1/4/2007
Parking for casinos near the four corners of Tropicana and the Strip: Don’t park in the MGM garage; it’s too far from the casino. Instead, we park in the New York-New York garage and use the skywalks to the Trop, MGM Grand, and Excalibur. Then there’s a short elevated tram from Excalibur to Mandalay Bay, with a stop at Luxor.
If you use the main monorail, be aware that the stops are way in the back of east-side Strip casinos, so sometimes walking between two casinos can be almost as fast as taking the monorail — after paying for a ticket.
Speaking of monorail tickets, I read on the Internet that out-of-towners should not be tempted to buy the cheaper “locals” tickets from a friend or someone on the street. Some locals are trying to make a cottage industry out of this – and there’s an intensive crackdown, with uniformed officers checking for local IDs.
You can catch a free shuttle between the monorail station at the Convention Center and Wynn Las Vegas from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.
The best way to get to the airport is to take Tropicana Avenue to Paradise Road. It’s several miles and at least 15 minutes shorter than taking I-15 to 215 and coming in under the runways. Coming from the airport, traffic builds up on northbound Paradise and westbound Trop more than in the other directions, but it’s still shorter and faster to the Strip than the freeways. If you’re going to the center or north Strip, you should continue north on Paradise and Koval and cut over from there.
If you’re taking a cab from the airport, tell the driver how you want him to go to Point B (a good driver will ask if you have a preference). Ignore anything a cabbie might tell you about traffic on Paradise or Tropicana in an effort to get you to take the freeways. If the driver still takes you the long way, simply inform him that you know what he’s doing. Demand to be put in contact with a Road Supervisor, then ask the supervisor what the proper fare should be from the airport to your destination and don’t pay a penny more. The supervisor might make the driver “”eat”” the fare and most companies will suspend him for a day or two.
If even that doesn’t work, threaten the driver with the Taxicab Authority. If the TA shows up, the driver will get a ticket with a hefty fine, plus a possible suspension.
1/11/2007
Have you made some resolutions in regard to your gambling in 2007? If so, I hope you haven’t broken them already!
This is a common topic for discussion when we visit with our gambling friends, both the pros and the recreational players. We share our results from 2006 (and earlier years) and talk about whether or not we’ll make any changes in our 2007 play. Here are some of the comments from our friends and the many acquaintances with which we share e-mails.
“We won so much last year that we’re thinking about going down in denomination this year so we can conserve these wins longer in our bankroll.”
“I won some last year, but I know I got lucky, so I’m going to go down in denomination, because I know I’ve been playing above my bankroll. A long losing stretch, which I know is always possible, would put me out of business until I could save up another bankroll.”
“We won so much last year that we’re going to go down in denomination, because we just couldn’t stand the psychological pain of losing it, even though our bankroll is adequate for the level at which we play.”
“I lost last year, but I’m going to continue on the same path. I’ve been playing video poker at a good EV, with good accuracy. The VP gods don’t know that there’s a break between Dec. 31st and Jan. 1. I know the long term might be longer than one year, since I don’t play as often as others do.”
“I just moved to Vegas this last year and have really been putting in the hours in a casino. My results aren’t making me happy – I lost at a much faster rate than my saved bankroll will sustain indefinitely. I think I better spend less time at the slots, even though I love them, and concentrate on choosing the best VP plays I can find, or else curtail the number of casino visits I make. You just can’t gamble the same way when you’re a Vegas local as you could when you’re just a once-in-a-while visitor.”
“We won a whole lot last year, but that included a couple of big hits that aren’t very frequent occurrences. We won’t play differently this year, but we’re preparing ourselves mentally for more ‘average’ results next year, and perhaps even for the inevitable long losing streak.”
“Next year I plan to move back to the state where I used to live, one that doesn’t have nearby casinos. I just can’t control my gambling living in Vegas, with so many casino temptations around. My wife has said we must move or she will leave me. She just can’t stand my not being able to control my gambling.”
“I’ve lost the last 3 years at VP – not much, and I can afford the loss. However, I want to be a long-term winner. I realize that I’m going to have to be more flexible; I can’t play just in my ‘favorite’ casino, which usually has marginal plays. I’m going to have to quit being lazy and look for better EV plays, even if that means driving a bit farther or playing in a casino that doesn’t have all the amenities or exact atmosphere I prefer.”
“I don’t guess we’ve ever had a winning year – but that’s not our goal and we don’t keep track exactly. My husband and I go to a casino strictly for entertainment. We take only what money we’ve earmarked for entertainment. If we lose it, it doesn’t hurt our style of living. Sometimes we win and that’s a thrill. We play whatever game we want to and really don’t care to study a bunch of math. But we do always use our slot cards and enjoy the comps we earn, which make up for some of our losses.”
Now, I took some literary liberty to mix up the above facts a bit to protect the innocent (and the guilty) and you might guess that some of our own personal experiences and thoughts are scattered in. But hopefully, these examples might get you to thinking about your future gambling plans, if you haven’t already. Not everyone has the same bankroll, personality, and goals – and no one has the right to judge your style of gambling. However, anyone can benefit from a little bit of inventory taking once in a while!
1/18/2007
It’s important to keep track of the constant changes in the policies and practices of players clubs.
Harrah’s slot club made a change as of the first of this year: no more combining of accounts for determining tier status (which some Harrah’s properties allowed in 2006 and prior) or marketing offers. Although not all Harrah’s properties have the same policies or promotional details, it looks like the mother company is trying to achieve standardization in as many “children” as possible. Of course, with the sale of the company looming in the future, who knows how much will change. Probably so much that it will set back my retirement a year or two as I try to keep you posted!
