Vegas4locals – one of the best places to find free and/or inexpensive things to do in Vegas, with tons of information for both frugal locals and visitors alike.

MarksLasVegas  –  Click on the tabs at the top of the website for both gambling and Las Vegas info, including interesting information under “Offbeat and Tidbits,” helpful info if you need medical help while staying on the Strip, and the Bellagio Fountain Show song list.

Thrillist.com recently posted an eclectic list of a whopping 45 free things to do in Las Vegas, including some offbeat possibilities I had never read about before.

And sometimes I just run across some articles on interesting subjects. Here’s one about Vegas opening a gambling court.     And here is one that describes one man’s quest to make money in minor casino games with unusual and mostly little-known techniques.

Holiday Gift Ideas

Speaking of resources, are you looking to buy a holiday gift for a gambling friend or relative who likes to visit casinos?  I recommend you check out the LVA holiday catalog.  There you can find books for the professional gambler as well as for those who just enjoy casino games as a recreational choice.  There are also selections for those who are looking for general information about Las Vegas, including a guide to restaurants all over town.

And for the frugal, check out the section of the LVA Shop highlighting products that are on sale.

There is also a special Jean Scott section. Some have asked me whether they should pick up my new book, The Frugal Gambler Casino Guide, if they already have read/studied my other books in the Frugal Gambler series. That depends.  Long-time experienced gamblers might not find much new but casual players might find it helpful for my discussions about the new changes in the casino world.  It is the perfect book for newbie gamblers and for those who are thinking about choosing new games.   I have expanded the book to cover all casino games, listing the casino edge for each one and giving techniques to reduce that edge. So although it is a good VP primer, the information on players club and comp systems would help most players in a casino make their gambling bankroll stretch for more casino fun time.

More Frugal Gambling is still the best place to start to learn about the complex casino comp system. This is still the only book that covers this subject in depth, and it will give you a solid base to understand better the updates in the more recent Guide book. The “Frugal Gambler Video Poker Scouting Guide” pocket-size booklet is a must-carry for VP players who are looking to play the best games.

I am feverishly working on bringing out the 4^th edition of Tax Help for Gamblers, a necessary update with all the recent tax changes in 2018.  Russell Fox, a noted EA and tax preparer, has come on board to help me with all the major ramifications for gamblers.  We would have liked to have had this book out yesterday, but we are having to wait for the “beloved” IRS to bring out the 2018 tax return forms.  I will let everyone know when the new book is available but I figure now it won’t be out until after the first of the year.  Just hoping the government will see the need for the new forms VERY SOON.

CZR

Since CZR exited bankruptcy, there has been a flurry of changes at their properties – some good news and some not-so-much for their players. I am going to mention a few, but not in detail. For full coverage with all the ins-and-outs I am steering you to a resource that concentrates on this company, the website Seven Stars Insider. Don’t be misled by the name; yes, it is a valuable source of information for players who have reached the top tier of Seven Stars. However, so much is covered that will be of great value to players at all the lower levels who need to keep up in order to make wise gambling decisions.

Here is some of the recent news:

• Parking and shuttles: The regular Rio shuttle is history, as is free parking for Vegas locals. You can read my recent blog that covers these changes and some available alternative options.
• New benefit program for veterans: The SALUTE Total Rewards card will be available to all active-duty military, members of the National Guard and Reserve, veterans and retired military personnel, as well as their spouses. They will receive special discounts on rooms, restaurants, shows and attractions, as well as an automatic upgrade to Platinum status, with even more valuable benefits, including free parking.
• New partnership with Wyndham Resorts:   Transfer Wyndham Rewards Points to Reward Credits^® & Reward Credits to Wyndham Rewards Points. Link your Seven Stars^® Total Rewards account to a Wyndham Rewards account and your status will be matched to enjoy their Diamond perks. Check here for details and limitations.

