2/1/2007
After I wrote in last week’s column about cashing in your players club points and/or using up your comps, I found the following in my files, an e-mail that a friend had sent me after reading my June 10, 2005, column, which talked about this same subject. You can read that original column by going to the Frugal Fridays Archives; the link is at the end of the column.
This friend, who has contributed here before, wants to remain anonymous, but I’m grateful for his always-helpful input.
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To Cash or Not To Cash
The savvy player does not automatically cash out his points each time he leaves a casino. Lots of factors enter into the decision
1. Are you local to the casino in question? If so, you can always get there to cash out your points if necessary.
2. How valuable is your time? Are there lines at the slot club and/or the cashier? When do you anticipate your next visit to this casino will be? If you are a regular player there, why waste your valuable time cashing out your points each visit?
3. Are you a “”big fish in a small pond?”” If so, and you’re an advantage player, frequent large-point cashouts can be a red flag to management. Better to just let the cash points accrue — Nevada Gaming Control says they cannot be taken from you even if you’re barred from the premises. [My note here: A big balance can also draw unwanted attention!]
4. Does the casino in question offer the option of cash or comps for your points? If so, are comps granted at a significantly higher rate than cash? How much do you value the comps at that casino?
5. Banks are only open 40-50 hours a week. Casino slot clubs are open many more hours, sometimes 24/7. If you need cash in a hurry, cashing out points at a casino may be a more viable option than waiting for a bank to open.
6. As Jean mentions in her June 10, 2005, FF column, there’s always the possibility that the casino will offer a better deal for your points. Not a frequent thing, but it does happen. This applies even more if the casino maintains a separate “”comp account”” for each player. These are sometimes converted to cash or cash equivalents when a casino changes slot club procedures or changes management/ownership. A few years ago, my Hard Rock comp account was converted to cash — $4,300! Earlier still, my Orleans’ comp account was converted to cash, over $2,000! Nice unexpected windfalls. [Note: Also, occasional promotions let you redeem, at a much higher value, all your accumulated cash points as free play.]
7. On the downside (to letting your cash points accrue), points sitting in a slot club account don’t earn any interest. It has also been known to happen that some or all of your points “”disappear”” into the computer void. Not a common thing, but possible. If this should happen, you won’t have the FDIC
on your side, as you would in the case of a bank error! It’s always smart to make a note of your point balance after each session, so you’ll know if there is a problem upon your return.
2/7/2007
I’ve been cleaning out my files and have come across some updates for past columns. You can easily find old articles in the FF Archives at http://lasvegasadvisor.com/frugalfridays-archive.cfm.
Concerning my January 4, 2007, column about getting around Las Vegas, from a couple of posters on vpFree:
1. “The monorail no longer has separate locals pricing, because the arbitrage opportunity that should have been predicted did develop. What are the police going to do? Arrest the very tourists that Vegas and the monorail are dependent on? Is this a good use of local law enforcement resources? It was an incredibly stupid idea.”
2. “When you’re heading north out of the airport, you’re on Swenson, not on Paradise. From just south of Harmon, all the way to/from the airport, each is one way, with Paradise heading south and Swenson heading north.”
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I’ve written several times in the past about the gift cards/certificates that casinos now frequently give as a way to redeem your points or simply as an extra comp benefit.
One reader wrote: “A couple of years ago, I got several Simon Mall gift cards from the Golden Nugget. I’d planned to use them until I read the fine print, which said that they could be redeemed for cash by mailing them to a specified address. I followed the instructions and received a check for the full face value of the cards.”
Another wrote: “If you find yourself with mall gift certificates that are going to expire before you need to buy anything, often you can use them to buy gift cards that don’t expire at individual stores in the mall like Sears and Penny’s.”
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For my May 18, 2006, column:
Dear Jean,
As a Bible student I was overjoyed by your mention of Joseph and dreams. Keep in mind, however, it was NOT Joseph’s dream, but rather Pharaoh’s dream that Joseph interpreted. GENESIS 41: “”After two years’ time, Pharaoh dreamed he was standing by the Nile, when out of the Nile there came up seven cows, handsome and sturdy, and they grazed in the reed grass. But presently, seven other cows came up from the Nile close behind them, ugly and gaunt, and stood beside the cows on the bank of the Nile; and the ugly gaunt cows ate up the seven handsome sturdy cows. And Pharaoh awoke.”” D.N.
Oops. It’s been too long since I went to Sunday School!
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Dreams just might have valid meanings. Here’s a post from a friend after Brad hit his big tournament jackpot last June and I wrote about it June 15, 22, and 29:
”I just had to share this dream I had about both of you. I was somewhere looking in a big plate-glass window, like they used to have in department stores. The window was filled with children of all ages dressed in costumes and they were having the best time. From the ceiling of the window was a big thing and out of it floated dollar bills. The children were running around picking up the money. I was standing next to you and you told me that Brad had won all this money and decided that this was what he wanted to do with it. He said it was only money and he wanted to make the children happy. I woke up with a smile on my face and the desire to get into that window myself.” P. C. from Ohio
Correction for the Dec.1, 2005, column about the Coffee Bean chain, from David, whom I misquoted:
“Although the drink products at Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf everywhere may very well be kosher, all of the other products (specifically the sandwiches, cakes, bagels and pastries) that are in the Coffee Bean outlets outside of Southern California (most specifically outside of the Los Angeles area) are likely not kosher.”
