeks ago, I addressed end-of-year considerations about emptying your slot club accounts — or not. Today I’m addressing a different, albeit related, subject. And that subject is reaching a specific tier level.

Some casino slot clubs have tier levels — silver, gold, platinum, or whatever. Often these are annual awards earned January 1 through December 31, although they don’t have to be. 

I was prompted to look at this for personal reasons relating to Caesars Rewards. As I wrote this, I was planning one last trip to Harrah’s Cherokee in order to reach some not-well-known goals — and I needed to plan accordingly. It may well be my last trip to Cherokee, ever. The planning I’m doing may be applicable to some of my readers. Some of this is speculation because as I write this, I haven’t received the December mailer yet.

If you play at a Harrah’s or Caesars property, you know that Seven Stars is the highest tier level and that level requires 150,000 Tier Credits (TCs) per year. For slot and video poker players, these TCs are earned in one of three ways: playing the machines, receiving bonuses for reaching predetermined daily levels, and TC multipliers — which are promotions occurring periodically throughout the year. In the last few months of the year, TC multipliers are more common as players strive to reach the next tier.

Making it to Seven Stars is huge — with their $1,200 retreat, five $100 dinners, highly discounted cruises, and some other goodies. Ending the year with slightly less than 150,000 credits is a big mistake. But we’re played a lot of high stakes video poker at several Caesars properties, mostly Reno and Cherokee, and we’re far beyond the 150,000 level. For the past few years, we’ve reached this level before the end of February.

Most players don’t realize that you can earn quite a bit more than the 150,000 TCs required for Seven Stars, and get rewarded for doing so. For every 250,000 TCs earned, you get one Seven Stars Experience Credit (SSEC), which may be redeemed for a variety of things. For Bonnie and me, we redeem each of these SSECs for $450 in free play at either a Las Vegas or Cherokee property.

While the following numbers aren’t exact, they’ll give you an idea of how I went about my decision making — and may well be applicable to you in a similar situation. I planned a 10-day trip. At the start of the trip, Bonnie needed 90,000 TCs to reach the next SSEC and I needed 260,000 TCs. (Actually, I only needed 10,000 but I figured I could complete that and make it all the way through the next one as well.) There was one TC multiplier where you received 5x TCs up to 25,000 points. And I can comfortably play about $180,000 per day, split between Bonnie’s card and mine. At Cherokee, $180,000 played on video poker will result in 18,000 TCs. I play primarily video poker, but also some slots, which accrue TCs twice as fast.

For the TC multiplier, I don’t know if the bonus is 25,000 or only 20,000 and they count the 5,000 I’d earn as part of the 25,000. I’ve seen it both ways at various properties and sometimes the people at the booth don’t understand the difference and so can’t give precise answers. At Harrah’s Cherokee, they usually have one or more high level people at the booth, so I expect to get accurate answers there. But for planning purposes, I’ll assume the “worst case,” which is that I only receive 20,000 extra TCs. I don’t want to assume the best and possibly miss the next SSEC (and my $450 bonus) by 5,000 TCs.

For normal daily play there, earning 5,000 TCs ($50,000 coin-in) per day is pretty standard because doing that earns a 10,000 TC bonus. Here, though, Bonnie only needs 90,000 TCs and the multiplier day she’ll earn 35,000 (the 5,000 played, 20,000 multiplier bonus, and the daily 10,000 bonus). That will leave her needing “only” 55,000 other TCs to accumulate over nine days of play. So, I’ll play on her card 5,000 TCs for four days and skip playing on her card the rest of the trip.

On my card, ten days of 15,000 TCs (earning at least 5,000 daily with the 10,000 per day bonus), plus the 20,000 TC multiplier bonus means 170,000 out of the 260,000 needed. Earning an extra 8,000 TCs per day for the five days I’ll play on Bonnie’s card earns me an extra 40,000, and earning an extra 13,000 on the five days I don’t play on Bonnie’s card gives me an additional 65,000 TCs. This adds up to 285,000 — which is more than the 260,000 needed. Good. I can always play less.

