I knew this move would be a lot of work – but it has been more exhausting than I expected –  and taking us longer to get settled .  I guess we had more energy at 60/67, back when we moved from Indianapolis to Las Vegas 20 years ago.

But we are happy to be in our new Georgia home, albeit surrounded by unpacked boxes.  I love apartment living already.  Toilet won’t stop running – call maintenance. Door sticking – call maintenance.  They cheerfully fix, change, or tell us how to operate anything.  However, one thing they can’t fix is the weather. Our umbrellas and raincoats are getting a heavy workout.  It will take time to adjust to heavy humidity!

It is great to be near family.  These three great-grands will keep us young – if they don’t wear us out first! 

We haven’t had time to miss Las Vegas or gambling yet – too busy getting settled. But I just heard something on the news that I just couldn’t believe.  All the state political talk  here is centered around whether Georgia will finally legalize gambling, with the push for a casino in Atlanta.  But then I heard the governor speak about this subject and he said that other cities around the state were interested in also having a casino.  Then he went on to mention that an official from Columbus told him their city definitely wanted to be included on that casino location list.

Hummmm….wonder if he had found out the Frugal Gamblers had moved to Columbus and might give a casino here a big boost.

Naaaaaw…

If we didn’t have a dollar to our name, we would be super rich in friendships!

Many of you have responded to my call for questions you’d like me to answer before I close out my blogging here.  One friend who has kept track of our families remarked that I hadn’t posted a recent picture of my sisters.  Well, here is one that was taken recently when middle sister, from North Carolina, came to visit the two Vegas sisters and we were able to have one of our every-five-year pictures taken.  Here, right-to-left, is Starr, 70, then June, 75, and finally the 80-year old!

Others have asked questions about Brad’s health, with those seeing him in person remarking that he is “looking good.”  And he does get around pretty well, mostly with a cane and only using a walker when there are longer distances.  He has recently been diagnosed with the beginnings of heart failure (a heart pumping problem) and with vascular parkinsonism,  in which parkinsonian symptoms (slow movements, tremor, difficulty with walking and balance) are produced by narrowing or blockage of blood vessels, rather than by gradual loss of nerve cells as seen in the more typical neurodegenerative Parkinson’s disease. This is on top of his previous long-time heart problems after a heart attack in 2003 – A Fib and coronary artery disease – but thankfully modern medicine has had many answers for him – a pacemaker, 7 coronary stents, and an extensive menu of meds.  He is slowing down – but with lots of naps, he continues to get out and about.  As he says, he is probably doing better than most men coming up on age 88!

Many of the questions pertain to our future.  I have already mentioned that I will continue this blog through December and into January.  I may want to do some other writing but I don’t know what form that might take – I do love to write.  I will probably continue to read and contribute to the vpFREE forum whenever I come across helpful gambling information.  And I definitely plan to use my Facebook account to chat about Brad’s and my future activities.  Search for “Jean Scott” and ask to be my friend if you aren’t already.  But one thing I am pretty sure about:  I won’t tackle writing another book or take any writing assignment with a deadline.  I am retiring from stress!

And probably the most frequent query is about what gambling we will do once we leave Las Vegas.  And most people don’t believe this answer – very little if any!  It is hard to explain – but we almost never gambled in a casino just for fun after our first trip to Las Vegas in April 1984.  After that trip, we decided this was the fun-est time we had ever had, but we knew we wouldn’t be in a financial position to lose $3000 very often– as we had that time – for this kind of vacation.   So, I went to the library to start studying how we could have this fun without losing money.  And the rest is history.

Actually, we have been “practicing” for our retirement from casino gambling these last couple of months in Vegas.  First, we were learning to accept the reality that physical and mental limitations would majorly cut down on  casino visits.  And then, it had been very obvious for a long time that there are very few advantage plays that don’t depend on future benefits, like mailers with bonus-points dates and free play. So, we have played a few times just for fun since we would not be here to collect those future benefits.  For example, instead of playing the higher EV but more boring single line NSUD video poker game, we would choose an 8/5 Bonus Poker game on Spin Poker, with a lower EV but  more fun for us.  We never had played the very exciting Ultimate X at the higher denominations in the past because we didn’t want to study a new very complex strategy.  But finding it at 10-play nickels – or even pennies – paytables be damned – sometimes has provided us an hour or so of fun with just a small “entertainment fee.”

