12/7/2006
http://wizardofodds.com/ – The Wizard of Odds is a frugal-gambler’s best friend when you want to find detailed and reliable based-on-the-math gambling information. You can find the answers to many of your questions, no matter what the game. Especially valuable is the Wizard’s analysis of new games, both machines and table games. I highly recommend that you subscribe to his free monthly newsletter.
http://www.snopes.com – A frugal gambler doesn’t want to be led astray by false Internet rumors and fraudulent tricks. This is the Web site to run down iffy information and learn the truth. A discussion on vpFREE recently mentioned gift cards as a good present for hosts, then someone suggested checking on this Web site for information on possible gift-card fraud. Searching for “”gift cards”” on this site brings up a warning about a new scam, where crooks record the numbers from gift cards you can buy off a rack in a retail store. They wait until the cards have been purchased and authorized, then quickly use the number to buy items on the Internet (where the actual card isn’t needed). When the original purchaser tries to use the card to buy something at a later date, it has been drained and shows a zero balance.
http:fatwallet.com – Again at vpFREE (talking about ordering a gambling book), I read that this is a great portal for the frugal to use to get to overstock.com and many other Internet stores, because you can get 6% cashback. As a new user, you’ll also get $5 added to your cashback. And you can get the 10% off the entire order ($15 off a $100 order total) as well. “”With all of the stores they’re a portal for, you can really build up a substantial amount of cash back by using them … and you don’t lose anything compared to shopping at the site the way you normally would.””
Then Mike, a frugalite who out-frugals even me, posted this added information:
“”Great post, and one that trumps the frequent-flyer angle of 4 miles for every $1 spent, which equals 4% if miles are valued at a penny each. (The only advantage to earning the miles is that it will keep your frequent-flyer account “”active”” and miles won’t expire.)””
http://www.houseseatslv.com/ – For one annual subscription price, you’ll be offered free last-minute show tickets in Vegas. Performers don’t like empty seats in their theaters! I haven’t checked this one out personally, but it’s a good idea if you can find out what type of shows are usually offered and how often. I’d appreciate reports from anyone who has used this service.
Casino Web sites – Tax season will be here before you know it and you’ll be thinking about getting win/loss statements from the casinos where you’ve gambled in 2006. Save yourself some running around by checking each casino’s Web site. Many offer the service online. This is a big time saver if you played in more than one casino in one of the consolidated casino companies. You can make one request for all the casinos in that group.
12/15/2006
Here are a couple of messages I’ve received in the last month, indicative of the email I get in which people wonder if Brad and I’ve left the frugal-gambling ranks.
1. “First, I want to thank you for your excellent books and articles. Secondly, your tips have been very valuable and I use what I think suits my personality. However, a $5,000 entry fee for a tournament is a bit much for us lowly coupon clippers. I envy you, but I think you have lost sight of your humble beginnings, which I think 90% of your readers are from. Am I wrong?
“Anyway, still an avid reader.”
2. “My problem is both you and Bob Dancer have been writing for a long time about a kind of playing that’s not relevant to most of the people who are reading your articles. Just go into any casino and you’ll see that all the nickel video poker machines are full (and most of the players aren’t even playing full-coin). Quarter machines are fairly busy, but you can always find a seat. And the $1 machines have more empty seats than players. You’re talking about playing with $5,000-$10,000 (or more) and for most of the people we know, this would be their whole year gambling budget and if they lost it they would be sick – really sick.
“We wish we could play larger amounts, but with two people playing it takes a lot of money even at our level. You’re living a dream that we wish we could live. Maybe here in Mississippi the people are just poor; I don’t know. My wife is an RN and I have a very good-paying job and I wish I could figure out what we’re doing wrong so we could play with the large amounts like you and Mr. Dancer. But I hope you and your husband have fun and keep on winning.”
Well, tackling these issues will take me more than one column. This one is the first of three.
Let me start out by saying that I’m grateful none of the people who’ve written these kinds of comments and queries seem to resent our winning, even the monster half-million payoff in a tournament last June. And they’re still reading my books and articles to find helpful gambling and casino information.
Also, I need to remind you that I wrote a three-parter in August/September 2005 about the word “frugal.” Go to http://lasvegasadvisor.com/frugalfridays-archive.cfm if you want to review those columns. I talked about people having a negative impression of the word and ended up the series with my summary of “frugal”: “I’ve always said that being frugal doesn’t mean being cheap. Instead, it means always getting good value for your money at any level.”
Reinforcing this meaning is a fact I just found out about recently: Warren Buffet’s license plate is just one word: THRIFTY. Hey, if the country’s second-richest man is proud to ride in a luxury vehicle with this label, we’ll continue to proudly tool around Las Vegas in our purple PT Cruiser with a similar license plate: FRUGAL.
Next week I’ll address some of the specific issues mentioned in the above letters.
12/22/2006
Last week I included in my column some posts from fellow frugalites who were wondering if Brad and I had left the ranks of frugal gamblers. I promised that I’d address that issue this week.
