All casinos are holding “Big Game” celebrations on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 3, with some promotions running the whole weekend. Expect crowded casinos and gridlock traffic conditions in town, especially on the Strip. The city will also be very busy President’s Day weekend. Check for multiple points both weekends. They are rare on the 3rd, but often seen on the 18th.
PALMS
The “Play, Earn, and Win” promotion continues on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, starting at 10 a.m. each day at the new Promotions Center. You can pick up your earned swag until 10 p.m. on Mondays and Wednesdays and until midnight on Fridays. By the pictures it looks like it is all “stuff” this month, with no Visa card options like last month.
A mini earn-and-swipe promotion run every Tuesday this month. Earn 10 base points on slots or 100 base points on video poker and then swipe to see what you get – slot play, cash, or a “stuff” item. And seniors have an extra swipe-and-win promo on Sterling Advantage 50+ Thursdays, with the same base points needed.
The “Play and Buffet” promotion continues in February on Tuesdays, Thursdays, Saturdays, and Sundays, various point levels depending on whether you play slots or video poker and which meal you choose.
The usual Friday and Saturday night drawings continue through February 23rd at the new time of 8 p.m. One new wrinkle this month – you can earn 2x entries on Sundays and Thursdays.
As I keep reminding you, better stop at the rack around the corner from the slot club desk and pick up the rules for each promo – and read all the fine print! Never assume the rules and details will be the same as in the past.
TUSCANY
First the bad news here. All the single line 8/5 Bonus Poker games have been downgraded. They still are available on the multi-line bank, but those machines do not give 10x points on multiplier days.
10x-point days continue in February on the same schedule as last month, Mondays and Fridays. Pull tabs also return, on the 13th and the 27th. Same rules – 1000 base points = 1 pull tab, with a max of 4 per day. Tabs must be picked up on the same day earned. If the tabs have the same mix as before, the lowest you will get is $10 in free play. If you pick lucky, you might get ones with a bigger amount of free play and, once in a long long while, you might get one for $50 or $100 in cash.
Two Mystery Free Play days are scheduled on the 5th and 19th. They say you have a chance to win up to $500 in free slot play, but in the past we usually got about the same amount as our usual twice-weekly free play. However, I was surprised last month with $100 on one of the Mystery Days. They say it is pre-loaded to your account, but I am assuming that this is only for people who get the monthly mailer.
Gift days are on the 7th and the 21st. If you don’t get a mailer and aren’t “pre-qualified” for the gift of the day, you may get one by earning 300 base points.
Every Saturday in February they are running a hot-seat promotion, from 12:30 p.m. to 10 p.m.
ELLIS ISLAND
Ellis Island has changed – again – their criteria for the Platinum tier monthly mailers. Originally 48K for a six-month period, it went to 54k for a very short time, and has now settled – I hope – at 60k. Remember they have a look-back period of six months. For example, your February mailer covers your play from July 1 through the end of December. We call this a six-and-skip-a-month system. More common is a 3-and-skip-a-month. However, some casinos look back only one month, a one-and-skip-a-month. A few may only skip a half month before the mailer. And some systems a person just can’t figure out, often because marketing people like to experiment and change it up all the time!!!!
One other negative change – the bank of “good” machines near the slot club booth no longer are eligible for multiple points on any day. Wise players will re-evaluate these plays in light of the new changes to see whether they remain “good plays.”
The free pizza days remain on Tuesdays and Saturdays, but remember there are no coupons for this in the mailer. You must print out a voucher at the kiosk, as you must do to enter drawings, pick up free gifts, get the steak special price at the restaurant, or participate in any other promotions.
SILVERTON
Some readers have been asking about this casino and why I don’t cover it as much as I used to. My good reason – Brad and I don’t play there anymore. “Why not,” you may ask. Well, by looking at our mailers with dwindling offers, it was becoming obvious that they must have decided to market mainly to slot players. No multiplier days for video poker players; our free play amounts were decreased even when we kept our same level of play.
I hear that some video poker players who don’t play the “best” games may get some multiplier bonuses from individualized mailings, but I have no specific details about that.
For a long time it was one of our favorite places to play. We miss it!
We will be in Vegas in March. Where do you suggest the best slot play and bargains are?
How can I find out what casinos offer the best Video Poker Odds and what those odds are?
The well of Vegas promos is dry, dry, dry. And it seems as if (in collusion, of course) the locals’ casinos are REALLY tightening the noose on VP players.
Still, you can for the time being play FPDW at Sam’s, Palms, most Stations, Aliante, and a few others. You get virtually no slot club benefits, and you get nothing in the mail, but at least you’re playing at a slight advantage. Of course, the recent torching of most of the good VP at Fiesta Henderson may signal that Stations is finally going to kill good VP once and for all.
The downgrades at Tuscany signal some extreme paranoia on the part of management. IF you played the best machines on 10x point days, you got back to breakeven. IF you played on the very occasional pulltab days, you had a tiny advantage. I guess they can’t stand the idea of anyone getting a 100.2% payback one or two times a week. Sheesh!
It appears that the dodge of pumping in play during promos and Xpoints and then hoping to get mailers to bring you back to breakeven (there are very few such plays that get you back there by themselves, and then only barely over 100%) is dying out; the slot club managers seem to be much more adept at sniffing out advantage players, especially those locals, whom they hate with a white-hot fury.
It was fun while it lasted!
I miss a whole lot of good plays in Vegas. In fact, now I pretty much just miss Vegas altogether!