6/3/2005
TAKING MY OWN ADVICE
“Just ask.”
I keep all the material for each casino where we play in its own Ziplock bag — slot cards, coupons, information about hosts and comps, mailers, requirements for bounce-back, whatever. Although I try to be careful with these, I somehow lost my Harrah’s baggie. I could replace the slot cards easy enough, but there were some valuable cash coupons that I figured were gone forever. Most of these have all sorts of warnings on them that they cannot be replaced, so I just kissed that money goodbye.
However, the next time I stopped at the Rio slot club desk for another reason, I told the boothling about our loss, then asked, “I don’t suppose there’s anything you can do about this?” She went to a computer in a back room and, after some time, came back with five slips of paper –- three for Brad and two for me. We took them to the cashier and walked out with an extra $136 in our pockets!
“Always read casino mail carefully.”
I’d pretty well washed my hands of the XXX Casino. They’d taken out the good VP games we had been playing — $1 NSUD (Not-So-Ugly Deuces) –- and replaced them with a lower pay schedule. Plus, they’d been cutting down the amount of our “welfare checks” – the bounce-back bonuses we Vegas locals love so much. And then our monthly mailers arrived with four anemic coupons attached, ones that wouldn’t pay for us to brave the traffic crossing the Strip to collect. I almost pitched both into the trash without reading them, but at the last moment scanned one. Hmmm… they’re giving 3x points one day a week. Let me figure what the total play would be worth with three times the cashback, even on fairly ugly ducks. I crunched the numbers and found a good percentage play for the month, even with just a weak bounce-back bonus.
“Talk to other experienced scrambling players to get information that will help you find better plays, learn to use the slot club and comp system better, and increase your chances of leaving the casinos with more money in your pocket.”
I don’t publicize good plays in my public writing as much as I used to. 1) They’re too likely to get burned out by those players who do not use good judgment and aren’t interested in moderation tactics to make them last longer. And 2) Too many casino executives read my stuff and will pull any good play I recommend.
However, if you talk to me personally, I’m always happy to answer questions and give advice. And I’m grateful for all the expert players who share their scouting secrets with me. It’s hard for one person or couple living in Vegas to keep up on all the ins and outs of smart gambling. Networking –- in person and on the Internet –- is one of the most important keys to success. That’s why I’m at my computer many many hours a week!
6/10/2005
Casinos are determined to make me eat my words!
“”So, there’s simply no reason I can think of why you would want to leave any cashback in a slot club account beyond your current trip.””
That’s part of the answer I wrote for the June 5th Question of the Day — for which I’m called an Expert Contributor — on the homepage of this Web site. I’d been given this question some time before that date – and glibly wrote out that answer, just like I WAS an “expert.”
In case you missed it, here was the question:
Q: Is it better to cash in our cashback dollars at the end of each trip or to let them build up over time at the casino? We know that if we don’t return in 18 months, our player’s account will go dead and we’ll lose our cashback money.
After I wrote and submitted this answer, the Coast properties came out with a June promo that pays you $50 in a Visa shopping card for $40 worth of cashback points – and you can redeem your old points for this as well as currently earned ones in June!!! Murphy’s Law is alive and well in casino matters. Guess who just cashed in a bunch of stored up Coast points in March?
It’s a fact that a lot of casinos wipe out cash and/or comp points in a certain length of time, varying from the end of an out-of-town trip to perhaps two or three years. This is not always published in the slot club literature; it can happen whether you frequently play in that casino or not at all, and you’re usually not sent a letter warning you of this ominous event. Your slot club account can disappear when casinos go bankrupt, get sold, are imploded, or simply change to a new system.
All that being said, it’s usually wiser to keep your slot club account cleaned out, especially if you don’t live near the casino and/or aren’t able to get to it at short notice. If the casino is one where you play frequently and if you make an effort to keep very alert for slot club news and changes, you might be safe in letting your points accumulate just in case a juicy promotion comes up where you can take advantage of a lot of stored points.
Although I’ve now been told that these promotions do pop up now and then, we’ve belonged to casino slot clubs for 17 years and this is the first one we’ve ever come across where we wished we hadn’t cashed in our points so often. However, considering all the interest we’ve earned by banking cashback, we might still be ahead anyway. So we collect our cashback fairly often. Hey, we’re getting to the age that we don’t even like to buy too many green bananas!
On a side note, I should mention Question of the Day (QoD), which, again, is found here at LasVegasAdvisor.com. This is by far the best question-and-answer format on Las Vegas that I know of — in print, online, anywhere. I can tell you that Huntington Press has hired an employee who’s dedicated to doing nothing but QoD, and the research that goes into these answers is nothing less than awesome.
Note that the day the question is posted, anyone can come and read it. But as soon as it moves into the archive at 12:01 the next day, it’s available only to members of the Las Vegas Advisor. So I highly recommend that everyone return to the homepage here every day to check out the question and answer. The range of subject matter and the depth of information posted are well worth the few minutes it takes.
6/17/2005
By Guest Columnist, John (Lodestone) Kelly
Casinos don’t care about you and me, and with good reason. We’re low rollers. Small fry. Peasants. Pond scum. So I tend not to waste my worries on the whys and what-fors concerning their indifferent treatment of most customers. But surely they take pains to lavish their $100 players with soothing, tranquil, elegant surroundings. Right? Wrong! My pursuit of the best possible play sometimes takes me into the home of the high and mighty, and I’m appalled to find out that the other half lives much the same as you and me. My least-loved high-roller areas:
NEW YORK-NEW YORK
Located near the front entrance of the casino, the layout funnels the confused and the drunk into what appears to be the most direct route into the casino. In reality, they are wandering into the high-roller salon, and a dead end. Thus, the following scenario is repeated about once every 30 seconds:
“It’s THIS way guys! THIS way!!!” says the lead drunk, typically resembling “Cousin Eddie” from the movie Vegas Vacation. At least one member of his entourage will elbow every high roller in the head on the way in.
