Jean Scott's Frugal Vegas

10/1/2004

I don’t talk much about live poker in this column, because I don’t play it myself. But I don’t like to leave out any gambler who wants to find some frugal hints here for his game of choice.

So I asked my writer friend, Bill Burton, to give me something I could include for poker players. Bill Burton is the Casino Gambling Guide and columnist for the Internet portal About.com (www.casinogambling.about.com). He also writes for several national gambling publications. He’s the author of the great beginner’s introduction to the most popular poker game these days, Get the Edge at Low Limit Texas Hold’em, available for $15 postage paid. Send checks to Bill Burton, P.O. Box 310299, Newington, CT 06131-0299 or order online at www.billburton.com. You can find additional good poker products at www.greatstuff4gamblers.com.

TV Educated Poker Players: TVEPPs
By Bill Burton

I was interviewed for a newspaper article about the recent surge in the popularity of poker. The reporter asked me if watching the TV broadcast of tournaments was a good way for a new player to learn the game. He was surprised when I told him “No!” and asked me to explain why.

TV Educated Poker Players (TVEPPs) who have gained all their poker knowledge by watching broadcasts of the World Poker Tour or other televised tournaments are not going to be very successful if they do not get some additional education from other sources. These can include reading books, magazines, and articles on the Internet about poker strategy.

Watching a one- or two-hour television broadcast of a poker tournament is akin two watching the highlight films of a championship boxing event. You get to see the knockout, but you fail to see the grueling sparring that led up to the final blow. The TV tournaments have been edited down to the most entertaining and exciting hands. You see the hands where a player bluffs another player out of a big pot or an all-in player catches a miracle card on the river to knock out his opponent after shoving all his chips into the pot. These types of spectacular plays are great entertainment, but can lead to the impression that winning a poker tournament is all about bluffing and getting lucky. The types of plays you see on TV at the final table when the game is short-handed are not the plays that got most of these players to the final table.

Many players use a different strategy when they get to the final table. You sometimes hear this referred to as “shifting gears.” They may have played very tight and solid during the early stages of the event to get to where they are, but then they adjust to compensate for several factors at the final table. They are basing some of their play on their chips size and that of their opponents. The blinds are larger, so they can’t afford to wait too long to play a hand. As the play becomes short-handed, the value of starting hands goes up a little. A player with a very short stack will have to make a stand sooner or later. This is why you see more bluffing and playing of lesser-quality hands at the final table. The players are also making bets based on their position. This is a concept that is lost on many viewers, but is vital to the game.

Anyone who has played in a poker tournament knows that it is a long and tedious affair. Sometimes it is even downright boring as you sit there folding hand after hand waiting for two playable cards. Many of the major tournaments take days to play down to the final six players you see on the TV broadcast. Those who have made it to the final table started the tournament playing solid poker being very selective about the hands they played. They know that playing recklessly in the early stages of the tournament is a quick way to find themselves on the rail with the other spectators.

The 2004 World Series of poker had 2,576 players entered into the final event. They could not fit all the players at the 120 tables, so they divided the field in half, with one group playing

10/8/2004

[Editor´s Note: A few weeks ago, Jean went to the emergency room with worrisome chest pain and was admitted to the hospital for a couple of days. After EKGs, blood enzyme tests, and a stress tests, she got a clean bill of health: no evidence of cardiac problems. She was pain-free for a few days, but then the symptoms returned. She’ll be having an angiogram on Tuesday October 12. Meantime, a thread appeared on the LasVegasAdvisor.com Forum and quickly filled up with nearly 100 get-well posts. Here are some of the highlights, which not only made her laugh — the best medicine! — but also, literally and figuratively, did her heart good.]

If the doctors want to know if you exercise regularly, just show them that big tote bag you carry around all day! — from Indiana

Have you ever considered going back to teaching? It might be a lot less demanding than your retirement. — JFR

Jean, get well soon. We expect at least five to 10 more books out of you! –oprystyle

Jean, that’s a heck of a way to steal some of Brad’s thunder. — Rosemarie

Remember to be nice to your “”nurse.”” You’re lucky to have him [Brad] take care of your every need. — lvs2kwlt

Jean, now that you’re supposed to keep yourself cool and calm and collected, you’re just gonna have to bite the bullet and cut down on the exclamation points. Too much excitement in those. Doctor’s (and editor’s) orders. — Dekester

Jean – I hope you’re eating well. Too many temptations and comps in Las Vegas! — Martin

If you need your spirits lifted, just think of this: back-to-back royals! — Dudesickle

Did you get any of your medical expenses comped? — Stoogemore

[We saved the best for last]:

The Top 10 Causes of Jean Scott’s Mini-Heart Attack — by Blade:

10. What do you mean that Nevada town isn’t named after me?
9. Revenge of the Comped Buffets.
8. Hitting the Megabucks jackpot, but playing only one coin.
7. Brad had his time, now it’s my turn for attention.
6. Another adult-themed billboard pops up in the neighborhood.
5. Now Anthony wants “Yet More Frugal Gambling.”
4. I’ll just play one-coin video poker and see what happens…
3. The San Remo is going to be called what?
2. Look, up in sky, it’s a monorail; no, it’s a flying tire!

…and the number-one cause of Jean Scott’s Mini-Heart Attack:

1. Gasp! I forgot to insert my slot card!

10/15/2004

Beware of casino tournament offers that give the prize-pool amount, but don’t specify how many entrants it’s based on. In this case, there’s no way to figure out your equity — the theoretical value of the promotion. Some friends of ours found this out after they’d flown across the country to a casino where they’d been in slot tournaments before, usually with about 300 entrants. This time there were 900, with no increase in the prize pool. We were recently “caught” the same way when we went to a BJ tournament that we’d entered many times and found that the usual number of entrants had almost doubled.

Another promotion tip, early-bird advice from Scot Krause: Plan to play early in the month if there’s some promotional item you really want to earn. Casinos often run out of promotional items they’re advertising, like logo apparel. Some casinos will give out rain checks, but if you’re from out of town, you may not be able to return in the time frame to redeem them. And many times, when the inventory of items is depleted, the promotion is over.

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Some casinos are now marketing by telephone auto-dialer. I usually don’t like recorded phone messages of any type, particularly the political ones we’re all flooded with in this current election period (especially in Nevada, which is a “battleground” state). However, a recent recorded message from my host telling me the details of a juicy promotion coming up was welcome. As long as casinos keep this type of message short and sweet — and I still get a live call or a personal e-mail once in a while, I’ll give this marketing technique my OK!

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I’m getting reports that airlines are becoming stricter in enforcing baggage weight limits. Be forewarned: Those overweight charges can be a hefty amount. Check your airline’s Web site for size and weight limitations before you leave home, so you won’t have an ugly surprise when you check in at the airport.

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TITO (Ticket-in-Ticket-Out) makes playing the machines so much more convenient. However, they require some new cautions. A friend carried around a ticket in his billfold and he must have sit on it too long — the ticket disintegrated and he was out of luck. Another player reported that they’re sun sensitive and will turn totally black with too much exposure — so don’t throw them on the dash of your car in Las Vegas. And one of the most common problems? Out-of-towners forget to cash them in and won’t be coming back before they expire!

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From Casino Player, an interview with poker professional, Barry Tannenbaum, who gives wise advice for any gambler thinking about making any game his livelihood:

CP: What’s the reality of making a leap from a recreational player and “going pro.”

Tannenbaum answers that you need truly outstanding mathematical skills and you need to have truly excellent psychological skills. The third thing, and one he thinks that probably is the most important, “You need astonishing emotional control. Anyone can win when things are going well. The question is, how are you going to play when you’re going through extended losing streaks? If you play long enough, you’ll go through one. If you can’t play well during an extended losing streak, you can’t be a pro.”

10/28/2004

My angiogram came out beautiful — best “”pictures”” I’ve had taken of me since I was a baby. Whistle-clean arteries. So my chest pain is probably from acid reflux or some other digestive goblin. Hey, that sounds like a much better alternative!

This medical experience has brought out some interesting comments from friends: “”You didn’t really nag and convince the doctors to let you out of the hospital at 10 p.m. at night instead of the next morning so you could stop at a couple casinos on your way home to collect some bounce-back cash coupons that were expiring at midnight — did you?”” And, “”You left the house a half-hour early on the day of your 6 a.m. angiogram to pick up one $25 bounce-back just in case the angiogram precipitated a need for hospitalization or a hearse?””

I’ll have to plead guilty that casinos do play a big part in my life. Many comments from two video poker Internet forums I’m on support the idea that gamblers can have a one-track mind. One poster said that when he read the subject line of one of my posts, “”Home from Angiogram,”” he asked himself, “”””Where the hell is the Angiogram Casino? I don’t remember it being on the Strip. Maybe it’s downtown. Or in Laughlin? And is the VP any good there?””

Another commented, “”Hmmm, consider the time line: First, Multi-Play Multi-Strike is released. Next, Jean has chest pains. Draw your own conclusions….””

Someone else added: “”Could it remotely be possible you’re just playing too much on very volatile VP machines?””

And the facts do bear out that many of our activities are casino-related. We buy gas and groceries where we can use casino gift cards to pay. We shop in malls and stores where we can use our many casino-issued gift certificates. We eat most of our main meals and many of our snacks in a casino, because we have comps to cover the expense. When family and friends comes to visit, thanks to plump casino comp banks all over town, we can provide them with luxury rooms, cover all their restaurant meals and show tickets, and treat them to room service, shopping in casino retail stores, massages in the spa, make-overs in the beauty salon. Our grandchildren go to movies in a casino theater and play in casino child-care centers for free (running up food bills that make the Queen of Comps look like a piker) and hit every casino ice-cream or fast-food joint they discover. And I suppose that when they get to be 21, we’ll provide them with comped casino nightclub crawling and raucous concerts — although I might draw the line in providing weird tattoos on weird body parts, even if I could pay with my casino points.

Notice I said that many of our activities are casino-related. I didn’t say that gambling was a very big part of our life. First of all, I don’t consider the way we play casino games as gambling, in the common use of that word. The word “”gambling,”” whether accurately or not, is often used in a negative sense, with the harsh judgment, or at least the implication, of out-of-control behavior and moral degradation. We play casino games with discipline, moderation, and responsibility, always careful to keep the same high ethical standards we maintain in any other part of our life.

But let’s say you do call what we do “”gambling,”” in the best sense of the term — a fun wholesome entertainment option enjoyed by huge numbers of people all over the world. It’s not an overwhelming part of our life. Because I write primarily (and endlessly, it seems) about casino and gambling subjects, most people assume, logically, that Brad and I gamble all the time.

Actually, Brad and I gamble less and less the older we get. Our bodies get tired faster than they used to. Plus, as I’ve mentioned many times, once a person moves to a casino town like Vegas, the pent-up urgency and desire to gamble when you’re out-of-town visitors soon relaxes. You know the casinos will be available 24/7 at your convenience right down the street. Together we average about 20 hour

10/29/2004

Last week, I told you that I wanted to continue on the subject of a balanced life, even for gamblers. I mentioned how tempting it is for us to have a one-track mind.

I was reminded of that when I was going over the paperwork from the hospital after my recent angiogram. It was a large stack and I must confess I’d signed a lot of forms during my pre-admit without reading them carefully, dismissing them as the usual goopidy-goop that comes with medical facilities trying to comply with tons of federal regulations. But I was startled to see one sheet I’d signed, which listed the odds of possible side effects of this procedure I’d so casually consented to a few days earlier:

Rhythm disturbance: occurs 1:100 patients
Contrast reaction: occurs 1:100
Loss of pulse: occurs 1:500
Heart attack: occurs 5:1000
Stroke: occurs 2:1000
Death: occurs 1:1000

You know what my first thought was: I wouldn’t play a video poker machines with odds this bad!

