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.

Some of you will remember my writing many years ago when we first started casino gambling that we called comps the “gravy.”  We never counted their value in our “profit” for the simple reason that we were earning more of them that we could have paid for on our limited budget at that time.  They were just an extra that allowed us to enjoy more luxurious vacations that we couldn’t have afforded otherwise.  We couldn’t have used comps to make up any of our actual monetary gambling losses. That would have been a fast way to go broke!

Now we are in a much different time in our life; we have enough money to pay for any activity or vacation that we wish to do.  Therefore, now any comps we can use to decrease our costs become a monetary plus, adding to any profit we earn in our gambling or making up any losses we might incur.  That is very important at this time when the opportunities for advantage play are rapidly disappearing.  We still do most of our casino play only when we have an edge, but that edge is often very slim and our records don’t always end up in the black at the end of each year.  The “long term” doesn’t always have the same end as our arbitrary date of December 31. Comps are still “gravy” for us most of the time, but I predict that in the future they will become a much bigger factor in how we choose where and when we play video poker.

However, this 5-day vacation for 7 adults and 2 kiddies did require major involvement with a casino comp system and the value was quite high.  We had 3 mini-suite rooms comped for 4 nights.  We never had a food bill.  We had free ski passes for the family.  (Brad and I declined to participate in that activity but it wasn’t for the lack of free ski passes!!!  ) A party-bus was provided for group transportation to and from the Reno airport, including regulation car seats for the kiddies. And an unexpected shopping promotion running while we were there provided $450 in the sports shop for ski equipment rental and winter clothing.  Left-over comps of $350 not used for food gave opportunity for splurging in the gift shop.

Although Brad and I had both attained Harrah’s 7-Star status for 2017 and had saved up over the year a good number of comp benefits for this family vacation, the expenses were not covered completely by comps.  It is what I refer to as a discounted comp benefit and in this case let us keep hundreds of dollars in our pockets to spend for other expenses.

I must make an important observation here.  It is unlikely that we will be able to take this luxurious a vacation and have so much comped in the future.  Caesars has made major cuts in their higher-tier benefits for 2018.  And we have found that the perks and what hosts can do for you vary greatly from one property to another even within the same company.  And it is not just the bigger Strip companies cutting comps.  Casinos that serve mostly locals are also cutting benefits right and left.

We still play the “comp game,” but just as it is for the actual casino games we play it takes more work these days to find advantage situations.  I constantly research casino players club details and look for changes that affect extra benefits.  I talk to other players, who sometimes give me little-known information about various comp systems.  And I am continuing to develop friendly relationships with hosts.  Even though at many casinos their “power” is limited, we still use the Just-Ask maneuver and at times see surprisingly positive results. Some of that is probably due to the accompanying Be-Nice-and-not-Demanding attitude.  I find that grousing to hosts about casino cuts is not an effective technique, even sometimes having a negative impact.

Gaining an advantage anywhere in a casino has never been easy.  And today you just have to work harder than ever!

I HATE the term “player development.” I have visions of wild-eyed scientists in the casino basement, madly working with multi-colored fluids and rows and rows of test tubes, cooking up a potion to add to the casino’s free drinks that will turn a sensible thrifty deliberate conservative nickel-playing Iowa hog farmer into a reckless loud-mouthed out-of-control money-flinging red-eyed marathon high limit slot player.

Even more sinister, I see psychologists, advertising mavens, market researchers, and time-study experts sitting around a large boardroom table discussing how they can get gray-haired retirees to dig into that deep dark part of their wallet, take out the $20 stashed for emergencies, and try to hit that progressive jackpot that they know is “due.”

I can develop myself — my character, my physical body, my mind — all by myself, thank you. I don’t want to walk into a casino and feel I’m a subject in an experiment.

What happened to the warm word “host”? Having a host in a casino gives you the feeling that you’re coming into a place that’s personal, inviting, friendly, a place that’s — well — like home.

Fast-forward 14 years – and recently I see this seminar advertised for casino executives:

Finding the Unconscious Drivers of Customer Behavior:

An overview of neuroscience and other advanced marketing tools to understand your customers at the deepest level.

Are you struggling to find new insights about your core customer? Are you searching for more effective ways to attract your competitors’ customers?  Or, perhaps you’re working on how to attract a whole new segment, like Millennials?   

Ask yourself, do you really understand customers’ deepest needs and desires that are so vital to your company’s success?

If you answer no to this last question, you’re not alone.  Most marketers still use obsolete models of consumer behavior and outdated research tools to try to understand their customers.

No longer are traditional tools like focus groups and web surveys enough. Advances in technology and the mind sciences have changed the marketing research landscape. We now have the opportunity to use more powerful tools based on neuroscience that truly get inside our customers’ minds.

I didn’t know how reasonable my fears really were in 2003!  

