Taxing Issues for Gamblers

Posted on December 12, 2020 by queen of comps

I just got a nice letter from the IRS saying no, I didn’t really owe the $6,122 that on Feb. 24 they had said I did after they looked at my 2018 return.  Thank you, IRS,  for the early Christmas present!

For once, this was not a gambling issue about which I had to “educate” them, as I have had to do so many years in the past. This time I had to explain to them their own rules about taking money out of a 529 for granddaughter Kaitlynn’s last year in her master’s program.  But I used my experience as a teacher of high school slow learners, wrote a simple but not aggressive letter — using no big words — to explain why their own tax codes did not support their position.  It took almost 9 months, but some human finally read my letter and decided that I was right. Another victory in my column!

But this got me thinking that tax season will be coming up before we know it, and we will have to deal with it in spite of election turmoil and a pandemic taking much of our brain space. 2020 will be a strange year for Brad and me taxwise, the first time in 30+ years that we won’t be working with gambling figures.  But many of you will have to deal with them, and I want to steer you to some resources that might help you with possible thorny tax problems.

Russell Fox, a super knowledgeable tax preparer I highly recommend and a major contributor to the last edition of my Tax Help for Gamblers, writes a very useful blog for gamblers, “Taxable Talk,” tackling the perplexing issues you might face when dealing with the IRS. Recently he discussed in detail the new IRS memorandum dealing with the question of whether Daily Fantasy Sports is gambling, a subject that had been a gray area and subject to personal and profession interpretation since its inception.

Also, I recommend  a helpful article by Russ called “GAMBLING AND TAX GOTCHAS.”   This is an extremely good review of possible tax trouble spots for any gambler, some of which you might not be aware since they are new for 2020.  You also might find it helpful to go to Russell’s home page and start browsing – he has great information and money-saving tax advice not just for your gambling issues but for all parts of your financial life.  And you might like to check out the recent “Gambling with an Edge” podcast, where Russ answers many questions that listeners have asked.

 

Posted in Taxes | 4 Comments

A Welcome Surprise Pop-Up Promotion

Posted on November 27, 2020 by queen of comps

I hope you all had a safe and blessed family Thanksgiving get-together, following the CDC guidelines.

We wondered how we could do that.  Legacy Reserve, the senior facility where we are now living in an independent apartment, is not on lockdown as many are around the country.  However, they strongly recommended that we not visit family this year for traditional Thanksgiving reunions – and if we did, quarantine for 14 days when we returned to our apartments. We were definitely on board with the concept that we needed to help keep all our senior neighbors safe.

However, our daughter and son-in-law, Angela and Steve, figured out a safe plan for our family.  A few days ago, they planned a big bonfire in their woodsy back yard.  It was a beautiful slightly cool evening, cozy around the fire. The 3 great-grandkids love to hear ghost stories and gobble down hotdogs and chips.  And everyone – adults and kiddies – decided that roasting wieners and making s’mores out in the fresh air was just as good – and maybe better – than a turkey dinner around the dining room table!

Here is a smoky picture of the fun:

I even learned a new recreational skill – axe-throwing!

——

And now for a good casino-promotion alert, something I love to share.  For the last month or so, I’ve been talking about how it pays for players who want to find good-value opportunities to check as many resources as they can. Here is one I found, even though I’m far away from Vegas.

South Point Casino is extending their November gift card promo through December 13th.  Get the details on their website.

And you could have learned of it – wherever you are – if you had joined the new vpFREE-Archives.  (I gave the instructions for signing up in my last blog.)

Keep scouting, my dear friends!

Posted in Casino Promotions, Family News, Health, Holiday Greetings, South Point Casino, Video Poker | 7 Comments

More on Resources

Posted on November 13, 2020 by queen of comps

After 3 weeks of unpacking and organizing, we are finally settled in our new home at the beautiful just-opened senior-living Legacy Reserve. We are enjoying the nice warm swimming pool, floor-to-ceiling windows that make us feel we are outside among the tall Georgia pines. An urgent medical issue of Brad’s popped up and a driver immediately took us to the doctor’s office, then waited as we filled an antibiotic prescription at CVS.  And the dinner menu for tonight in the dining room is for rib-eye, baked potato, and Brad’s favorite dessert, pecan pie.  Life is good!