I suppose if I’d read this earlier, I would’ve still had the angiogram. I probably would have analyzed the situation like I do when I decide whether something is a good gambling play for us, trying to find extra value somewhere to make a negative game a positive play. Well, I have Blue Cross Blue Shield and Medicare — that’s kind of like cashback– which lessens the financial risk. I have a good cardiologist who’d recommended this procedure for his mother who had the same symptoms that I had; taking the advice of experts in the field is always a good idea.

But that last item on the list would have concerned me. The result would have had an extremely negative effect on my life. I needed a whole lot more extra value to overcome those odds — like the promotions, tournaments, bounce-back, and coupons I hunt to boost the EV of a VP game. I think I would have found it: Probably most of the people who are given angiograms have already been diagnosed with heart problems or have even already had a heart attack (like Brad when he had his angiogram and subsequent angioplasty). I just had chest pain.

Easy for me to Monday-morning quarterback that “”game”” now!

Okay, so maybe avid gamblers do have one-track minds at times. I plead guilty. But this isn’t all bad. A successful gambler needs to be highly focused on his game, whether he’s counting cards at blackjack, pounding away at positive-expectation video poker, crunching sports or race numbers in his computer, or matching wits with fellow players at the poker table. He must spend a lot of time studying his craft, listening and learning from the experts, and honing his skills in practical experience.

However, some of the questions that Gamblers Anonymous gives on its test to see whether you’re heading toward being a problem gambler might be answered in the same way by an addicted gambler and a skilled and financially successful player. And there have been many examples down through the years, some of them tragic, where skilled gamblers, even extremely successful professional ones, were not able to keep balance in their life and lost all their money, their family, their reputation, and sometimes even their life.

We’ll revisit this subject at a later time. In the meantime, keep your posts on it coming to: [email protected].

9/3/2004

Fans of Frugal Fridays should be familiar with the name Deke Castleman. I’ve written about him a few times here, mentioning that he’s my one and only editor, as well as being a dear friend.

But Deke is much more than that. For the past 15 years or so, he’s been the senior editor of Huntington Press, the publishing company that brings you the Las Vegas Advisor, the Pocketbook of Values, Las Vegas Advisor Lite, LasVegasAdvisor.com, LVAGO.com, upwards of 40 books including mine, and so many other things. Anthony Curtis, of course, is the celebrity, while Deke works completely behind the scenes. Yet Anthony and Deke are Siamese twins when it comes to maintaining the high standards of Huntington Press products.

Well, now Deke has a new book out, Whale Hunt in the Desert. It’s about a subject that’s right up my alley: the casino host system. I thought I was familiar with hosts and what they do and how to interact with them to get what we want and all that. Though Brad and I are still mostly low rollers, we sometimes turn into pretty big-time video poker players and get comped to the upscale side of things: airfare, suites, fancy food, gifts, and invitations to casino events. We can live pretty high if we want.

But reading Whale Hunt really opened my eyes! I couldn’t believe just how high it all gets. I’m not gonna give it away, because Deke’s a good storyteller (so it’s a fast and funny book), but I can say that what goes on between the casino and players betting $10,000, $25,000, $50,000, all the way up to $200,000 a hand, is one of the great high-wire acts of all times! And this is the whole story of it.

All right, I’ll give you one example. Though we’ve never stayed at the Mansion at MGM, we’ve attended cocktail parties there. That’s why I was interested to read three pages about it. What really amazed me is the maintenance:

“”When the guests check out of the largest of the villas, the crew that descends consists of four to six villa attendants who make up the rooms; a floral team that replenishes the fresh flowers; a maintenance team that conducts routine inspections of the lighting, air-conditioning, electronics, and facilities; a landscape team that checks on the ponds, fountains, and greenery; and a water-quality team that treats the private pools.””

Of course, that’s the largest of the villas, at around 12,000 square feet — about the size of five suburban houses! This book is full of those kind of details.

Deke has to come out from behind the curtain now and I say it’s about time. I’m proud to recommend Whale Hunt and I wish Deke all the success he deserves.

9/10/2004

The following is a guest column by my friend, John (Lodestone) Kelly, whom many of you know from his “”Video Poker Lost & Found”” column in the Las Vegas Advisor. Those of you who do know VP L&F know that John is one of the funniest gambling writers around.

OPTIMUM STRATEGY WHEN YOU’RE TOO DRUNK TO SEE THE CARDS

Thanks to the genius of software wizards, playing video poker has been reduced to pure science. Expected values are calculated with incredible precision. Every variation has been studied, every game has been analyzed, every penalty card considered. All well and good for the sober player.

But what of that special breed of player that strives to cover his losses by consuming twice the value in cheap alcohol? Where are his strategy cards? There are none. What is his optimum strategy? He knows not. Where did he park his car? He cannot find it. Which lane is his and which is for the oncoming traffic? He cannot be sure.

In support of this hardy, smelly, and short-lived adventurer, we proudly present the world’s only strategy table for drunks.

OPTIMUM DENOMINATION
Nickels have an obvious advantage in that you’ll lose money more slowly, but cocktail service is notoriously slow in low-roller land. Quarters have better service, but will cost you more. BEST BET: Play quarters, one coin at a time! Sure, you’ll lose 2% or so of your EV, but that’s peanuts compared to the increased liquor flow. Discerning drunks should play one-coin in dollars, for higher-quality liquor and younger (and hence faster) cocktail waitresses. Discerning drunks in a hurry should pretend to play something in the high-roller salons — service is great there!

OPTIMUM LOCATION
The obvious answer would seem to be the bar (duh), but bartenders are keen to spot potential problems well before strangers start fighting over who vomited on whom. While it’s good strategy to “”warm up”” at the bar, experienced players/drinkers know when to say when and will to a machine near the bar, directly in the cocktail waitresses’s path.

OPTIMUM CASINO
There are two schools of thought:
1. Drink/play in dives (El Cortez, Western, Gold Strike, etc.), as your drunkenness is less likely to be noticed there. Disadvantage: hangovers, rough treatment from security, being robbed.
2. Drink/play in the swankiest of the swank (Bellagio, Venetian, Rampart), which are less likely to make a scene, as they have an illusion of pretentiousness to maintain. Also, they may mistakenly think you have a serious bankroll and won’t want to risk throwing your semi-conscious carcass out the back door before you’ve lost it all. Disadvantages: overzealous security and patrons with overzealous personal bodyguards.

OPTIMUM GAME
Deuces, because even when your vision starts to tunnel and fail, you can still (generally) pick out (and hold) which cards are deuces (they have that writing on the bottom).

Jacks or Better is also good, because you’ll at least be able to recognize face cards, although aces can be tricky.

Avoid Double Bonus, as quads are key here and after some serious “”play,”” every hand will look like a quad to you. Or a quint.

Avoid Joker Wild, as the unsettling appearance of the joker’s features has been known to trigger a case of the DTs on the spot.

Avoid multi-play machines, as attempting to comprehend so many hands at once can cause premature unconciousness.

OPTIMUM STRATEGY RANK TABLE
1. Pass out on the machine. Neat, clean, and a minimum of fuss. Will garner quick attention of employees, who will be assist you in moving elsewhere, as you’re tying up a profit-making device, thus promptly cutting your losses.
2. Ask the people next to you what they would do. Not only will they undoubtedly have more of a clue than you, but they may summon security, thus promptly ending your losses.
3. Throw up (a.k.a. “”cashing out”” or “”jackpotting””) on another patron. This strategy has the added advantage of causing some temp

9/17/2004

This week I’d like to share some things I’ve found on the Internet recently that give helpful information for gamblers and Vegas visitors — or at least might be interesting to them:

1. Are you a teacher or do you have skills in the medical field? You can really get lucky fast in your job-hunting in Vegas if you’re thinking about moving here, as there’s a severe shortage in these two areas. This is especially critical in the medical field, and hospitals are giving juicy bonuses for trained personnel who will locate here. For more information. teachers can go to http://ccsd.net/jobs. Medical professionals can go to http://www.helpnevada.com.

2. Here’s an interesting study about the health benefits of gambling, especially for us seniors: http://tinyurl.com/5hyfe.

3. Video poker is usually a benign enjoyable entertainment option, but this article relates a story where video poker turned lethal. http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Apr-02-Fri-2004/news/23575815.html.

4. For a good article by Bob Dancer that tells video poker players how to choose a “good” casino, go to http://www.casinogaming.com/columnists/dancer/2004/0210.html.

5. I’ve been hearing some good things about a company called ValetNoir. On their Web site, http://www.valetnoir.com, they state: “ValetNoir is a gaming software and travel company which operates offices in Las Vegas. ValetNoir, a venture-backed company, provides independent casino representation and player development services to a growing number of casino operators in Las Vegas, Laughlin, Lake Tahoe, New Orleans, Reno, Atlantic City, Europe, and shipboard on cruise lines. ValetNoir is an independent company, which operates on contract with certain casino properties to represent players. ValetNoir staff members usually deal directly with the same management that manages the internal casinos own hosts. ValetNoir hosts are highly trained in gaming and the casinos we represent. ValetNoir hosts have seen every level of room in every property we represent and deal daily with high rollers and people on their annual vacation. ValetNoir is adding a major casino property, on average, every month.”

I would consider checking out their gambling junket programs as one option to arrange for a casino vacation. They may or may not be able to give you more benefits than going through a specific casino Web site or your host, if you have one. But it wouldn’t hurt to check out what they can offer, especially if you don’t have a host at the property that you want to visit.

I’ve had one reliable reporter recommend the following ValetNoir hosts: Connie Cardamone ([email protected]) and Jaime Lynne Konzelman ([email protected]).

6. A warning of a problem that might spread to online gambling:
“According to a Gamer.tv survey, young people are spending so much time playing games online that they’re too tired for sex. More than 60 percent of 1,000 young men and women interviewed during London Games Week said they are too tired mentally and physically for sex after playing computer games an average of three hours a night. Said one referring to the Buffy the Vampire Slayer game, ‘My girlfriend is threatening to leave me unless we make love by Wednesday, which is all very well, but I’d much rather finish off Buffy and Willow first.’” — From Fantini’s Morning Gaming Report, at [email protected].

That’s all, folks! Enough is enough!

9/24/2004

1. The always-full-of-valuable-info VIVA LAS VEGAS newsletter has become the VEGASRESOURCE.COM newsletter. You’ll still get the good stuff from Billhere, just under a different name! The new Internet site is found at www.VegasResource.com, which has split into two divisions. You can e-mail the newsletter division to get your free subscription started at [email protected]. The coupon division can be reached at [email protected].

2. EVERYTHING LAS VEGAS, another popular newsletter about all things Las Vegas, is now sponsored by vegasmediagroup.com. New sign-up site: www.vegaslists.com/mailman/listinfo/everythinglasvegas.

3. I just heard from Dan Paymar, who has moved from Las Vegas to retire in New Mexico, where he and his wife can spend more time with their family. They plan to come back to Vegas often and he will continue putting out his newsletter, Video Poker Times, for at least another year. He’s keeping his same Web site, www.OptimumPlay.com, and his same e-mail address, [email protected]. His new mailing address is 1118 Fairgrounds Road, Farmington, NM 87401.

The second edition of his book Video Poker — Optimum Play just came back from the printer. “Lots of minor corrections and updates, new section on Attractiveness Index, Sorokin formula replaces older risk of ruin formula, and a new cover.” He also reports that he’s finally close to releasing his Optimum Video Poker software program. I’ll be sure to let you know when this is out. It will run on any Windows 95 or later operating system (but ME is not fully compatible). And here’s the best part: I know all you Mac lovers have been anxiously awaiting a program you could use without expensive transfer software. This will be it, running on any PowerPC Mac with OS 8.5-9.2.

