Frugal Fridays – June 2004

6/4/2004

Online in the Las Vegas Sun:

“Rube Goldberg lives — in spirit anyway. A new slot machine gimmick that marries gadgetry and luck in a series of clanking, spinning, ball-rolling contraptions was unveiled Wednesday at the (Atlantic City) Tropicana Casino and Resort. Goldberg, a Pulitzer Prize winner who died in 1970, was famous for drawings of complicated machinery that accomplished little, but exerted a lot of energy in doing so.”

First, we have casino chickens that can almost always beat humans playing tic-tac-toe. Then we have slot machines combined with treadmills and exercise bikes. Now a gimmick you can read about at http://tinyurl.com/apd2.

What will casinos think of next?

Staying with Atlantic City news for another online item:

As reported by the Associated Press: “”The rooms in the splashy billion-dollar Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa [are] missing one item — a Bible. The casino’s owners have barred the local chapter of Gideon’s International from placing Bibles in each of its 2,002 rooms, marking the first time that an Atlantic City casino has established such a policy.””

Global Gaming Business commented on this political correctness issue: “”Some conservatives blasted the decision, saying that it is important for all hotels to have inspirational reading in the room to give people in crisis an outlet.

“”Casino officials say it is a nod to diversity, and that Bibles provided by Gideon’s International will be available in the hotel lobby along with several other religious texts, such as the Mormon Bible and the Koran.””

I understand the diversity issue, but it reminds me of an old joke: What’s the difference between someone praying in church and in a casino? The gambler really means it!

A new BJ bonus game to look for, and probably avoid: Ten to Win.
Described in Global Gaming Business, a trade magazine for casino executives: “”A display behind the table flashes various award amounts. Each time a player receives a 10 in a suit determined by the casino, he has the option of trading it in to the dealer for the next card out of the shoe, in exchange for activating one of the 10 lights on his personal console. When a player has lit all 10 lights, a floor person activates a ‘spin’ button and lights flash around the award display until landing on one of the cash prizes.”

Now comes a clue to whether you want to play this game.

“”According to the developer of the system, Ten to Win promotes longevity of play, while boosting the house edge of the blackjack game as players trade in 10-value cards.””

Sounds to me like another BJ variation to empty our pockets faster!

I just read a new addition in my gambling library, Get the Edge at Low-Limit Texas Hold’Em by my good friend Bill Burton, the casino guide for About.com (order at http://vegas.home.attbi.com).

This is an excellent book for beginners who want to tackle the casino poker room or for veteran players who are losing because they have never studied the game.

Even though I rarely play live poker, except for an occasional casual game with friends or at the Moose Lodge when I go back to Indiana, I especially enjoyed the book because of the details of Bill’s personal journey “”from the kitchen to the cardroom and how, in just a few short months of intensive study and practice, he became a winning player.”” Study and practice — these are the requirements for any successful gambler, no matter what the game. So if your game of choice is Texas hold ’em at low limits, this is a book I strongly recommend.

6/11/2004

You know you’re traveling too much when you lose your vehicle in the Park ‘n’ Fly lot!

Many of you have questioned why you rarely see us in casinos these days. We’ve been on the road — or more accurately, in the air — a lot over the past couple of months. We really wore ourselves out traveling in 2003, so we took a rest and didn’t leave town from mid-December until April 16, when we once again ventured out of Vegas — to take advantage of a good four-night offer from Harrah’s casino in New Orleans. Sometimes we like combining sightseeing with casino visits and we love the atmosphere of the French Quarter.

The next four-night trip came right on the heels of the first, to Barona Casino and Resort near San Diego, to speak at a seminar for casino hosts. I enjoy these speaking engagements, because it gives me a chance to give the player’s perspective on hosts and marketing departments to many casino executives. I don’t hold back; I discuss what we players like, i.e. well-organized tournaments, but I start blasting when I talk about what we don’t like, i.e. long lines and waits anywhere in the casino!