Now I have more free time to continue the discussion about techniques that we would be using if we were still in Vegas and wanting to play with an advantage.  And the first thing I would have to say is that this would be an extremely difficult situation, even for someone like us with our 35 years of casino experience. Many casinos are not even trying to fool gamblers anymore with doubletalk; they are actually specifically mentioning  in some of their news releases their reduced marketing efforts – easily translated –  that you shouldn’t expect as much free play as in the past. Here’s an example from Boyd Gaming, reported by CDC Gaming Reports:

By tightening operating and marketing costs while managing a varied casino portfolio under COVID-19 restrictions, Boyd Gaming was able to show positive cash flow during the summer months. CEO Keith Smith said some of the operational changes Boyd instituted are expected to remain in place for the long-term. “The world had changed, and we had to change with it,” Smith said Monday during the company’s third quarter conference call. “We have established a more efficient and more focused business model over these past several months, and we are determined to sustain higher margins going forward. Today is our new normal.”

I’m sure their “focus” is not to make the advantage player happy.

Anyone who is trying to look for an advantage will have to be VERY flexible. You may not be able to play as much as you would like.  You might have to play at different times during the day from your past routine.  You might have to choose new casinos that aren’t as convenient as your old favorites. You might not be able to play the games you really like, and you might have to learn the strategy for new choices.

In my last blog I talked about the need for intense scouting to look for plays that aren’t generally known. There are going to be very few casinos anymore where there would be many “good” opportunities from which to choose. Your job will be to find the very few “nuggets.”  A recent example is the just-opened Circa.  One reader commented, “You didn’t miss out on anything at Circa, 6/5 everywhere.”

I checked vpFREE2.com and found that there were a few better games.  And I wouldn’t be surprised if there weren’t a few “nuggets” that some scouts found but not sharing that information. And remember, that not everyone has the same standard for a good play.  Some not only will check out players club benefits to pump up the EV of a game(vpFREE2 helps with that info too) and stay alert for promotions but might play a while to see whether the comp benefits might make it a good value for them.  They also might check on some of the not-so-good games to see if there was a progressive that might sometimes put them into the good category. I used to love when someone posted on a forum that there were no good plays at Casino XXX.  Perhaps that information was accurate, but I knew that if I found something good there that it might stay my secret longer!

If you want a list of resources I recommend, click on the tab labeled “Jean Scott in the Media/Good Websites/Software” at the top of my blog page.  There is help there for both recreational and advantage players, for both high rollers and low rollers, and for all kinds of casino visitors  who want to stretch their bankroll for more entertainment time.

One important note about vpFREE on that list.  It will be moving to a new home after Dec. 15, when Yahoo Groups shuts down.  So here is the note from the administrator about how you can join it at the new location:

How to join vpFREE-Archives using a free Google Gmail address:

1. You can get a free Google Gmail account (if you don’t already have one) at: https://tinyurl.com/y75ms8mr

2. Go to: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/vpfree-archives

3. Click on “Join group” and then follow the prompts to set up your membership.

How to join vpFREE-Archives using any email address other than Gmail:

1. Go to https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/vpfree-archives

2. Click on “Subscribe to this group” and then follow the prompts to set up your membership.

3. If you join with a non-Gmail account, you’ll only get access to posting and reading posts via email and won’t be able to post or read messages on the website.

If anyone cannot successfully join the group, send a private email to me at [email protected]  and I will add you directly.  I don’t see any provision for changing your email address after you join, except unsubscribing and then rejoining with the new email address.

And now, until I type some more rambling thoughts here again, try to concentrate on some of the good things in your life that you can be thankful for this Thanksgiving season – in spite of the fact that we all can’t wait to have 2020 behind us.

Some of you might remember my talking about little grandson Zachary some 20+ years ago and how much fun it was when he and his sister Kaitlynn came to visit us in Vegas and we took them to all the kiddie places, like Circus Circus.  How time flies. Here is a capsule view of what brings us such joy these days – the 3 greats that Zachary and his wife Taylor have presented to us – and #4 expected in April will add to that joy!

Posted in Advantage Play, Boyd Gaming, Casino Promotions, Comps, Family News, Gambling Resources, Slot Clubs, Video Poker | 2 Comments

Another Major Move

Posted on October 31, 2020 by queen of comps

Whew! Just catching my breath after another move, hopefully the last one for a good long time!