One very knowledgeable gambler, who has many casino executive contacts, discussed this subject of “big data” with me, saying that the new way of casino marketing is very different from the “old-school” way that we long-time gamblers are used to. Data formerly was used as a tool to deepen the relationship with the customer; now it is used as a weapon. The one big theme today in casino management is that they are trying to predict future behavior instead of rewarding past action.

Examples abound. One large casino corporation just rolled out a companywide program where a computer is telling the hosts which players to call.  The computer is now able to use all this big data to figure out who is most likely to be able to be convinced into making an extra trip or who would not be worth the host’s time in making a phone call. I have a friend who discovered this concept just recently. He started playing at a new casino, at a level that gave him contact with a host at similar-size casinos where he played. He wanted to talk to a host at this new casino so he asked at the players club desk whether he had been assigned to a host yet or, if not, could he be given the name of one. They said, not in a friendly way either, that “the computer would decide when he could contact a host.”

Are we casino gamblers doomed to be forever the victims of cold-hearted computers? Stay tuned and in my next blog I will discuss whether we can do anything about this disturbing trend.

Gift Card Giveaway on Tuesdays.  Earn 1000 points for a $10 gift card for Wal-Mart, Rebel Gas, or Albertsons.  Max of five.

“Thank You Seniors Thursdays” – 2 for 1 entrees at Marilyn’s Café and The Cantina. Dine in only and each person must be a senior to get this coupon, which you must pick up at the players club in advance that day.  Also, earn 500 points for a pull tab with a chance to win $10 up to $100 in free slot play.  Max of two per day.  Rotating 20% Senior Discount:  “Seniors get 20% off hotel rooms every day in December.  This discount will move to a new Tuscany outlet each month.”

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I want to give a plug to a website I couldn’t live without – vpFREE2 (http://www.vpfree2.com/): Locations of good VP machines all over the US. Full details about players clubs.   Paytable returns. VP terms and abbreviations. Host lists.   This is the site a successful VP player will visit often. Here is an example of information posted recently:

Las Vegas Club Hotel & Casino: Comment Added

Posted: 22 Nov 2014 08:04 PM PST

A new report says that the slot club at the Las Vegas Club is still open on weekends starting at 1:00 pm each day. Otherwise go to the Plaza Casino slot club for all transactions.  All machines now give full points. Previously the better video poker machines took $12 instead of $3 to earn one point or didn’t earn any points at all.

I am motivated to talk about this subject because I myself have been dealing with “fixing casino errors” as well as hearing some horror stories from others in the same pickle.  Errors the casinos make almost always cost you money.  Catching them and getting them fixed will put money in your pocket – or let you add to your bankroll so you can play longer.  So it is important to learn how to catch the errors and how to go about fixing them.

One of the most common errors I find is not getting the right number of players club points.  This happens most frequently when playing on multiple-point days.  A good idea is to write down your starting point balance and then stop playing after a few hands and check that you are indeed getting the correct number of points.  Then check your balance again at the end of your play.  If you don’t think you are getting the points you should have earned, go immediately to the players club desk.  Don’t wait until a later time.  Your best chance to get things corrected is right after you discover the mistake.

You may discover another serious error on your account when you stop getting mailings from a casino where you regularly play or the mailings never start from one where you just began playing.  In that later case, you do need to be patient.  Casino marketing departments often work with a period of time several months behind the present.  If you started playing in January, offers looking at January play may not be sent out until March or even April.  But as an established player getting regular offers, you have every right to be worried if these stop.  These days this may mean that the casino doesn’t want your business any more.  They may have, right or wrong, tagged you as an advantage player.  Or, you may have hit too many big jackpots and you are being “punished” for a good-luck streak.

However, when that casino mail lifeline is cut, you do need to check it out immediately.  It is perhaps one of the most important links you have in a casino.  Don’t immediately assume the casino has deliberately no-mailed you.  The US Mail system is not 100% reliable.   First thing, call the casino and check that they have your correct – and complete – address.  We live in a large condo complex and even if the street address is correct, it may not be delivered if the unit number is not included.  Often the unit number has been cut off because the street address is too long for the casino’s computer program so we always put it on a separate line.

Whenever you find a mistake, like not getting mail or any other issue, there are several ways you can try to get it fixed.  Usually the first one is checking at the players club desk.  Perhaps just any clerk can help you but you can ask for the supervisor if you don’t find that first person is knowledgeable about the issue.  If you don’t get your problem solved here, the next step would be to talk to a host.  It is great if you already have a relationship with a host in that casino.  Over the last thirty years Brad and I have had literally thousands of dollars restored from the past or earned in the future because a host has been able to “fix” casino errors for us.  And don’t think you are “too little” to talk to a host even if you have never used the host system in that casino.  Have a humble non-demanding attitude – don’t scream and holler and make a scene – and you will find most hosts will listen to your problem.  And in many cases, they will make a good effort to solve it.  In my book More Frugal Gambling I give umpteen examples of how a host can help you, whether you a high or low roller, in the  “Do You Need a Host?” chapter.