The closest casinos to Columbus, GA, are Harrah’s Cherokee and Biloxi, both a 4-5-hour drive away.  We probably wouldn’t make a special trip that far just for fun play, and with no comps.  Flying is getting very difficult for Brad so that rules out a trip to Vegas or any other casino city just for fun.  We’ve had about all the fun we can stand in the 35 years visiting casinos.  If we just happen to be in a casino sometime, perhaps on a family vacation, we probably would give the grands a few bills and watch them play the slots.  Or, we might find a new VP game that looks interesting in which to invest some of our fun money.  But we are definitely retiring from advantage play and leaving the casino lifestyle.  And with no regrets – it’s been a fantastic life that will give beautiful memories forever.  But now we are ready for a new  adventure – just perhaps one a little less busy and more peaceful.

Next week I’ll answer more of your questions.  Fire away!

And by the way, if you want to have a book autographed or just want to say good-bye, Brad and I will be at the Gold Coast on Wednesday, December 18, between 4-5 p.m.  We will be in the drawing area.

Here is a picture of Brad being transferred from the military hospital at Fort Benning to a civilian one in Columbus, the latter one having a better cardiac department.

Brad is still a little weak, but with strong meds kicking in and the help of a walker (and a wheelchair which is complimentary at the casino), he feels he is up to a short 4 ½-hour road trip from Columbus, GA to Harrah’s Cherokee, with Angela and me and tough ex-Ranger Steve as his “nursing assistants.”

This trip is my Harrah’s 7* retreat that we had to cancel for last weekend.  So, for those of you on property this weekend who might want to stop and chat, we will be on the casino floor or at the buffet or the Laurel Lounge (Formerly called the Diamond Lounge) on this Friday evening (20^th), off and on all day Saturday, and Sunday until early afternoon when we will be driving back to Columbus.

I don’t want to clutter up this blog with personal details but if you want to follow more of our “real life,” as opposed to our casino one, you can join us on my Jean Scott Facebook page for updated news.  I’ll be happy to friend you if you are not there already.

Now for some details for those who don’t know much about this beautiful Indian casino, managed by Harrah’s.  We have visited here once or twice a year for many years.  In my opinion it is located in one of the prettiest areas of the U.S, the Smoky Mountains.  (Tied with Lake Tahoe at the top of our casino favorites.) We especially like to visit in the fall to see the leaf-changing spectacular – something we miss in Las Vegas.  And it is always a good place to take the family, with many non-gambling options, like sightseeing, hiking, and fishing.  It also has our very favorite casino buffet, bar none.

Cherokee has many advantages for those in the Harrah’s 7* players club tier.  Unlimited comped movies.  Free Internet access for 5 devices.  Large selection of free beverages at check-in.  Opt out of daily housekeeping and get $20 free play per night stay.  A special set-aside room in the Laurel Lounge, with additional food selections.  And very valuable, you can get cash instead of free play when you cash in your Reward Credits.  If you are on your 7* retreat, you can use your $500 folio money in the many shops, not just for food and beverage.

A friend recently sent me this good hint, one which I didn’t know:

You can use Celebration “vouchers” for room service.  Before we used ours, I checked at the Rewards Center and was told that I could use the voucher for room service, but I needed to tell the room service people when I placed our order.  I did and it worked perfectly.

Perhaps this will work at other CZR properties?  You could check.

If you want more hints about this property and extra benefits, go to the Seven Star Insider,  where you will find tons of very detailed information about Cherokee and all other CZR properties.  Although this website zeroes in on 7* benefits, there is much information that would help lower-tier players maximize the value of their play.

The main drawback for many VP players is that there are not good paytables at the lower denominations.  The best ones are at the $5 machines.

——-

If Brad continues to gain his strength back, we plan to return to Vegas on September 28th – and I can be back here with more Las Vegas casino frugal information.