Speaking of Harrah’s, its property in Laughlin considers anyone living in Clark County, which includes Las Vegas, as “locals,” so you can ask for all local discounts, including one-half price for their breakfast and lunch buffets.
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When you get a Boyd slot card for downtown Vegas, to be used at Main Street Station, the California, and the Fremont, you should tell the clerk at the slot club booth from which casino you want to receive mail. There have been reports that you don’t get mail offers from all three casinos, even though you might play at all three. This policy is different than at the former Coast properties they bought. If you play at the Suncoast, Orleans, and Gold Coast, you’ll get offers from everywhere you play.
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Station Casinos’ monthly-mailer program has been changed. It’s now based on 90 days instead of 3 months. For example, the December mailer was based on play from August 3 through October 31.
This new policy was put in place last May. I was surprised when I found out about it just last month; Stations is usually pretty good about announcing major changes. This time they never notified players, by individual letter or signs or in any other way. You might not notice this until you play sometime on the 1st or 2nd of a month and later find one or more of your monthly mailers have decreased.
I hate it when casinos do sneaky things like this. Of course, they can do anything they want — but a good PR move is to let players know of changes, especially when they’ve been doing something routinely for many years. But the more burning question is why change a logical system to an illogical one in the first place?
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Because players clubs are constantly changing, many players are diligent about picking up cashback frequently and using up comps even when they can be banked indefinitely. There’s a lot to be said for this practice. In times past, players have lost benefits when a casino closed or was sold. Usually, arrangements will be made to see that everyone gets their owed cashback, but in an emergency situation this might not be possible. When Hurricane Katrina hit, many records were lost and some destroyed casinos never resumed business.
Comp banks are more at risk than cashback, since comps are considered casino “gifts” and there’s no legal requirement for them to be distributed. When the old Frontier was sold, there was a very short redemption time to clean out comp banks, and many customers couldn’t make it to Vegas in time. Some of the same problems have occurred during the recent mergers of major casino companies.
It pays to know the details of the comp time limits in the casinos where you play. Many Las Vegas Strip casinos and also many in other venues empty the comp banks of out-of-towners at the end of each visit. Those casinos may or may not have a time limit for the comps earned by local players. The comps at some casinos stay in the bank for an indefinite time, but often they require that at least one point be put on the player’s card at specific intervals, like every 3 or 6 or 12 months.
You can check at the players club or with your host for the use-or-lose comp policies at your casino. You need to verify this information every once in a while, especially in casinos that have been inv”
1/26/2007
Rewarding players with free play instead of cash is a strong trend, as casinos are quickly updating their machines to give this option. All of the former Mandalay Bay properties went from cashback to free play as they were absorbed into MGM Mirage, which had already been completely changing over to free play.
The Gold Coast has now joined the Orleans and the Suncoast in giving monthly bounce-back rewards in the form of free play that you download from your players card (and must play through at least once), rather than in cash you pick up when you take the mailer coupon to a change booth. You can redeem points for same-day cashback or comps at the same rate, although often they run a promotion with the comps having a bigger dollar value.
Right now you can get same-day cashback at the Venetian, Hard Rock, and Tuscany, but bounce-back is in free play. Ellis Island, Cannery, and Rampart have both same-day and bounce-back cash. Station Casinos, the Palms, and Silverton have comps instead of cashback and their bounce-back is in free play. You can use your points for comps at Harrah’s properties, but in some (like in Vegas) you do get cash in the mail. Their bounce-back for Vegas locals is in cash, but requires a minimum amount of play. Wynn advertises “cashback,” but it’s given at the machine in free play, as is the bounce-back to Vegas locals.
I predict that within a few years, most casinos will no longer give much in cash rewards, either as same-day or bounce-back. It’s to the casino’s advantage to give free play: First, “breakage” (free play not redeemed) has a much higher percent than cash coupons. Furthermore, once people play through the free play, many are tempted to play until they hit a big jackpot or until it’s all gone, the latter being the more frequent. Cashback often walks out the door. And finally, if free play is used at a less-than-100% machine, the theoretical worth of the free play is reduced by the casino edge.
If savvy players are only redeeming the free play without playing any additional hands, they’ll do so at the highest-percentage game they can find, although some like to choose a game with lower volatility even if EV (expected theoretical value) is lower. If we’re collecting free play when we’re playing anyway, we count it merely as part of our bankroll and therefore it has full value for us.
A friend pointed out that another advantage of free play for the player is that if an offer is lost in the mail, you can still download the free play at the machine, whereas you might not be able to get a bounce-back coupon replaced. This was just reinforced for me personally. This month I didn’t get my regular mailer from one of my core casinos. However, sometimes this casino doesn’t send out any mailers and I assumed that to be true this month. But I decided to call the players club booth to make sure. (At this casino, as is true with many, a slot club clerk can look up an account on the computer and tell what mailings a customer has been sent. At some casinos you might need to contact the host for this information.) I was glad I called to check. I’m $900 richer! And I didn’t have to go through the hassle of trying to get a bounce-back coupon replaced; I merely went to a machine and downloaded the free-play credits.
Some bounce-back free play earns points/comps/cashback as you play it through the machine. Some doesn’t. It depends on the software system the casino uses for its machines. At places like the Palms, Tuscany, and Silverton, where you download your free play to the machine in advance of placing your bets, you earn credit while running through your free play. At places like the Stations, Fiestas, MGM properties, and Wynn where you have to put in your own cash for the first bet and then are refunded your free play in increments as you continue playing, you do not earn points/comps/cashback on that bounce-back free play.