35 Years of Advantage Play – Part 13

Okay, it’s time to slow down on the reminiscing about how much fun we have had on this journey down the advantage play path.  You wanted some numbers, didn’t you?

Beginning in 1997 I realized the need to keep a detailed daily financial record of our gambling activity, not just a diary trip summary as I had been doing for the previous 13 years. We were now spending big chunks of time in Las Vegas and playing VP at higher denominations.  That meant we were receiving W-2Gs and had to face major tax issues.  This was one of our considerations in making the decision to move to Las Vegas.  Nevada is a lot more tax friendly to gamblers than Indiana!

I will not be giving you a year-by-year detailed report of our gambling results for these 23 years since 1997. For one thing, that would fill many blogs.  But more importantly, I had always emphasized the importance of looking at advantage play through the lens of the long term. And although the IRS requires that we close our books on December 31 every year, the gambling gods have no such restrictions.  So, I think it will be more revealing if I talk about those 23 years as if it was one long gambling session.

That said, during that long period there is much I can share.  First, I would emphasize that we never looked at our casino play as a “job.”  We filed our tax returns as a “business” since we met the IRS requirements for that category.  However, we never “worked” in a casino full time.  We didn’t have to in order to cover our living expenses. Brad had retired from his federal government job in 1989 with a modest pension, and adding his small VA pension and both of our Social Security payments, our gambling wins could be used for other purposes. First, they allowed us to pump up our gambling bankroll quickly so we could play at much higher levels.  Second, we could fund our retirement accounts for better future security.  And then came the most pleasure with this extra money – we could share with our families.  We bought so many cars for them down through the years that I said we should have been given a discounted fleet rate!

Our yearly totals were all over the map during these 23 years, almost all being in the winning column, with especially large wins from 2000-2009.  However, that roller- coaster effect could clearly be seen. One year we won 81K; the next year we lost 17K. However, this period saw some big jackpots – a dealt royal on a quarter 100-play machine for 100k – a couple of dealt deuces on a dollar 50-play machine for 50k.  And then the astounding tournament win where we shared the ½ million first prize.  That helped push us into a category we never could have dreamed about back when we started so many years ago with the goal of “breaking even with the gravy comps.”  We became millionaire winners.

Some may say that we were “lucky” to hit these big jackpots.  And yes, we were lucky on those days we had big wins.  But what about the many days we lost, even the long losing periods that we went through when you felt you would never hit another royal flush again. This is the time we had to hold on to the math and have faith that if we always played when we had an advantage over the casino, we would eventually come out on top.  That is the concept we stuck to and the one responsible for us accumulating a million dollars in gambling wins.  I once said that if I ever wrote a book about our experiences, I would have to call it “How to Grind out a Million Dollars of Profit in a Casino over 25 Years.”

One of the Lucky Jackpots and the Prettiest (in my opinion!)

This was our favorite game to play when we went to Harrah’s Horseshoe in Hammond, Indiana  – APDW (almost positive Deuces Wild).  We often played all 50 lines, but sometimes (as in this picture) we played only 40 to cut down having to stop so often for W-2Gs.

As I have said so many times, nothing ever stays the same with casino life.  In 2008 the Great Recession hit the world – and that started changing our casino world too.  Stay tuned and next week I will discuss these changes.