The next trip was for pure pleasure, visiting the grandchildren in Columbus, Georgia. (Of course, we were glad to see their parents too: my daughter Angela and her husband, Army Ranger Steve.) Many people have asked about Steve since they knew he’d been in Iraq in the spring. He came home a little earlier than the rest of his unit when Angela’s father passed away, and the Army and Red Cross saw that he got home for the funeral. He was supposed to go back to Iraq, but Fort Drum, NY, was so understaffed at the time that he was tapped to stay there in a supervisory capacity until his unit returned. When he found out that his unit was scheduled to go back to Iraq at the end of the year, he decided that, after 15 years in the service of Uncle Sam, going to hot spots all over world and, for the last 10 years leaving his family for months and months on end, he would try to find a non-deployable slot.

In early January of this year he was successful, going back on jump status and becoming an instructor at the Ranger school at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. It’s very likely that he’ll be able to stay at this post until he retires, so Steve and Angela joyfully bought their first house, where the Frugal Princess decided they could finally have a pet, who now rules the household, a cockapoo puppy name Dixie, in honor of settling in the South. They’re all reveling in the fact that the Howard family can now have a more “normal” life than they had for ten years while living in military housing. To celebrate permanency, they’re building the most elaborate tree house in the neighborhood: Fort Howard.

We were so happy to visit and celebrate with them for almost a week. Kaitlynn and Zachary are seasoned Army brats, adjusting immediately to school in mid-year, and we were able to attend their end-of-year award ceremonies where they both scored all-As certificates and Zachary received the Good Citizen of the Year trophy and a Presidential Citation for Excellence given to a graduating 5th grader. (Enough of Grandma bragging — I know your grandkids are just as great and I will let you get even by enthusiastically looking at your grandchildren pictures the next time we meet!)

As usual I’ve rambled and I haven’t even covered all our trips and given the travel hints I picked up recently. I know it isn’t an exciting cliffhanger, but I’ll finish up this subject next week, after yet another out-of-town trip.

6/17/2004

Last week I promised you more travel stories and frugal hints from trips we’ve taken recently.

After we returned from visiting the Frugal Princess and her family in Georgia, we had a few days to catch up back home, then headed to the airport again for a weekend trip to San Diego where I was the banquet speaker at the 15th Annual National Sweepstakers Convention. I knew that there were people who entered a lot of drawings and contests, but I had no idea of the widespread interest in this specialized field. There were almost 800 people at this convention. These sweepers — as they call themselves — are as frugally crazy as I am about free things, maybe even more so! And this isn’t a free-T-shirt-level of action. As well as a huge assortment of merchandise, most attendees had won multiple expensive vacations — and one couple had won THIRTEEN cars.

At first I wasn’t sure why I was asked to speak to this group, but I soon found out that most sweepers are also casino goers, and sweeping and gambling have much in common. In my talk, I spoke about the factors that make you more successful in either: a high degree of motivation, continual study, an understanding of math principles, perseverance, patience, and a lot of hard work.

I’m resisting the temptation to investigate sweeping, although it sounds like a very frugal activity; I’m already too busy and looking for ways to cut down on projects, not to take on new ones. However, some of you might find this a good way to collect freebies in between your casino visits earning comps. Although they still often use snail mail for entering contests, there’s a whole new area that has opened up by going on the Internet. If you’re interested, go to your search engines.

We travel on Southwest Airlines whenever we can; the fact that you can change your reservation anytime right up until flight time with NO penalty is an extremely important feature for us. You don’t get your ticket price back as cash but as full credit on a future flight. One caveat: If you rebook you might have to pay more for a replacement ticket, as all tickets are sold at the prevailing price at the time of booking. I usually book as far ahead as possible, then periodically check to see if Southwest offers a cheaper ticket. They put out their weekly sale prices very early every Tuesday morning. If I do find a better fare, it’s easy to cancel the first reservation, then use that credit to book the cheaper flight, saving the balance to put on a future one.

