35 Years of Advantage Play – Part 4

Last week I took a slight detour off memory lane for a news flash about a possible tax break being considered that might be of interest to both recreational and more serious casino gamblers.  (If you want more info about this tax issue, I suggest you check out my fellow LVA blogger’s discussion on this.  In fact, I highly recommend David McKee’s “Stiffs & Georges” if you want sharp, insightful, fear-no-one casino business news coverage, no matter how controversial.)

I did add some old nostalgic photos to that last blog.  To answer one question about one of them:  No, the picture with the MGM lion was not photoshopped.  However, the thick glass partition between us and the lion did not show!

Now back to the memory path where we left off in the late 80’s when Brad retired and we excitedly embarked on a  travel life full time, making frequent flights from our home in Indianapolis to Vegas and staying longer and longer each trip by learning to maximize the comp system for free room nights and other benefits.

We were still playing blackjack, but I was starting to read about video poker.  In January of 1990, Brad insisted I go with him over to the Stardust, where he “confessed” he had been going for a few months.  I knew he had been taking long breaks from our BJ sessions at the Westward Ho when the count turned bad but didn’t wonder about them too much since he has always liked to “wander around” other casinos.  I knew one favorite haunt was Slots-A-Fun because he would always come back with his free bag of popcorn.  (Brad has always been an eagle-eyed scout for free popcorn, and one thing that influenced his “like” for the apartment complex we chose this year was a movie room in the clubhouse that has an always-full  fresh popcorn wagon!)

When I finally agreed to go over to the Stardust with him, he showed me a bank of nickel VP machines with a small car on top.  “I’ve been trying to win that car.”

I repeated my constant refrain, “We have to stick to BJ; machines are for losers.”

“But these VP machines are so much fun.  And no pit bosses breathing down your neck to see if you are one of those terrible card counters.”

Then I saw a banner about a “slot club,” something I hadn’t known about.   I decided to check it out, and finding it was free and gave some free benefits, we joined.  I told Brad that if he was going to play these machines sometimes, at least use this slot card and we can see if we earn some freebies.

My memory about this time is not very clear.  I think we “fiddled around” playing a little bit of VP and perhaps I had read to look for 9/6 Jacks or Better, maybe in one of the freebie publications I would pick up in casinos while looking for promotions.  Not sure I had seen – and certainly hadn’t studied –  strategy details then.  Just playing “seat-of-the-pants,” using experience we had gained in live poker.   How little did I know about VP then!

We did start playing BJ at the Stardust and showing our slot cards –  and those freebies the slot club had advertised started appearing in our mailbox, usually 3-night comped rooms and often parties, which were even better than those we were offered by the Westward Ho.  And always pictures – casinos took a lot of pictures those days.

My financial records are still not very detailed for ’90-’91.  Even though we are traveling out of town more now that Brad is retired, when we are back in town we are still ravaging the Tonk games at the Moose and the crap games at the Catholic Monte Carlo’s, adding fat profits to our gambling bankroll.  However, we are still adding to our casino win/loss figures our travel expenses, which include airfare and any room nights and food that wasn’t comped.  So that total is still a minus figure.  But I had learned so much by then about running down special promotions and using coupons and slot club benefits that our long vacations were taking less and less money out of our pockets.  Actually if we counted the value of the comps we were on the plus side!

WAIT!  Suddenly, looking over my notes for these first 8 years of casino gambling so I can write about them, I am hit hard with the realization that there was something more important to us than winning those days.  It wasn’t just the games we loved -it was the excitement of the total casino experience.  My notes are very sketchy on financials, but I had put in many details describing the fun stuff we did the many hours when we were not sitting at a BJ table.

So…in my next blog I will stray temporarily from the arithmetic  of advantage play and tell you about some of that fun stuff during our early casino years.  Seems like I remember that more vividly!