Our chosen accomodations were Arizona Charlie's Boulder and Decatur for me (I had four comped nights, two at each property) and South Point for my friends. The room at Boulder was just...okay, albeit roomy; the furnishings were quite dated. The Decatur room was much nicer. Odd, since the Decatur property is much older than the Boulder one. Maybe the former had a renovation but the latter never has...? The South Point room was very, very nice and spacious.
We managed to get two of the SP room nights comped and the third discounted, after playing VP heavily and checking with a slot host. For those of you scoring at home, I put $8,500 worth of action on my slot card. My friends gravitated toward blackjack and craps, but for some reason, very little of their play was rated or recorded. They did both win, as did I, for the trip. (Jim latched on to a real heater at the crap table, while Lydia sucked all the aces out of every shoe.) I managed about a $170 profit on the SP's good VP machines.
We did a coupon run, with both LVA and ACG books in hand. We slurped up about $100 in free play each,and amazingly, turned it into more than face value every time (we weren't silly enough to play slots; we played the best VP available). We also had a blazing 10-2 record on matchplays.
My South Point action was worth a $50 Chevron gas card. I could have gotten a $50 Wally Mart card instead. This is a terrific promotion, as it turns the already generous 0.3% slot club payback into 0.6%. All the other joints pay 0.1% or 0.05%. Furthermore, NSUD and 9/6 JOB were readily available, all over the casino. You have to play .25 and up to get the good pay schedules.
Bottom line: the three of us paid a total of $59 for seven room nights. I made $170 plus a gas card; my friends profited by about $200 each. As we exited the SP, people were streaming in, and the freeway was jammed...it looks like it's going to be a rockin' weekend in Vegas, and possibly for the whole summer. People want to travel goddammit.
Next: food!