We always book online to get an extra bonus credit (though the online credit runs out at the end of this month), and we have a new Southwest Signature credit card that we load up with all the purchases we can. The annual fee for this new Signature card is $20 more than a regular Southwest card, but it has the added feature of giving double credit for all Southwest ticket buys, so we can accumulate benefits worth much more than the fee. We love those free tickets we regularly earn!

People often ask us if we try to get bumped like we used to as described in The Frugal Gambler. Yes, we usually do, even when we’re traveling on business and have must-be-there-at-a-certain-time obligations. I try to allow extra time for this in our travel schedule. However, recently we haven’t scored free flights as often as we used to. The airlines, especially Southwest, are getting very good at estimating load counts.

We were first on the volunteer list this last weekend and the gate agent was calling for more volunteers. However, the overbooked passengers did not show and we were disappointed when they put us on the last two seats open on our flight. It’s another form of gambling — you don’t win every time. However, just like in gambling, if you do all the things that will help you — like booking flights during busy times, getting to the gate early and asking if they’re starting a volunteer list, and staying flexible in your travel schedule — you will score more o”
6/24/2004 “For several people wanting to share their pain over decreased Southwest benefits: Yes, Southwest ending its seven-year bonusing program for booking online is a big blow to all of us free-flight collectors. My response is to try to snag enough extra bags of peanuts and pretzels to make up the loss! (One reader had this comment: “They’ll bring it back when their call center gets swamped with calls from all the people who ONLY booked online to get the bonus.”)

I’d just finished writing that paragraph when Hockeystl, a friend of mine and THE master authority on frequent-flier programs, posted this corrected information. Good news indeed!

“Not sure who passed this info to you, but it is not correct; see
www.southwest.com/rapid_rewards/rr_whats_new.html:

“”Book your travel at southwest.com and receive three credits per roundtrip instead of two! Booking your travel at southwest.com gets you Awards even faster! Simply book your trip at southwest.com and fly by December 31, 2004, and you’ll receive three (3) credits for each roundtrip instead of the standard two (2) credits you receive if you don’t book at southwest.com.””

Hey, I’m so glad I was wrong!! At the end of 2003 Southwest DID reduce the bonus from 2 to 1 bonus credit per roundtrip, but it’s good news that there hasn’t been a further reduction. Their frequent-flier program is better for us than most others, because we take a lot of short flights.

Another good Southwest note: I was asking a flight attendant if she could give away some of my many free-drink coupons because they were expiring. She said, “Just keep them for the future — we never pay attention to expiration dates.” Too bad the doctor won’t let either one of us drink alcoholic beverages. With all the coupons books we have we could increase the “comps” of air travel considerably!!

Sticking with Southwest for another useful travel tip: When leaving Las Vegas airport to fly Southwest, especially during crowded times, use the “secret passage” to bypass the hassle of the regular C-gate security checkpoint and the tram ride to the gate area. After you have checked your baggage or used the convenient electronic kiosks to get your boarding pass, walk back outside and take a right. Follow the sign to the C gates — you walk about 100 yards right under the tram tracks. There, you go through security, often by yourself. It saves *a lot* of time and aggravation.

Someone asked if we still try to always book flights that have a lot of stops before our destination, to increase our chances for getting bumped. Old age has taken its toll here. Now I try for as many non-stop flights as I can. We used to love to travel, but now it seems to wear us out so much so the shorter the time the better.

A caution to everyone, young or old, on long non-stop flights: Get up and walk around frequently to ward off the danger of blood clots in your legs; there have been cases where this has been fatal. It’s especially important as you get older and if you’re on certain medications, such as Evista, which I take for the beginning of osteoporosis. (It’s a bitch to get old, as Brad and I repeat to each other all the time!)

Finally, if you see the movie “”The Terminal,”” you’ll see Tom Hanks using the
Frugal Gambler’s favorite way to add EV (expected value) to the long waits
in airports. This is one of the most heart-warming and funny movies I’ve seen for a long time. There’s also a neat gambling scene — now we know what happens to lost baggage!

Happy flying to all.