I know I speak for many of us who have appreciated Dan’s VP help down through the years: We wish for him and Mary a very relaxed and happy retirement.

4. Although I highly recommend the above resources, this next one I must recommend with some reservations. The longtime weekly Gaming Today tabloid newspaper has a new look — an interesting up-side-down one. Look at it in the usual way and you’ll see the usual name and the general casino news and sport articles that you have read for years.

However, turn it to the back page and flip it around and you’ll see a new name, Slots Today, a brand “new” magazine, where all the non-sports gaming news and columns are included, including my favorite, the gossip column by the inimitable Monti Rock III. There are columns about keno, craps, bingo, poker, and slot machines, as well as new games. But as with all gaming writing, you must always be careful that you’re not taken in by too rosy a picture or “sure-fire systems” for negative games. I particularly recommend the columns by Scot Krause, since he gives valuable information for gamblers who want to add value to the games by using promotions and slot club benefits. The only VP column I can recommend is by Elliot Frome, who gives helpful video poker information based on sound mathematical principles, as did his late father Lenny, who wrote for Gaming Today for many years.

So you may see either side of this dual format facing you when you check the freebie racks around town, but be assured you’ll get both papers when you see either one.

5. Here are some interesting facts about LV from the latest Zagat survey, reported by the Fantini Morning Report. To no one’s surprise, price changes are all up!

Restaurants: The average meal rose 3.4% to $34.60. Those surveyed tip 18.7%, the most generous in the country. The most expensive 20 restaurants averaged a $70.67 tab, up 5%, but still below other major cities. The average drink in a nightclub is $9.42, up 12% and higher than other cities.

6. And sometimes the government causes change. This just in from Troy, Alabama: Police raided a plain metal building on the outskirts of Troy, seizing 60 video gambling machines

8/6/2004

JEAN
The following letter appeared on the video poker forum vpFree, which you can subscribe to at [email protected]. I’m always preaching about the benefits of studying and researching the slot club system in any casino where you play. I thought this post gave a very good illustration, and Greg, the author, kindly gave me permission to edit and reprint it here.

GREG
Here is an example of the typical type of screw up that one might run into when dealing with slot clubs. Be prepared for this type of thing and don’t be afraid to question the word of the casino people.

I recently played a double-points promotion at a southern area casino. This was one of those deals where you have to sign up for the double points prior to play, and they’re later credited to your account manually.

I signed up for the double points and played for quite a while. At the end of the day the card reader showed enough (single) points for about $170 in cash back, so I expected to get $340 when I cashed in my points. I left and came back the next morning to cash in my points, which the slot booth lady said amounted to $170. I asked if they had manually doubled the points yet, and she said that they had. So I asked her to check again, because I didn’t think that my points had been doubled. She checked and said she needed to get her supervisor to look at my account.

The supervisor looked at my account and said, “”But you didn’t play any yesterday.”” I told her that I had played a LOT yesterday, and what about all the points on my card? She said, “”Those points are showing up as being played TODAY!””

So I asked her (1) Why would I sign up for double points, not play at all on that day, but then (2) turn around and play a huge number of points on the very next day, which (3) would be impossible, because I had been asleep and had not been in the casino the second day until just now when I came in to collect my cashback? I also suggested that it was possible that I had run “”overtime”” by a few minutes the previous night, which might have caused the computer to credit all of my points onto the following day for some weird reason. I was very nice about the whole thing, which I think helped because she agreed with me and went ahead and credited the double points without further argument.

After this episode, I had a few observations:

(1) In situations like this, know beforehand what you should be getting from the slot club. If what they tell you doesn’t match your calculations, keep asking questions until either they give you what you deserve or you’re satisfied that you’ve made a mistake.

(2) It helps to know a casino’s slot club system as well, if not better, than the casino employees themselves.

(3) People who are unable or unwilling to make the calculations to correlate points to cashback are at a real disadvantage. If I didn’t know what my points should have been worth, I would have just taken the slot person’s word that my points had already been doubled, and would have missed out on $170.

(4) Here is yet another reason to despise those mystery systems such as what you find at many casinos. Without knowing how many points I’d earned or how much those points were worth, I wouldn’t have had any ammunition for my argument.

(5) Don’t get mad or upset when this type of problem happens (which it will — sooner or later). Just state the facts calmly and clearly.

JEAN
Amen, Greg!

8/13/2004

Keep those e-mails coming. I need your opinions and comments!

More about sex in Sin City — seemingly a never-ending subject of interest in our local newspaper. Remember the Hard Rock ad issue we discussed in several April columns? It’s still not resolved. “Despite two months of talks between the Hard Rock Hotel and the state attorney general’s office, the Nevada Gaming Commission on Thursday said larger policy issues affecting the industry and the community had to be addressed before the casino’s allegedly pornographic advertising case can be resolved.” Read the whole R-J story at
www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Jul-30-Fri-2004/business/24417883.html

But this is what kills me: Three days later, on August 2, I read an article in the LV Sun with this headline: “Hard Rock changing prescription for ads.” The story began: “A resort where customers and spokesmodels show plenty of skin recently kicked off the first leg of a new advertising effort that so far marks a significant departure from the blatant sexual images that have become a staple of Las Vegas. Showing skin is old hat, officials at the Hard Rock Hotel say.” Read the whole story at: www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/sun/2004/aug/02/517272552.html.
Just as I have always believed — once the pendulum reaches one extreme, it starts swinging back the other way. Or maybe Hard Rock officials read Frugal Fridays when I get really wound up?!

The May 21st column about my search for tranquility must have struck similar chords in a lot of people and many shared their frustrations. Here’s a typical example, from my friend Steve, a Vegas local:

Great column this week, Jean! [Well, he credits my writings for luring him to this fun life in Vegas, so he may be a little prejudiced!] We didn’t have the problems you did getting the Tranquility Fountains (we picked up ours rather near the evening deadline), but they didn’t last long at our house. The motors were louder than the fountains themselves (and the motor sound was not particularly tranquil), and our fresh batteries went dead on them overnight. The next day we tranquilly put the fountains in the trash.

Last June we talked about frugal flying and Jeff Compton weighed in with this good bumping hint: “I am frequently in the position that I do not want to leave for the airport two hours earlier than usual on the possibility that I will get bumped. So what I do is the night before I leave (about midnight) when I go online to check my boarding pass, I also check the flight to see what fares are still available. If the flight is full or only the most expensive fares are still there, then I’ll go to the airport early to try to get bumped. So far this has worked very well.”

On July 9th we talked about buffets. From the Internet a kindred soul wrote: “We had the buffet at XXXX once and it was so bad we didn’t even steal any of the food. ;-)””

8/19/2004

Casinos have some of the best security systems in the world. Still, it’s important for all of us casino visitors to take more responsibility for our own safety and the protection of our money and belongings. A good friend wrote me the following letter, which points out some dangers in a casino you might not have thought about:

“”In the past couple of years, many casinos have instituted bounce-back free play that does not require an ID or a trip to the slot club to collect. This is handy for the customer, but has the potential for theft by those few dishonest folk who are always going to be hanging around where there’s lots of money.

“”At these properties, you just insert your player’s card, input your Personal Identification Number (PIN), press a few buttons, and voila — you have your free play. This is extremely customer-friendly, but unfortunately it can be taken advantage of by observant thieves.

“”I have seen that most people are extremely cavalier about safeguarding their PIN. It doesn’t matter who’s around, or who might be watching them, when they punch it in. I’ve even seen people ask total strangers to help them collect their free play, even though this involves telling the other party their PIN! This is, at least potentially, extremely unwise! I’m not talking about asking casino employees, of course.

“”Stealing another’s free play requires another thing, and that’s the victim’s player’s card. Have you ever forgotten your card when you left a machine? I know I have! Have you ever taken a restroom break, cashed out your money (easy with the handy ticket-in-ticket-out systems), but left your card in it? No big deal, right? Well, in places like the Palms, the Fiestas, and Station casinos in Vegas, it can be a big deal!

“”If someone should learn your PIN, and be able to get one of your player’s cards, you are in big trouble. The thief can then collect your free play without any real risk of being caught. And with the kiosks at the Stations, he can also access your comp points and use them to his heart’s content, also with little chance of being caught. You might not notice that your points are disappearing for quite some time and when you do, it’s too late to do anything about it. Except to immediately get a new PIN, of course! And to be more careful when you use it in the future.

“”I know this is a bit cynical, but I just can’t believe how trusting people are. I see people leave hundreds of dollars in credits on their machine and go in search of a bucket, or even to the bathroom. A couple of days ago I saw a lady leave a very expensive-looking suede jacket (with a beautiful fur collar!) on her seat while she went to the ladies’ room. And in a place with TITO, is it wise to ask a total stranger to watch your machine? Chances are that the person is honest, but if you do it often enough, you’ll eventually find someone who isn’t. It’s fine to trust your friends or even people you know just a little, but to trust every stranger with your money is pretty foolish, especially in a casino!””

As with so many other things, security is mostly a matter of using common sense, but in a casino it pays to add a little extra bit of caution.

8/26/2004

Brad and I used to ride Vegas city buses frequently, back in our early days as frugal visitors. We’ve always run all over town to play the best games, chase the juiciest promotions, and play coupons. Back then, if we couldn’t find a free shuttle, which was our first choice, we hopped on the bus. Later we found renting a car was often the most frugal option, because we could hit more good plays. Of course, now we don’t ride the bus, because we live in Vegas and run all over town in the Frugal van. So I depend on others to keep me up to date on transportation options so I can advise my readers, many of whom do depend on bus service.

The first update comes from Jeff Compton:

“”With the recent completion of the South Strip Transfer Terminal (SSTT), taking the bus from the airport to several hotels is quite easy. The terminal is located just south of McCarran and the #109 Southbound bus runs there every 10-15 minutes.

From the SSTT you can get to the following hotels:
Silverton — #117
Sunset Station/Fiesta Henderson — #212
Strip Hotels — #301/302
Sam’s Town — #213

Directly from the airport:
Sahara/Las Vegas Hilton — #108 (Northbound)
Downtown Hotels — #108 or #109 to the Downtown Transportation Center (Northbound)

If your hotel is not listed, it can still be reached with another transfer (check www.rtcsouthernnevada.com/cat for details.

Buses load and unload at airport ground level zero.

Fare is $1.25. Immediately ask for a transfer if you’re going to the SSTT to get another bus.

Do not plan on using buses after midnight (many do not run), if you have lot of luggage (buses do not stop directly at the hotels; be prepared to walk), or if there are four in your party (a cab is probably a better deal for less hassle).””

The second tip comes from Pesach Kremen, an expert on getting around Vegas without a car.

“”The CAT system has connected the monorail and downtown with the #108 Paradise Swenson. The benefit is in the increased frequencies of the bus.. During the day you have 20 frequencies from the airport to downtown and 30 late-evening with service to about 2 am. This is in addition to the very frequent service (12 per day Mon.-Fri., 15 per day Sat.-Sun.; 20 min evening all days, 30 graveyard all days) of the #109 from the airport to downtown. If your luggage meets the airlines’ carry-on limits, it’s OK for the bus. I’ve never had a problem with one carry-on-size rollerbag and my backpack (medium).

