11/2/2007
Have your fire extinguishers near by when you read today’s column. I’m fiery mad at casinos! Why, you ask?
I’m so glad you asked –- although I was going to tell you even if you didn’t.
This fury of mine is not a new thing. It has flared up periodically for 22 years, ever since I started gambling in casinos. But most of the time, I’ve bitched to Brad and perhaps a few of my friends and then the flames have subdued fairly quickly. But this week I received a letter from the Gold Coast that’s one of the worst examples of misleading information I’ve ever gotten from a casino.
Before I give you the details, I need to explain that I accept the fact that casinos are profit-making businesses and can make any policy they want, as long as it isn’t against the law. They can change the way they do things, they can change machines, they can change their comp system, and they can change the way their slot club works. I may not like some of their changes, but my “job” is to adjust to them or if they’re unbearable, there are other casinos where I can go.
But I do expect casinos to give me information in a way that is clear and forthright.
Now to the Gold Coast letter. It started like this: “It is my pleasure to announce exciting news for Club Coast members.” I’m no babe-in-the-woods casino player, so I was on guard right away. I have NEVER been excited over news in a letter from a casino that has the word “excited” in the first sentence. The news that excites casinos is making money –- and it almost always entails finding new ways to get that money from me!
But now the letter tries to allay my suspicions and make me feel good by saying that they have listened to their “valued customers such as you” and that they will change from a coin-out slot club system to a coin-in one. Okay, I’ll ignore the fact that they don’t really value my play, since they’ve taken my name off their mailing list for bounce-back offers (although they seem to be able to find my address for this letter). But I do agree that a players club system based on coin-in is much easier to figure out than coin-out.
Then, in the next paragraph, they give the new slot club system’s numbers –- in bold print no less: “Every dollar of coin-in you play … not win … will earn one point. To emphasize they add, in bold again, “$1 of coin-in played = 1 point. Then they go on to say that “you can redeem 1,000 Points for $1 in cash back or comps.”
Now most players aren’t used to figuring the math of each casino’s slot club (or they don’t have the Frugal VP software which will figure it out for them automatically), so many may not realize just what this new change really means. They’re just happy that it’s coin-in rather than coin-out, because they always thought the old system was very unfair to you because they felt it was a double-whammy when you lost. (See May 19, 2000 column in the archives — lasvegasadvisor.com/frugalfridays-archive.cfm — for an explanation of why this wasn’t as severe a disadvantage as most players thought it was.)
But just in case someone was starting to think that maybe this new system might not be a good change, the letter hurried to talk about what would happen to your point balance on October 29, when the new system would be implemented: “Your point balance will be adjusted and tripled! The dollar value of your current point base will remain the same.” Yes, that was in bold just like I have it here.
Then the next paragraph waxes eloquent: “In celebration of this news and to get you off to a great start, we will enhance your fun and earning power by rewarding you with THREE POINTS (notice that it’s capitalized, italicized, AND put in bold) until January 14, 2008. That’s right, we’ll give you (back to bold and italicized) triple points for over two months! (And yes, they put in that exclamation point. I didn’t add it!)
Okay, just how did the Gold Coast (and Suncoast and Orleans)
11/7/2007
Last week I wrote a fiery retort in response to a Coast property letter that players received, one that tried all the tricks in the writing trade to mask the real facts in their recent slot club changes and to create a positive spin on cutting your cashback/comp earnings by two-thirds.
There have been many negative reactions to this tricky Coast letter, but I like the one posted by A.P. on vpFREE, reciting one of his favorite sayings: “Don’t piss on my shoes, then tell me it’s raining.”
I’m not sure if the Coast/Boyd executives read my column. But even if they don’t, I have the feeling that they’re aware of the heavy criticism on Internet bulletin boards and angry customer rumblings all over town. How do I know? Almost immediately, a flood of bonus-point days popped up at each of the Coast properties.
There have been reports from customers that they’ve been told that this new system will change again in early 2008, probably combining all the Boyd properties into one “master” slot club This may be true, since one of the sentences in that infamous Coast letter we just received reads like this: “The improvements we make at Club Coast this year will set the stage for a whole new wave of player benefits that will take place in 2008.”
God help us if they give us any more “improvements” like the present one. But let’s hope they listen to their customers, who might be just a little smarter than they think. Even those who aren’t math heads know when they are getting screwed!
You can change anything you want – that’s your right – but quit insulting us by running ads in the newspaper that say “ Club Coast – Just Keeps Getting Better”!
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And now to a different subject, one that relates to “real life,” not the artificial world of casinos. This is a recent note from my Army son-in-law, Steve, who is an Army First Sergeant leading infantry units supporting armor units around Bagdad.
