11/9/2004
1. If you’ve been following my writings for a while, you know I’m highly
skeptical of gambling “”systems.”” In fact, I wrote the following in More
Frugal Gambling:
“”The word system connected with gambling has a negative connotation and is often paired with the words loser and scam. However, we cannot dismiss all systems. Blackjack card-counting and video poker correct-strategy play could be called systems and they do work. Even a system that tells you the best bets in craps and which ones you should avoid would help you lose less. So, in spite of the scams you can see everywhere, there are some systems that a knowledgeable gambler can find valuable.””
One system that was presented to me recently is the new Speed Count method offered by Golden Touch Blackjack. After 45 years of analysis of the game of blackjack and volumes of writing by some of the best math minds on the subject, I must confess that I was skeptical that there could be any new, mathematically sound, blackjack system. However, Henry Tamburin invited me to attend a two-day Golden Touch Blackjack course. I know Henry personally and he has been an experienced and successful BJ player and writer about the game for 34 years, a chemist and technical manager in his “”real”” life before he retired, always giving sound math advice on casino gambling. He said he was also skeptical at first that there could be anything new under the BJ sun. But he challenged me to come to the GTB course and learn Speed Count first hand, which I did. I was surprised when Speed Count was explained and I saw good evidence that it works successfully in the casino
and can testify that it’s much easier to learn and use than traditional card-counting systems.
There’s no book or written material you can purchase that explains Speed Count, and students attending the course must sign an agreement that they will not reveal or circulate the details on Speed Count to anyone. You can only learn Speed Count by attending the hands-on two-day Golden Touch Blackjack class that’s personally taught by Henry, Frank Scoblete, and a team of instructors. Since the cost for this intensive two-day class is not trivial, I feel I should give my recommendation about its value.
Speed Count is 70%-80% as powerful as the popular High Low and KO card-counting systems. If you already know and use either of those systems accurately in the casino, you should already have the edge over the casino when you play blackjack and you don’t need to learn Speed Count. (However, its simplicity and built-in camouflage have been attracting even some of
these players.) Speed Count is great for the majority of BJ players who use basic strategy and want to use a simple counting system that they can learn and master in one weekend, one that will get them the long-term edge over the casino. Speed Count is also perfect for players who’ve found conventional card-counting systems too difficult to learn or too difficult to implement in the noise, confusion, and distractions of a crowded casino.
For more information on Speed Count, go to http://casinogambling.about.com/od/blackjack/gr/speedcount.htm.
2. Harrah’s has just issued its always-interesting annual Profile of the American Casino Gambler. The full report is at www.harrahs.com.
3. I get many questions about the Westward Ho open house advertised in various big-city newspapers. It’s a good deal with no strings attached — you attend the open house and they give you a free room offer. This is an easy comp for casino visitors who are looking for basic but clean Vegas rooms. Go to www.westwardho.com/openhouse to see the schedule of where these are being held and to register for an event.
11/12/2004
I’ve been very busy this week!! I’ve been playing in the second World Series of Blackjack. My game taping was on Tuesday and though I can’t tell you what happened, I can tell you that I’m normally accustomed to gambling when I have a lot of experience and practice under my belt, so I’m confident with my skill level. This week, however, I’ve felt like a lamb in a jungle of vicious man-eating (and woman-eating — they aren’t particular) predators. I hung onto the skirts of Lady Luck like never before.
Anyway, I turned over the column to the inimitable John Kelly.
FREE AT ANY PRICE by John (Lodestone) Kelly
“”So,”” I ask my wife, “”are you hungry?”” We’re in a casino, and living in Las Vegas hones a solid Pavlovian connection between ringing bells and one’s salivary glands.
“”I dunno,”” she says, “”Is it free?””
Well, yes and no, I explain. We’re at Texas Station, and we can always “”buy”” a couple of buffets with our Station Bucks, comps we’ve earned that are good at all Station casinos. So, it’s technically free, but it will cost us some comp dollars.