First, I’ll repeat what I’ve said many times: Frugal means getting good value for your money at any financial level.
Second, we’ve found that if you’re frugal when you don’t have much money, you’ll get to a higher financial level more quickly.
Third, if you’re a naturally frugal person (or, if you become motivated to train yourself to be one), you’ll be frugal your whole life, even when you reach a level where it isn’t a necessity to be quite as value-conscious.
How do these life lessons apply to our gambling?
When Brad and I started casino gambling 21 years ago, we didn’t have a large amount of discretionary income. Our children were all grown, so our living expenses weren’t high, but we were heavily into the save-for-retirement mode. When we found out we loved the entertainment the casinos provided, our goal immediately became building our small gambling bankroll without hurting our retirement plans.
After some research and study, we discovered that the smart way to play in a casino was always choosing the best games – for us, first blackjack, then video poker – and by learning to take advantage of all the extra benefits casinos gave for our play. Being frugal meant working the slot club and comp systems endlessly, staying in modest casinos, and never finding a coupon we wouldn’t try to use. We never turned down a bump at the airport no matter how long or inconvenient the wait for the next plane – this provided us a free trip the next time we wanted to fly from Indiana to Vegas. And if we got another bump from that free trip, well, neverending freebies is frugal heaven.
Actually, the casino freebies allowed us to build our bankroll in our early quarter-video-poker casino days. If you don’t have to put out your own money for hotel rooms or meals and the casino comps your shows, parties, and other entertainment, that means you can plow any winnings from your play into growing your bankroll. That same concept allowed us to go from the quarter level to fifty-cent machines, then to dollars, and now to the higher denominations. Aging and medical factors have slowed us down quite a bit and we aren’t able to do the Vegas frugal scramble quite as intensely as we used to – and Brad is constantly reminding me that we can “loosen up the purse strings” since we’ve arrived at the “old age” we’ve been saving for – I still find myself in frugal mode almost every waking minute.
You may be a nickel player with a tiny entertainment bankroll for an occasional night out to a casino – a young couple with the expense of raising a family or a retiree on a small fixed income. You may be in the bankroll-building stage, hoping to be able to spend more time in the casino in the future. You may have worked hard and saved all your life and have retired with a big nest egg that allows you to play at the higher levels. Most of my advice is applicable to all frugal gamblers.
Next week I’ll give you a list of some of the things that have made us successful all along the way, from the lower levels to the higher ones.
12/28/2006
The last two weeks I’ve been addressing questions about whether Brad and I are frugal anymore. I’ve explained that you can be frugal no matter at what level you gamble and I promised you a list of things any frugal gambler can do to become more successful. We’ve applied the following tips to all of our plays, whether we were sitting at a quarter video poker machine or at a hundred-dollar-a-hand blackjack table.
* Decide on your main goal in a casino. If it’s entertainment, but you want to lose less, choose the best games you can find and learn how to play them skillfully.
* If your goal is entertainment but you want to make a profit too, accept the math-based fact that you can’t win in the long term unless you always do plays where you have the advantage over the casino. Also realize that winning gambling is always hard. It takes a lot of work.
* Read as much as you can to find new gambling strategies and opportunities.
* Be satisfied with grinding out small wins slowly. The “big one” comes rarely, if at all.
* Know the bankroll requirements for what you play. Never overplay your bankroll.
* Learn as much about the slot club and comp system as the games themselves. These benefits will leave more money in your pocket for playing.
* Constantly look for casino promotions. There’s usually more money to be made in promotions these days than from the games themselves.
* Take advantage of study aids, like software programs. Practice at home when you don’t have money at risk!
* Broaden your game choices whenever possible. If you’re a video poker player and the opportunities for a good game are getting scarce, perhaps learn how to count cards and play blackjack. Many skilled players in other games are learning to play live poker.
* Be a good casino scout. Keep an eye out for new machines and new games. Don’t get in a rut and play only in one casino, but visit others as much as you can. Casinos change management and policies all the time – and you never know when you’ll find a new good play opportunity.
* Be aware of the tax consequences of your play and take them into consideration when you figure the value of a play.
* Learn how to lose. No matter how skilled a gambler is, he’s not going to win every time he plays. In fact, since an advantage player’s edge is usually quite small, he’ll probably lose more sessions than he wins. Remember, winning gambling is always over the long term. You must learn to learn to trust the math and keep the faith during losing streaks – or you’ll go crazy!
* Understand that smart gambling takes intense motivation, extreme self-discipline, and the patience of a saint.
This is just a short list of general concepts that have helped Brad and me become winning gamblers through the 21 years we’ve been visiting casinos. But our success has been built very gradually, by doing hundreds of thousands of little frugal things along the way. These aren’t secrets. I’ve shared them with the world in the four books I’ve written.
My New Year’s wish is that some of these frugal ideas will make your 2007 casino visits more rewarding!