They have Next Day Bounce Back (NDB)at Harrah’s Cherokee, and I think the current rate of free play is earned at 0.375%. I will try to earn my points by the ninth day. I don’t want to earn it for the 10th day I play because our plane leaves before the NDB is available for me to play. Playing $180,000 coin-in on a day when I’m not getting NDB costs about $675 in EV. Doing that to earn $450 in free play doesn’t make sense. If everything goes according to plan, I’ll have met my goals before the 10th day and so I won’t have to play at all that day. It’s also possible that playing $50,000 that last day and earning the 10,000 TC bonus will be required, but that’s only around -$165 in EV so it remains an option. Or, better, maybe $25,000 will be enough earning half the amounts as $50,000. That will only cost $80 in EV for missing out on NDB.

NDB on your card lasts for 30 days there, so if I were a local and planning to come back within a month, I could play right up to the last minute. But since I’m not planning on coming back, I sit out playing on the last day of my trip — other than picking up NDB from the day before and any other free play that might be available. If the mailer has weekly free play starting on Monday, for example, I might well plan my departure for a Monday.

While this trip actually ended the first week of December, and I have three additional weeks to earn the SSEC goals in Las Vegas, there is a Great Gift Wrap Up that ends December 14 where every Reward Credits earned throughout the year at any of the Caesars or Harrah’s properties counts towards gifts (or free play), I want all of my play done before that. 

My lesser play on Bonnie’s card compared to mine will mean she’ll receive lesser offers down the road from Cherokee than I will. But unless the tax law changes, we won’t be going there anymore so how big the offers are is irrelevant.

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I Might Be Losing It

Bob Dancer

My host at Circa called me up to invite me to a promotion in late November. I had actually been napping when she called (I had played graveyard the day before) and was a little fuzzy on the details she told me. I figured out that I’d have to play to earn tickets to a drawing — and while I do play at Circa, it’s mostly slots and I don’t play enough to have a real chance in drawings. 

I started to decline but she prompted that this one was really a good idea for me because only 50 or so people were being invited.  

She texted me a flyer announcing a drawing where 10 people would get $500 each. You could earn one drawing ticket for every 100 points you earned from Thursday noon to Saturday 2 p.m. If 50 people were invited and we all played the same, my EV for the drawing was $50. I didn’t study the text carefully. I would play some, but not a lot. 

I usually study rules carefully but this one was for a giveaway so small, I didn’t figure it was worth it. I couldn’t figure out why my host thought this was a good deal.

When I got there, I found out. They were also giving away a Ford F-150 Raptor truck! And for that, it didn’t matter how much you played — everybody got one ticket! The truck, including with big “Circa” stickers on both sides, was in the lobby of the drawing area. I had seen the truck displayed, but I figured I had no chance to win it, so I paid no attention. And now I had a 1-in-50 chance? Not sure how I got that chance, but here I was.

I’m not a truck guy and had no idea of what an F-150 sold for. I looked it up on my cell phone and learned they went for $85K each when new. I wondered how much they sold for if they had “Circa” logos on the sides? 

Would they offer a cash or free play option instead of the truck? I didn’t know. My host didn’t know. Probably not because it was now “used.”  But surely, I could sell it for $60,000 at least to somebody, couldn’t I? A 1-in-50 chance to get that much was worth $1,200 in EV. Now I understood why my host strongly encouraged me to be here.

They made a pretty big deal out of the drawing. There were only 48 contestants and two of them had two entries, because they had been runner-up in a previous drawing. When they called your name, you walked up to the stage down a big aisle they had set up to pick one of 50 small boxes. One of those boxes had a key fob in it.

They had already had the drawing for 10 $500 winners, and these were announced when you were called up to get your small box. When they called my name, they didn’t say I had won $500 — which was disappointing, but not surprising. I had played considerably more than my weekly average — but not really all that much.

Also surprising was when they called my name, they said I was one of the two people who had two entries! I had been runner-up for a previous Raptor drawing and wasn’t even aware of it!

How could I possibly not know of this? I don’t believe I even entered a previous Raptor drawing. I really must be losing it! Seriously, this doesn’t strike me as something I could forget.

Now I had two chances to get this truck. My EV just shot up to $2,400. When called the second time, I dutifully walked up and picked up my second box. 

