7/6/2007
After the column last week on casino security, I found some notes in my files with more suggestions for your safety.
A casino safe-deposit box is a great security option after you win a large jackpot. Hotels usually provide safe-deposit boxes for their guests free of charge. Or the cage will take cash as “”upfront”” money that you can draw from as you need it. Some have suggested this option also has a bonus benefit: You aren’t as likely to tap into it as soon as if the funds were in your pocket.
Here are a couple of stories from the vpFREE Internet forum, with cautions about how you use your cell phone:
“”Recently I was walking through the parking lot of a casino around 11 p.m. This woman several steps in front of me was on her cell phone, apparently talking to her friend. She was describing in a very loud voice how she had just won $2,500 playing slots, and she was now in the casino parking lot walking toward her car. Anyone within 50 feet would have easily been able to understand every word she said. She probably had no clue that she was advertising to anyone within earshot that she was carrying a lot of money and might be a good robbery target.””
Someone else described this incident: “”Be careful when talking on your cell phone while sitting at a machine. If your concentration is totally on the conversation, someone can cash out your machine and you won’t even notice! I saw an old lady do this to a guy at the Palms. He was so engrossed in his phone call that she actually walked right up to the left side of his machine (he’d turned to the right in his seat), cashed it out, grabbed the ticket, and started to walk away, all with the guy sitting there talking! I was playing a couple of machines to his right and saw the whole thing. I stood up and stopped her from leaving, got the guy’s attention, and told him what happened. He didn’t believe me until I pointed to his machine, which showed “”Paid $300″” on the screen!””
Here’s another con someone warned about:
“”The thief sits down next to you and puts a dollar in the machine. He plays a couple of hands for the minimum, usually a nickel, then asks if you’ll watch his machine while he uses the restroom. He leaves his credits on the machine. He comes back in a couple of minutes, thanks you, and continues slowly playing the minimum. He’s hoping that you need to use the restroom, and will ask him to watch your machine — after all, he trusted you! If you do, he’ll, of course, cash out your ticket and take off! If this doesn’t work in a few minutes, he just cashes out and tries his con on someone else.
“”Perhaps you don’t know this service that all casinos provide: You can ask for a security guard to walk you to your room or to your car, a good idea when you’ve won a big jackpot that drew a lot of attention on the floor or just if you’re carrying a lot of money. This is a courtesy service with no charge. Most people will want to at least offer a tip, although it’s against many casinos’ policies for security employees to accept them. However, the offer will always be appreciated.””
7/13/2007
Brad and I had a great time in Columbus, Georgia, visiting the Frugal Princess Angela and our two now-teenaged grandchildren, Zachary and Kaitlynn. Brad, with Zachary’s help, kept busy doing the household “man jobs” that had piled up since Steve left for Iraq. And we both pitched in doing housework, laundry, and shopping to lighten Angela’s load of being both Mom and Dad and holding down her job as the executive assistant to an attorney.
However, it wasn’t all work and no play by any means. After 22 years of being retired from cooking, I wasn’t about to start now. So we ate dinner out most evenings. And we enjoyed having more leisure time for TV and movies and shopping, things that Vegas often keeps us too busy to do. We continued our regular exercise program, with a swim in their backyard pool most evenings after it emptied of all the neighborhood friends of the kids.
The high point of the visit for all of us was a luxurious casino weekend stay, compliments of our annual Harrah’s 7 Star trip – which had already paid Brad’s and my airfare from Vegas to Gerogia. We all piled into Angela’s van for the five-hour drive to Biloxi, Mississippi, where we stayed at the Biloxi Grand. Our exalted 7 Star status began as soon as we stopped at valet. No need to go to a check-in desk, even in a VIP area — we were greeted at our car with the keys to our rooms. We found that they’d assigned us to a huge suite, plus an adjoining room. This gave us a big living room in the middle, flanked on either side with large bedrooms, each with its own bath, one including a two-person Jacuzzi that looked out over the Gulf. There were three flat-screen TVs and since room movies are free for 7 Star cardholders, we had three different movies playing much of the time so everyone could have a choice.
Each room had a box of fancy food delicacies, which were attacked immediately by two always-hungry teenagers. Fortunately, our room account was loaded up with $500 in credits, so the kids could – and did – eat anytime they wanted to. We skipped the gourmet restaurant since the kids preferred to graze more frequently at the faster venues, from the buffet, snack bars, or Starbucks. They ordered up room service when they were watching free movies in the room and we all pigged out when we were lounging in our free cabana at the pool, another 7 Star perk. Even with all that gluttony, at checkout time we still had about $125 left from the $500 use-or-lose credits. However, the frugal family wasn’t about to let that go to waste, and mad shopping in the gift shop at the last minute found that we had to leave only one cent in the account!
And, yes, the adults did gamble. Angela doesn’t have any casinos near her, so being able to play is a real treat for her. Brad and I enjoyed having a vacation from video poker most of this trip, but we did put in some play during the three days we were staying at the Grand. I always learn something new when I play in a casino that I don’t usually visit. Tune in next week and I’ll give some of my findings from this trip.
7/20/2007
Last week I talked about our recent 7 Star trip to Grand Biloxi. I always like to visit a new casino or one that I haven’t been to for a long time. I usually get some new and valuable information that helps me continue to make good choices about where and what to play.