You can always go to the CZR website to try and find the details of new programs or changes, but the 7 Star website will give you some feet-on-the-ground and behind-the-scenes input, including information that might not have made it to the company website. And there is valuable advice on whether a promotion is a good one, giving the pros and cons and personal opinions from other players. For example, you can see whether the new short-term promotion of booking your retreat trip to Las Vegas in November/December and getting a full airfare refund in Reward Credits makes financial sense in your particular case.

If you are new to this 7 Star website, you can go back and read the monthly newsletters from the past for some information that is still current – and then sign up to get them regularly by e-mail in the future. But in-between those newsletters, you can keep up with current happenings by clicking at the top of their homepage on “News and Views.”

A great start to what will be a personally fulfilling week for me, the arrival from the printer of the fourth addition to my frugal family, The Frugal Gambler Casino Guide. For several years now I have wanted to broaden my writing to help more casino gamblers. Although I still look for and share information to help the serious gambler who is looking for an edge, I find that the casual recreational casino player is the one who is really in need of assistance. He wants to enjoy the entertainment that the casino affords but he is losing too much and too fast. This new frugal Guide was written to help this player, no matter what game he plays. My hope is that this book will allow more casino gamblers to lose less so they can enjoy the exciting casino atmosphere longer.

After celebrating an early Christmas in Columbus, our next stop was at granddaughter Kaitlynn’s apartment in Atlanta, where she is working on her master’s in communication, specifically video production and related areas.  She has connected her hobby of geocaching to her studies with a YouTube site chronicling her adventures at home and abroad.

Then it was on to Cherokee Harrah’s in North Carolina’s Smoky Mountains, one of our favorite casinos, where Kaitlynn (now over 21 and can enjoy casinos), daughter Angela, and son-in-law Steve helped us use up $500 worth of comps that came with this freebie Harrah’s Seven Stars trip. Although the weather was cold and rainy, the 3 of them were intrepid, doing some major hiking in this beautiful area that they love.  (A park ranger gave them advice on hiking trails, avoiding those affected by the recent Gatlinburg fires.)

Brad and I stayed in the warm hotel and casino, enjoying the nice heated indoor pool and unlimited free movies in our mini-suite.  (Perhaps the only Harrah’s casino that still gives this unlimited benefit for Seven Stars?)

All of us enjoy the food options at this casino.  Although we could have chosen the two upscale restaurants, we prefer more casual dining:  grabbing quick breakfast options at Starbucks; grazing in the food court on the casino floor; or, visiting the Diamond Lounge where major meal options are available during dinner time and extra selections in the room reserved for Seven Stars.  We especially liked the breakfast/brunch buffet in the Selu Garden Café.  And the main buffet we consider one of our favorites among all the casino buffets we have every visited, wide selection of high-quality food choices and no mysteries – every item was labeled!

And of course we all gambled.  Brad and I played $5 single-line NSUD since anything at lower levels had schedules with much lower EVs.  When we arrived on a Thursday, I saw signs promoting a mystery-multiplier for all Thursdays in December.  Checking at a kiosk, Brad found he had a 2x, but I snagged 3x so we played on my card that day, saving his play for the next one.

Angela likes to play VP but since there were no good games at a lower denomination, she joined Kaitlynn and Steve who love the penny slots.   I am always amazed at how long they can play on a small bankroll.  Yes, they will lose unless they hit a big jackpot but they do get a lot of entertainment at a small cost by bouncing around from one machine to another, betting minimum amounts per hand.  In fact the last evening we joined them and had a ball – hooting and hollering whenever one of us on the bank had a bonus round.  When we quit for the night,  I  surprised myself by winning $10 for the session!  Kaitlynn was especially proud of herself.  She had won $75 on her first day of play.  She said she ought to quit then – that was a big amount for her.  But then I told her that she could look at it as a way to “pay” for further entertainment and so she played on that for the next two days.  She finally lost the last of it that last night and she decided to quit.

“Look, I had fun for 3 days in a casino and it didn’t cost me anything,” she beamed.

She is now a proud member of our Frugal Gambler club:  Breaking even is a wonderful thing!