“I sure have gotten backed up here doing this job. It’s almost good to be deployed in this position, because there’s just not enough time in the day to get everything done, so the time goes faster. I have been working on better time management, but there’s just not enough time in a day for me to manage. We have been doing a lot of missions lately. Just a few days ago we found the second largest EFP (explosively formed projectiles) cache in Iraq. EFPs fire a slug of molten copper that penetrates the armor on our vehicles. So I like to think we have saved many lives with this find. I am getting ready to go back out and follow up on more leads in the town tonight. It’s nice to be able to get out and catch some of these guys for a change.
“I hope to slow down in the next few days and write some thank you notes for the several packages I have received recently. These are always greatly appreciated. We guys can make a package of goodies disappear almost instantly!”
Steve will be coming home to Georgia around November 11th for 18 days of R+R. He and Angela and the kids can hardly wait. They plan to celebrate Christmas during the Thanksgiving holiday break, with Steve’s family in Ashland, Kentucky. Then Steve will be going back to “fighting the bad guys” for the second half of his 15-month deployment. When that’s over and he gets back stateside in the summer, he plans on retiring.
Brad’s and my “job” is to entertain Angela and the two grandkids here in Vegas over the Christmas holidays, trying to help them not have enough spare time to miss Steve so much!
Thanks again to everyone for their support and prayers during this worrisome time for our whole family.
11/16/2007
Now that I’ve spent two columns venting my frustration with the way the Coast casinos are publicizing their recent players club changes, I’ll settle down and give you some solid information about changes in other casinos.
Remember that every time a casino makes changes in its players club, you must re-evaluate the details and decide how they impact your personal requirements for a good place to play. Sometimes these changes necessitate crossing that casino off your list or decreasing your play there. Sometimes they may give you the opportunity to pick up a new casino where you hadn’t played in the past.
Circus Circus and Slots A Fun now have a new players club, but it’s independent of the club for other MGM Mirage properties. It’s offering a valuable double signing bonus. Everyone who joins before Nov. 30 is entered into a $5,000 drawing, and if you earn 5,000 points before the end of the year, you’ll get a $50 free-play bonus.
“Wild Card.” I love the name of this next new slot club that combines some of the Stations smaller casinos in a separate club of their own, independent from the main Boarding Pass club. This new “wild” club includes Magic Star, Barley’s, Wild Wild West, and Wildfire. (By the way, the Fiesta casinos still have their own card, but there has been talk for quite a while that they’ll be folded into the Stations Boarding Pass program, though no word on when this may happen.)
The Riviera has the new Club Riviera. You can still use your old players card, but if you get a new one, you’ll receive a randomly chosen sign-up bonus ranging from $1 to $1,000 in free play.
Hard Rock has a new 5-tiered players club called the Rockstar Club. It covers both machine and table play. It has some good features, but I was disappointed when the self-proclaimed “coolest players club in Las Vegas” dropped the earning rate. But they have been running some tournaments and drawings that have added some good value for the players. And I hope they take a lesson from the Coast properties and frequently offer some multiple-point days.
Most casinos tweak the details of their players club at times, some doing it so often that even I can’t keep track of the changes and it drives me crazy. Recent examples include some changes I like, some I don’t like, and some I would like to see implemented (for the casino executives who read this column).
1. South Point went from a coin-out system that they had when it was the South Coast to a coin-in system, a change that’s popular with players, because it makes it easier to figure. Now if they’d just get their card readers fixed so they record our session totals while we’re playing and we wouldn’t have to keep pulling out our card to see how many points we’ve earned.
2. The Palms keeps changing the qualification period for their bounce-back free play for locals, so we never know just when in the month we should play. They’ve changed data managers twice in the last three months and each new manager has his own ideas. For a couple of months they went to a more logical qualification period, figuring from the first day of the first month to the last day of the last month, taking in four complete months. This system is so much easier for players, rather than floating beginning and ending dates that could be anywhere within the month. I hope this new manager keeps to a logical schedule. (It would also be great if they’d quit going by daily average for locals, instead looking at our total play for the qualification period, like most other casinos that market to locals do. We’d like to come in and play more often, but if we don’t have time to play up to our usual average, we just don’t play at all. This seems like a no-brainer, where the casino would get more play from us if they canned their daily-average system.)
3. The Stations are trying a new mailing schedule, giving us our benefits calendar twice a month. As long as they don’t use this as an excuse to cut our benefits
11/21/2007
For the next two weeks I want to give some space to some casino games which I usually don’t mention much. My guest columnist is John Grochowski, a good friend and an expert on many different casino games, someone who can always be trusted to give solid gambling advice. He has written a series of “answer books” that cover general casino information, craps, and video poker. (You can order them at www.casinoanswerman.com.)
Next week John will answer questions about video slots and craps. This week the “answer man” tackles a question on Caribbean Stud Poker.
Q. Playing Caribbean Stud Poker, I had ace-king-8-5-2 and the card the dealer turned face up from her hand was an ace. I made the bet, because my ace matched his ace. Another guy at the table told me that was the wrong play, that you bet only if one of the other three cards matches the dealer.