During the last month, medical issues for both Brad and me necessitated some major decisions.  First, my eyesight – a decrease in peripheral vision and space perception – was making me a menace on the highway, so I had to give up driving. Brad’s mental and physical condition is continuing to decline and I needed to give more attention to his needs. And seemingly good timing, a new senior-living facility just opened not too far from family – with wonderfully frugal pre-opening prices!

So here we are moved in – though not fully unpacked yet – in an independent-living apartment at Legacy Reserve at Old Town, with many helpful benefits included.  Breakfast and a gourmet dinner every day. Housekeeping once a week and maintenance whenever needed.  Free transportation to stores and doctor appointments. And our favorite perk – a large heated indoor swimming pool available 24/7 – which we enjoy most days.

We love it here.  We are on the ground floor with a patio facing the large courtyard square, the fountain right outside our door. Lots of opportunities for group socialization, and we are making friends quickly.

Taking a hayride during the Fall Festival put on by the employees of our new home at Legacy Reserve.  They do a good job of making Brad smile.

—

There is another section in the building with assisted-living apartments and a separate locked memory-care unit.  Hopefully, we won’t need those, but they’re options if we need either or both in the future.  With no cooking or transportation responsibilities, right now I have the time and energy to take good care of Brad.  However, VA can provide home health visits if in the future Brad needs more care than I can presently give. I am learning to take one day at a time!

I still plan to share gambling and casino information in this blog space as long as I have something helpful to say; however, it will be on a more irregular schedule. If you want an email when I do post, go to the LVA website and on the right side of my blog, you can sign up for post notifications.

Today, I want to continue to expand on the same subject I covered in my last blog – looking for information resources.  Although looking in books, magazines, and Internet gambling websites and forums is useful, there is nothing like being eyes-on in the casino.  If we still lived in Vegas, we would have to be scouting even more than in the past.

Obviously, if there was a new casino opening, I would want to check every VP machine in the place.  I would be at Circa today!  And I would check back many days after!  If I read that a casino had a new players club – like the Sahara recently – or a casino modified the benefits – like the Stations did post-Covid closures – I would check the new details.  Then I would check the VP games to see if there were any that, combined with the players club benefits, might become a good play or had fallen out of that category. Sometimes when there are changes in the club, some of the games have been changed also. Also, if you hear that a casino has new management, new executives are apt to make new changes.

You might argue that you can find out all this information on the Internet.  Yes, you should check online first, like at https://www.vpfree2.com/ which not only gives the “good games” but also players club information.  But although this website does a pretty good job of keeping current, sometimes the information is not complete.  And occasionally there is a too-good opportunity that scouts just don’t want to share with the general public.

Casino scouting is a fine art – and very time-consuming. Old hands at VP often make up teams, with individuals assigned a more doable number of casinos to check out.  Then they all share their information.  This is often done by those that chase progressives since they need constant updates.  But it also works for those who are looking for good opportunities, what I call mining for “gold nuggets” of information that the general public doesn’t have.

I wrote a whole chapter on scouting in my book Frugal Video Poker, listing scores of hints on how to ferret out good games. Although some of the specifics in this book are outdated, it has a wealth of still-usable information for those who are new to video poker or just wanting to up their play and need more help.

A last note:  Welcome to all of you who have become  “friends”  on my Jean Scott Facebook page.

Posted in Advantage Play, Book Recommendation, Gambling Resources, Health, It's Personal, Medical, Slot Clubs, Stations, Video Poker | 21 Comments

Still Here

Posted on October 16, 2020 by queen of comps

Yes, I did finish the autobiography – finally!  But many of you had assumed – feeling sad it seemed – that would be the end of the blog.

Well, I am still here.  Anthony has said I would have a space here as long as I wanted to fill it.  I love to write and I love to “teach.” I especially love to write about gambling and give information that I think might help players lose less money and thus stretch their bankroll in a casino.

So as long as I feel I can contribute helpful hints I will continue to use this space.  This might not be on a regular schedule.  I haven’t wanted to talk about any negative details of Brad’s and my situation; I try to concentrate on the good times.  But the fact is that Brad’s physical and mental health is steadily going downhill.  His failing memory and cognitive skills require major caregiving.  I am so happy to give this but it has become a full-time job, with less free time for me.  However, I will post whenever I can, hopefully several times a month.