Buses are found at the -0- level (one level below bag claim) at the airport. Walk outside and go to the far right and you’ll see a long white bench that’s shielded from the sun. This is the area to board the #108/#109. Caution: When boarding the #109, make sure it’s going downtown; the other direction goes to the South Strip terminal (good for those transferring to #301/#302 for South Strip destinations, such as the Mandalay Bay area).

Bus fare is still $1.25 (60 cent with senior/disabled ID) everywhere except the Strip, where it’s $2 (less for sr/disabled). Driver sells 24-hour passes for $5. DTC (Downtown Transportation center) sells tokens (40 for $20, makes ride cost to $1 except Strip), and monthly passes $30 (less for disabled).

7/2/2004

It’s always good to break a record and on June 13, Brad and I achieved a personal best in one gambling day: a net win of $20,235. And the surprising part is that we did it in a casino activity that is not our area of expertise: a blackjack tournament.

First, I should probably explain that Brad and I always play side-by-side whenever possible and we always work out of one gambling bankroll. Although we have very different personalities, for twenty years we’ve always been “one” when we’re in a casino. (Brad, as we arthritically limp around and forget more than we remember these days, says that it now takes the two of us to make one whole person!) Anyway, we always rejoice together when we have a winning day, no matter who actually earned the profit.

We’ve each had some outstanding lucky strikes. Twice I’ ve been dealt a royal on $1 Triple Play for $12,000, but we didn’ t manage to take it all home. Brad once got two $8,000 royals and three $1,600 jackpots in one day, but my machine burned up a big chunk of it. The day I won a car plus $3,000 in a Stardust drawing, the net profit after selling the car back to the dealer left us only about $16,000 in actual cash in our pockets — although the publicity has been never-ending. We won a slot tournament at the Hard Rock several years ago, but we were partnered with a couple of other people, so we netted only $10,000 from the $20,000 first prize. We rarely play $5 machines, but once Brad hit a $20,000 royal on one, a jackpot that mostly just dug us out of a deep hole.

Today, it was my turn to have a lucky big hit, although Brad contributed by winning at VP while we were waiting between my BJ tournament playing sessions. Ordinarily, I turn tournament duty over to Brad. I’m bored to death pounding away at slot tournaments and I get very frustrated in blackjack tournaments. But because there’s a possibility I may participate in an upcoming televised BJ tourney, I decided I better get in some practice, so I wouldn’ t be as likely to make some really dumb mistakes with potentially millions of people watching me.

This tournament was an invitational at the Rio, just a couple of streets from our home. I had to be one of the top two scores at my table during the first two rounds in order to advance to the semi-finals. I then had to beat everyone at that table in the 3rd round to get to the fourth round and reach the final table to be assured of at least a $750 payoff. Two hundred and twenty-seven other people were trying to do the same thing — reach that #1 spot that paid $20,000.

I find BJ tournaments the hardest gambling I ever do. For one thing, I’m inexperienced; I haven’ t played in them that much, and none for the last year or two. But my biggest handicap is that I’m not a math person and I just can’ t calculate numbers quickly in my head — and you can’ t have a pencil and paper handy to take notes! I do know BJ basic strategy and I know how to count cards, though with no practice for a decade, those skills are pretty rusty. However, I also know that the skills used in a regular BJ game aren’t really the ones I need anyway. It’s all about sizing your bets properly. And my “well-his-stack-of-chips-isn’ t-quite-as-big-as-mine” guesses aren’t nearly as precise as I want and need them to be.

Fortunately for me, a BJ tournament is a short-term gambling event — this one was only 25 hands and luck played a huge part. Some players didn’ t seem to know even the basics of tournament play and were either over-aggressive and busted out early or were too cautious to put out big bets when that was their only chance of advancing. That was lucky for me, since it left fewer players to beat.

And then there was pure luck: I mostly stick with minimum bets until the last few hands, with just one or two very large bets in the middle of the game. I won almost all of my big bets. Twice I had all my chips in the circle on double-down hands, one step from being out in the cold, and both

7/9/2004

During the last week in June, the Las Vegas Advisor ran a poll at its Web site to determine voters’ favorite buffets. The LVA Web site, www.lasvegasadvisor.com, runs a poll every few days or so and they generally attract between 400 and 700 votes. But the buffet poll garnered nearly 3,000 responses, which makes it the largest sampling of people’s buffet preferences since I’ve been on the scene (two decades).

The list included more than 33 Las Vegas buffets – everything from the Aladdin to the Venetian. A note here: The Venetian, I assume, was included as a sort of trick or control, since it doesn’t have a buffet! The Venetian got one vote. Why? Perhaps someone voted for it as a joke. Or perhaps someone confused it with another buffet. The buffets at Monte Carlo and Arizona Charlie’s Decatur also garnered a single tick, which might or might not mean that neither of these two buffets is better than no buffet at all!!

Anyway, I was fascinated to see that the four most popular buffets in Buffet City were also the most expensive. Paris (dinner $24.95) received the lion’s share of votes: 712 or 25% of the total. The Aladdin (dinner $22.99) came in second with 609 votes or 22%. The Rio (dinner also $22.99) placed third with 312 votes or 12%. And Bellagio (the most expensive, at $24.95 Sunday through Thursday and $32.95 Friday and Saturday) ranked fourth with 302 votes or 11%.

Fifth place ($10.79-%15.99, 106 votes, 4%) went to Main Street Station, a perennial favorite of LVAers. Green Valley Ranch and the Orleans got 75 and 74 votes, respectively (3%), and the Mirage, Mandalay Bay, Gold Coast, and Fiesta Henderson received 2%.

I was initially startled by the results. I’d have thought that the big bargain buffets, such as the Orleans, Texas Station, and the Palms, would have ruled the day. But upon further reflection, it might not be so surprising after all.

Ever since the days of the $1 late-night chuckwagon, Las Vegas buffets have been emblematic of the town’s emphasis on an embarrassment of abundance at rock-bottom prices (which has always, of course, gladdened my frugal soul, even while clogging my frugal arteries!). When people visit Las Vegas, they want to stretch the envelope of excess, but most know better (thankfully!) than to do so at the gambling tables and machines. There’s no real danger – except, perhaps, of a little indigestion – of indulging at a buffet. Besides, even the most expensive of them, like Paris at $25 per person, don’t cost much more than a typical steakhouse or fancy Italian dinner back home.

And as long as they’re spending $12-$15 for a good buffet, occasional Las Vegas vacationers might as well spend $23-$25 for a truly exceptional buffet. The combination of the abundance and quality of food, and the not unreasonable prices, at the gourmet buffets makes frugal sense. After all, frugal isn’t about being cheap. It’s about getting good value.

To view the poll results, go to www.lasvegasadvisor.com. Under LVA Poll, click on Cast Your Vote. Then click on View Previous Polls. You don’t have to be a member of LVA to view the previous polls or vote on the current ones.

7/16/2004

This and that — from notes I’ve scribbled as Brad and I run around Las Vegas.

I deal with hosts a lot more now than when we played only quarters. But even with our usual $1-and-up play, our main casino contacts are still with players club employees. I’m always amazed at their patience as they do the sometimes extensive paperwork needed for us to get our great benefits. Even if it’s a short and easy transaction or an answer to a quick question, many greet us by name and give us a cheery hello and a smile. Although we get pleasant service at most of the casinos we visit, I want to give kudos to those extra friendly efficient players club workers at the Hard Rock, Cannery, and Palms. They make our visits to those casinos a warm personal experience!

A side street to the Cannery is named Losee. Don’t know how that is pronounced. Good name if it conjures up thoughts of “loosey goosey” machines; bad one if you think of losing!

Speaking of streets, we’ve discovered the newly finished Frank Sinatra Drive and for us locals, it’s a treasured find! From our condo on Harmon, just a little west of the Palms/Orleans, we can take Twain east, going under the I-15 freeway just past Industrial, and ending at Frank Sinatra Drive. There we can turn right and go the back way into any casino from Caesars Palace all the way south to Mandalay Bay. The beauty of this road is that you never have to cope with traveling on the traffic-clogged Strip. Experienced tourists have long used Koval and Paradise that parallel the Strip on the east and Industrial on the west side to avoid the Strip — now they have another option on the west. You can access Frank Sinatra Drive at Twain, from going north or south on Industrial. There is also an exit to it going north on I-15. Watch the signs as it splits off from the Tropicana exit. You can also access it from the Strip, just south of Mandalay Bay; turn west on Russell Road and the first left is FS Drive. You can enter here and follow it all the way until it ends at Industrial Road, just north of Twain.

I love a play on words. The Coast billboards now tout their new slot club and how you can use your points for cashback or comps with this slogan: “It’s Pointless to Play Anywhere Else.” (Although they no longer offer the good-paying video poker machines they used to, there are still some decent plays there — and the comp specials are very frugal for many players. I just wish they didn’t consider Brad and me personae non gratis.)

Now here’s a marquee sign that makes me mad every time I cross the Strip on Flamingo (which is all too often. I wish they’d hurry up and get the Strip/I-15/railroad flyover planned for Harmon Avenue done — we might never have to cross or traverse the Strip again! But I digress…) My blood boils several times a week when I read the huge Bally’s flashing marquee: “You asked for it –single-deck blackjack at Bally’s and Paris.” This is deceitful advertising at its worst, because what they don’t tell you is that a blackjack is paid only 6-5 instead of the normal-since-time-began 3-2. I don’t know anyone who requested that a casino increase their edge by 1.45%. No one in his or her right mind would beg: “Please give me a blackjack game that will take my money three times as fast!!” Avoid these games like the plague, which they are, infecting casinos all over the country. If everyone would just refuse to play them, you’d see how fast casinos would decide that players won’t fall for dirty tricks! (See my July 30, 2004, column for clarification and more details about this game.)

I have some more notes here, written on scraps of paper and napkins, but unfortunately I can’t read my own writing or remember why those words were important — so that’s all for this week.

7/23/2004

Skill and Luck (Part 2)

When I wrote my July 2 column about winning the first prize of $20,000 in a BJ tournament at the Rio, I didn’t realize that this was not just to be a record-breaking winning day for Brad and me, but the beginning of the best winning streak we’ve had in 20 years of casino gambling. Two days later I was dealt a royal on a $1 Five Play video poker machine for another $20,000. We don’t play $5 machines very often, but a few days later we were in Reno and needed to rack up some points fast and Brad’s machine popped a royal 12 minutes after he sat down—yep, for another $20,000. A week later he then got a little out of sync by “”fooling around”” on a quarter machine and hitting a $1,000 royal, but I got us back on the $20,000 track soon after by hitting another $5 royal. That’s $81,000 in less than three weeks. We’re now back on a more average VP track with no more big hits and our share of losing sessions.

I get a lot of questions about how much our video poker success is a result of luck and how much of it is due to skill. The short answer is that if you look at long-term numbers, skill is the overwhelming factor. However, if you look at the figures for one session or for a week, a month, or even a year of sessions, luck is the dominating factor.

Take my dealt royal mentioned above. That was pure luck. I was playing a machine with a good pay schedule, but it could have happened on a machine with the worst pay table in town. However, there’s usually a combination of luck and skill in any session. But the key thing to remember is this: Playing skillfully on a positive-expectation game is more likely to get you on the winning path sooner, and just as the sun rises in the east and goes down in the west, ignoring skill and depending on luck alone will soon send you in a downward spiral financially. Luck alone cannot beat the math!

A lot of players ask my advice about when they should move up in denomination, as we have done (very slowly and carefully) over the last 14 years of playing video poker. They hear about our recent fantastic winning streak and they’re itching to get one of those big jackpots. One player e-mailed me and asked what can happen on a good day with luck/skill at VP.

