Betting on Bob
This article is a continuation of last week’s story — available here. Today’s story will be more interesting if you read that first.
I got back to the machines about 3:30, giving me five and a half hours of play before the 9 p.m. deadline. The machines were slower than I was used to and jackpots were slower than usual to be paid off because this was the busiest day of the year and the slot staff there was slammed. All in all, it went well. At 9 p.m. I was happy to quit and go home. I was tired after a long day.
February 29 was on a Wednesday. As you probably know, I co-host a radio show with Michael Shackleford, Gambling with an Edge, on Thursday evenings. The guest for the March 8 show was scheduled to be Michael Gaughan, but we planned to tape in Friday March 2 — a day-and-a-half after Leap Day. Gaughan met for lunch with Shackleford and me prior to the show.
Because the “1x or 2x problem” had just happened, that was scheduled to be the first interview question. “How will the South Point resolve this?”
Except.
When he got to the lunch, Gaughan told us they hadn’t decided what to do. There were about 3,000 people who played prior to noon, and it would take a manual process to fix it. He estimated it would take somebody a week-and-a-half full time to figure it out and fix it. Gaughan told us that when he offered 3x points for 9 hours it was always his intention that the other 15 hours of the day would be single points.
Shack and I both expressed the point of view that we considered the mailer a promise to the players, and the “right” thing to do was to honor it. But we agreed not to bring it up on the air.
I’ve been asked why I didn’t press Gaughan on this anyway, even though he asked us not to. After all, it’s supposed to be an informative radio show and this question at the time was very relevant. First of all there are some basic courtesies Shack and I extend to all guests. Plus I have three additional reasons. I like being allowed to play at the South Point. I like being able to teach classes there. And I like that the South Point is a sponsor of the radio show. You do the math!
All three of us thought we taped a pretty good show. Something happened, however, at the radio station and the tape was unusable. We had a previously-taped interview with BJ Traveler, so we ran that March 8. The next week we taped Gaughan again on a Thursday afternoon, March 15. Since I would be on vacation on March 29, we decided to run it then.
During the pre-show meal for the second taping, Gaughan again told me they hadn’t decided what to do. “We’ll probably give 2x points to everybody who requests it, but it’s still not official. We can’t talk about it yet.”
So we taped the second show (which is the only show any of you heard) without mentioning Leap Day. One of the more interesting revelations on that show was that Gaughan said they figured out who got which mailers “on a curve.” If you haven’t heard that show, a downloads for all shows may be found at www.bobdancer.com/radio.cfm
When I got back from my cruise in early April, I called up Gaughan and he told me that anybody who played between midnight February 28 and noon February 29 could get their points doubled if they asked. They needed to contact the slot director Cliff Paige — either in person, by phone, or email [email protected]. For some technical reason, play between 9 p.m. and midnight on Leap Day cannot be doubled.
Whether or not 2x points were given prior to noon on Leap Day doesn’t affect me financially. I would have played some but they had shut the machines down as soon as I got there. It does, however, affect my credibility. I’d been announcing 2x points on Leap Day on the radio and on Internet posts. Since I am in periodic contact with Gaughan, it’s reasonable for players to assume that information I give out about the South Point is accurate.
Now of course it remains to be seen how many players actually ask Cliff Paige to double their points. The primary places this is being announced are on my radio show and in this column. If you know somebody who you think probably played at the South Point early that day, please pass the word. Nobody knows for sure how many people listen to the show and/or read this column. I’m hoping that a reasonably high percentage of the video poker players who played prior to noon that day hear about this and ask for the points. I assume most players who played slot machines that day neither listen to my radio show nor read my blog.
It turns out that the players who “bet on Bob” will actually get paid — if they request it from Cliff Paige. I know some of them have already complained to the slot club booth. I don’t know if these complaints will be passed along to Paige or not. I suggest they contact Paige just to make sure.