One of the subjects I want to discuss comes from a question I have received from several readers: “What would you be doing these days if you and Brad hadn’t retired and were still living in Las Vegas?

That is a timely question indeed, and I do think about it often. I still continue my long-time habit of reading numerous articles about gambling and Vegas happenings.  I read everything here on the LVA website where I can get important up-to-the-minute news.  I still check all the forums posts and lists of casino promotions. I have even communicated with players and given them information that I found out while in far-away Georgia that they did not know while they were on the ground in Vegas.

If I were still living in Vegas, I would be even more of an information sponge than I was when I lived there in the past.  It always amazed me when I talked to seemingly skilled players in the past and asked if they had read a certain article or a particular blog or seen a good hint on a forum and they would say that they didn’t have time for all that.  Perhaps, back in the days when good gambling opportunities abounded, your time might have been better spent actually playing than wading through forums or spending time searching on the Internet but that time is long gone. Smart gambling is always a process.  I never felt I “knew it all.” I was always looking for a gold nugget as I explored many mines, one that I could use to make a nice profit.

I will be giving more answers in future blogs to what smart gamblers might be doing these days.  I have a tendency to slant my information toward the advantage player, especially those in video poker because they need the help desperately.  But if you have always been in or recently dropped down to the next category, my information may help you too.  I call this category the Doing the Best That I Can.  You know all about EV and advantage play and you want to make a profit.  But you also love the entertainment factor, so you will play for fun even if it is in a negative situation.  However, even if you have the bankroll to play some recreationally, that bankroll may not cover as much time as you would like.  I have you as well as the strictly advantage player in my mind as I write in this blog, and I would feel very good if you can use some of my hints so you could extend your casino fun time.

Before I sign off today, I would like to point you to my Jean Scott Facebook page.  I try to keep this blog more Vegas and gambling centered, but if you want to keep up with Brad and me in our non-gambling retirement life, ask to be my friend at https://www.facebook.com/queenofcomps.   I will never have too many friends!

Posted in Advantage Play, Bankroll, Gambling Resources, It's Personal, Medical, Q+A, Video Poker | 15 Comments

35 Years of Advantage Play – Part 21 – Summary

Posted on October 3, 2020 by queen of comps

Now to conclude this series, I want to answer a couple of questions that sent me into some deep thinking:  What were the main secrets of your success?  Do you think luck played a big part in this success?

On that first question, my answer to anyone wanting me to give them my “secret” to be a winning gambler would be, “There is no one secret – no silver bullet of 25 words or less.  I gave thousands and thousands of secrets in the 5 books I wrote.”

But perhaps what many people may want are basic personal characteristics, not specific techniques.  So here are some of the general fundamentals that I think contributed to Brad’s and my successful casino gambling.

First, we had the passion.  Although we always enjoyed the recreational aspect of gambling, our long-term goal was not to lose money doing it.

Then, we learned that if we worked hard, we wouldn’t just not lose, but we could make money while we were having fun. I’ve said this over and over – successful gambling is NEVER easy.  This meant continuous study and constant research.  Most of the 35 years we played, I spent almost as much time looking for helpful information than we actually spent at a VP machine.   I also spent a lot of time communicating with other players. We never belonged to a formal information- exchange group, but I was always consulting with old friends and happy to make new ones with whom to share helpful casino details.

Then I was an organized detail person, reading every word of every casino mailing we ever received.   I spent hours making a calendar schedule that would allow us to make the best use of our time with the best plays.

Next, we were very disciplined. Yes, sometimes we wanted to play a favorite game, but another one was a much better play. Yes, we went through many painful losing sessions, but we never went on tilt and change to a lower-EV game.  If there was no good play at a particular time, we would choose another activity – a movie perhaps  or back home to watch TV;  we never played just to be playing.

Now for the question of luck.  Yes, we were lucky that we were able to do our early casino life during that wonderful golden period when gambling opportunities were abundant.  We were lucky that our health held out to let us continue until a ripe old age.

But perhaps the luckiest thing was that Brad and I found each other 36 years ago and found he and I were on the same page of life.  We have very different personalities and strengths, but that worked to our benefit.  I was the “secretary” who liked to stay at home a lot and do paperwork preparation and the organization, and Brad loved being in a casino as much as possible.  Brad always said I was the “general” who made up the war plan and he was the faithful “soldier” who went out to fight on the battlefield.