Originally, I decided to just update each of my first two books, The Frugal Gambler and More Frugal Gambling. However, I found that this involved repeating too much material from one to the other. So I settled on writing just one Frugal casino guide, updating much of the basic information from those two books, along with some material from the Frugal Video Poker. Although I still wanted to thoroughly cover my “specialty,” video poker, I realized that many casino visitors prefer other games. So I added new information about all their possible choices, including table games, slots, live poker, bingo, keno, carnival games, and sports and race betting.

The biggest change you’ll see in this new book is a new emphasis. Although it still gives you a glimpse into the possibility of “advantage play”—that is, long-term winning—my main purpose is to show you how to stretch your bankroll and/or lose less. This is the more realistic goal of most gamblers, and I describe ways you can keep more money out of the casino’s clutches and in your pocket no matter what your choice of casino game may be.

This new book will be back from the printer  in February.  At that time it will be available from Huntington Press (including autographed copies), Amazon, as well as being orderable from your local bookstore. In the meantime, you can pre-order the book by going to ShopLVA  for the pre-pub price of $11.95 plus shipping (it will retail for $16.95). Also in February it will be available as an eBook.

In the meantime, you might wonder what will happen to my older books. They won’t be reprinted, so when the present editions are sold out, they’ll disappear forever.  Some of you have bought and studied all of them. However, if you’re not in that group, you may wonder if they contain some information that still might be useful and might be a frugal buy, especially since they can be ordered at a nice discount. So here’s a brief consideration of that point for each title and what possibly helpful material they contain that didn’t make it into the new book.

The Frugal Gambler – The original 1998 (red cover) edition and 2005 updated (green cover) edition contain a chapter on airline bumping with money-making techniques we still use today. And the introduction tells the story of how we became “the frugal gamblers,” with a later chapter detailing how we could stay free in Las Vegas for long periods of time.

More Frugal Gambling – In 2003, after more years of experience at both lower and higher play levels and becoming a Las Vegas resident, I had much more information to share. My daughter Angela helped me review the basics for beginners and I contributed new information for experienced gamblers. This was a very big book and I had to boil down so many details to cover and update the same subjects in the new book: VP, players clubs, promotions, comps. If you haven’t read this book, I guarantee you’ll find details that will make you money, especially in the 60-page section on comps. No other book covers the host system more completely. Yes, the casinos are cutting their comp benefits, but the player who knows the basics and some of the “tricks” I share will score more.

Frugal Video Poker – This book came out in 2006. Although it was originally written to accompany software that is no longer available, it’s still a good step-by-step guide that will help beginners start on the path of skillful video poker play. It gives some bankroll tables and volatility information that will help them know what to expect. It would be a good companion volume for the novice video poker player who needs more basic information to add to what’s found in the new book.

The Frugal Video Poker Scouting Guide – This sturdy pocket guide continues to be a must-carry for all studious VP players, giving the EV (expected long-term value) of almost 200 of the most common VP pay schedules, plus progressive information for over 150 games. The math never needs to be updated!

Tax Help for Gamblers –Although previous editions have been in paperback, to keep the information up to date, the latest, the 3^rd edition, is an e-book that you might want – or need – to consult as you start thinking about filing your 2016 tax return. Download now for your Kindle; Nook; or Apple device.

There is no need for such apologies.  What you play in a casino is no reflection on your character.  As is true in so much in life, understanding and accepting individual differences is the key to being a valuable member of the human race.

That being said, I guess I will never stop feeling that I would like to help recreational gamblers not lose so much money.  I am not judging them; I understand their goal is entertainment, but I want to help them be able to have more fun by showing how to make their bankroll last longer.

The current casino environment that is seeing cuts in all areas is not hitting just the skilled gamblers.  The recreational gamblers are feeling the pain in their pockets too.  But there are many ways players can stretch a casino bankroll, some that take little or no effort or study:  Always use your players card and check at the players club to see what benefits you can collect.  Choose lower denomination machines or table games – so you don’t lose so fast.

