The Economy & Las Vegas

OK, let's talk numbers. How much of a give-back, in percentages? How would you distribute it through the pay scale so that it is noticeable? (If it goes at the top, it won't be noticed, you have to admit.) How do you quantify it so we can talk apples-apples? And when you talk about "before" how much worse have the pay scales become over what time period and how does that play out in visitation/the take/customer satisfaction numbers?

Again, again, again, I like your supposition but since slots and carnival games have ruled Vegas for time immemorial all the proof you need is already out there--they don't care.

The take on Penny Machines can be higher because Players can be in the frame of mind that Penny Play can give them more play due to its lower denomination to start off with.

But looks can be deceiving with all of the different play lines that can be involved on a machine like that (and it can be especially deceiving when the machine tells the player that s/he has won when actually the original bet was for an amount that was higher than the amount that was paid as a "win").

And also playing at Penny level can end up making the total coin-in per pull possibly be more than a higher denomination machine with less coins needed to play.

Some of the Penny machines can be at the very least $3 per pull if they were to bet the coin-maximum.

So playing at a lower denomination amount can end up actually having a lower return than something at a higher denomination but requiring less coins and it could just have a higher return rate overall.

I say this because I know that I have heard that at least it usually tends to be the case that the higher denomination that you play, the higher that the overall return ends up being!

RecVPPlayer

Every casino on the strip for 3 miles still has an "Idiot Wheel"-i.e. "Big Wheel"

proving Ken's point..

Locals places don't.

I know that there are lots and lots of clueless people out there but I think the question as time goes on is how many of the people will go over and over again to Las Vegas if it's getting harder and harder to win? They might take one or two trips and kind of give up on it as a good vacation destination.

I read about more and more people talking about tight slots and Video Poker and I think that there will come a point in time (if it hasn't come already) where people will say that if there are very tight slots and/or VP in LV, then what's the use of my going more times to Las Vegas when I can go to my more local casino and get that!

Higher returns offered can be another draw to LV for people for repeat business(especially if LV starts advertising that they have loosened things up again). Worse returns may keep people from coming back more or as much as they might if they can get a good gamble for their money, like what Benny Binion wanted to give people.

RecVPPlayer

As for how much give-back I think casinos should do, I would say that that would depend on the game in question. With machines maybe a percent or two possiblt (such as make the lowest returning Video Poker be something like 8/5 Jacks Or Better). Since Steve Bourie has listed the ranges of return for the Slot Machines, maybe those could be on the higher end (like a return of no less than maybe about 95-96% or so) and with Blackjack no more of this 6 To 5 or Even-Money ridiculousness.

I have seen stuff like 6/5 Jacks Or Better Video Poker and 6 To 5 and Even-Money Blackjack before and also Blackjack video machines where the player can only Hit or Stand (not at the very least Double Down and/or Split Pairs).

As for the Carnival Games, I know that they offer different pays for different things and so maybe with Las Vegas, they could try increasing the return so that they had a Casino Advantage of like no more than Three to maybe Four Percent.

It's like these ridiculous "Bean Counters" who are only looking at the short-term picture of it all instead of the long run and doing what they can to retain people who might want to come back more times and play!

So I would say that they should loosen things up a bit and then do a bit of good advertising for it (such as with the LV Convention And Visitor's Bureau).

If they loosen up a bit, it could very well end up literally paying off for them.

RecVPPlayer