My, my, I am in shock. After complaining in this spot for 19 years (“Frugal Fridays,” that preceded this renamed “Frugal Vegas,” started in April, 2000!), many casinos must have got together to decide to shut me up and take my advice and put out their monthly promotional material early so we players could plan ahead. It’s only April 27th and I have already received many of my May mailings, including Stations, Boyd, South Point, and Silverton. Flip my calendar page – yes, I still use a hard-copy one – and let the planning begin!
In addition to that good news, I am seeing an increase in opportunities to find good-value plays. Just when many of us thought that the chance for successful casino gambling was close to complete disappearance, new promotions have been popping up like daffodils in the spring. Now don’t get me wrong. This is not happening in every casino in every area of the country. It will be more likely in areas where there are clusters of competing casinos, certainly in Las Vegas and Reno and perhaps in Atlantic City and Mississippi. However, those intense scouters are sometimes finding play gems all over the United States, especially in the rapidly-expanding list of native American casinos.
In this blog I mainly cover Vegas opportunities since Brad and I mostly play locally and thus receive those valuable monthly mailers that keep us informed. I know that out-of-towners usually don’t get those mailings, so I try to share details that they might not ordinally know. But everyone everywhere should scour the Internet to find information for the casinos near them or those to which they could travel. Check out the casino websites that often give valuable details. Gambling forums are another useful resource where I often find details about a promotion that I had not run across myself.
Holidays (in May -Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, and Memorial Day) are often a time when you can find special events, with gambling promotions like multiple points. Check casino websites and Scot’s bonus-point list. And look for just-for-fun ideas, like this Cinco de Mayo party:
The Plaza Hotel & Casino is planning downtown Las Vegas’ biggest party to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. The Plaza’s Cinco de Mayo party is free to attend and will be under the bright lights of the property’s iconic dome beginning at 7 p.m. on Saturday, May 4. The outdoor party will be feature a variety of entertainment, including Lucha Libre Wrestling, a Mariachi band and Folklorico dancers. A DJ will also be at the dome party spinning top radio hits with a mix of Latin music. The Plaza will again have downtown’s largest piñata as well as authentic food and drinks specials will be available all night long, including street tacos from Zaba’s Mexican Grill, Margaritas, Micheladas, Modelo beer and shots of Patron Tequila.
SOUTH POINT
A special note on this May promotion below, one that South Point has run in the past. It is different from another “spin” one they sometimes have in which you spin right on your machine. This one, after you earn the necessary points, requires that you go to a kiosk near the players club desk to do the spin. It seems that this is not a regular random spin, that is, anyone can get any one of the listed prizes. From past experience, it seems that “bigger” players will more regularly get the better prizes. Who knows how they judge the player levels, but it does seem that your results depend on some unknown factors but the results are connected to your individual play.
Beginning Monday, May 6 through Thursday, May 30, South Point Casino hosts a $500,000 Swipe, Spin ‘N Win every Monday through Thursday. Casino club card holders who earn 300 same day base slot points on any slot or video poker machine between 3 a.m. and 11 p.m. are eligible to swipe and spin the wheel on the designated kiosk for a chance to go home with special prizes. Prizes include $50 free play, $25 free play, $25 resort gift card, $15 free Play, 5,000 bonus points, $10 Off Any Restaurant, a complimentary breakfast or lunch buffet, 2,500 Bonus Points, $5 off any restaurant and 1,500 bonus points. All prizes won will expire on Thursday, June 6.
STATIONS
The Station properties continue with many multiple-point days and other promotions, but, as usual, you have to be very careful to check the specifics for each property. Check the logos under each promotion when you read your mailer, when you go to the website, and especially if you see a newspaper ad. Some are for 7 properties, but exclude Fiestas which often have their own promos.
The Palms is still excluded from many of the regular Station promos, but sometimes run different promotions on their own. And here is a phenomenon that has not been regularly done in the past. Usually casinos announce a promotion that starts the first of the month and runs all month. In April the Palms announced a multiple-point promo mid-month. I call this a we-better-do-something-fast-because-we don’t-have-many-customers promo.
GOLD COAST
That same type of promo described above showed up at the Gold Coast in mid-April, long after our regular mailers came in the mail. And it was a surprisingly good promo – 11x every Sunday through Thursday. Many of us long-time Gold Coast players had bemoaned the extremely negative changes in their players club system and had noticed the customer drop in recent months. This mid-month promo seemed like a desperate attempt to pump back up the customer count.
And now in our May mailer that same promotion shows up as well as the royal bonus promo being every day, not just on the weekend as it was in April. Sounds like casino executives may be reaching some of the same conclusions that we players have been talking about: some casino cuts and downgrades will lead to customers not just complaining but walking away!
