6/1/2001
“I’m mad and I’m not going to take it any more!”
I’m hearing an increasingly loud roar on the Internet about the extra charges some hotel-casinos are imposing on the guests whom you’d think they would want to keep happy, so they’ll continue staying and playing with them. It’s a fact that most visitors mostly play where they stay.
As I recall, the fuss about extra charges began smoldering several years ago, but the new energy surcharges poured gasoline on the fire. I guess the hotels thought we would “understand” the need for the extra charges and embrace them as our patriotic duty. NOT!
Consider this laundry list of charges that Billhere heard about from his readers and put in his online newsletter, Viva Las Vegas:
Bally’s: $3 per day for a room safe. (I heard of another hotel that charged a fee every time you opened it.)
Imperial Palace: $5 for a package delivered to room.
Mirage: $30 per night for a third person in a room.
Riviera: $4.91 extra if you pay by credit card.
Venetian: $3 charge for delivering a FedEx to a room.
The prices for items from a hotel room mini-bar have always made my frugal heart darn near stop — and now I hear of one hotel that charges you for an item if you take it out and look at it, EVEN IF YOU PUT IT BACK UNOPENED. This makes me too wary to even open a mini-bar door; I’d probably die of hunger or thirst first.
However, the biggest roar of discontent seems to be about telephone charges. I have long complained that I can get hundreds of dollars of room, food, and show charges comped, but can I get two $1 charges for toll-free calls taken off my bill? No, there it shows up on my next month’s VISA bill: TOO CHEAP HOTEL-CASINO — $2. I hear that one casino charges $1 for each dial tone! Gee, better not let the kiddies play near the phone; you might have to mortgage the farm to pay next month’s credit-card bill.
But the scariest new policy for us laptop devotees is a rapidly growing policy of a time charge for local calls. A flat $1 per local call suddenly seems very reasonable after you get socked with an XX-cents-a-minute bill after surfing the Internet for hours. A more-frugal-than-I cyberspace-loving friend of mine is still reeling from $100 in phone charges for local calls on his hotel bill when he checked out.
Is there a happy solution? Probably not. But you can protect yourself from unexpected charges by reading ALL printed material in your room: the “About” book on the desk; the phone card in the top drawer of the bedside table; the instructions on the safe, the phone, the cable TV box, and the mini-bar. And if you don’t see detailed phone instructions, call the operator and ask what the charge is for toll-free and local phone calls; ask specifically if there are extra charges based on time. Then you can decide what alternatives you have: going to a pay phone, using your cell phone, or skipping all phone business entirely and losing yourself in a crap game.
BRIEFS
A frugal tip for Las Vegas visitors from Southern California. Hate to drive for hours and fight the I-15 gridlock? Or tired of flying to Vegas and spending too much time getting from the airport to your hotel? Go to www.vegasnow.com to read about a convenient and reasonable alternative –van service from your home to the hotel of your choice. Relax and watch a movie while someone else worries about the traffic. The phone number is 800/669-1443.
The Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority has a new Internet site: http://www.vegasfreedom.com
Trivia Time from Everything Las Vegas: What three denominations of slot machines won the most money for Nevada casinos during the 12 months ending Feb. 28?
Answer: Quarter machines won the most money from players, earning Nevada casinos $2.44 billion. Nickel machines won $1.54 billion and dollar machines won $1.48 billion. (You know this is accurate if you’ve ever tried to get on a nickel Triple Play or Reel ‘Em In machine on a Saturday night!)
A slig
6/8/2001
My computer finally let me access my notes on bounce-back cash bonuses, so here’s the information on this valuable casino perk that I promised you some time ago.
Some people use the term “bounce-back” to describe any cash coupon you get from a casino that requires you to “bounce back” to the casino on another day to cash it. However, many casinos use this method for you to redeem cashback you’ve earned through the players club. I differentiate between EARNED cashback, however you can collect it, and BONUS cash coupons. It’s the latter that I refer to as bounce-back cash.
I’ve been noticing, for the past couple of years, that a bounce-back cash “war” has been going on all over the U.S. This is due, in my opinion, to a weak economy and to the increased number of casinos vying for gamblers’ hearts and wallets. I see it most in gambling venues that cater to casino daytrippers: Atlantic City, riverboats everywhere, and even some Native American casinos where there’s competition.
However, nowhere is it stronger than in Vegas, where most locals casinos, and even some of the Strip casinos, are getting on the bounce-back cash bandwagon. Although some “tourist” casinos send bounce-back cash coupons to out-of-towners, Las Vegans are being heavily courted with big cash. For example, our own “welfare” checks (that’s what we locals call them) run from a monthly total of $700 to way more than $1,000 for our $1-and-up play of about 20-25 hours a week. Even quarter players, especially those who put in mucho hours, are finding substantial cash bonuses in their mailboxes. Since most of the locals casinos send these only if you have a local address, a good number of players from nearby states and/or who visit Vegas a couple of times a month get a local mailbox so they can collect these goodies.