I also know this to be true as people e-mail me with questions that have been discussed at length in the Comment section.  Many people post comments many days or even many weeks after the original blog and that information may be as helpful – or even more so – as things I have written.  An example of this is when players wanted to know what we and others are doing when a favorite casino downgrades machines and/or changes a major program, as Boyd had done.  That subject was discussed at length in the comments on many blogs, and you would be able to see what casinos to which other knowledgeable players are switching.

So, if you rarely read the “Comment” sections – you could go back some weeks or months and might be surprised how much new or helpful information you missed.  And then you might decide to get in the habit of, before reading a new blog, go back and read comments on at least the last one or two. (I do this for QOD and all the blogs I read on this website – LVA readers are very knowledgeable – and very generous in sharing their valuable information!)

And now for the reason why we are taking a long vacation away from casinos.  I write a lot about the value of gamblers having a good balance between casino life and what I call “real life.”  These pictures, taken in Georgia, show how much love is being shared and how much St. Patrick’s Day fun we are having in our “real life.”

Great-grandchildren:  Cooper, 4 months, Asher, 4, and Bowen, 2.

I would like to give a big shout-out to Lindsey Trujillo, the General Manager of the Tuscany Pub 365, who was a super party planner for this get-together in the adjoining event space. She suggested and organized the food and drink menu and worked with my daughter Angela to provide a beautifully decorated room. I would recommend her to plan any private event you might have in this multi-purpose room.

I want to thank everyone who came to the Open House and for the many cards they brought, with such thoughtful notes enclosed.  Those birthday messages plus so many that came via the Internet have blessed my heart – and will probably delay my retirement for umpteen years.  As long as people say my words are a big help to them, I’ll probably keep writing them!

P.S.  You probably won’t be surprised by this little note:  Yes, we could use the $1500 comp balance we had been carrying here for years even if we don’t play there regularly anymore.  Nothing like a party that was mostly comped!  (Be sure that you don’t lose any old comp balances at casinos where you don’t regularly play.  Check the club rules – but you usually need to put on at least a few points every 6-12 months so balance don’t disappear.)

And when you are running around town with younger generations, the key part of “activities” is “active.” First there was a retro trip to the Pinball Hall of Fame where Brad and I discovered we hadn’t lost all our skills at a game we hadn’t played for decades.  I really recommend this amazing place, with hundreds of working games, many of the simple old classics as well as the more recent complicated options.  No admission charge – just put a bill in the money changer and grab a plastic container to fill with lots of quarters!

Next there was birthday party #1, a joint one  thrown by our daughters, for my best friend Wilma and me – we both turned 80 just 3 days apart.  Some stodgy old-lady celebration?NOT!  It was held at a party room at the Twilight Zone Miniature Golf indoor venue at Bally’s Casino.  Playing in the neon black-light, the competition between the 20-something grandchildren and the oldsters was intense.  A fun place to party.

Then we took a break from birthday partying to celebrate a major milestone for granddaughter Kaity – finishing 19 ½ school years, with her master’s degree in Film and Video Production from Georgia State University.  We met at the Bacchanal Buffet at Caesars Palace, one of her favorite restaurants.  Everyone was happy we could use the Seven Star line, with only a short wait for our large group.  We were told that those in the regular line were facing a FOUR-hour wait!  The town is packed during the holidays so one must remember to adjust schedules for the crowds everywhere.  Below is Kaitlynn opening graduation gifts.

That evening we all went to the show “WOW!” at the Rio.  And all I can say about that is “Wow,” an amazing production.

And then the final blow-out celebration was the Frugal Birthday Open House to which everyone here and friends with Jean Scott on Facebook received an open invitation.  I know many of you wanted to attend but weren’t in town – and I appreciated all your birthday best wishes in the Comments here.  But many were able to attend, including not only locals but those from far away, even from Canada and Australia.  And it was great to get together with many friends we hadn’t seen for years and meet those we had known previously only online.  Kaitlynn was filming all during this party and when she gets the video edited, I will post the link here so everyone can enjoy the celebration even if not in person.

So now our family has flown back to Georgia – and Brad on the couch and I in my recliner have collapsed.  It was a wonderful week, but we need to recover from all that fun!