“”So it’s not free?””
Well, it is free, but wait. We’ve got a two-for-one buffet coupon. So it will cost us only half as many points.
“”So that makes it, uh, twice as free?”” she says, rubbing her temples in a vain attempt to ward off a headache.
That’s one way to put it. Of course, if we had one of the free dining coupons they often mail us, it would be totally free.
“”Totally free? Freely free?””
Yeah. Freer than free.
“”Do we have one of those?””
“”Yes, but it’s not good today. So, do you want anything to eat?””
“”Only if it’s free.””
And so it goes. The world of comps seems simple enough to the newbie: You don’t have to pay and sometimes you don’t have to wait in line, either. In reality, there are several shades of green in these grasslands that we graze:
1. COMP DOLLARS. Sometimes known as comp points or just “”comps in your account.”” These are the least “”free”” of comps, because like money, you “”earn”” these comp dollars, then “”spend”” them. Although you bank them, you’re not getting any interest and they’ll eventually expire, so misers need to loosen up and use them.
2. NOT-SO-FREE-ROOM OFFERS. Some free-room offers really are free, but many are deducted from your comp account as soon as you show up. So effectively, you’re spending your comp dollars, but at least you know what you’re getting ahead of time.
3. REAL-FREE FREE-ROOM OFFERS. These come from marketing and aren’t deducted from your comp account. They’re basically totally free, and often very valuable, but there’s a hidden cost: If you don’t continue to play there while using them, don’t expect another one.
4. COUPONS. Not the ones that are mailed to you, but something out a magazine or a voucher rack. They’re typically not very valuable, but there is no downside to using them. Unless they have your name and slot club number on them (and rarely even then), their use won’t to be traced to you, so they cannot deduct them from your account in any way.
5. MANNA FROM HOSTS. Higher rollers and long-time patrons can sometimes sweet-talk a host into using their god-like powers to grant your fondest wish without deducting anything from your account. Basically, this is a totally free comp, but you have to restrain yourself from going to this well too often, lest your mere presence cause hosts to cringe and flee.
6. LOCAL’S MAILINGS. These are the best, the tops, the totally free. Sure, some play was likely required to earn these, but like gift certificates, using them is a totally guilt-free pleasure. Good for a limited time only, use them or lose them. The only issue to consider is what to do when (as is often the case) they’re only good for $5 or so: Is it worth the trip? Probably not. The remedy is in hanging on to them until you are already there for some other reason — lunch, triple points, movies, whatever. Or you can just ignore them.
It’s a free country.
11/19/2004
Can You Afford Free? (Part I)
Last week we had a wonderfully funny guest column on “”free”” by my friend John Kelly. Then this week, I’ve been doing some holiday “”shopping,”” a “”free”” benefit given by many casinos around this time each year. So I’ve been thinking about the word.
With the usual holiday-shopping player’s club program, you earn holiday points all year in addition to your regular cashback points. Some casinos send you shopping certificates, the amount based on how much you played during the year. Sometimes you can use these holiday benefits to order items from a catalog, or redeem them for Free Play, or use them to get gift certificates for a retail store, like Lowes and Dillards. But some casinos set up a little shopping “”mall”” in one of their ballrooms, where you can actually see what items are available to “”buy”” with your points. No matter how the program works, these are extra benefits.
Actually, this bonanza of free doesn’t end when the holidays are over. It goes on year round. Anytime you get a casino comp, you’re getting something I lump into the big category of Free Stuff. We all know that casinos aren’t non-profit organizations, or at least they don’t plan to be, although occasionally one goes bankrupt — much to my surprise, in that I feel they have a license to steal. Therefore, a thinking person would logically ask: “”Is there no cost to a freebie you get from a casino?”” After all, we’ve all been raised with the warning, “”There’s no such thing as a free lunch.””
