Frugal Use of Casino Time
The comment by Kevin Lewis on August 4 brings up an interesting issue, which is how to decide when picking up free play is a good use of one’s time. I appreciate all input here and Kevin often gives valuable information, i.e., his comments on July 19th and 22nd.
However, his recent comment shows the danger of making assumptions when you have incomplete information. Yes, one does have to weigh all the factors in deciding whether to make a special effort to pick up free play, especially the car expense and the value of your time.
Let’s analyze the situation I talked about in my last blog entry. First, one has to look at the amount of the pickup, which in that case was a total of $270. (We usually both have free play at a casino so that often makes the amount larger and more financially advantageous than it might be for a single person.)
Next, the mileage was not 70 miles, but only about 35 miles because Brad could make a circular route that was shorter than if he had gone round trip to each casino from our condo. The time was also shorter than 3 hours because it was late in the evening – after the rush hour traffic.
Very important is the factor that Brad likes to do this. (Remember I said I wouldn’t do this because I hate to drive in Vegas – plus I was dead tired and was looking at long hours processing stacks of casino mail in order to make up our August schedule.) Also, because we are retired and don’t “need” the money for living expenses, we don’t usually put a dollar-per-hour value on our time unless it involves two conflicting plays. There wasn’t another “good play” for that evening plus Brad wasn’t in the mood to concentrate on VP anyway. But he had taken a nap and was feeling rested enough to do this fast in-and-out-of-casinos road trip.
Although one doesn’t always get the full amount of the free play each pickup time, over the long run you get the amount minus the house advantage if you can’t play on 100% machines – which you usually can’t these days. So taking off car expenses and house advantage, this was about a $50-$60 per hour “play.” Brad thought this was pretty good “pay” for doing something he thought was fun!
Oh, one footnote. We have NEVER not used any airline bump money. I just planned an out-of-town casino trip with $600 of that free-flight voucher. Then that casino will refund the full airfare amount. A free trip plus a $600 bonus. I love these double-dipping opportunities!!!
Thanx for bringing this to my attention. I guess, since I knew who I was, that I figured everyone else did too! 🙂 I’m bringing it to the attention of my Web Master who hopefullly can solve the problem.
In the meantime, I remain your frugal friend,
Jean $¢ott, The Frugal Gambler
http://queenofcomps.com/
A dumb question, but… Who writes this column? And why isn’t it more obvious? It’s not here or the LVA front page.
To George – Ditto
I love your double dipping stories. They give me a mini adrenalin rush. Almost as if I had pulled them off myself. 🙂
Value of free play is different for different folks with different strokes ref. Jean’s and Kevin’s comments on that subject. My wife and I live in Mesquite so to justify a trip strictly on the basis of available free play is near impossible.We love our quiet Mesquite environment but also enjoy the big city atmosphere that Vegas has to offer i.e.shows, restaurants and, speaking for my bride, thrift shops, plus we both love to gamble. Our trips to Vegas always include free play ,free nights, free restaurants,free gas and sometimes a free show. All of this thanks to what we have learned from Jean’s books.
I don’t know how to put a $/hr. value on free fun.
George
You rule! We have tried to get a bump every time we travel and yet to get lucky. I love reading you blog! Thanks for the info!
Here’s my comments on use of your time. I too have ben married for many years to my wife. I enjoy, after having spent a lot of time together (like a trip), some time alone. Picking up comps and driving (mindless but enjoyable task) is just what the doctor ordered.
Also like Brad I would take a refresher nap prior to, then charge on.
We are all looking forward to your trip report.
Another comment on the airline bump–We have gotten the bump on serveral Southwest trips. Our last voucher was going to expire before we could use it, but a quick call to Southwest and they extended the voucher 6 months which put it in the time frame we are going to be able to use it. As a bonus we are going to be able to use the voucher to fly our family during the holidays in a time were there are few/none FF seats available.
Actually, I made no assumptions about your particular situation–or should I say, no STATED assumptions: I did, in fact, presume that in your/Brad’s case, it was still worthwhile to do the free play run, even considering the costs. After all, I DID say that it “MIGHT” not be worth it to pick up free play, not specifically in your case (in your case, it probably is), but in general. Most of us who play .25 aren’t going to get more than a $20 or $25 bounceback/free play offer (if that), so the cost of travel, personal time, etc. is somewhat more relevant to us lower-rollers than to someone like you or Brad who is playing 5-line $1 at $25 a pop.
The point I was trying to make, which I probably should have stated more explicitly, is that if you are figuring on bounceback/free play to push a -EV game into positive territory, then you also need to factor in the overhead associated with collecting it. For instance, a 9/6 JOB player who earned 0.2% base slot club points and 0.5% bounceback would be earning 0.24% in toto (assuming perfect play), or $24 per $10K coin-in. However, the real EV would be more like dead even because of the opportunity cost of collecting the free play. The actual value of free play is ((face amount)x(EV of game the FP must be run through))-(associated overhead). This net amount is often considerably less than the face amount of the free play, and in the case of low-rollers and small bounceback amounts, may be <0; dragging a game back down into -EV territory.