Before you start dreaming of big hits, you need to ask the more important questions—about the losing days. To shock you back into reality, I thought I’d would give you a summary of our daily gambling session win/loss figures from January of this year until our lucky streak started. We’d been down about $18,000 for the year when I won the BJ tournament on June 13, so we are nicely ahead at the moment, but we’re certainly not up by $81,000. So before you get jealous about those winning jackpots, here are some of our biggest losing days so far this year — all these figures are net losses in one day.

$3,280
$2,600
$4,790
$4,900
$6,000
$4,805
$2,500
$3,750
$6,865
$3,660
$4,000
$2,778
$2,885
$3,810
$4,690

Of course, we had some nice big winning days, but not nearly as long a list as the previous one:

$3,160
$13,410
$3,950
$3,705
$6,036
$3,750

All the rest of the days were “”normal,”” which we consider winning or losing $2000 or less, and as is also normal, there are many more losing sessions than winning ones. Note that we play mostly slightly negative games, so we should lose more than we win long-term on the actual game itself. We depend on cash benefits to make all our plays have an overall long-term positive expectation.

Next time you think about going up in denomination, ask yourself if you could survive this roller-coaster ride. Sure, the highs are fun, but notice how few and far between they are. Do you have the bankroll and the stomach to lose thousands of dollars in one day?

Is that sound I hear the rush of players back to the security of quarter machines?

7/30/2004

In my July 16th column two weeks ago, I talked about the terrible change for a natural blackjack payoff casinos all over the country are making to extract more money from gamblers — reducing the long-time established payoff for a blackjack of 3:2 to a pocket-emptying 6:5. Several readers brought it my attention that my numbers in that column needed to be explained and that the situation was even worse than I described, depending on which game — single-deck or 6-deck — you used for comparison. Here’s one letter that said it well.

Hi Jean,
I want to thank you again for mentioning this rotten BJ game to your readers, since the more people who know about this casino rip-off the better.

On a normal single-deck game where a blackjack is paid 3 to 2 and dealers hit soft 17, that house advantage is 0.18%. So the 1.45% casino advantage on 6 to 5 single-deck BJ is actually a raise in the casino advantage of 1.27%. The easiest way for players to understand the difference between these two paybacks is to say that a 0.18% casino advantage means that for every $100 a player churns (plays hand after hand) through, he’s giving the casino (on average) 18 cents. With a 1.45% casino advantage, for every $100 that the player churns through, he’s giving the casino $1.45. That’s more than EIGHT times (actually 8.06 times) the amount of the previous house advantage! When you multiply .18% by 8, you get 1.44%.

So what this 8.06 times means (if you compare it to other financial events) is that you would be paying $64.48 for an $8 movie ticket and $8.06 for any $1 item! What a horrible horrible rip-off! I think that casinos mostly get away with this because they think that people will believe that 6-to-5 is higher pay than 3-to-2 (since the numbers 6 and 5 are higher than 3 and 2). The sooner that more people are straightened out on this math, the better!

David

I checked with Henry Tamburin, a long-time expert BJ player and gaming writer. He verified this eight-times increase in the house edge on single-deck games. And for those who think that it isn’t so bad if you compare it to multi-deck games, he wrote: “The house edge is also 2.3 to 3.5 times greater compared to a standard 6-deck game, depending upon the rules — with dealer standing on soft 17, it’s 2.3 times greater and dealer hitting soft 17 it’s 3.5 greater. Readers of “Frugal Fridays” can get all the details on 6:5 blackjack in an article that I’ve posted on my Web site, www.smartgaming.com. It’s at the bottom of my home page under 6:5 CONSUMER ALERT.”

This is a great article that gives all the details about this new scourge and provides the scary figures on just how much more it will cost you to play it. Henry also gives some suggestions that players can use to help fight this new development.

While you’re at Henry’s site, check out the links on the home page to: informative BJ articles; how to subscribe to his free e-newsletter, Blackjack Insider; and information on a new amazing and EASY system for gaining the advantage beyond just using basic strategy, Golden Touch Blackjack.

And remember my advice when you see a 6:5 BJ game: Just Say No!

6/4/2004

Online in the Las Vegas Sun:

“Rube Goldberg lives — in spirit anyway. A new slot machine gimmick that marries gadgetry and luck in a series of clanking, spinning, ball-rolling contraptions was unveiled Wednesday at the (Atlantic City) Tropicana Casino and Resort. Goldberg, a Pulitzer Prize winner who died in 1970, was famous for drawings of complicated machinery that accomplished little, but exerted a lot of energy in doing so.”

First, we have casino chickens that can almost always beat humans playing tic-tac-toe. Then we have slot machines combined with treadmills and exercise bikes. Now a gimmick you can read about at http://tinyurl.com/apd2.

What will casinos think of next?

Staying with Atlantic City news for another online item:

As reported by the Associated Press: “”The rooms in the splashy billion-dollar Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa [are] missing one item — a Bible. The casino’s owners have barred the local chapter of Gideon’s International from placing Bibles in each of its 2,002 rooms, marking the first time that an Atlantic City casino has established such a policy.””

Global Gaming Business commented on this political correctness issue: “”Some conservatives blasted the decision, saying that it is important for all hotels to have inspirational reading in the room to give people in crisis an outlet.

“”Casino officials say it is a nod to diversity, and that Bibles provided by Gideon’s International will be available in the hotel lobby along with several other religious texts, such as the Mormon Bible and the Koran.””

I understand the diversity issue, but it reminds me of an old joke: What’s the difference between someone praying in church and in a casino? The gambler really means it!

A new BJ bonus game to look for, and probably avoid: Ten to Win.
Described in Global Gaming Business, a trade magazine for casino executives: “”A display behind the table flashes various award amounts. Each time a player receives a 10 in a suit determined by the casino, he has the option of trading it in to the dealer for the next card out of the shoe, in exchange for activating one of the 10 lights on his personal console. When a player has lit all 10 lights, a floor person activates a ‘spin’ button and lights flash around the award display until landing on one of the cash prizes.”

Now comes a clue to whether you want to play this game.

“”According to the developer of the system, Ten to Win promotes longevity of play, while boosting the house edge of the blackjack game as players trade in 10-value cards.””

Sounds to me like another BJ variation to empty our pockets faster!

I just read a new addition in my gambling library, Get the Edge at Low-Limit Texas Hold’Em by my good friend Bill Burton, the casino guide for About.com (order at http://vegas.home.attbi.com).

This is an excellent book for beginners who want to tackle the casino poker room or for veteran players who are losing because they have never studied the game.

Even though I rarely play live poker, except for an occasional casual game with friends or at the Moose Lodge when I go back to Indiana, I especially enjoyed the book because of the details of Bill’s personal journey “”from the kitchen to the cardroom and how, in just a few short months of intensive study and practice, he became a winning player.”” Study and practice — these are the requirements for any successful gambler, no matter what the game. So if your game of choice is Texas hold ’em at low limits, this is a book I strongly recommend.

6/11/2004

You know you’re traveling too much when you lose your vehicle in the Park ‘n’ Fly lot!

Many of you have questioned why you rarely see us in casinos these days. We’ve been on the road — or more accurately, in the air — a lot over the past couple of months. We really wore ourselves out traveling in 2003, so we took a rest and didn’t leave town from mid-December until April 16, when we once again ventured out of Vegas — to take advantage of a good four-night offer from Harrah’s casino in New Orleans. Sometimes we like combining sightseeing with casino visits and we love the atmosphere of the French Quarter.

The next four-night trip came right on the heels of the first, to Barona Casino and Resort near San Diego, to speak at a seminar for casino hosts. I enjoy these speaking engagements, because it gives me a chance to give the player’s perspective on hosts and marketing departments to many casino executives. I don’t hold back; I discuss what we players like, i.e. well-organized tournaments, but I start blasting when I talk about what we don’t like, i.e. long lines and waits anywhere in the casino!

The next trip was for pure pleasure, visiting the grandchildren in Columbus, Georgia. (Of course, we were glad to see their parents too: my daughter Angela and her husband, Army Ranger Steve.) Many people have asked about Steve since they knew he’d been in Iraq in the spring. He came home a little earlier than the rest of his unit when Angela’s father passed away, and the Army and Red Cross saw that he got home for the funeral. He was supposed to go back to Iraq, but Fort Drum, NY, was so understaffed at the time that he was tapped to stay there in a supervisory capacity until his unit returned. When he found out that his unit was scheduled to go back to Iraq at the end of the year, he decided that, after 15 years in the service of Uncle Sam, going to hot spots all over world and, for the last 10 years leaving his family for months and months on end, he would try to find a non-deployable slot.

In early January of this year he was successful, going back on jump status and becoming an instructor at the Ranger school at Fort Benning in Columbus, Georgia. It’s very likely that he’ll be able to stay at this post until he retires, so Steve and Angela joyfully bought their first house, where the Frugal Princess decided they could finally have a pet, who now rules the household, a cockapoo puppy name Dixie, in honor of settling in the South. They’re all reveling in the fact that the Howard family can now have a more “normal” life than they had for ten years while living in military housing. To celebrate permanency, they’re building the most elaborate tree house in the neighborhood: Fort Howard.

We were so happy to visit and celebrate with them for almost a week. Kaitlynn and Zachary are seasoned Army brats, adjusting immediately to school in mid-year, and we were able to attend their end-of-year award ceremonies where they both scored all-As certificates and Zachary received the Good Citizen of the Year trophy and a Presidential Citation for Excellence given to a graduating 5th grader. (Enough of Grandma bragging — I know your grandkids are just as great and I will let you get even by enthusiastically looking at your grandchildren pictures the next time we meet!)

As usual I’ve rambled and I haven’t even covered all our trips and given the travel hints I picked up recently. I know it isn’t an exciting cliffhanger, but I’ll finish up this subject next week, after yet another out-of-town trip.

6/17/2004

Last week I promised you more travel stories and frugal hints from trips we’ve taken recently.

After we returned from visiting the Frugal Princess and her family in Georgia, we had a few days to catch up back home, then headed to the airport again for a weekend trip to San Diego where I was the banquet speaker at the 15th Annual National Sweepstakers Convention. I knew that there were people who entered a lot of drawings and contests, but I had no idea of the widespread interest in this specialized field. There were almost 800 people at this convention. These sweepers — as they call themselves — are as frugally crazy as I am about free things, maybe even more so! And this isn’t a free-T-shirt-level of action. As well as a huge assortment of merchandise, most attendees had won multiple expensive vacations — and one couple had won THIRTEEN cars.

At first I wasn’t sure why I was asked to speak to this group, but I soon found out that most sweepers are also casino goers, and sweeping and gambling have much in common. In my talk, I spoke about the factors that make you more successful in either: a high degree of motivation, continual study, an understanding of math principles, perseverance, patience, and a lot of hard work.

I’m resisting the temptation to investigate sweeping, although it sounds like a very frugal activity; I’m already too busy and looking for ways to cut down on projects, not to take on new ones. However, some of you might find this a good way to collect freebies in between your casino visits earning comps. Although they still often use snail mail for entering contests, there’s a whole new area that has opened up by going on the Internet. If you’re interested, go to your search engines.

We travel on Southwest Airlines whenever we can; the fact that you can change your reservation anytime right up until flight time with NO penalty is an extremely important feature for us. You don’t get your ticket price back as cash but as full credit on a future flight. One caveat: If you rebook you might have to pay more for a replacement ticket, as all tickets are sold at the prevailing price at the time of booking. I usually book as far ahead as possible, then periodically check to see if Southwest offers a cheaper ticket. They put out their weekly sale prices very early every Tuesday morning. If I do find a better fare, it’s easy to cancel the first reservation, then use that credit to book the cheaper flight, saving the balance to put on a future one.