Back many years ago when he had his heart attack, the doctor suggested he drink a glass of wine every day.  So, on a morning when I was staying home in our office to work on my computer, I would give him his instructions for the day: Go to Casino A and pick up free play, go to Casino B and play 10,000 points on xxx machine and don’t forget to order a glass of wine from the cocktail waitress, and then stop at Casino C and use a food coupon to bring home our dinner.  Brad would laugh as he went out the door, “I bet I’m the only husband in the world that a wife sends him out in the morning to drink and gamble!”

Posted in Advantage Play, Brad Stories, Gambling Resources, Health, Luck, Memories, Q+A, Video Poker | 13 Comments

35 Years of Advantage Play – Part 20 – Q+A

Posted on September 18, 2020 by queen of comps

Some of the questions that are coming in are obviously from players fairly new to casino gambling or at least new to video poker.  And I am glad for this newbie interest as many of us old-timers are slowly fading away.  However, some of their questions require answers that are too long to cover in a blog.  Casinos have so many different policies and there are so many exceptions to the rules that explanations need to be lengthy and full of details.  Actually, these types of questions were the reason for me writing 5 books over the years!

Take the subject of tipping.  Someone asked me to discuss tipping as you move up in stakes.  I wrote a whole 15-page chapter on the subject in my book More Frugal Gambling plus 4 more pages in the chapter about hosts, called “Rewarding Your Host.”

And questions about our experiences with hosts?  It took me two long chapters in the aforementioned book to discuss the ins and outs of that extremely complex subject. In that same book is a chapter if you are puzzled about casino couponing or bankroll management.

If you need a beginner’s guide to playing video poker, you could pick up Frugal Video Poker; and if you need help in looking for good VP games, The Frugal Video Poker Scouting Guide will definitely be helpful.  Someone asked about our recordkeeping and I would point out that I included examples in my very first book, The Frugal Gambler, the kind of records I used right up until we retired in 2019.

Yes, most of my books were written back when casino conditions were good for advantage players so you would have to ignore the information that is outdated.  However, many details in these books can help you do better in your play today.  Then in my latest book, The Frugal Gambler Casino Guide, I changed the emphasis because of today’s changing casino conditions.  New players – and even some old ones – may need to have a more realistic goal – not to “make money” but to stretch their bankroll so they can enjoy more entertainment time in a casino.  There is a new category of gamblers chipping away at the ranks of the advantage player; I call it the skilled recreational player.   

The point I want to make is that although the casino scene has radically changed in the last 35 years, the math of gambling has never changed and many casino gambling basics are still valid. And many techniques we used in our early days can be modified to make you more successful in the present day – or at least when Corona no longer rules.

This discussion leads me into a question that I have often been asked: “Did you and Brad ever play when you didn’t have an edge over the casino?”

I have already discussed, back in Chapter 12, one instance when we played slots with wild abandon.  It was going to be our last casino visit before our retirement.

But there were other times of non-advantage play, although not frequent. I was a devout worshipper of Plus EV.  I have mentioned before that I always had a healthy fear of going broke, and I knew one couldn’t outsmart the math.  So, during out first years of playing video poker, we stuck 99.99% of the time with over 100% plays, the higher  the EV the better.  I also knew that one could also go broke, even playing over 100%, by overplaying one’s bankroll, so we very slowly and cautiously increased our denomination level.  Only when we had accumulated a very large bankroll was I comfortable with doing some “recreational play.”  This was usually done when relatives came to town and wanted to play slots.  A favorite choice when daughter Angela and her hubby Steve came to Vegas to visit was the four of us sitting  at the “community fishing machines,” noisily competing to catch the biggest fish.

Once the new video slot machines came in, occasionally Brad and I would agree that we had already “made our fortune” and we would pick some slot machine that looked exciting.  It would be fun if we were with a friend with whom we could pool our small “investment.”   It was also fun when we occasionally got some free play that could be used only on slots, not VP.

A few times, back when I was writing my early books that included chapters on slots, I would need to play slots at least a little; I called that my “research play.”  And occasionally we were in a casino to collect free play and there was no playable VP.  I always said that I preferred slots to bad VP paytables.  Another time to choose slots was for some “cover” when I had heard that this casino was no-mailing customers who only played VP.  This was a delicate dance to be sure your negative slot play didn’t erase your total advantage on VP.

———–

A few more questions to address.  Next week I will be bringing this series to a close – finally!