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Sad update for my Nov. 28, 2006, column:
The hot dogs from the cart at the Gold Coast have gone up to $1.25!
2/16/2007
Another Coffee Bean note this week, from a reader who got this information from a close friend who works in Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf corporate in L.A.: The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf stores in the Las Vegas area were initially not kosher — but awhile back were changed to selling kosher food. All CB&TL stores in the Greater Los Angeles area (and Israel) are kosher as well. Elsewhere in the U.S. and the rest of the world, they may not be, since it’s up to the franchisee. Next time you’re in the Palms, you can see they have a little sign indicating that the food is kosher. The chain has developed a well-known reputation in the Jewish community, so even where the stores aren’t kosher, they often go out of their way to stock some kosher products. For example, the Phoenix-area franchisee stocks pre-packaged kosher cookies.
This same reader also added some information about kosher shopping in the Vegas area. Albertson’s in Anthem has a huge kosher market within the store, similar to the Smith’s on Rampart in Summerlin and the Albertson’s on Ft. Apache and Sahara, though larger than either.
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Update on the January 26th column about Free Play Rewards, from a faithful reader of FF: “The Cannery is now giving free play some of the time. For February, we got free play for several dates during the first week of the month and bounce-back cash coupons for the other three weeks. Also, Main Street Station, the Cal, and the Fremont are now giving free play instead of bounce-back cash. All of the machines were upgraded last year to allow for this. In fact, I believe Sam’s Town is also doing this. Both the Cannery and the downtown Boyd casinos do NOT require you to put in your own money first. You simply download the credits to your machine.
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In the past I’ve written that I don’t like Las Vegas being referred to as Sin City, because there’s probably no more sin here than anywhere else. “White Jeeps” tackled this subject on an Internet forum recently and I asked him if I could pass it on to my readers. I like his point of view!
“Seems to me Sin City is an antiquated term used by people who claimed, in the old days, that gambling was a sin. They were wrong. As I remember, gambling isn’t even one of the Ten Commandments. In fact, if we use the Commandments as a gauge for sin, there is probably less sin in Vegas than anywhere else. One of the big sins, adultery, is probably more prevalent in those sleepy towns where there’s nothing to do. Who in the heck has time to chase the other sex when in Vegas? We go to Vegas to play … play … play and it’s not with the other sex. If cheating couples
go to Vegas, that was set up back home.
“Lots of murder in Vegas? No more than other bigger cities.
“The Tenth Commandment might be violated a lot. One shouldn’t desire someone else’s things. That means you should not wish that you had your neighbor’s royal instead of him getting it. But the Tenth is violated everywhere else also. When in Vegas, who has the time to desire the neighbor’s house or car? We only break the Tenth perhaps wishing for jackpots or large wins. Really, I don’t consider that a breaking the 10th as we are not wishing for our neighbor’s money. We’re just wishing for that of the gambling joints.
”Sin City is a misnomer.”
2/22/2007
When Frugal Video Poker was edited, some good stuff had to be cut to keep the book a manageable size. But it hasn’t been forever lost. For the next three weeks, I’ll give you what I hope will be some useful information from the Q+A chapter that was dropped.
Q: What are my chances of being dealt a royal?
A: The theoretical chance of being dealt a royal is once every 649,740 hands. (Remember, in real life on real machines this is an average over a very long time.)
Q: Okay, what are my chances of getting the fifth royal card I need when I am dealt four to a royal?
A: 1 in 47 (or 48 if it’s a Joker game).
Q: Do you recommend the “Double-Up” feature offered on some VP machines?
A: Many VP players like the double-up option. They think it adds another type of gamble that’s fun.
I don’t generally use the Double-Up option, which is also sometimes called “Double Down,” for the following primary reason: It’s only a 50/50 proposition – an even bet. In the long run, you’ll neither make nor lose money. If I’m playing a VP game with an over-100% theoretical return, I don’t want to waste my time doing something on which I’m merely breaking even when I can be making a profit.
However, for someone who plays negative games, the same reasoning gives that player an incentive for using the double-up option. Making an even bet is better than one where you have the short end of the stick – and technically, it lowers the total house edge ever so slightly on a negative game.
There are also a couple of other considerations. First, you don’t accrue slot club points on the money you risk in the double-up phase. Second, this isn’t a good way to stretch a small bankroll. You need to think of this feature as a separate game. Once you win credits on the base game, that money is yours. You have to choose to take those credits and play them, so to speak, on another game. Now, if you double-up only on tie hands, such as high pairs that return your original bet, you probably aren’t inviting bankroll problems. However, when you double-up on wins that are bigger than your original base bet, you’re definitely in danger of going on a bankroll roller-coaster ride that might prematurely crash when you go broke. This is the reason most players put a limit on how far they go with the doubling game. (If you want to see how this feature works and how it affects your bankroll, without risking any of your money, the Frugal Video Poker software has this option you can use in your practice. Select “Options > Double Down” to enable it.)
Most machines, especially those manufactured by IGT, have the double-up option available, but most casinos disable it; however, many activate it for anyone who makes this request. Conversely, if it’s enabled, some casinos turn off the option for you if you don’t want to be slowed down at the end of every hand when the machine asks you whether you want to double-up or not.
One final warning: On a few machines, this double-up option comes up automatically on W-2G wins even though it hasn’t been active before. Don’t let it confuse you as it did me once, when I accidentally punched “Yes” to doubling-up a $2000 royal. I got lucky and beat the machine card I had to top – but I could scarcely breathe the rest of the day!