We always book online to get an extra bonus credit (though the online credit runs out at the end of this month), and we have a new Southwest Signature credit card that we load up with all the purchases we can. The annual fee for this new Signature card is $20 more than a regular Southwest card, but it has the added feature of giving double credit for all Southwest ticket buys, so we can accumulate benefits worth much more than the fee. We love those free tickets we regularly earn!

People often ask us if we try to get bumped like we used to as described in The Frugal Gambler. Yes, we usually do, even when we’re traveling on business and have must-be-there-at-a-certain-time obligations. I try to allow extra time for this in our travel schedule. However, recently we haven’t scored free flights as often as we used to. The airlines, especially Southwest, are getting very good at estimating load counts.

We were first on the volunteer list this last weekend and the gate agent was calling for more volunteers. However, the overbooked passengers did not show and we were disappointed when they put us on the last two seats open on our flight. It’s another form of gambling — you don’t win every time. However, just like in gambling, if you do all the things that will help you — like booking flights during busy times, getting to the gate early and asking if they’re starting a volunteer list, and staying flexible in your travel schedule — you will score more o”
6/24/2004 “For several people wanting to share their pain over decreased Southwest benefits: Yes, Southwest ending its seven-year bonusing program for booking online is a big blow to all of us free-flight collectors. My response is to try to snag enough extra bags of peanuts and pretzels to make up the loss! (One reader had this comment: “They’ll bring it back when their call center gets swamped with calls from all the people who ONLY booked online to get the bonus.”)

I’d just finished writing that paragraph when Hockeystl, a friend of mine and THE master authority on frequent-flier programs, posted this corrected information. Good news indeed!

“Not sure who passed this info to you, but it is not correct; see
www.southwest.com/rapid_rewards/rr_whats_new.html:

“”Book your travel at southwest.com and receive three credits per roundtrip instead of two! Booking your travel at southwest.com gets you Awards even faster! Simply book your trip at southwest.com and fly by December 31, 2004, and you’ll receive three (3) credits for each roundtrip instead of the standard two (2) credits you receive if you don’t book at southwest.com.””

Hey, I’m so glad I was wrong!! At the end of 2003 Southwest DID reduce the bonus from 2 to 1 bonus credit per roundtrip, but it’s good news that there hasn’t been a further reduction. Their frequent-flier program is better for us than most others, because we take a lot of short flights.

Another good Southwest note: I was asking a flight attendant if she could give away some of my many free-drink coupons because they were expiring. She said, “Just keep them for the future — we never pay attention to expiration dates.” Too bad the doctor won’t let either one of us drink alcoholic beverages. With all the coupons books we have we could increase the “comps” of air travel considerably!!

Sticking with Southwest for another useful travel tip: When leaving Las Vegas airport to fly Southwest, especially during crowded times, use the “secret passage” to bypass the hassle of the regular C-gate security checkpoint and the tram ride to the gate area. After you have checked your baggage or used the convenient electronic kiosks to get your boarding pass, walk back outside and take a right. Follow the sign to the C gates — you walk about 100 yards right under the tram tracks. There, you go through security, often by yourself. It saves *a lot* of time and aggravation.

Someone asked if we still try to always book flights that have a lot of stops before our destination, to increase our chances for getting bumped. Old age has taken its toll here. Now I try for as many non-stop flights as I can. We used to love to travel, but now it seems to wear us out so much so the shorter the time the better.

A caution to everyone, young or old, on long non-stop flights: Get up and walk around frequently to ward off the danger of blood clots in your legs; there have been cases where this has been fatal. It’s especially important as you get older and if you’re on certain medications, such as Evista, which I take for the beginning of osteoporosis. (It’s a bitch to get old, as Brad and I repeat to each other all the time!)

Finally, if you see the movie “”The Terminal,”” you’ll see Tom Hanks using the
Frugal Gambler’s favorite way to add EV (expected value) to the long waits
in airports. This is one of the most heart-warming and funny movies I’ve seen for a long time. There’s also a neat gambling scene — now we know what happens to lost baggage!

Happy flying to all.

5/7/2004

I bet you’re a person with good sense!

In the stock market you look for books to read that explain the basics. You keep up with changing conditions by reading the newspaper and magazines. You look for experts who have been successful themselves and read to learn their winning techniques.

Before going to the grocery store, you scan the ad circulars you get in your mailbox and see which store has the things you need on sale before you decide where you will shop that week. You clip coupons to take with you in order to make your food budget go further.

For your day-to-day needs you shop at a no-frills discount store, like Wal-Mart, because you aren’t interested in the ambience — you just want to get the best value at a reasonable price.

When you want the fun of shopping in a big mall with upscale stores — and prices to match — you mostly window-shop and only buy something if you find it on sale.

If you’re tempted to overspend your budget when you go shopping, you leave your checkbook and credit and ATM cards at home and take only the cash you can afford to spend that day.

Look how sensible you are!

And then you walk into a casino without any advance preparation. You haven’t read a book about gambling to learn what the successful experts say. You’ve never researched the basics to see what game gives you the best odds. You haven’t opened the freebie magazine in your hotel room or at the bell desk to see if there are any coupons that can cut your expenses. You go on tilt when you’re losing, hitting up your friend for a loan or your spouse for the money that you put away for the rent. You hit the ATM until it will no longer spit out bills for you to stuff into a VP machine for which you have never studied the correct strategy you should be using. You choose glamour and luxury that seem so important at first, but in the end doesn’t give you enough satisfaction to justify its expense.

Why do you, a sensible person in all areas of your life, throw common sense out the window when you enter a casino?

5/14/2004

Wow! Great new format for my home at LasVegasAdvisor.com, don’t you think? I might be sentimental, but of all the new design features and functions on this Web site, the piece that touches me the most is the phrase right up at the top of the home page: “”Covering every facet of the Las Vegas experience since 1983.”” I still recall stumbling across my first Las Vegas Advisor sometime in the mid ’80s and feeling as if I’d just discovered the Ophir silver mines of King Solomon. And as I wrote in More Frugal Gambling, “”I’ve been married to the Las Vegas Advisor ever since.”” Obviously, Anthony Curtis and the Advisor have been a huge part of my success in this business, both as a player and an author. And I’m especially proud to be associated with Huntington Press, its entire staff, and this Web site.

What amazes me about this group is that, although they’ve been doing what they do for 21 years and could easily rest on their laurels, they’re always expanding, improving, tinkering, and generally making it easier for all of us Vegasphiles to get the most up-to-date and in-depth information about this wild city. The site’s new design is just another example of Huntington Press’ dedication, not only to its members, but to the world of Las Vegas visitors at large.

But enough of the mushy stuff. What strikes me about this new design is that the LVA Web site now encompasses five distinct areas of the aforementioned Las Vegas experience. First, of course, is the Advisor itself, including the newsletter, the coupons, LVA Lite, and access to the Web site. Armed with those alone, anyone can greatly improve upon their knowledge about and enjoyment of Las Vegas.

Second is the GreatStuff4Gamblers.com catalog of books, software, videos, strategy cards, and other products. Since they only carry what they recommend, the catalog is valuable in terms of its inclusion of only the very best products on whatever gambling subject you’re interested in.

Third is the forums. You have to be a member to avail yourself of this giant online community, but the amount of information gathered and shared by everyday visitors alone is well worth the $37 a year it costs for the online subscription.

Fourth is the coverage of the exploding online gambling scene at LVAGO.com and fifth is the sports pick services provided by Dan Gordon and Fezzik.

Spend some time clicking around the LasVegasAdvisor.com’s new format. Features I especially like are Question of the Day, the new poll, and Blair Rodman’s inside coverage of the World Series of Poker. And you won’t be surprised to hear that the best thing of all about the new format is that, other than the few members-only places, such as the forums, the online LVA, and the LVA archives, the whole thing is still free!

5/21/2004

As locals, we get a lot of postcards from casinos, offering us what we usually refer to as “”please-come-back stuff.”” Sometimes it’s neat stuff we can use: a handy little tool kit for minor jobs around the house, a nice-looking picture frame/clock combo. However, most of it ends up in the “”comp museum”” set up in our garage: a suitcase set (so flimsy it wouldn’t survive airline luggage handlers for even one trip), T-shirts (to add to our growing stack that we don’t wear), a gardening set (which is no use to us in condo living), a car-tool set (which looks handy but our idea of car repair is the emergency number of our favorite mechanic). We make everyone who comes to visit us take something home from our garage (whether they want to or not), but the museum is like a bowl of spaghetti—the more you eat, the more it seems you have left.

So we’re getting more discerning in the stuff we go to get from casinos these days. We usually don’t go out of our way for it; if we’re driving right by the casino, maybe we’ll take the time to stop by. However, recently we got a postcard from a casino inviting us to pick up a tranquility fountain. Now, although Brad doesn’t have this need, I can use all the tranquility help I can get. So I thought this was one would be worth the trip. And since it was only about 10 minutes from our house, we could be there and back in less than an hour with two tranquility fountains—one each in two rooms.

Wrong! First off, most casino customers must be wound as tight as I am. We got into a monumental traffic jam, just before the turn into the casino. The whole database must have decided they needed something to help them relax. In fact, two carloads were so anxious to relax that they ran right into each other. So we sat in this line of tense drivers waiting for the accident-clean-up crew. When the police, who also seemed more exasperated than tranquil, finally got the traffic moving again, we entered the casino parking lot—where we had to dodge those who were coming out. Even though I knew they’d picked up their tranquility fountains (I saw the boxes in their back windows), they didn’t look very relaxed. We soon knew why: It took us 15 minutes to find an open parking space and when we started toward the casino, we saw more bad news—a line snaking out the door.

We’d battled our way this far and I was determined to find tranquility no matter how much stress and aggravation it took. The line crawled throught the double doors, past the vestibule, into the casino, around the slot machines, past the buffet, and finally we arrived at the gift-giveaway desk, where a harried clerk was checking IDs and slot club cards to be sure they matched the name on the postcard. Heaven forbid someone wanted to find tranquility who didn’t deserve it.

We clutched our two boxes containing my slowly fading hope for tranquility, spent 10 minutes getting out of the parking lot, and finally headed toward home. I told Brad we needed to stop at Walgreens to get some Pepto-Bismol— my stomach was upset. He let me off by the door and I ran in, grabbed a bottle, and went to stand in line at the check-out. There on display were “”Tranquility Fountains on Sale—Two for $9.99.”

5/28/2004

A reader poses the following question: “Do hosts receive a percentage of the action of the players they host?” In other words, when a high roller loses a bundle at a casino, does his host earn a percentage of that loss?

A good question and one of many about hosts I’ve fielded since More Frugal Gambling, with its big section on casino marketing executives, was published. It appears that there’s lots of interest in and curiosity about hosts – primarily, I suspect, because hosts, and the personalized service they provide, have traditionally been out of the reach of most players.

In this day and age, the vast majority of gamblers, even low rollers and recreational players, are aware that they’re entitled to some level of comps for their play. Partly thanks to the book Comp City by Max Rubin, first published ten years ago, casino complimentaries are no longer the deep dark secret they once were. Hosts, however, if my reader mail is any indication, remain an area of the casino business that’s still deep in shadow.

Luckily for us players, a new book about to be released tells the whole host story from start to finish. The book is called Whale Hunt in the Desert – The Secret Las Vegas of Casino Superhost Steve Cyr. And it’s written by my illustrious editor and old friend, Deke Castleman.

