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?
If I was in the position where I would not be gambling at that establishment (i.e. Cherokee) any more, I would take the money and run. It’s across the country from where I live, so I’d never go there again, especially if I wasn’t gambling anymore.
Vegas is much closer, 3 hour drive, so I would keep in some kind of contact with a few of the casinos that have the games, food outlets and services my wife and I like. We’ve built decent relationships with some of the hosts, bartenders, waitresses, valets and desk clerks at a few casinos in Vegas over the years.
Honest people behave honestly. I would treat it as a win-win situation for both sides. As long as I keep getting offers, I know it’s exactly how Bob explained in this article. The casino wants you back, and they want your action.
Thinking about the old rule that there is no free lunch in this world, I would give them a chance to win money and definetely take the offer, as long as I go to a place that’s offering something. If I plan not to go there anymore, contrary to Edso’s philosophy, I would skip the last and ultimate offer and just forfeit it. This is my way, but it’s not given that this is the way that one must follow.
When a casino is sending me cheap room rates, along with some food credit etc, I don’t feel obliged to give them any action at all, because I am paying for the room. But if it’s all comped, then I will give them substantial action. I would not take advantage of hospitality and in return stiffing them. That’s my way.
I’m considering quitting gambling this year as well, but for different reasons. I live in northern Wisconsin and there just aren’t any video poker pay schedules that are to the advantage to play, or even close. At the casino closest to home, they used to have a bank of Bally “Black Gold” $1 video poker machines. They were a 9/6 Jacks or Better with a max bet of 2 coins instead of the usual 5, so it was within my budget. And the Royal was a progressive that reset at $1199 and sometimes got as high as $3600 or more before it hit. And I had figured that when it reached around $1800, it was a positive advantage play. And this was before the casino figured out the advantage of video poker and cut the earned points in half, so I was getting full points for my play and made the top tier of the players club, which also made things more profitable. And I won a big grand prize drawing in 2007. I made enough money between 2007 and 2012 to pay my fiancé’s share of the mortgage after I lost her in a tragic accident. But then they took that bank out because they were an old Bally Game Maker cabinet which is no longer supported, and they could no longer get parts and software to keep them running. I have still been playing there, and get lucky once in a blue moon with a jackpot, but long term I’m losing more than I win as to be expected with an average 7/5 pay table. Even with various promotions, they offer nothing to make it a worth-while play. And most good promotions like double and triple points exclude video poker. I just can’t find anything I can consistently come out ahead on, so I think it’s time to stop going.
I would go, collect on the mailers bridging the two periods. But I would play games that are lower denom to not get the $2000 hit, but still show played a worthy amount. This would show you did not stiff them, and in a perfect world, they would see the new tax law made you play lower. That might prompt them to pressure their lawmakers to act and rescind.
The handwriting has long been on the wall – casinos are eliminating playable video poker everywhere. Where there is playable VP, usually no points are given. Using VP as a vehicle to visit Vegas cheaply will soon – if not already- be history as the game floors are devalueing/removing VP and replacing it with the mindless “entetainment” scrolling games that attract the casual donators. Adding in the new taxation guidelines and we now have a dearth, barren landscape that no longer attracts knowledgeable gamblers. Like all of the used to be “good” things that Vegas used to offer, the corporate bean counters have ruined one of the few remaining gambling attractions that gamblers felt they had areasonable chance of actually winning. Regarding mailers, I personally would use them if it made financial sense. Remember this – the casinos only want your business if they can make money from your presence. There is no loyalty to you – only to your money.
I have never heard of a casino back charging someone for burning an offer. They are free to not comp off more, and even to cancel future reservations made based on past play, but never have I heard that someone has to pay a bill for a comped room because they no played them. However, given that this is a Caesars property if Bob wants to be in good standing with CET and risk offers disappearing systemwide, it is understandable if he doesn’t want to take the room.
I regularly decide whether or not I want to give casinos more business, and even after playing through the free play and stopping I still get offers from Rio and Fontainebleau (bad offers which require resort fee and no free play, but still). Downtown Grand keeps giving me $15 in free play which I immediately burn and use as drink tip money at other downtown casinos as their pay tables are atrocious. I’m considering doing the same with Derek’s properties although even cutting back my play in half I still am at the $200 level and so are +EV on free play alone so may just stay.
That is because they don’t. Bob tends to get rather dramatic in these articles.
I would focus on the EV per hour you spend traveling to and working on the properties. If the EV isn’t material, it may not be worth the time.
If gambling is your only source of income, continuing might make sense. If you have other opportunities, compare their opportunity cost – what you could earn instead with the same time and effort – and choose the option with the higher net return.
Life is too short; you won’t carry anything you earn after you die. Use that reality as a lens: prioritize how your time and money create meaning now, not just how they accumulate for an uncertain future.
I agree 100% on the “Life’s too short” part. I assume Bob has money in the bank and enough to live on comfortably and is well into retirement age based on past articles. It may be time to stop working so hard chasing opportunities that are getting fewer and further between and just relax and enjoy your golden years. Maybe take up fishing or golf, or do some traveling? I’ve never seen a hearse pulling a trailer! You’ve had a very good run. Why not take the time to enjoy everything you’ve worked so hard for your whole life?
I mean it is a hobby, but traveling across the country at an advanced age with a wife even older to chase these offers is not great. If you are getting shows you want to watch or if Bonnie is getting something out of it sure. If it’s just a few hours to do your circuit in town then that’s a smoke hobby but going cross country for a few thousand may not be worth your time.