“NO. WAIT. IT’S A DEAD END!!! $#!+!”. The party now stumbles to a halt, confused. They mill and gawk.
“HEY! THIS FELLER’S PLAYING A DOLLAR MACHINE!” They gather to watch me play and root loudly.
“HEY THIS FELLER’S PLAYING A HUNDRED DOLLAR MACHINE!!” They lose interest in me, much to my relief. They elbow me in the head on their way to disturb a whale.
While this layout is unfortunate, it’s readily remedied. Any sort of red velvet rope would gently guide all but the most navigationally challenged customer into the main casino. I, and many other patrons, have suggested something of the sort to the slot attendants, who all shrug and reply that management likes it this way. Why? I can only guess that they believe that displaying $100 machines to newbies will embolden them to bet more than they had planned. A possibility, I suppose. But consider some of my more intimate encounters with the masses as a result of this phenomenon:
1) “I sense an aura of good fortune that SURROUNDS you!” declared one crystal-waving young woman and her bearded robed boyfriend. I was about $800 down at that point and decided to call it a day.
2) “Watcha doing? You wanna party?” said a provocatively dressed gum-chewing young woman. I went to go play quarters with the wife.
3) “Excuse me sir. Where’s the latrine?” The clothing and hairstyle of the young man strongly suggested that he was no longer in the service. I directed the vet to the nearest men’s room and departed.
PALMS
Off-the-beaten path and nicely appointed, but marred by the favorite pastime of Palms employees, gossiping about other Palms employees. I know way too much about the personal lives of the Palms staff.
RAMPART
Luxurious and reasonably isolated, but they plopped the only cashier on that entire side of the casino right in the middle of it. So every coupon-bearing looky-loo passes time in line commenting on your play.
SUNCOAST
Location, location, location. Its location, right in the middle of the casino, in front of the cashier’s cage, ensures plenty of foot traffic. Its cul-de-sac layout ensures that none of this foot traffic will readily reach their destination.
FIESTA
Again, right in the middle of everything. At least there are no dead ends, so there are fewer elbows and naughty words.
So who gets it right? The best high-roller area that I can think of is the Venetian’s. Secluded, roomy, featuring its own restrooms and a break-room with free munchies and refreshments. Sure, the free munchies cost them an extra $100 a day, but some of the whales they land bet $500 per hand. Frankly, if I were running a casino, that sort of player would be receiving a steady supply of champagne, peeled grapes, massages, dancing girls, and any and all sexual favors upon demand, as long as they remained s”
6/24/2005 “If you’re planning a trip to Vegas sometime in 2005, or if you live here, and don’t earn comps for every penny you spend in a casino, you still might find good value in the 2005 editions of the following coupon books. Each of the Web sites given contains a descriptive list of the coupons, so you can evaluate the total worth to you before you order.
Entertainment
This is a coupon book for Las Vegas and more than 150 other major metro areas, including Reno-Tahoe. The 2005 book is free when you order the 2006 book – or you can buy it alone for $10 plus shipping at http://www.entertainment.com. The coupons in the 2005 book don’t expire until November 1. (My thanks for this tip to the friendly posters at http://www.vegas4locals.com, another good place to look for coupons and useful information about Vegas. I especially like their huge collection of the best free things to do when you’re in town.)
The American Casino Guide 2005 Edition
This guidebook provides gobs of good gambling information as well as coupons. Go to http://www.americancasinoguide.com.
The Pocketbook of Values (POV)
This coupon package, which comes with a one-year membership to the Las Vegas Advisor, is worth more than $3,434 with optimal use. An online subscription is $37; if you want the hard-copy newsletter mailed to you, the subscription costs $50. Order at http://www.lasvegasadvisor.com.
All three of these books contain at least one coupon that could recoup your total initial cost; everything else can be gravy. (I never use every single coupon I get!) And the first two now provide you with a single card you need to present to show that you own the book, so you no longer need to lug the entire book along, and can just bring the coupons you want. You do need to bring the entire POV book with you, but it’s small enough to tuck in a purse or pocket.
And here are a couple of the books about Vegas I’ve been reading lately — when I take a few spare minutes from writing my own!
1,000 Naked Truths by Norm Clarke, Sin City’s ace insider and Las Vegas Review-Journal gossip columnist. 1,000 Naked Truths gives you more interesting–and unknown–Vegas facts per square inch than any other book about Vegas I’ve ever read. I thought I knew a lot about Vegas, until I read this book. Norm covers the clever, the culinary, the classy, and the kinky. It’s a great book to keep beside the “”throne”” in the “”reading room”” in your house. Order at http://www.stephenspress.com/booklist.html.
Neon Nuptials, The Complete Guide to Las Vegas Weddings by Ken Van Vechten. I love to pick up this book and read a page or two when I have just a few minutes and need a smile–or a big belly laugh–although I really don’t actually need the information for any upcoming weddings. Put it with the above book in your “”reading room””–and find out more unusual and fascinating facts about the most weird and wonderful city in the world.
And now, I’d like to continue on a subject I talk about periodically: balance in one’s life, even for a gambler who lives in Las Vegas. For us, this is home, not Sin City, which carries over to my reading material. I have to read about Vegas to write about Vegas, but I have an entirely different book list for my inner spiritual self. At the top of that list, and a book I always have by my bedside, is How to Know God by Deepak Chopra. Deepak is my favorite author. For one thing, he’s a model for me as a writer: I can only dream of packing so much meaning into one sentence. But I admire him most of all for his words that strike my heart so forcibly, about a God who is not bound by rigid denominational