Some Frugal Fridays readers are no doubt familiar with Deke, who’s co-written the Las Vegas Advisor and been the editor at Huntington Press for I don’t know how long, probably close to 15 years. I’ve seen an advance copy of Whale Hunt and I can say with confidence that this book will do for hosts – and the whole system of the handling of high rollers – what Comp City has done for comps. No writer, to my knowledge, has previously pierced the obscure world that high rollers (especially whales) inhabit, that rarefied realm of casino jets, stretch limos, penthouse villas, butlers, personal chefs, show-up money, rebates on losses, lavish gifts, shopping sprees, and the like. Compared to whales, who are able – and willing – to bet up to $100,000 a hand at blackjack and $250,000 a hand at baccarat, we’re all low rollers!

Don’t quote me, but I’ve heard that Whale Hunt will be available later this summer.

I asked Deke to answer the reader’s question about how hosts are remunerated and here’s his reply.

Hosts who are on a casino’s payroll earn a salary. Hosts are basically salespeople, and like most salespeople, they’re incentivized; in other words, they get bonuses based on their performance. (Not all hosts get bonuses, but most do.) A host’s year-end bonus, particularly, can be based on his or her players’ losses. Which means that yes, hosts can and do earn a percentage of loss, though that percentage is necessarily quite small, often fractions of a point.

Independent player representatives, who are under contract to more than one casino, are paid in various ways. For example, Steve Cyr, the host on whose story my new book, Whale Hunt in the Desert, is based, worked for the Las Vegas Hilton for 10 years before starting his own hosting company; he’s now a player representative at the Golden Nugget, Barona in San Diego, Atlantis in the Bahamas, and a few other casinos. At a couple of his joints, he’s paid a percentage of the losses of players he brings in.

This is a double-edged sword. First, he can make a lot of money this way. Say a player goes to Atlantis and loses $400,000 over a weekend. Cyr can earn a quick $40,000 (if he’s paid 10%). However, if the player wins, he earns squat. Second, hosts, especially independent reps, usually become friends with their players. But when their pay is based on loss, they have to root for their “”friends”” to lose. (I delve deeply into this conundrum in Whale Hunt.)

A better deal for the host (though not necessarily for the casino) is when his pay is based on the “theo,” or a player’s theoretical result.

4/2/2004

A warning – I’m up on a soapbox this week!

I’ve tried to be broad-minded about Vegas and its reputation as Sin City, but I can’t stay quiet anymore. Things have gone too far.

I really don’t know when it started – maybe back when the Riviera started advertising with the bare backsides of the Crazy Girls on the back of taxis all over town. Although at first I thought it was kind of cute, I realized that when my grandchildren came to visit us, I was a little embarrassed and tried to explain that showgirls in casinos were used to performing with scanty costumes, but they didn’t dress like this except when they were on stage.

Vegas has always had casino advertising with scantily clad beauties, but a couple of years ago, it seemed to turn a corner and go to a place where sex in advertising was no longer restrained and turned from classy to crass. Jane Ann Morrison, a Review-Journal columnist, said it well, “My personal advertising gripe: Ads that show only body parts such as … the ones that show just a woman’s breasts and nothing else. No head, no face. Just parts. Even the reclining showgirl of yesteryear expressed more humanity than these ads.”

Some of the sexy ads are just plain stupid – one casino restaurant ad shows a girl in a very short skirt doing an uncomfortable-looking backbend, with no visible support, in front of some guys at a table. Does this make anyone think that if they eat in this restaurant, they will have a sexy time? All I think about is that I need to ask my chiropractor to come along with me. Are people all over America suddenly deciding to come to Vegas because they see an ad that implies that people with common sense can visit and get drunk or at least carried away and do stupid things they wouldn’t dream of doing at home because “what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas”?

Casinos are stumbling all over each other to capture the interest of a new target group, the affluent 21- to 40-year-old bracket. It seems like a new nightclub or lounge is opening every other week, each one trying to be more blatantly sexual in its advertising. I’m not sure this phase the city is in now is going to be as successful as so many businesses think. I’m firmly in the “old” bracket – 41 and up – but the biggest majority of the gamblers I see actually putting money in the machines or on the tables are in my age group. Do these young kids really buy enough beer to make a casino successful?

We play video poker at both the Palms and the Hard Rock and we have watched as these two hip joints keep trying to outdo each other in being an over-the-top sexy place. The Hard Rock started sending mailings to their players, even to us seniors, with so-called sexy messages. The first one was a promotion for playing and earning enough points for a jacket. They pictured the jacket with lipstick on the collar – we thought that was pretty cute and liked the subtle message. But I guess they thought we weren’t smart enough (or too old) to get the slightly suggestive message, so on the other side of the postcard, they had this blurb: “Believe us, Lipstick on your Collar is a plus.” Okay, we got the message–but they were afraid we wouldn’t so they continued: “This jacket can help your odds at achieving it. Earn 250 points … and it’s all yours. Accompanied by a skyrocketing dry-cleaning bill. But that’s not a bad thing because you’ll be getting some.” Sheesh, do people over 40 seem that dense to young casino-marketing directors?

But that postcard was extremely subtle compared to the next one we got for another promotion, a gift giveaway where you had to stick your hand in a black box to pick your gift. “So come and grab it; it makes us feel so dirty.” Is there anyone who gets sexually aroused choosing a free gift? Brad and I may be a bit old, but we’re not dead yet. However, all we were thinking about was our hope that we would get one of the $100 Free Play cards instead of a dinky keychain!

Oops, my space is gone and I have

4/8/2004

Did you get tricked on April Fools Day? Well, no tricks here. (Now there’s a terrible pun!) I told you last week I would continue my discussion about sex in the city – Las Vegas style. So back up on the soapbox I climb.

There’s a time and place for everything, including sex. I’m enough of a libertarian to feel that what consenting adults do in the privacy of their own homes, as long as it doesn’t harm anyone, is “right.” What is done in public is a different matter.

This concept was brought home to me recently when Brad and I finally got around to seeing Zumanity, the “other side” of Cirque du Soleil – and a blatantly sexy show. We’ve seen a lot of shows down through the 20 years we’ve been visiting casinos, but this one probably had more nudity and sexy positions and actions than any other.

Were we offended?

No!

And why not?

We weren’t tricked. Whenever you read advertisements for this show, the sexual content is always emphasized. That this is definitely for adults is emphasized with an under-18 ban. And even at the last minute, when we were picking up our tickets, we were warned at the box office that this show had extreme sexual content and nudity. So it would be very hard for people who object to this type of show or children for whom it would be unsuitable to be accidentally exposed to the show. This is the right place for this type of material.

On the other hand, advertisements, whether atop taxis or on posters in the public part of the casino or on huge billboards that are prominently positioned all over town, are a completely different matter. These can and will be seen by anyone and everyone, of any age or set of values, with no option to avoid them.

Advertisements in Vegas now for several years have been in a gray area, going closer and closer to the place where a big segment of the city’s public, both local and visitor, object to the blatantly risqué direction. The final straw for me was the tawdry billboard that the Hard Rock put up during the National Finals Rodeo. Again, they figured people wouldn’t get the message with just the suggestive words “Get ready to buck all night.” So they had a picture of a woman at the edge of a bed, with a cowboy hat on the floor. But in the ultimate in tastelessness and crudeness, this woman was only shown from the knees down, pulling her panties down around her ankles. (Okay, for you who were not in Vegas at the time of this billboard and you would like to see it – simply so you can judge it properly, of course – http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Jan-23-Fri-2004/business/23058075.html)

I thought, “I wonder if I’m the only one who thinks that even in Sin City, this billboard is definitely too much!” And for a while I heard nothing about this and I figured that once again, as broad-minded as I am, that I must be the only prude in town who found this ad offensive. But then I heard the Nevada Gaming Commission had received so many complaints that they were going to consider whether this ad fit into the standards for the state’s casinos. On March 18 a group of riled residents protested in front of the building where the meeting of the Gaming Commission was being held.

I haven’t yet heard the decision they made about this Hard Rock ad – I guess the Commissioners need to look at it a long time to make a fair decision, heh, heh – and whether they have set any limits in this area. But hopefully they’ll use common sense. Even my 9-year-old granddaughter, Kaitlynn, knows when things go over the line. When we drive around town, she points out various advertisements and pronounces, “That’s inappropriate for children!”

It’s not a matter of right and wrong. It shouldn’t be hard for the Commission to decide what’s best to be kept in private and what’s inappropriate for anyone to have to view in public!

Oscar Goodman, the mayor of our fair city, is often asked about the suggestive slogan that currently advertises Las Vegas, “What ha”

4/15/2004

A growing trend is for casino players clubs, especially those that don’t have cashback programs, to make your club points redeemable for merchandise gift cards or gift certificates. Many casinos issue comps and/or let you use points for meals in their restaurants, hotel rooms, merchandise in their shops, and on-site amenities such as childcare, spa, hair salon, and movies. But I especially like gift cards or certificates for outside stores, where we can get almost anything we ever need for free. Right now I carry the following cards or certificates in my purse when I go out shopping:

Von’s grocery store. We don’t eat every meal in a casino. We could — we earn enough comps to do so — but I haven’t found a casino that lets you eat in any of their restaurants in your jammies or will provide room-service to our condo.

Three malls. I have cards to the new downtown Las Vegas Premium Outlets and two suburban ones, Meadows Mall (near Arizona Charlie’s Decatur) and the Boulevard (near UNLV). My cards provide a large selection of stores where we can buy clothes, shoes, housewares, and hundreds of other necessities and luxuries.

Home Depot. This is Brad’s favorite gift card. He spends so much time in these stores that I have accused him of being in love with a Home Depot cashier!

Macy’s Department Store. I wait until they run a sale and this makes my gift cards go even further.

Rite Aid Pharmacy. This is a new one we got recently and is very valuable. Not only does it provide us with a multitude of choices of sundries, but we can take our prescriptions there and this covers the co-pay that our health insurance doesn’t pay. We don’t need a Medicare drug benefit!

PetSmart. We don’t have a pet, but the Frugal Princess family now has a cockapoo, named Dixie in honor of their moving to Georgia and becoming Southerners. I’m sure they’ll love having gift cards to spend at the pet store.

Electronic stores. These are the really valuable ones. We’re working on earning a bunch of Best Buy gift cards so I’ll have enough to get a new computer when my problematic present one finally dies — or I go crazy trying to keep it working right, whichever comes first. I won a certificate for $1,000 in a recent Palms drawing from Fry’s Electronics, which went toward buying our new big LCD TV.

Gas stations. With the price of gas in Vegas among the highest in the nation, free gas is a very popular comp at several casinos. Some have issued national brand gas gift cards, while others have made agreements with specific local gas stations, usually near the casino.

What if I get gift-card comps that I really can’t use? They never go to waste. I can give them as a tip to hosts or other casino employees who’ve gone out of their way for us. We can give them to friends and family members for holiday or birthday gifts.

There’s also a brisk exchange program among personal and Internet friends, with a negotiable “”market value.”” We recently exchanged $1,000 in Nordstrom’s cards, where I don’t care to shop, for $850 in Best Buy cards from someone who has all the electronics he needs at the moment. You’ll also see this as a strong cottage industry on eBay.

Any gift cards or certificates that I can earn or that the casino gives me as a bonus, if it saves me taking money out of my pocket, I consider as good as gold — or greenbacks.”

4/23/2004

My columns of a few weeks ago on “”sex in the city”” elicited a number of responses. Here’s a representative sampling of sentiments, some from correspondents who obviously feel, well, passionate about this issue.