There are higher executive levels where you can go and, depending on how big the problem is, you may need to go there.  For example, if it is being no-mailed for being a skilled player, usually no one on the lower levels can fix this.  Most players who have tried to go to executives with more authority have not been successful in getting this label removed.  But I would not discourage anyone from trying.  It usually doesn’t hurt, and once in a while it does work.  I went to a slot manager one time and told him his predecessor had black-flagged my account because he had heard that someone on the Internet reported something I said about “cheating” the casino.  When I explained this was a falsehood, the manager said the former one was “old school” and didn’t understand that everything on the Internet was not the “truth.”  And so the flag was taken off my account and I started getting mail.    Getting no-mailed might be reversed in cases like this; getting 86’d (actually barring entrance to the casino) would almost always need a lawsuit!

• Another question that comes up frequently – or maybe it is more of a request:  Can I do anything about a host or another casino employee who promises something and then doesn’t deliver.  Do I have any recourse open to me to recover a lost benefit?  Actually there is nothing I can do – I have no power in any casino.  The most I can do is give you suggestions about what you might do.  But I always warn that not every problem you have in a casino can be solved.  Sometimes it takes too much time and effort to even try – and the best advice is often to just let it go.  Maybe learn a lesson that will be of help to you in the future?  That’s the best one can usually hope for.

• Related to the previous question/request, I also can not recommend where you should or should not play.  Too many very personal, very individual factors must be considered when you are choosing a casino.  There is no one-size-fits-all!

• Once in a while someone will ask about the Frugal Princess and whether she does any gambling these days.   Living in Columbus, GA, Angela doesn’t live close to any casinos and she is busy with a full-time job and finishing work on her college degree.  But tomorrow she and her husband, Steve, arrive in town for a week of visiting and much-needed relaxation – and she is looking forward to a personal get-together with those old friends of hers, the FPDW’s at the Palms!   I’d like to take a little vacation from my computer while they are here – maybe I can persuade her to guest-blog for me??

Many of the conference attendees talked to me later and said they appreciated so much getting the “other side of the picture.”  So many casino policies are based on “what the casino needs” rather than “what the customers want.”  Many of your comments emphasized that it is not just how many comps you can get but how you are treated.  You want a host that communicates with you promptly, one that listens to you, and one that doesn’t treat you just like a pocket that needs to be picked.

Again, I thank you so much for all the ideas you contributed.  You made me look good!

The reason for this call-out is that next week I am speaking at a casino marketing seminar, giving hosts and other marketing executives some input from the customer’s point of view.  Although I have been interacting with hosts for twenty-five years or so and have plenty of “stories,” I would like input from others.   We all look at this from different points of views and have different experiences to share.

Some guidelines might be in order here.  I am looking for the good, the bad, and the ugly – but don’t mention individual names or reference specific casinos.  No personal attacks – although feel free to describe particular incidents where something good – or bad – happened.  Just don’t name names.

Also, remember hosts have limited power.   So your suggestions should be something a host can actually do.  He/she has no input in the choice of games on the casino floor or the paytables on video poker.  They are limited in the comps they can give out by the company’s policies which they had little or no voice in their creation.  They themselves are often frustrated by how little they can do, particularly if they have been in the system for a long time and remember how much freedom a host used to have.

Feel free to use the “Comment” section below or you can e-mail me directly.  Remember that no “Comment” shows up until I approve it so don’t look for your comment immediately.  I usually do this little “chore” once a day unless I get busy and skip a day.  And if your comment doesn’t show up for several days, the reason is probably that you used inappropriate language and/or made personal attacks.  I do not approve rants and raves that contain no helpful information for my readers!

Here is my very personal take on the subject:  Actually most casinos have rules about tipping and hosts. A few do not allow their hosts to accept tips at all. Many have a monetary limit. However, hosts all over the US mostly routinely “break the rules” in this area. In all our almost-30 years of gambling we have never had a host refuse a tip except one who said she was limited to $75 when we gave her $100. We solved that problem by Brad and I each giving her $50 separately.  

Brad and I probably routinely “break the rules” because we don’t ask what the rules are. We just make friends with our hosts and give generous gifts
to them when they go out of their way to serve us. We are generous to everyone that way – especially Brad. When he is out of Vegas, he still wants to tip everyone who does anything for him.  He loves to give money away!

The truth of the matter is that tips never “cost” us – we always get back much more than we give. Cast thy bread upon the waters…and you reap smiles, friendships…and yes sometimes even monetary benefits. We just can’t help that!!!! It is really hard to give more than you receive!