And just a little bit of study can lead to big gains.  I think of the information in my first book, The Frugal Gambler, which was definitely written for the low roller recreational player who wanted to become a little more knowledgeable about casinos.  Although I do introduce the idea of skilled video poker play, there is so much more information that a casual gambler could use even if he doesn’t want to go the VP route  One chapter covered some of the myths that might hold players back from achieving better financial returns.  Another chapter talked about the various games offered by casinos and includes a chart that compares them by how much you would lose per hour on each one.  Then you might want to choose those that allow you to lose slower and thus make your money last longer.   And I cover other subjects that will help recreational players of all games stretch their bankrolls:  using players club benefits, maximizing comps, and looking for coupons and promotions. Then More Frugal Gambling continued with more details on these same subjects plus a special emphasize on the comp system.

I am in the process of updating both of these books, but I am finding that although many of the details and examples need to be revised, most of the basic concepts are just as relevant as they were years ago when the books came out.  In fact, they are even more important now since we all need all the help we can get to win more and lose less in the new tighter casino world.

Of course, there are other books you can – and should –  go to.  You just can’t get too much information.  Every author has a different slant on gambling subjects and gives different details that may more specifically be relevant to your game, your particular style or level of play, or your goals.

This is the end of this particular series about adjusting to the rapidly changing casino gambling environment.  I hope some of you will share your ideas about this subject in the “Comments” section below.  What techniques for coping have you found helpful?  I know I haven’t exhausted this subject.  I’ve probably forgotten a number of possible ways to adapt. And I am sure I will develop new coping skills in the months and years to come.  You can count on my covering them in future blogs – I am addicted to saving money …for myself and for anyone who will listen to me!

For many years now the book Tax Help for Gamblers has been the go-to resource for the answers to the hundreds of tax questions that gamblers have been asking. And since the government is an ever-changing river of laws and policies, it has been necessary to update this book frequently. Marissa and I have been hard at work on this project, and a brand new fully-updated third edition will be coming out at the end of this month. This time it is being published in e-Book format only, for Kindle, Nook, and Apple devices, so it can be updated more easily and more often.

For those who want a hard copy, the second edition of Tax Help for Gamblers is still available in paperback and the principles hold true, as does much of the basic information therein.

Actually this 2012 second edition tax book – plus the second edition of The Frugal Gambler and many other titles – is on sale in the Bargain Bin at ShopLVA.com, where they are having a January sale to make warehouse space for upcoming 2015 titles. Many of the deals are good only through 5 p.m. PT Friday, January 23^rd, although there are always some frugal selections for your browsing pleasure.

But other than those few examples, you’d hardly know we’ve ever stepped foot inside a casino by looking at our belongings — except, lately, for the gambling-cartoon calendar on our coffee table.

My publisher, Huntington Press, brought out this 2015 calendar last month and I couldn’t wait to pick it up. I wanted to see how the feverish imaginations of the two cartoonists responsible for the product translated the gambling experience into humorous cartoons.

I wasn’t disappointed!

This weekly calendar has more than 60 cartoons — clever and funny, sophisticated, and with a deeply inside perspective — based on the often humorous and surreal quirks of casino games, sports betting, online and home poker, lotteries, even office pools.

Without giving too much away, here are a few of our favorites.

The wife is standing behind her husband, hovering over big stacks of multi-colored chips, at a table game. She says, “You know at a glance you’ve got $12,675 in chips in front of you, but you’re not sure if you have five bucks in your wallet?”

A sign above three slot machines reads, “We Have the Most Liberal Slots on the Strip!!!” The slot machines are Same-Sex Marriage Mania, Health Care for Everyone, and Land of Legalized Drugs.

Another slots cartoon I love is where the wife is telling her husband, “It’s a penny slot. Give me a hundred.”

This one’s a little gory, but I think it’s hilarious: A dealer is standing over a corpse under a sheet on the casino floor. The dealer has a bloody knife in his hand, and he’s justifying his actions to a cop. “He kept on touching his cards with both hands.” And, of course, in the background it’s business as usual in the casino!