I’m called the Queen of Comps, so perhaps you think I encourage everyone to scramble for every comp they come across. Wrong! Actually, the comp system has always been a danger area and it’s becoming more so as competition heats up among all the casinos. Many are initiating freebie programs to pull in new customers or to encourage their present players to give them more of their gambling dollars.
For most players, all comps have a cost — they’re not really free!! Except for those very few players who never play in a casino unless they have a mathematical advantage, gamblers pay for their comps by playing games where they will lose over the long term. The casino’s comp policy is based on returning some of this loss to them in the form of comps or freebies so they feel better — and are more likely to come back. Some people think — wrongly, of course — that if they lose $100 they deserve $100 in comps. If you think about it, this would not make sense. Where would the casino get the money to build all these fancy buildings and pay the electric bill for all these lights, or pay their shareholders?
Fortunately — for the casino — many people don’t know about or seem not to be interested in learning about getting casino freebies. I’ve seen lots of numbers thrown around, but probably 20%-30% of casino visitors never get anything free from the casino, or at least no more than a free drink while they’re playing. Many of these players probably get free offers in the mail from a casino they’ve visited, if they’ve bothered to join the slot club, but they’ve thrown them out as junk mail.
I feel sorry for these people, but I don’t diss them. After all, the fewer comps they use, the more that will be left in the casino budget to reward those of us who do appreciate casino freebies.
Next week I’ll continue on this subject and give you some cold hard facts about comps and how to evaluate their cost and their worth. In the meantime, have a happy Thanksgiving and remember to be thankful for the most precious of all things — good friends and a loving family.
11/24/2004
We are continuing this week, as I promised, on the subject of the “cost” of a comp. For every comp you decide to work for, it’s wise to figure the cost and see if you can “afford” it.
Let’s say you play $1 slot machines. It’s impossible to know what any individual machine is set at – the casino ordered the machine from the manufacturer with a chip that gives that machine, over the long term, a certain return to the player. This return can vary some, even within one casino, and it can vary greatly from one casino to another, depending on the competition, location, etc. Ive seen figures from 91% to 99%, but a realistic average might be about 94%. That means the casino will average, over the long term, taking $6 out of every $100 a player churns through the machine.
Let’s say you play $3 on every pull and you play about 400 spins an hour. You’re cycling through $1,200 an hour. You’re going to lose on average about $72 an hour. Let’s say you play 4 hours a day – your average loss will be $288. Now let’s say the casino comps you your room for that night – one that ordinarily goes for $100. You might say you got a “free” room – and you would be right – literally. However, you actually paid $288 for it.
I’m not saying that this is the wrong thing to do. It’s a good bargain for you IF you were going to stay there (or anywhere else) anyway and pay $100 for a room – you ARE softening that $288 loss by $100. Losing $188 is better than losing $288.
Our first rule of thumb has always been that if we were going to put out the money anyway – for a meal, a room, a show, or for anything else – and we were going to gamble in a casino anyway – it’s very frugal to get as much free as the system offers to reduce our losses and/or keep as much in our gambling bankroll as we can.
The wise player benefits most by finding casino games where the loss will be smaller. Most casinos base their comp percentages on the average player’s results. Let’s say a casino figures its profit and bases its comps on the AVERAGE return of all the video poker games on the floor. Since video poker is a game where skill can give you better than average overall results, you can reduce the cost of your comps dramatically. You’ll get the same comps as the average player, but you’ll lose a much smaller amount. I spend many chapters in More Frugal Gambling showing you how to do this! And Max Rubin wrote a whole book about the subject, Comp City. My books emphasize doing this with machine play; Max’s book focuses more on the table games, especially blackjack, since it, like VP, is a skill game.
However, you might get so good at this comp game that, even though your cost may be going down, there may come a time when you can no longer afford every comp that is offered. “How could that be?” you might ask.
Next week I’ll discuss how to evaluate casino freebies so that you can more wisely decide which are really free and which you just can’t afford.