Posted in Advantage Play, Book Recommendation, Casino Hosts, Casino Policy, Couponing, Gambling Resources, Gaming Writing, Memories, Q+A, Slots, Tipping, Video Poker | 8 Comments

35 Years of Advantage Play – Part 19– Q+A

Posted on September 11, 2020 by queen of comps

Q:  Love the financial details. However, I would be curious about just one year. What, if I may ask, was your final result the year you won the 250k? I would be happy just to know if it was more or less than 250k. The exact number isn’t really important. Special congratulations would be in order if it was more!

A:  We were running hot that whole year we won the Caesars Million Dollar tournament.  Even without that cash bounce – 250K after we split the 1/2 million with our tournament partners – our bottom-line result would have put us in our Top Five “best years.”

Brad holding the trophy, flanked by his two favorite girls at the Caesars  tournament awards dinner.

Q:  Were any of the games you played in your early days still around by the time you finished your gambling journey?

A:  9/6 JoB has always been available to us for our 35+ years of play, but for many of the early years we had stuck mostly to the higher-EV Full-pay Deuces Wild, which was widely available for our quarter-play level.  When we went to dollars, we often found strong enough extra benefits and promotions to make JoB a better per-hour choice.

In fact, our last big play, in early 2019, was on the 9/6 JoB Fifty Play at Harrah’s Tahoe.  I forget the exact promotional details, but the edge – maybe 2-3%? – was the best marketing offer we had come across for several years, worth a plane trip from Vegas.

I will confess that the heavy play that we would need to put in for this offer scared me a bit, because we were facing theoretically a possible huge loss that we probably could not “smooth over” by other big plays in the future.  Single-line $1 NSUD – the best play it seemed we were stuck with in Vegas – would never make up big losses.  But we decided to take the risk.    Disappointingly, we didn’t score the big win amount that the theoretical edge promised. But we knew from long experience that the edge math figures were for long-term play.  However, we didn’t lose;  in fact, we came home with a couple of thousand dollars trip profit, very happy –and relieved! – for the “good luck” on this short-term risky endeavor.

I remember another time many years earlier when we did a risky short-term play and the end results weren’t so lucky.  Harrah’s Laughlin had put in $5 Double Bonus (100.17 % EV) during the time that there were few positive games at the higher denominations; one usually needed to find the best-available negative game in a casino where the extra benefits boasted the play EV over 100%.  We pounded that DB game for many hours a day over a whole weekend.  I forget what edge we had but with the extras  it was what we considered a good play at the time.  We had a very substantial bankroll and had already started playing some at higher levels, but the 20K we lost that weekend gave us an emotional shock.  We should not have been so surprised since we had been playing Double Bonus at the $1-$2 levels for years and knew it was a very volatile game.   But losing so much so fast reminded us that although VP math was an undeniably trustworthy guide, it was only for a long-term journey.

However, this incident many years ago was different than the situation in Tahoe I described earlier, one  that made us fearful.  We knew that we would have many more opportunities to play at similar high levels so it didn’t make us change the way we played.  We kept playing, even at higher levels when we found an opportunity where we would have a good advantage.  And although it is never “fun” to lose, we were learning to accept the inevitable losses, even the big ones.  The longer we played it helped that we could look back at our records and be reminded of our positive long-term results of the past and keep the faith in the math for the future.

Q: What is your favorite casino?

A: I’ve been asked this question for 20+ years – and the answer has always been the same:  The one with the best advantage play at the moment!

Why won’t I give specific casino names?

For one thing it depends on when you asked the question.  If I mention where I will play on Monday, it is very unlikely that where I play on Saturday will be the same. If you asked me that in 2000, the casino I mention may likely not even exist today – perhaps blown up and its ashes in the wind.

Another reason I avoid specifics is that sometimes other players take my information as recommendations.  But if I am playing dollars at a particular casino, it might have no good opportunities for quarter players.  I might be playing at a Vegas casino that markets to locals and it would not give any advantages to out-of-town tourists or visa-versa.

Looking back over our 35+ years of visiting and playing in casinos all over the world, no one casinos stands above another – just a flood of happy memories from all over!

 

Posted in Advantage Play, Caesars, Casino Promotions, Luck, Memories, Q+A, Video Poker | 5 Comments

35 Years of Advantage Play – Part 18 – Q+A

Posted on September 5, 2020 by queen of comps

Your questions keep pouring in!