Since the Grand Biloxi is a Harrah’s property and I already play or have played in other Harrah’s properties both in Vegas and other locations, I wanted to examine their Total Rewards program. I already knew that all Harrah’s casinos have the same requirement for earning base points (or credits, as they call them) on their card: It takes $10 coin-in to earn one base credit on a video poker machine, $5 on a slot machine. These base credits are the ones used to determine your “tier credits.” You need, annually, to get to and maintain 4,000 base credits for Platinum Level, 10,000 for Diamond, and 100,000 for 7 Star.
Most other policies concerning the Harrah’s Total Rewards program fall under the heading, “It Depends.” The most important variation is in the matter of “bonus” credits, which you might (or might not) earn at the same time you’re earning base points. That number depends on the machine you’re playing and the property where that machine is located. Slot machines earn the most bonus credits, but how liberal or conservative the individual casino sets this number depends first on the competition and then on how loose or tight they set individual machines. In any case, you can’t know this information without trial periods on the machines you want to track – and sometimes even this doesn’t give exact answers, since the amount of time spent on a machine might be a deciding factor. Video poker machines are usually set to accrue bonus points more slowly than slot machines, and the trend is for the ones that have the best payables (like 9/6 Jacks of Better) to give no bonus credits at all. (We found this to be true at the Biloxi Grand.)
Another policy that differs from one Harrah’s to another is how they give bounce-back cash. In Vegas we get a cash coupon in the mail. Since we live there, we can collect all the bounce-back cash that’s sent to us. However, when we travel, we often find that we can’t collect the bounce-back we earn, because we won’t be going back to that area before the bounce-back coupons expire. Thus, we were happy to learn when we got to Biloxi that the Grand gives same-day Free Play instead of mailed bounce-back coupons, so we got several hundred dollars that we wouldn’t have collected had we received the coupons in the mail after we returned to Las Vegas. (Hint to casinos: If you do send bounce-back coupons to out-of-towners, please take the zip code of the customer into consideration and allow for appropriately longer redemption periods!)
One thing we’ve noticed is that 7 Star benefits vary from casino to casino. We’ve had friends go to one Harrah’s property where several casino executives met their limo at the casino door to welcome them. Other friends went to another Harrah’s property where they were not only not given any special attention from casino employees, but they didn’t have even a small fruit basket as a welcoming gift in their room.
We were really pleased with the 7 Star benefits we received at Grand Biloxi, especially since that area is still far from recovered from hurricane Katrina and all the casinos remain in a rebuilding stage. We look forward to going back in a few years when Harrah’s has its new big “”grand”” Grand resort built. But we hope even with increased amenities and luxury, they won’t lose the warm friendly atmosphere we found there this summer.
7/26/2007
When Brad and I came home after two weeks in Georgia, we walked into what I consider an emergency in my life, one that could only be met by suicide – or at least a major nervous breakdown. My computer crashed. The screen was black and no amount of button pushing would revive this dead animal. I had never had a computer crash since I jumped into cyberspace 10 years or so ago. I hear I’ve been terribly lucky that it hadn’t happened before.
Fortunately, I’d backed up almost everything on a flash drive that I took on vacation with me because I thought I might have some time to work on some writing projects. (Silly me, thinking I would have time to work when I could loaf with my grandchildren!) However, that early crazy thought and a flash drive saved the day – and I had only a temporary mental meltdown while my desktop monster was in the shop.
So now I have another Vegas business to add to the ones I recommended in my May 25th column: A Computer Repair, at 3301 Spring Mountain Road #9. The phone number is 702/506-3700. Abi, a computer expert, came to our condo at my frantic request on the 4th of July, when most businesses were closed. My computer was rebuilt, with a new mainboard and power supply, then delivered back to me and hooked up, and many of my old software programs updated and/or reinstalled. I can’t praise this business enough – after all they saved my life, or at least my mental health!
Speaking of recommendations for Vegas businesses, in that same column I had asked for help in finding someone to do electrical work. However, I just ran across a company that not only does electrical work, but almost any other kind of household repair or renovations. Angelo, a truly nice guy from Nice Guys Service, did several handyman jobs for us a few weeks ago and his fee was very reasonable. He said their guys had 25 years experience in plumbing and they did indoor and outdoor painting, carpentry, masonry, tile work – skilled labor in all phases of construction. You can call them for a free estimate at 702/237-2696.
For another place that offers free or heavily discounted Vegas shows, you can add to the Web sites I gave in the June 14th column this one: http://www.vegasseatfillers.com/.
At http://www.cardplayer.com/magazine/article/14697 is an interesting article about some of the new poker lingo that is showing up in the card world.
An article with some new (at least to me) information about advantage play appeared a couple of years ago in Mercury, a Vegas alternative newsweekly that is no longer in print.
http://www.lasvegasmercury.com/2005/MERC-Feb-17-Thu-2005/25792484.html
Mercury was replaced by CityLife, which you can pick up free at the Palms and many other places in town. Or, you can read its quirky and offbeat material at http://www.lasvegascitylife.com/.
Due to my computer crash, I have lost some of my files that contained column material I planned to use in future Frugal Friday columns. If I’ve promised anyone that I would write about a specific subject or would review a product, please e-mail me with the details and I’ll try to get to it soon.