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So – how can we keep informed about possible future mid-month promotional starts or those that are only publicized in mailers? We learned about some of these in the past only by ads in the Review-Journal. I will try to post the details of any I see there for those who don’t read this local Vegas newspaper. Others we learned about because vpFREE forum posters were good enough to share that information.
There is a real problem, especially for Boyd properties, in knowing which promos are only for those who get the monthly mailers –that is, those who have a local address. An example is May’s Gold Coast Sun-Thurs 11x, which is in our mailer. Scot’s list mentioned above is usually an accurate source since he gets his information straight from corporate and should only include promotions that are open to the general public. However, once in awhile it seems that he gets inaccurate info from them. So again, I try to post changes/corrections when I find them out so out-of-towners will know about those promotions in which they are eligible to participate.
We only get a Gold Coast mailer so don’t know as much about promotions that might or might not be going on in other Boyd properties. Would appreciate input in the “Comments” about this.
Boyd rules still confusing. We swiped after one tier credit on Wed. at 4pm., got the free breakfast or lunch buffet, fortunately it said valid 24 hours. This contradicts the same day use rule. Also, they have another promo for after 5 tier credits-pick a prize but even the experienced senior rep at rewards center did not know what I could choose from. She did know the $10 free play after spending $20 was not included. Being Ruby and not getting points and no clue how much $$$ in, to get a tier credit is lousy. But since we get no mailers and freebies from Station and others any more(only put in $1k in VP a month) it’s easy to hit Orleans as only 1 mile away plus will be Sapphire in a few months.
Thank you for your comments on Young at Heart and Boyd Gaming. You have been a good advocate for those of us that do not live in Vegas, only visit a couple times a year, and are not worthy of a 50 cent stamp to be included in monthly promotions. What you are doing is greatly appreciated.
Free parking at the Wynn! A trend perhaps¿ B-)
Still amazes me that anyone this public about being an AP can still play at any of these places. Can’t even remember how many years ago they banned me (and most of the AP I know)
Let’s not kid ourselves, there are no values in Las Vegas like those 15-20 years ago and before. Even adjusting a $4.99 prime rib (16 oz in 1993) complete dinner for inflation does not even put it in the ballpark of today’s prices. I’m sorry to be so pessimistic, but to smart, value-minded gamblers, Las Vegas is but a fun memory of its former “adult playground” self. It is now for the rich, those who act rich and tourists who don’t mind blowing $300 for a standard hotel room and $20 for a very average deli sandwich. I have given those large Vegas corporations the last dollar I ever will. I guess it’s on to Reno or Mississippi.
I’m an out of towner that plays a lot of video poker. I visit Vegas at least four times a year. I’m finding it harder than ever to find casinos that don’t disregard video poker players. Not only are the highest rewards skewed to slot players, there tier point promotions often exclude video poker. I’d really like to hear from anyone else having this experience as well. And perhaps steer me to the more generous casinos.
Boyd Gaming just announced record earnings. Q1 Earnings Call presented by President & Chief Executive Officer, Keith Smith, stated in a conference call”we had a great start to the new year. Aliante all time record results. Orleans best results since 2005. Gold Coast holding its own in spite of remodels at Palms and Palace Station.” He also stated Eastside Cannery remains under performing. I didn’t read anything about other Vegas Boyd casinos.
Great news on the current LV promotion scene, Jean! As an out-of-towner, I find your blogs quite helpful for planning visits. South Point’s prize promotion is hard to figure out, but know this – as an out of towner, myself and a few other infrequent visitors have won the better prizes of ($25, $50) freeplay for the minimal pts required. A few years ago, even at SunCoast, I was quite surprised to win $100 in freeplay during one of those ’10pts’ play pre-Boyd changes to tier system. So give it a try if you are in the area anyways (speaking as an out-of-town) visitor. *It certainly is better than playing minimally when there is NO promotion going on…..part of the fun for me is planning my visits around promotions, certainly hsd kept my ‘vacation’ costs down! 🙂 Martin San Diego.
The Boyd properties are a real enigma. The downtown properties used to be one of the most generous casino properties around. But not anymore. I don’t see the logic in their current strategy unless it is to reward the penny slot players and screw the video poker players. I am exclusively a craps and video poker player at their properties, wagering over $1M per year in “at risk” bets. But my level of rewards and multipliers are far less that what they used to be. I guess only time will tell if Boyd’s strategy is a good one — if their profitability remains good or even increases, then what they are doing is right and us video poker players can go to hell.
jean,
do you know of any single deck $10 minium BJ games in Vegas?
we like the game in Laughlin, at the Riverside.