Some may wonder why I haven’t mentioned one member of the Frugal Princess family.  We really missed having grandson Zachary and his family here.  But you can blame Uncle Sam. When Zachary finished college, he became a police officer in the family hometown of Columbus, Georgia, but he also was a member of the Georgia Army National Guard.  And his unit was activated to go to Afghanistan.    He was able to spend Christmas with his family but is now at Ft Steward, waiting to deploy.  I am hoping that the up-in-the-air troop withdrawal plans of the President will happen sooner than later!  But in the meantime, Taylor is learning to be the strong military wife – as Angela was for so many years – and take good care of our 3 precious great-grandchildren – Asher, 4; Bowen, almost 2, and their little sister Cooper who arrived in November.

Stay tuned for another blog entry soon when I will have researched the January promotions and changes for the new year.

On Saturday, December 29, 2018, believe it or not, my Mom – Jean Scott – is turning 80 – and that is an occasion to celebrate!

As you can imagine, a gambler who has been chasing casino promotions for 35 years doesn’t need any birthday presents!  What she REALLY wants more than ANYTHING is to visit with friends and with those who enjoy what she loves – the frugal casino lifestyle.

So, my husband Steve and I and granddaughter Kaitlynn want to invite you to join us at the Las Vegas Tuscany Casino, in the party room at the back of the Pub 365, for a Frugal Friends Open House on Saturday, December 29, from 2:00 to 4:00 pm.

There will be laughter, reminiscing, and story-telling with The Queen of Comps and, of course, with the King of Kindness (Brad), who is always by her side.  Jean would be so happy to see long-time friends, and especially old video poker cohorts that she rarely runs into at casinos anymore.  And she would love the opportunity to meet in person the many fellow casino frugalites that have become Internet friends through the gambling forums and her blog.

You don’t need to RSVP – just pop in anytime between 2 and 4 p.m. to join in a birthday celebration of friendship!

Just a preliminary observation from a quick look-over of our mailers from local casinos, it looks like there might be a “promotions war” brewing.   That is always good news for us players!   Maybe Boyd Gaming is trying to get customers to forget how they have gutted the basic players club program by offering a lot of multiple points for players who get the mailers.  That doesn’t help out-of-towners who don’t get mailers or anyone who is at the Ruby level since this latter group earns NO points until they can up their tier level to Sapphire.

On first look, it seems that Stations is trying to woo disgruntled Boyd players with lots of promotions, but you have to watch and not be fooled with all those multiple-point offers.  Many of them have the dreaded “up to” note – especially VP players who rarely get the top 6x but frequently 4x and occasionally 5x – this is for senior Wednesdays too.  Slot players who used to count on reducing their losses at least a little bit with 10x, sometimes now see that “up to 10x” and know that for those they will be getting a much lower multiplier most of the time.  Get out your magnifying glass and look at any bonus promotion and see if the fine print “up to” will getcha!

I will post any new revelations and dangers later when I recover from my vacation.  In the meantime, here are some photos from our family visit in Columbus and then the all-adult get-away at Harrah’s Cherokee.  Great-grandchildren Asher, 4, and Bowen, 18 months, are big TOY STORY fans and modeled their Halloween costumes for us, becoming Woody and Buzz Lightyear.  And the whole family is anxiously awaiting the November arrival of their little sister, Cooper Ruth.

How time flies!  Seems not that long ago Kaitlynn was in a stroller screaming her lungs out  as brother Zachary was enjoying the wolf howling during the noisy Christmas show in the Sam’s Town atrium.

We haven’t stopped visiting casinos while Kaitlynn is here. Although she is interviewing me about my early life – growing up in a minister’s home, teaching high school, and living in Australia where her mother, the Frugal Princess, was born – she is fascinated by my transition to skilled gambler.  She is starting to understand that, although it looks like two very different worlds, there is much the same.  I learned the value of being careful with money when I was a very little girl so it was not a surprise I became a frugal gambler.  I knew I would be a teacher as soon as I started first grade so it was not a surprise that I wrote books teaching about smarter gambling.