The first of every month I spend a good chunk of time scheduling the redemption of all of our bounce-back cash coupons, since they always have a specified pickup time, ranging from one day only to a usual period of three to four days, and sometimes all month. I combine these with coupons we want to use and promotions we want to take advantage of, so our running around to more than one section of town in a day is decreased. However, sometimes we have to make a decision whether a cash coupon is worth a special trip to the other side of town. This is where couples have an advantage, because often their two coupons make it a more frugal trip than for one. Speaking of couples, although many casinos give separate bounce-back cash coupons for play by both members of a joint slot club account, not all do. This is yet another reason to ALWAYS have separate slot club accounts.
Who gets how much bounce-back cash and why is one of the most mysterious questions in a casino. Although it’s usually based on the premise that the more you play the more you get, bounce-back coupons are also sometimes given for “we-haven’t seen-you-for-awhile” and “how-about-visiting-one-of-our-company’s-casinos-in-another-area.” Even the ones based on your play seem to be the work of mad-scientist researchers in a marketing department somewhere in the dark bowels of a casino. Demographics they say! I like to change the color of my hair just to mess up their demographics that says a brunette doesn’t need more cash incentives than a blonde!
Okay, I get wound up discussing casino marketing. I’ll go to the garage to do some sorting and packing and pitching to wind down. Tune in next week and I’ll give you a list of Vegas casinos that send out bounce-back cash and all the details that I have been able to uncover in my never-ending self-assigned task of trying to understand casino marketing.”
6/15/2001
Last week I promised you the skinny on Vegas casinos that send out bounce-back cash coupons. This is either information that I’ve gleaned from actual personal experience or have received from reliable sources. Where I’m unsure of a fact I put a question mark within parentheses. I make no guarantees that this information is 100% accurate or complete when you read it. I wouldn’t put it past some casino marketing departments to read about themselves herein, then immediately change their bounce-back policies.
1. Suncoast and Gold Coast — You must have a local address to receieve the regular monthly mailing; three levels based on a quarterly coin-IN requirement (although slot club points are based on coin OUT — we wouldn’t want to make it easy, would we?); amounts range from $5 to $25 — food, show, and gift offers included. Ask at the slot club desk for the coin-in amount to reach each level and the cut-off date for qualifying for each month. They don’t necessarily remain the same month to month.
2. Orleans — You must have a local address to receive the regular monthly mailing; amounts range from $5 to $25 — food, show, and gift offers included. Presently the three-level plan is based on lifetime points, but I expect it to change in the future to the plan used by the Suncoast and Gold Coast.
3. Barbary Coast — Local address is probably needed(?); out-of-towners get free room and food offers instead; irregular mailing schedule, but often monthly; amounts range from $5(?) to $25. The amount of play needed and cutoff dates are unknown (at least to me.)
4. Hard Rock — Has sent monthly mailings (usually) to regular local players and on a more irregular schedule for out-of-towners; amounts have ranged from $25 to $100, but the marketing department prides itself on changing its offers so you won’t “get bored.” So each month is a surprise. I call it the “play-and-hope” bounce-back program.
5. Station Casinos — Usually sends only to locals, but I’ve heard of some out-of-towners getting them occasionally. Often you get four to six cash coupons in one monthly mailing, plus bonus-point and food coupons. They’ve just put in new system with five clearly defined and published levels, but cash amounts and specific benefits for each level are a big secret and they seem to change frequently. Station sometimes supplements its monthly mailings with other coupon mailings, but no one can figure out exactly what it takes to get them. Station Casinos does not give earned cashback. However, despite all the unknown elements, the Station bounce-back program seems to be a very good one, with more cash benefits than many casinos that also give earned cashback.
6. Fiesta Henderson (it will always be the Reserve to me) and Fiesta Rancho — Although both are owned by the Station conglomerate, they’re supposed to be a separate “brand,” with its own slot club program. From the looks of the club that was started at the Fiesta Rancho, then immediately suspended for revision, I predict that it will be very similar to the all-Station one. I know the Fiesta Henderson is trolling hard to bring old Reserve customers back, with generous “please-come-back” bounce-back cash coupons. Brad and I EACH got five $50 coupons to use one each week last month. We were in Vegas to pick up the first $300; I cried all the way home over the last $200 we had to miss because of coming back to Indiana.
I just realized that I could probably write a book about bounce-back cash — and I do talk a lot about it in Frugal 2. So — I’ll cut this off for now and start-up again next week with some more specific information about casinos bounce-back programs I have known and loved.
6/22/2001
Sometimes I feel overcome by information about Vegas and casinos and gambling. My head gets so full that it threatens to explode. My files, likewise, threaten to explode my computer; my old-fashioned filing cabinets are bursting with cardboard file folders. For example, the main problem with bounce-back cash is that it’s constantly changing. I’ve had to add, subtract, and change information since I started writing on the subject in this column just two weeks ago. But I am going to finish talking about bounce-back cash in this column. Much as I love this casino benefit, I’m getting tired writing about it — at least for now.