Most of the entrants were from out of town. Some flew several friends and family members to witness their 1-in-50 chance. I thought I was doing Bonnie a favor by not inviting her. She’s a good sport and would have come if I had asked, but I was getting downtown at 9 a.m. and staying all day. I checked all three properties (Circa, Golden Gate, the D) twice, looking for games to play. And then Bonnie and I were hosting four family members to a Hugo’s Cellar “Thanksgiving Dinner” later that night because for Thanksgiving Day itself, we’d be in Cherokee.

Bonnie isn’t a slot player — although she’d definitely be willing to hit the buttons should I tell her which ones to hit. I have to watch her, though, because not infrequently she hits a button she shouldn’t and changes it to another game or denomination which isn’t such a good play. But it was going to be a long day and she had packing to arrange for our out-of-town trip, so I suggested she stay at home. Her sister and brother-in-law, invited to dinner, live only a mile from us and were very willing to bring Bonnie along with them. But had I known what a big deal this was, Bonnie would have been there with me.

This is the point in the blog where you’re expecting me to reveal that I actually won the truck. Well, I would if I did — but I didn’t. Some lady from out-of-town had picked the correct box and was quite happy about it. As she should have been!

To me, this story is about my legitimate concern regarding how this snuck up on me. Being on top of drawings and knowing what promotions are going on and how to succeed at them is something I’ve done for more than 30 years. And I’m really good at this part of my “job.” And I totally missed this one. As they said in the 95-year-old movie Little Caesar: “Mother of mercy, is this the end of Rico?”

I’m planning on quitting gambling at the end of the year because of the new tax law. Maybe this was a sign I should quit now!

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Free Money is Always Good — Sort of

Bob Dancer

Derek Stevens, along with his mostly silent brother, Greg, owns Circa, the D, and Golden Gate casinos in downtown Las Vegas. The three properties share a slot club and the same ONE player’s card may be used at all three properties.   

Circa checks everyone’s ID every time using a hand-held device about the size of a cell phone. I assume they capture the information on your Driver’s License in the process, but I don’t know that for a fact. The D checks your ID on weekend nights — but not always all three doors. The Golden Gate, by far the smallest of the three properties, rarely has anybody checking your ID as you enter.

Sometimes the checking is done by regular security officers. Sometimes the checking is done by what appear to be temporary employees.

Strangely, on a midweek day in mid-November, a man in a tuxedo was checking IDs at Golden Gate. I produced mine and he asked if I was there for the promotion. I read mailers fairly closely and was pretty sure that no mid-week promotion was advertised for that casino, so I asked, “What promotion?”

He told me that if I sign up for a card at the players’ club, I’d receive guaranteed free play for some amount between $5 and $1,000. I told him I already had a card, and he replied that all I had to do was to show the card and I’d get the free play.

Free money is always good. 

On the way to the machines I wanted to check, I glanced over at the players’ club. There was a line of about 25 people and it wasn’t moving very fast. I didn’t see how many booth attendants were servicing the front of the line, but clearly not enough to make the line move very fast.

I figured it would take me 30-45 minutes to get to the front of the line. If I knew I was going to get $200 or more, such a wait would be tolerable. While I don’t know the distribution of the free play amounts for this particular promotion, historically in Las Vegas it goes something like 50% of the time it’s $5, 25% of the time it’s $10, 23% of the time it’s $20 or $25, and 2% of the time it’s higher than that. If those percentages held true for this promotion, my EV for standing in line for a long time was less than $10.

When I first moved to Las Vegas and was scrounging to make enough money to be able to stay, I would have stood in line. Not anymore. Today I have a bankroll, and my earning power is more than $10 per 30-45 minutes. So, I passed up the line and checked the machines I wanted to check.

Perhaps I should modify my “Free money is always good” statement to something like, “No money is totally free. Whether it’s good to get depends on what you have to do to obtain it. Correctly evaluating this is part of what makes a gambler successful or not.”

Also, please note that in no way am I criticizing the Golden Gate for their promotion. Clearly a lot of people were capitalizing on it and I would have done the same 30 years ago. It’s just that for me at this time in my life, no thank you.