So she is filming as we enjoy comped casino meals.  She is filming us as we play video poker. “Just go about your regular routine,” she says.  She already knows about coupon runs since we took her on one a couple of years ago when she turned 21.  So that was on the top of her must-film list.  Despite  triple-digit temperatures, we went downtown for  a  coupon chase in and out of casinos until we were all exhausted.  But Kaitlynn got the footage she needed – and I got some photos to share with you.

And then there is Kaitlynn’s non-casino activities, partnering up with an 86-year-old Poppy for his first pedicure.

I just returned home from a week-long stay in Las Vegas with my mom, the Queen of Comps, and my step-dad, the King of Kindness.  It was a different kind of week, though, with just a little gambling and whole lot of real life.  But all of it was frugal, of course.

First – some family updates:

My husband, Steve, is still working with soldiers even though he retired from the Army 10 years ago in October.  He recently transitioned from year-to-year civilian military contract jobs to a more permanent Government Service job, but still at Ft. Benning.  He has also become a Master Scuba Instructor and loves his new hobby/part-time job and has even coaxed me into the water to get my Advanced Open Water Scuba Certification!  We both went back to college and finally got our bachelor’s degrees we had been trying to complete for many years.  I enjoy supporting the military again by working as the Military Science Department Administrative Secretary at Columbus State University where I get to work with ROTC cadets, active duty instructors, and government staff.  Steve and I are too busy to be lonely empty-nesters and besides, our two pups, Maggie and Murphy, think they are our kids and need our undivided attention.

Our ever-energetic son, Zachary, graduated from Columbus State University, became a police officer, serves in the Georgia National Guard, and still finds time to flip all over town doing parkour and martial arts.  He and our bonus daughter, Taylor, have two sons, Asher (almost 4) and Bowen (15 mo.), and they are expecting a sweet little girl (YIPEE!) in November.  We never knew being grandparents and in-laws would be so cool!

Kaity is our adventurous child who lives in Atlanta and is finishing her graduate degree in Film, Video, and Digital Imaging Production at Georgia State this December.  She stays very busy with her classes, an assistantship and internships, a YouTube channel (Geocaching Kaity), running marathons, and dog-walking as her “side hustle.”  We often tag along on her hiking and outdoor adventures.

Although we all come to Vegas for family visits, I came this time by myself, enjoying the chance for some one-on-one quality time with my parents.  The first few days we spent running errands, picking up bounce-back free play at various casinos and getting together with friends and in-town family using food comps that were going to expire.   And it is always fun to shop in casino gift shops with comps.  Thankfully, we now will have a baby girl to buy for.  Mom said she had bought out all the boy stuff using her comps at the Silverton gift shop so she will soon have more options – this little girl is probably destined to be mermaid-crazy from the time she is born.

The main reason for my coming on this particular trip was that mid-week Mom had been scheduled for out-patient mouth surgery to remove some benign cysts under her tongue and I was thankful to be able to play nursemaid for the “old folks.” {WINK} The surgery was not serious but the recovery would be slow and painful.  I became her master smoothie-maker.

While Mom was recuperating, Brad and I went to several casinos to pick up free play and take advantage of multiple-point days to play some video poker.  Luckily Mom had taught me well over the years and I actually felt like I knew what I was doing!  My favorite game of all time is full-pay Deuces Wild, which I learned to play before I was even 21 and is still my favorite today.  Luckily, the Palms brought back a bank of these games just in time for my visit. I have hit several royal flushes and many 4-deuce jackpots on these machines down through the years but no luck this time.  However, I didn’t lose much money – I found I can’t sit and play as long as I used to, which ends up being a frugal way to stretch your bankroll!

Visits to Vegas have certainly changed for me and for my family over the years and as time spirals faster and faster as we grow older, we have to learn how to adjust and not expect things to stay the same. Mom and Brad no longer have the energy for the busy-every-minute schedule they used to keep, and I really enjoyed their slower pace this visit.   We wanted to make the most out of every minute and learn to appreciate even the very smallest things.  We loved swimming in the condo’s warm pool after the sun went down.  We marveled at the hummingbirds and sparrows finishing off the red sugar water in the birdfeeder on their patio.  We watched the brave tree trimmers shimmy up and down the tall palm trees.

It was a memorable visit and I can’t wait to return.

Outside the Orleans buffet with my mom and Aunt Starr