12/6/2002
Boy, do I dread writing this column today. I’ve known for many months I probably would have to do it eventually, but have been putting it off, hoping that there would be a miracle and circumstances would change. However, although the holiday season is here, I don’t see any miracles appearing in the sky — or, more to the point, appearing in casinos.
What am I talking about? I now must discuss the subject of casinos targeting skillful video players and taking away many of their advantages.
Although there have been rumblings about this practice for many years, most of the targets have been video poker teams or lone gamblers here and there who caught the attention of casino management for one reason or another. At first, most casinos took extreme measures by totally banning these players. More recently, they decided they didn’t need to make such extreme moves; they simply eliminated comps and other benefits. The players moved on when they no longer had an advantage.
I got caught up in this practice at the Orleans casino. As I described several months ago in this column, the circumstances were particularly frustrating, because I was taken off the mailing list for their very valuable coupons due to utterly false information a charlatan wrote on the Internet under the guise of reviewing my book. However, the Orleans chose not to accept my explanations and proofs of these falsehoods. I was puzzled and hurt. The Orleans is the closest casino to our home and we had been faithful customers since it opened. We were invited to all of their VIP activities, showered with gifts, treated like valued guests by the hosts, and received monthly mailings like clockwork. When a TV crew came to town and wanted to film Brad and me in one of our favorite casinos, we often suggested the Orleans — and Brad’s Orleans Millionaire jacket is probably the most photographed jacket on the Travel Channel.
Only later did I understand the reason for this surprising turn-around treatment: I’d stumbled into the beginning of a complete change of policy by the Coast properties, especially the Orleans. Although they’re decreasing discretionary comps for everyone (comps written by the host and not coming off your slot club points), the Orleans is particularly trying to target skilled video poker players and completely eliminate their discretionary comps and direct-mail coupons.
Right here I want to stop and explain something. I realize casinos are profit-making businesses — at least they hope to be. I realize they must watch their bottom line when they make all their decisions as to type of machines, player incentives, etc. I realize their main product is entertainment and they don’t exist so that people can make a living playing their games. Even though I’m an avid player, I always try to look at both sides of casino/player issues. And although I may not like all of the changes the Orleans (and other Coast properties) have made, I believe they have every right to run their casinos as they see fit.
What I do have to criticize casinos severely for is the Sherman-slash-and-burn-march-to-the-sea implementation of new policies.
Well, I knew that one column would never hold all my thoughts on this subject. So, I’ll close down for this week. But I’ll continue on this same subject next week and I’ll have some hard-hitting revelations for casino executives (I know some read this column because they’ve told me so) and some advice for players on how to cope with casino changes.
12/13/2002
Jean Scott is on hiatus till further notice. She’s been trying to retire ever since she retired, nearly 15 years ago. But her life just kept getting more and more hectic and pressured and stressful and she finally threw her hands up and said, “Stop the world! I want to get off!”
Jean, as you might know, has already curtailed most of her writing obligations; Frugal Fridays was her last hold-out — until now.
She also tells us that the silver lining in the restriction of her benefits at the Orleans is that she now doesn’t have to feel under the gun to show up and play during double-point sessions, or guilty if she didn’t happen to make it to one.
She assures us that she’ll do whatever’s necessary to bring out More Frugal Gambling in a timely manner; she’ll also do her best to attend to the flood of e-mail that this announcement will probably prompt. But beyond that, she’s officially on extended leave. Semi-permanent vacation. Actual factual retirement: the gold-watch, golf-clubs, soap-opera, and long-baths time of life.
Of course, she might be back, and if that happens, we’ll welcome her with open arms. But if it doesn’t, we’re sure we speak for everyone who has ever profited from her advice, benefited from her generosity, or basked in her personal glow when we say, “Go with a clear conscience, the satisfaction of a job well done, and joy in your heart. You’ve earned your retirement and you deserve it.”
And luckily for Jean and all of us who love her, she has Brad to prop her up along the way!
12/20/2002
Okay, okay, my Inbox is flooded — an explanation is needed, I see.
First, thanks to everyone for the kind words you’ve posted on the forums and in private e-mails, far too many for me to answer personally, I’m afraid. It’s extremely gratifying to know that my writings over the years have helped so many people stretch their fun time in a casino. There’s not much I like better than helping people save money!
There is nothing mysterious going on here — no conspiracy — about my retirement. I had no pressure from any casinos or from Anthony. Actually, the pressure came from gremlins in my digestive system. I’ve had fibromyalgia for 25+ years and digestive difficulties are often part of this problem. They have grown worse in the last year and the doctor finally “ordered” me to slow down — many months ago. I tried! I stopped writing my monthly column for Strictly Slots; I gave up projects and cut back on others. But it seemed that, as long as a day didn’t stretch beyond 24 hours, I still couldn’t get everything done. Last week my body simply gave me some pain messages I couldn’t ignore and I just had to stop.
But no, I’m not bedridden. I’m not in the hospital. I’m not terminal. I’m spending a lot of time sitting in my easy chair, catching up on reading that has nothing to do with casinos. Brad and I are swimming almost nightly in our heated condo pool, then relaxing in the spa. We still go out and around — to the movies, shopping, dancing, even the casinos. But when we do, it’s totally relaxed; we play video poker purely for personal entertainment. I don’t put myself under the constant pressure of thinking about collecting ideas for a Web column or a magazine story or, Lord help me, a book.