Q: When you said that your winnings had reached $1.6 million, did you mean gross collections without losses having been deducted, or did you mean net profit? The two different figures could be VERY different!

A:  Very different indeed!  And I probably shouldn’t have used the word “winnings.”  I have heard so many people talk about their “lucky” friends who always came back from  Vegas with “big wins.”  In 99.9% cases, those visitors were bragging about their big “jackpots” but never go on to say whether they brought home any of that jackpot money.  It is not so exciting to talk about all the losing sessions.

That figure I gave is NET win, that is – profits.  Whenever I talk about big individual jackpots, I try to always balance that with details about losing sessions.  Big jackpots are thrilling to experience, but all advantage players know that long-term successful gambling is a grind.  Video poker players know that they will suffer many losing sessions between those exciting jackpots.

Related to this question is one that asks whether we counted the value of comps in our cumulative profit number.

For the first years of our casino vacations, we would count comps in our calculations as a way to stretch our entertainment budget.  However, as we were spending more time in Vegas and in other casino venues and were also playing video poker at higher denominations, we were earning more comps than we could have afforded with our regular modest financial situation.   So that was the time we stopped adding the value of comps.  We would choose plays that had an EV (theoretical expected value) of over 100% on the play itself.  Any comps would be “gravy.”

Other related questions on this topic of gambling profit had to do with what we counted in our “Win” column.  Obviously, that included cash that came directly from winning on a casino game.  But there were other profit sources:  A big one was cash – or more frequently freeplay – that came from players club benefits and the casino marketing department.  Especially in the later years, when good games were being removed and paytables were being downgraded, these cash/free play offers were the only thing that could put the mostly negative games into positive territory.  Plus, promotions were always a major profit source, like multiple-point days, tournaments, and drawings. Couponing, especially in the early days, was almost always a good way to add some plus numbers in the “Win” column.

Some items that might have seemed to be in the comp category – and not counted as “winnings” – I sometimes did add as gambling profits.  We earned a lot of gift cards in various casino promotions over the years.  If we used them for purchases that we would make anyway – for example in stores that sold groceries, gas, electronics, clothing – I viewed them as cash-equivalents and therefore gambling profits.  Sometimes I would end up with cards we just couldn’t use – in the last years we were not in the accumulating-stuff stage – but we had children and grandchildren that never saw a gift card they couldn’t take off our hands!

So, checking our detailed records I kept the last 23 years of casino advantage play –   a winding path with lots of twists and turns, a few glorious mountaintop points, and many slogs through valleys – I see that we averaged a profit of about 62k a year, even though we never put in regular  40-hour weeks.  Although we treated our casino play as a business so we could enjoy a profit, it was definitely a part-time retirement endeavor.

This brings up another question:  What about IRS issues???

Once we began playing at higher levels, we started filing as a business, establishing a S Corp which included both gambling income and my gaming writing.  After a few years we disbanded the S Corp – too many state and accountant fees – and went to the simpler Schedule C.

Yes, I had to “fight” the IRS in several years, but I pretended they were like the slow learners I had in my early teaching career.  So, I would write/talk patiently – in simple terms – how gambling could be a legitimate business.  I was always able to convince them – albeit with a lot of time-consuming paperwork and long phone calls – before it was ever needed to go to tax court.

I can’t answer most tax questions that gamblers send me because the subject is so complex and depends entirely on individual circumstances.  I would refer you to the most detailed and up-to-date resource you can find on the market today, the book Tax Help for Gamblers. I brought on board Russell Fox for this last edition (the fourth – in paperback and online ) to add his expertise in explaining all the new developments, particularly in the exploding area of sports betting and the major changes in new tax legislation.

Early on in our casino adventure our goal was just to break even and enjoy the comps.   We actually surprised ourselves by making money on such a fun activity.   I guess you might say we overshot our goal.

Posted in Advantage Play, Casino Promotions, Comps, Couponing, Gambling Resources, It's Personal, Memories, Q+A, Slot Clubs, Sports, Taxes, Video Poker, VP Extras | 2 Comments

35 Years of Advantage Play – Part 17 – Q+A

Posted on August 29, 2020 by queen of comps

Last week I finished leading you down that long winding path of advantage play we took, but I promised that I would answer the questions so many of you were asking during these last 16 weeks of reminiscing.  So, it looks like I will need to keep writing about our journey – at least for a little while longer.