This week I was going to talk about more casinos that have bounce-back programs and their specifics.. However, the list is getting too long — I haven’t really added it up, but it seems to me that more casinos are using this marketing tool than aren’t. It’s rapidly becoming as common as slot club benefits — in fact, it is a slot club benefit — one that’s becoming almost as important as comps. Will the Queen of Comps turn into the Queen of Bounce-Back Cash? A little too wordy for a title, probably. But Brad and I can eat only so much free food and go to only so many free shows and attend only so many free parties. The truth is that we now earn more comps than we have the time, energy, or interest to use. But can you ever have too much money? I rest my case.
So, instead of listing details about more specific casino programs, I’m going to recommend a resource that’s one of the greatest aids in keeping you educated in the field of bounce-back cash: www.vphomepage.com. Skip Hughes and John Kelly (Lodestone) have a VP Web site full of current information and mailing lists you can join that will help you find the very best bounce-back cash programs that fit your playing style. The yearly fee to access all the features of this Web site can easily be recouped by learning just one piece of information.
Here’s an example of a recent post from one of the mailing lists:
Fiesta Henderson bounce-back program requirements as follows: $750 coin in per month = $5. (One hour of deuces is all it takes to get the minimum.) $9,000 = $10; $25,000 = $20; $35,000 = $25.
Isn’t that easier than running all over town digging out this information yourself? True, that was the skinny the day this poster found out the information. Will it be the same next month? Maybe. Or maybe not. But when it changes, you can be sure someone will post about the change.
Briefs
Now for some lighter fare: this from CBS.com Home Office Archive.
Top 10 Signs Your Kid Is Addicted to Gambling from “”The Late Show with David Letterman,”” April 5, 1995:
10. Keeps asking if he can double down on some cookies.
9. Has converted hamster’s treadmill into a crude roulette wheel.
8. For a six-year-old, he seems to know too much about jai-alai.
7. His school lunches are comped [wonder why I like this one?].
6. Knows the Vegas odds on where Waldo might be.
5. There’s a bookie sleeping in his treehouse.
4. Changed his middle name to “”The Greek.””
3. He’s nine and he’s dating a showgirl.
2. Says things like, “”Daddy needs a new skateboard.””
1. He likes to ride Amtrak.
6/29/2001
It’s time for cleaning out my Frugal Fridays files.
I’m hearing rumblings about the Coast properties looking to merge their slot clubs. No date given. Mostly questions. Will they have just one card–a la Station’s Boarding Pass? Will the Barbary Coast, a Strip casino catering to out-of-town tourists instead of Vegas locals, be included? Some say it won’t, because it’s ripe to be sold? Will all the casinos continue to offer cashback and bounce-back cash? Will they continue to offer good VP schedules that give a gambler who is willing to study hard a good shot at winning? Brad and I are looking forward to the answers, because we play a lot at all four Coast Casinos. With the Orleans a short 15-minute walk from our condo, we would love to be able to earn comps at any of the four casinos and use them as a convenient dinner choice there.
Troubled by dry air in your Vegas hotel room? Linda, an e-mail friend, offers a couple of easy suggestions for dealing with this problem: 1) Turn on shower before going to bed and open door to add humidity to room. (You can also do this to take wrinkles out of clothes. Hang them on hangers, leave the hot shower on for five minutes, turn off the shower, then keep the door closed.) 2) Fill an ice bucket with water, place a towel partially in it, and leave it near the beds so water will evaporate. 3) Place a wet towel over air duct/vents.
You can use your Station’s slot club points for a car wash at Boulder Station.
From a poster on Skip’s VP List: “There is an art school in St. Tropez and many of its students attempt to hawk their wares to tourists. As you might expect, they always try to get tourists to pay top dollar though the quality of the work can be hit-or-miss. For this reason the French sometimes use the term “”St. Tropez”” to refer to something that is high-priced, but of questionable quality. Therefore, I was a bit amused to see a buffet at the Suncoast called “”St. Tropez.”” Fortunately, despite its name the buffet is reasonably priced with decent food!”
You haven’t played very much and just plan to pay for your meal, but the buffet line seems endless? Don’t forget one of the easiest comps to get–a buffet line pass. Go ahead and ask a pit boss or slot host if you can have just a line pass. I’ve never known one to refuse–it doesn’t cost the casinos a dime. And once in a while, you might find the host in a generous mood and they’ll make out a comp for the buffet too!
Don’t forget July 1 is the deadline for booking the Frugal Gambler Cruise to get the early-bird saving of $50. See May 4th column in the Archives if you missed the details of this fun trip coming up in February.
Our smile for the week comes from FullofJokes.com:
Six guys are playing poker when Smith loses $500 on a single hand, clutches his chest, and drops dead at the table.
Showing respect for their fallen comrade, the other five complete their playing time standing up.
Roberts looks around and asks, “”Now, who is going to tell the wife?””
They draw straws. Rippington, who is always a loser, picks the short one.
They tell him to be discreet, gentle, and not to make a bad situation any worse than it is.
“”Gentlemen! Discreet? I’m the most discreet man you will ever meet. Discretion’s my middle name. Leave it to me.”
Rippington walks over to the Smith house and knocks on the door. The wife answers and asks what he wants.
Rippington says, “”Your husband just lost five hundred dollars playing cards.”
She hollers, “”TELL HIM TO DROP DEAD!”
Rippington says, “”OK.””