I did not mean to play a “dirty trick” on you by writing a Part I of a column, then not giving you the promised ending. I just didn’t have the strength to write Part II when it was due and I still don’t. If I did, I’d go into great detail, but here’s the nutshell.
CASINO EXECUTIVES: Do what you have to do to keep your casinos making a profit, but remember your customers are human beings with feelings. Don’t woo them for years with promotions and benefits, encouraging them to give their loyalty to you rather than to the casino down the street, only to jerk your own loyalty rug out from under them with no advance notice. Maybe you made a mistake by giving too much for too long, but a bigger mistake is to turn on a dime and not trust your customers to accept a kind letter of explanation about the necessary changes. It’s not just the big spenders you treated like VIPs for many years who are shattered by suddenly being treated like slime. The “little guys” are wandering around the city in a daze, wondering what happened to the warm friendly casinos that now drip icicles onto the desert sand.
PLAYERS: Some of you have brought a lot of casino problems on yourself. You find a good playing opportunity and you pound away at it morning, noon, and night, day after day. You play two machines; you hire people to play for you. You form teams to monopolize progressives in casinos you don’t step inside ordinarily, keeping off the regular customers who were contributing to the progressive back when the jackpot wasn’t so big. The casinos wouldn’t fear skilled players nearly so much if so many of them weren’t so greedy. Spread your action around so you aren’t beating any one casino or one promotion to death. Treat your gambling the way the casino intends it to be — a form of entertainment, not a way to make a living. Study as much as you want to; your entertainment doesn’t have to cost you so much. If you work very very hard, the entertainment might not cost you at all. The casinos know that most people will not want to work this hard — and those people can cover the cost of the neon lights.
Okay? Now I’m going back into the peace and quiet of retirement. Who knows how long I’ll last there? Not me.
12/27/2002
Editor’s Note: In Jean Scott’s absence, Frugal Friday’s will, of necessity, change shape a little. We’re not exactly sure what the final shape will look like, but we do know that for now, we’re striving to maintain the Queen’s favorite theme: frugality. This week’s post is an excerpt from Million Dollar Video Poker by Bob Dancer, which is now available. It touches on how he managed to build his bankroll so that he was in a position to play the big machines and make the big score.
Reducing the Outflow
When I first moved to Vegas, I had about $6,000. At various times in my life I had more. Much more. Turns out that getting to Vegas was the easy part. Earning enough to stay here and enjoy the good things this place has to offer was going to be much harder.
My goal was to increase my gambling bankroll and I was very serious about it. Think of a gambling bankroll as a lake of money. We want to make this a bigger lake than it is now. The river of money coming in is from gambling jackpots and whatever other sources of income we have—i.e. employment, investment, interest, pension, inheritance, Social Security, etc. Everyone has a slightly different income stream.
But there are also many rivers of money going out. In addition to the obvious one, gambling losses, we need to spend money on rent, food, clothes, transportation, insurance, recreation, and whatever else there is. Everyone has a slightly different outgoing stream too.
Whether the income stream is $10,000, $100,000 or $1,000,000, you can’t know if the bankroll is increasing or decreasing until you know how large the expense stream is. If you make $10,000 and spend $5,000 the bankroll is growing. If you make $100,000 and spend $120,000, the bankroll is shrinking.
Expenses are something I can look to reduce. Being thrifty is a mindset. Devising a way to spend less money (while maintaining perfect credit) is just as valuable as finding a way to earn more money. Take care of the pennies and the nickels and dollars will take care of themselves.
My first gambling goal was $100,000, with a promise to myself that I would reevaluate things when I reached it. This was the amount I believed that I would need to play $5 machines forever and ever, amen. And until I reached this goal, virtually as many expenses as possible needed to be put on hold. I never paid for food. I could get all I needed at the casinos for free. Alcohol, tobacco, and drugs were thousands-of-dollars-a-year money sewers that I was better off without. Cars work just fine for at least eight years. Being a nice dresser isn’t that important. Tips for jackpots can be modest if you’re friendly. Haircuts once every two months are enough. I never spent money on valet parking or bellmen. And I’ve been using casino soap, shampoo and other toiletries for years. Cable TV was not worth paying for. There was plenty to see on free TV.
You get the idea. I wanted my bankroll lake to keep filling by minimizing the outflow. And I was successful at this. Meanwhile, the results from my video poker play were better than average (because most people didn’t work at it as hard as I did), but not exceptional. Several other players hit just as many royals and 4-of-a-kinds as I did. The reason my bankroll increased faster than theirs was because I could live extremely frugally.
I was extremely tight until I got $100,000, and that tightness has paid dividends ever since. The money is invested and grows without me doing anything extra. My miserliness softened somewhat over the next few years. The bankroll kept expanding, but not at the same rate it would have if I’d continued to pinch pennies. And today, after earning a million dollars over a six-month period, Shirley and I still haven’t decided what the acceptable level of spending-versus-saving should be. It’s a nice problem to have, to be sure, but we’re still working on it.