One of the most frequent questions, not just now, but down through the years, has been about that wonderful “miracle mountaintop experience” that unites all video poker enthusiasts. For the nickel player plugging along unnoticed to the whale pampered by the casino while risking thousands of dollars in the high-limit room – the world stops turning for them, at least for a little bit of time, when a royal flush pops up.

How many have we had?  Which one of us has gotten more?  Which ones were the most exciting or memorable?

Brad and I have had a lifetime royal total of 1,317.  We always played out of one bankroll and it never mattered to us who “got more royals.”  We were a team and any royal brought joy to both of us equally no matter which machine it was on.

When we first started playing video poker, I did keep more detailed royal records.  Brad got the first one, December 31, 1991, $1000 on the quarter Full-Pay Deuces Wild coin-droppers at the Westward Ho.  We don’t have to check my records for that one – it is solidly etched in a brain cell somewhere in each of our heads.  The detailed royal record I kept through ’97 is an interesting read. Mostly $1000 at first with a few $2000 as we sometimes ventured up to 50-cent machines.  Then the momentous decision to go to dollars and the two $4000 ones I hit on July 6, 1995.  1997 was the last year I kept detailed records, and a summary showed Brad had 38 to my 24.  This was probably due to the fact that he played faster and took fewer breaks than I did – although many of our friends just thought he was the luckiest gambler they ever knew because he always seemed to hit royals more often than the rest of us. However, Lady Luck didn’t neglect me completely. Of the 5 dealt royals during that time, 4 were mine!

Starting in 1998, I listed our royals but with no details since we had started playing a lot of multi-line, and obviously were getting more of them.  This pumped up our total quickly since I counted each royal separately, even multiple ones from one hand.   If we ended up with 2 royals on a Ten Play machine hand, that added two to our royal total. When Brad was dealt a royal on Hundred Play, that added 100 to our royal total!

Our most exciting royals?  Of course, that very first one.  “You always remember the first time!”  And, not a surprise, the forementioned one dealt on Hundred Play.  And it’s always fun to beat long odds.  Once I was playing $5 Triple Play at the Palazzo and was dealt a flush that contained 4 royal cards.  Of course, I made the correct play by throwing away the off flush card, hoping to snag a royal. Double joy when 2 came up for a 40k win.

Another 40k win, one that was a shocker for me and the Harrahs casino supervisors who gathered around to discuss it, was a royal on a dollar Ten Play Double Super Times Pay Jacks or Better machine.  I was on a 10x multiplier and all I had to hold was a lone Ace.  I must confess I was mumbling not-so-nice words under my breath.  I slapped the draw button with disgust –  and a royal filled in that Ace on one line!

Here is a picture of what I called my “OH NO” dealt royal.

A back story is needed here.  I had been no-mailed by  Station Casinos for many years after hitting a royal on the top line of a dollar Multi-Strike machine.  You would think a big casino conglomerate could handle a 32 K+ jackpot without feeling I was a major danger to their bottom line.  But I digress…

So, after Stations bought the Palms, I was extremely disappointed; the Palms was our closest casino and had been a favorite since it opened.  They had good games with great players club benefits and mailed offers.  Now it would not be a good play if I got no mailings.

Fortunately, someone “upstairs” made a decision that they would look at the history of previous strong Palms players and add them back on the Stations mailing list.  I was very happy but decided to be cautious in my play selection at first since I felt I was kind of “on probation.”  In the past I had usually played quarter Hundred Play but instead of dropping down in the number of lines I would play, I decided it would be fun to still play all hundred lines but at the 10-cent level, which offered the same game, 8/5 Bonus.  So, I am starting to play, with Brad on one side and chatting with my usual playing buddy on the other side. Suddenly, I said, “Oh, no!”

I must have been pretty loud because both Brad and my friend stopped playing and turned to me with concerned looks.  When they saw the dealt red royal covering my screen, they started laughing.  They understood my reaction!

Fortunately, there was no negative consequence this time and I stayed on their mailing list and played there until major game downgrades sadly made this casino unplayable for us.

Stay tuned for more discussions of your questions next week.

Posted in Advantage Play, Casino Policy, It's Personal, Luck, Memories, Palms, Q+A, Stations, Video Poker | 4 Comments