Then there’s the couple at an electronic self-check-in kiosk at the airport. The wife is pressing a button, while the husband says, “You’re checking in for our flight. You don’t have to play max coins.”

And my all-time favorite: A lion, a tin man, and a scarecrow are drinking, smoking, and playing poker. The scarecrow says, “I thought she’d never leave.”

It’s a 12-month full-weekly planner with a wire binding that allows the calendar to sit flat on your desk (or coffee table). There’s plenty of room to record notes in the date boxes, and it has a 2015 year-at-a-glance calendar, mini-calendars of both the current and following month on each page, and full-page January and February 2016 calendars.

All in all, I highly recommend it as the perfect holiday gift for the gamblers in your life, which might include yourself. And it’s a great deal, at $17.96, for a year’s worth of giggles and daily reminders of your appointments, as well as your gambling pleasures. You can order it at ShopLVA.com; search for “calendar.”

There will be 65 bracelet events, including a new $25,000 event (Mixed Max No Limit Hold ’Em), 12 $10,000 events, the $1 million Big One for One Drop charity event (which last year attracted 48 players who ponied up the cool mil and had a payout of more than $18 million, with $6 million going to charity), and of course the $10,000 Main Event, which last year fielded nearly 6,400 players.

I like poker, though I’ve never been much of a player. I know the math, but never could do calculations in my head quickly or under pressure; my BJ card-counting days were short-lived, because I found I couldn’t keep track of the count without moving my lips! Talk about a tell!!!!

But Brad and I watch poker on TV now and again, especially when the WSOP is televised. There’s so much drama, tension, strategy, and psyching out at the poker table—and, of course, the producers create exciting television programming around it. Also, like plenty of other people in the gambling life, we’re fans of some of the personalities.

For all these reasons, I was very interested in the new book my publishing company just released, The Moneymaker Effect. This book is, for the most part, an oral history about the legendary 2003 World Series of Poker, won by amateur Chris Moneymaker, who was playing in his first live poker tournament ever. He prevailed over a field of 800 players and a couple dozen of the “poker celebrities” are interviewed about the experience. It’s fascinating to “listen in” as they recount their memories of it.

It was also the first year the hole-card camera was used in a televised poker tournament, which triggered a subsequent eruption of poker TV. And because Moneymaker had won his $10,000 seat in the Main Event in a PokerStars.com satellite tournament, his winning the WSOP is widely credited with launching the explosion of poker, both online and live. People thought, If this neophyte can beat the likes of Johnny Chan, Phil Ivey, Dan Harrington, and Sammy Farha, why, I can too!

So there was a lot more going on at the 2003 WSOP than just the Moneymaker story. And the book covers all that in detail too.

To me, though, the best part of the book are the descriptions from the pros about how it felt to get so close to winning the WSOP, only to lose in the end. I know something about losing; losing and I are longtime close companions.  But I have a feeling that losing likes me more than I like losing!! However,  it comes with the gambling territory.  The tales told by Howard Lederer, Phil Hellmuth, Phil Ivey, Dutch Boyd, Dan Harrington, and Sammy Farha, among others, are not only gripping, but they’re very instructive as to how the big boys handle it.

Anyone who likes poker stories, gambling stories, sports stories, inspiring underdog stories, or a discourse on the agony of defeat will, I predict, love this book.

The sub-title, A History and How-To of Video Poker Slot Teams in Las Vegas, accurately points to the fact that there are two distinct parts to this book.  In fact, Frank says in the Forward that he plans for this to eventually be two separate books.  The part covering the history of the slot teams will be the more interesting to most people.  Frank was part of this gambling specialty all during its heyday and reveals a lot of secrets that have never before been published.  The other part is a very detailed “recipe” for how to play progressives skillfully and is super heavy with math facts and figures.  Although he writes this part with his usual edgy humor that I love, it will be too heavy for most gamblers – unless they want to specialize in progressives.  In that case, there is everything you need to know to be successful.

You can read more about this book at Frank’s Web site, where you can also order the book and other video poker products.