The dealer didn’t qualify, so I won on my ante and just got my bet back anyway. Her next highest card was a 10 and there were no pairs. But was the other player right? I want to give myself the best chance to win, and I always thought I was doing it by betting with ace-king and a match.
A. The other player was correct. When we have ace-king in Caribbean Stud, we do a lot of splitting of hairs. One of those hair splits is that when we have ace-king and no other face cards in the hand, we bet whenever one of the other three cards matches the dealer’s face up card, and fold when there’s no such match.
Note the provision that there are no other face cards in the hand. If we have ace-king-queen or ace-king-jack, we bet if any of our five cards match the dealer’s face-up card, and with ace-king-queen, we bet even with no match if our fourth highest card outranks the dealer’s up card.
How much does all that gain us? Very little. With the strategy given here, you’ll face a house edge of about 5.23 percent of the ante or 2.56 percent of total action. According to Michael Shackelford’s outstanding Web site, wizardofodds.com, if you bet with ace-king when any of your five cards matches the dealer up card, the house edge is 5.33 percent of the ante or 2.62 percent of total action.
By far the most important component of Caribbean Stud strategy is to bet with all pairs. I’ve seen many players fold with a pair of 2s or 3s. Those aren’t necessarily winning hands, but in the long run, you’ll lose more money by folding and forfeiting your ante than you will by betting the hand and accepting that you’ll win some and lose some.
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Brad and I will be at Harrah’s in Atlantic City next weekend, Nov. 30-Dec. 4, and will be planning an informal get-together for all interested frugalites. It will probably be late afternoon on Saturday December 1. Check on my Web site, queenofcomps.com, next week for details of exact time and place. I’ll try to have the information up early, perhaps on Wednesday or before, so you can make plans to attend. Looking forward to seeing many of you faithful readers!
11/28/2007
John Grochowski on Video Slots and Craps
Q. I’ve read in your column that you advise playing all the lines on the video slots, even if it’s only one coin at a time. If I’m on a non-progressive machine and all the payoffs are multiplied by the number of coins bet on a line, might I be better off betting, for example, 15 coins on one line than one coin on each of 15 lines? Would I be better off with the higher payoffs, knowing that I wouldn’t win as often?
A. Concentrating all your play on one line means fewer trips to the bonus round. Not only do the bonus rounds contain all the fun of the video slots, but while you’re in the bonus round, you’re playing for free. You’re not making additional wagers.
Fewer trips to the bonus round means more of your time will be spent paying to play. Wagering 15 coins on one line, you will actually risk more money per hour than if you spread the same 15 coins across 15 lines.
None of that will make any difference in your long-term payback percentage. On most non-progressive video slots, that will be the same either way. You’ll get that payback in a different way if you concentrate your play on one line. That adds volatility to the game. You would have many more losing spins than winners, but no wins would be smaller than your bet. Just as on three-reel slots, you’d win big more often, but you’d risk more fast losses.
Losing fast is not a possibility I’d take lightly on a video slot. Most video slots have lower payback percentages than most reel spinners to begin with. If it’s added volatility you want, you’re usually better off betting three quarters at a time on a three-reel game than 15 nickels on one line on a video slot.
If you want all that volatility, that’s your choice. But by diminishing your trips to the bonus round and wagering more money per hour, you’ll lose more money per hour on a video slot by betting 15 coins on one line than one coin on each of 15.
Q. How much odds do they have to give you on the crap table before the player has an edge when betting pass and taking the odds?
A. Unless we’re talking about dice controllers and non-random rolls, the player never has an edge at the pass/free-odds combination. The combination has two components, the pass line bet and the free odds. The pass bet carries a house edge of 1.4%, while the free odds are an even bet. The more odds you’re permitted to take, the more the house edge on the pass portion of the combination is watered down. At single odds, the house edge on the combination is 0.8%; at double odds, 0.6%; at 10x odds, 0.3%; at 100x odds, 0.02%. The house edge gets smaller and smaller, but never disappears entirely.
In all my years of playing in casinos, I’ve seen only one proposition that had no house edge without also requiring you to take on a bet that did give an advantage to the house. That was in the mid-1990s, when one of my regular casino haunts offered a field bet that paid 3-1 on both 2 and 12. When both 2 and 12 in the field pay 2-1, the house edge is 5.56%. When the 12 pays 3-1 instead, the house edge drops to 2.78%. When both pay 3-1, the house has no edge at all — which is why you so rarely see such payoffs.
You can order John’s books at casinoanswerman.com.
And now, back to me. Check my Web site, queenofcomps.com, for details of a meet-and-great at Harrah’s Atlantic City this weekend. Actually there will be two meets –- one on Saturday Dec. 1 and one on Sunday the 2nd. The details are the same for each one: We’re meeting at Harrah’s Eden Lounge at 4 p.m., then deciding where to go to mingle and chat, depending on how many people show up. Hope to see a lot of you there!”