I am temporarily stopping my memory serial about Brad’s and my 35-year walk down the path of casino advantage play to bring you some possibly good news for gamblers during this terrible pandemic.
Gaming industry leaders are once again seeking to change the reporting threshold for slot machine jackpots and bingo winnings, saying the $1,200 figure is antiquated and needs to be increased. They believe the Trump Administration’s effort to identify regulatory reform opportunities could be the vehicle that allows the industry to finally reach its goal.—Howard Stutz, CDC Gaming Reports
You can read the whole article here.
Of course, this news may not be nearly as important as it would have been back a few years ago when good gambling opportunities abounded. Especially for video poker advantage players, the worry now is that paytables will be slashed even more and/or promotions will be anemic as casinos try to plump up their bottom lines during low customer numbers as the casinos start to reopen.
It is definitely a wait-and-see period.
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I will continue the walk down memory lane in my next blog. But in the meantime, here are some very old pics I just ran across. Maybe some of you had some of these same poses from back in the 80’s.
I’m not afraid of the casinos decimating the pay tables of video poker machines, because I think they’re just smart enough to realize that this would only make players sorry that they made a trip there, and they likely wouldn’t come back. That’s a result that the casinos wouldn’t want. They all understand that the first month of the reopening will see far less visitors than was the normal in the past, and they would tend to do things to get as many visitors as they can.
Hi Jean…Thanks for the information and I’m really enjoying your walk down memory lane on casino play. It’s very interesting to those of us who have followed you for years.
Also and I normally do not comment on the looks of men but those pictures of Brad in his younger years are great, you snagged yourself one good looking fella, lol. Take care and stay safe, Terry Haile.
Well, isn’t video poker advantage play pretty much a thing of the past anyway? I mean, yeah, they probably will indeed start installing 3/2 Bonus Poker and cut players’ club returns to 0.00001%, but that is not nearly as consequential as it would have been ten, or even five years ago. The change won’t be that +EV play will become impossible–it pretty much was already–but that playing without getting slaughtered will become impossible. And after perhaps a brief period of wooing gamblers back, comps and offers will be virtually nonexistent.
And ultimately, so what? There are infinite ways to spend our time on this earth. On my deathbed, I doubt I’ll be saying, “Gee, I wish I’d played more video poker.”
Love hearing and reading your posts Jean Scott. Take care and keep yourself and Brad healthy…
I like the Frontier Train! I do remember seeing that, Marina was before my time and Caesars- never had that opportunity. Newer/similar one would be a free photo with a ‘showgirl’ at the Harrah’s Entrance – towards Casino Royale side. At one time….Memory Lane is fun! How about the Lady Luck? and the Jumbo Big Bertha Four Queens? we didn’t have ‘camera phones’ back then, but would have made for great selfies…. Martin.
Thanks for the info, Jean. The LVA posted about the possible change to the reporting threshold today, also. Love those pics of you and Brad. My wife and I have our collection of Vegas casino pics, but not as extensive as you and Brad, I would imagine. Appreciate the info and look forward to the continuation of your gambling retrospective. Be well.
I hope they don’t decimate the paytables when they reopen. But keep those stories coming
OMG! Is that a real lion in front of you are was he somehow photoshopped into the picture??
Thank you for the post… Good news… And I hope you and Brad are doing well take care… Thanks for all you’ve done for us!