1. I’m not a prude, far from it, but the type of advertising we’re getting these days is just not acceptable. I know in the long run it will cost the valley. Already a young couple I know, who are talking about starting a family, have openly stated that they will be leaving when the first baby comes. Why? Because they don’t want to explain to the kid what that sign on the taxi is all about — you know, the one with the almost bare butts. They want a kid to be able to be just a kid. I know Vegas, at least the Strip, is not really for kids, but look at the number of youngsters walking along the Strip with their parents and all of the families driving around. The Hard Rock ads and others are really intended for “”hip”” (do they use that word anymore?) young adults, but everyone who drives by is exposed to it. I know that there’s sometimes a fine line between good and bad taste, but I think the hotels need to move their line a little to the “”right.”” Thanks for getting on that soapbox. I really wish the RJ and the Sun would pick up on your column and run it for the entire valley to read.

2. We all enjoy what Las Vegas has to offer. It shouldn’t be one extreme or the other. There should be some family areas for people with children, but that shouldn’t be the main focus either. I just think that it has swung around 180 degrees in the opposite direction. There has to be a middle ground.

3. Sex is wonderful; sex is great. Obviously sex sells. But I’m always hoping for just a little bit more imagination. The old Vegas was more of an illusion. Everything now is just laid out in front of you for the taking, it seems. I miss the classiness. I like a little more challenge in my game. It’s not just the sex either; some of the greatest entertainers of Las Vegas now are just impersonators of originals we no longer have. All I’m asking for is a fresh idea, not another flesh idea!

4. I would like to add one more negative about the new sex theme going on in Vegas. I’m usually out early in the morning (around 5:30 am) and when I stop at the Barbary Coast, I’m absolutely scared for my life on weekends. And I’m not a small man. At this time, the 21- to 30-year-olds are coming from Drai’s and the all-night drinking and drugging parties that go on there. I swear, one wrong word or funny look toward some of the people could cause all kinds of trouble. I believe that, in the future, we will hear of many rooms trashed, people injured, employees attacked, and numerous other problems caused by too much alcohol and drugs. It will become a very dangerous city to live in.

5. I fully agree that the referenced billboard, and similar material, are quite offensive. I also agree with the distinction you drew between the billboards and the Zumanity show. Even so, it appears to me that the Hard Rock does have a First Amendment right to display such material. As long as it’s merely offensive, as opposed to fraudulent, I can’t see how it fits into any of the recognized exceptions to the First Amendment. If you do see fit to mention the issue again, you might want to comment upon exactly why you feel that such displays should be legally prohibited. Unless everybody’s rights are respected, nobody’s are truly secure.

Jean’s note: This is not a First Amendment issue. The Nevada Gaming Commission has the power to judge the actions of the casinos they regulate and to decide whether anything they do (including moral as well as legal issues) will be a negative for the reputation of the Nevada gaming industry. The casinos know this and agree to this as a condition for getting their valuable gaming licenses.

Jean’s conclusion: I think I’ll let Dr. Seuss have the last word on this subject:

“”You have brain”

4/29/2004

The following article appears in a new e-book called Best of Blackjack Insider. Blackjack Insider is a Web-based newsletter produced by the veteran and prolific gambling writer, Henry Tamburin (you can subscribe for free at www.bjinsider.com/main.shtml. The e-book contains 40 articles written for the newsletter by 15 top-notch experts, including Fred Renzey, Michael Shackleford, Bob Dancer, Frank Scoblete, Hal Marcus, and, of course, Henry himself. You’ll get solid advice on basic strategy, card counting, Risk of Ruin (ROR), comps, and much much more. Check it out.

Here’s my article:

I admit that I never really was an expert blackjack card counter. Some 19 years ago, when my husband Brad and I first started gambling in casinos, we studied blackjack and mastered basic strategy. We read all the books, studied the various counting systems, and tried to master at least the simple high-low. Brad was more of a numbers guy and caught on pretty fast. And I could do pretty well some of the time — but I liked to chat it up at the tables and I could never multi-task too well. Besides, I’m more of a word, rather than numbers, kind of gal — and Brad said my lips moved while I was counting. Maybe that’s why I was spotted and barred a couple of times.

For 6 years we were quite happy with our success as basic-strategy-with-a-little-bit-of-counting amateurs. But it wasn’t long before I learned how to get us the most comps for the least amount of play. This was done mainly by going on the junket trail from our home in Indianapolis: to Vegas and Atlantic City on charter flights, to Harrah’s Tahoe on the company’s private jet, and with groups to Puerto Rico and Santa Domingo by commercial air.

I was always afraid that we wouldn’t continue to qualify for these heady VIP trips, because we were basically one-green-chip bettors at the most. But our junket rep was always trying to fill out a group and almost monthly he could depend on us to drop everything at even short notice (thank goodness Brad worked for the government and had a lot of leave and “”sick”” days stored up!). So we were welcome to join the high rollers who were mostly betting multiple black chips and we could enjoy the same luxurious level of comps as they did, but with a much smaller risk.

Our peak came when the rep needed a couple more gamblers to fill out a Monte Carlo junket — a trip to the “”real”” Monte Carlo in Europe. The upfront money needed for this was a lot more than we had ever put up, but we felt it was the chance of a lifetime. So we scraped up the $20,000 needed by emptying every account we had (except IRAs). And it was a fantastic trip, with 3 days in Paris and 5 days in Monte Carlo.

But by 1989 the junket system was declining and the betting requirements to get luxurious comps were escalating. Things were also changing in our life. Brad retired and we wanted to spend longer periods of time in casinos, especially in Vegas, rather than weekend jaunts. And we were tired of the casino heat that we were noticing because of our knowledgeable blackjack play. But the biggest factor that changed our gambling was discovering video poker. We noticed that as the table-game requirements for comps were going up, machine players were starting to be more heavily comped — and again, similar to our discovery with BJ, we could learn the system so we could get the maximum comps for the least risk to our bankroll.

We spent about a year with a foot in both worlds, but by 1990 we had joined our first slot clubs, and BJ was completely replaced by VP, which has been our game of choice ever since.

I guess I shouldn’t say “”completely.”” We still play BJ on occasion. If we’re in a casino that does not have good VP, sometimes the BJ games are pretty good and we enjoy a few hours with our old love. This is especially true when we’re on cruise ships. We’re out of practice so we don’t count cards, but we still know basic strategy, and BJ provides some low-cost ent”

3/3/2004

I enjoyed my vacation, but I’m glad to be back. And I’m coming back in a month that marks a special anniversary for Brad and me. Exactly 20 years ago, in March 1984, Brad and I made our first trip to Las Vegas.

I can still remember the thrill of this exciting city, from our first sight of it from the air as we were flying in. We’d booked our stay with a travel agent in Indianapolis, choosing (of course) the cheapest air-room package, one that landed us at the Landmark Hotel and Casino. Although it was well past its prime, we had no previous Las Vegas basis for comparison, so we thought it was heaven to have so much exciting action just an elevator ride down to the ground level.

Our casino knowledge was almost nil. I’d heard that smart gamblers played the tables, so I was playing blackjack — although I had no idea there was anything called expert strategy. I merrily hit and stood according to my best guess. Brad, on the other hand, believed you came to Las Vegas just to have fun, so he hit the colorful noisy slots with enthusiasm. With my “”smart”” play, I was losing steadily, while Brad’s “”dumb”” play was remarkably successful from the get-go. He kept coming to the BJ table to show me bigger and bigger coin cups filled to the brim, first with
quarters, then with dollar tokens. “”I’m going to need bushel baskets next,”” he bragged.

I remember that first night when we went back to our room. I was complaining that I was losing. Brad was too busy to sympathize, spreading bills all over the bed, his several hundred dollars of winnings. Then he emptied his pocket of change and started throwing his pennies and nickels, one by one, to the floor in a corner of the room. “”We won’t be needing those!”” he crowed.

Neither of us was crowing about winnings when we left town at the end of our four-day vacation. Together, we eventually got the job done, “”spending”” the whole $1,000 we’d brought as our vacation stake.

A lot hasn’t changed in this city over the past 20 years. Leaving the parking lot where the Landmark used to stand and walking to the Stardust — in March — can still be the windiest walk in town. You can still get lost in the Riviera. You can still eat breakfast at the Westward Ho even if you have only change in your pocket. Circus Circus is still full of rugrats. You can still get an obscenely long hot dog at Slots A Fun. The Stardust sports book is still filled with enough colorful characters to make a couple of down-and-out movies.

However, there have been many changes in this town. And what we couldn’t even imagine that weekend 20 years ago was how much would change for us as our life slowly but surely became completely intertwined with this City of Dreams.

3/11/2004

This week it’s time to clear out some odds and ends in my “Save-for-FF” file.

First, many people have wanted me to comment on the “Queen and King of Coupons” episode of the TV show “Las Vegas” with James Caan, which aired on March 1. I hardly know what to say – except I do want to point out that neither Anthony Curtis nor I had any input on that show. (Actually, I doubt if the writers ever ask anyone who has actually played in a casino for input – there are so many inaccuracies in the show that Brad and I watch it just to see how many we can find!)

Do I think the writers have heard of my couponing escapades? Yes, I do, since there were kernels of reality in the mostly broad-brushed play-it-for-laughs scenes. I have used very old coupons that had no expiration date when the casino had no objection. In fact, occasionally a casino employee has okayed my use of an expired coupon when I had a good excuse. Recently I did this when I came straight from the airport from an out-of-town trip and jokingly asked the slot club booth employee if the coupon that had expired the day before was still good if I had a note from the pilot. He just laughed and cashed the coupon without even looking at the airline ticket I tried to show him! Being friendly to casino employees and keeping a sense of humor always gets better results than being rude or demanding.

Did the show have some way-out couponing concepts? Sure. I’ve never had a floating crap game using coupons with a frugal millionaire – or with anyone of any net worth. But hey, they say you aren’t really famous until you’re a caricature! Now, if Dave Letterman or Jay Leno makes me the subject of a joke, then I will be sure I’ve arrived!

Are you delaying filling out your tax returns because you don’t know what to do with those W-2Gs you got for jackpots or the 1099s you got from a casino tournament or drawing? You definitely need Tax Help for the Frugal Gambler. Marissa Chien and I wrote that book to help you with these thorny problems. I know many people who pay more income tax than they really owe, because they don’t know the best way to handle their gambling wins and losses. If you aren’t sure what this book covers, Linda Mabry, the gaming writer for the Biloxi Sun-Herald, has a good review of the contents at http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/8143269.htm.

Some people have said they would like to hear more about Brad’s gambling “adventures” and whether he still gives money to winos in order to hit big jackpots. He says to tell you all that he doesn’t get downtown enough these days to find worthy recipients for his donations, which is why we’re in a gambling “slump.” Guess I better do some rescheduling! He also said if you wanted to see all his current inventory of 45 jackets, you can go to http://www.reviewjournal.com/lvrj_home/2004/Feb-01-Sun-2004/living/23057005.html. I told the newspaper to take a picture of Brad in the middle of these since he was in charge of jackets at our house – but they had their own ideas.

He also told me not to tell you that he pulled out his Palms players card instead of his credit card at the grocery store the other day and tried to swipe it to pay for the groceries he was buying. The clerk broke up laughing! So I guess I won’t tell you this story.

3/20/2004

This week I have a guest columnist, Cee Stuart, a fellow writer from the Southern California Gaming Guide, with an article for the dreamers among us.

So You Want To Win A Million?
First, Consider This

by Cee Stuart

Congratulating people who have just won a lot of money — be it from the lottery, a sweepstakes, or a slot machine jackpot — is like congratulating new parents. While the moment is incredibly joyful, just below the surface is an awareness that a corner has been turned and things will never be the same. Fact is, I believe winning, particularly when it’s millions of dollars, ranks among life’s most stressful events. I know, I know. I can hear you saying, “Just give me the chance!” I’ll admit it sure beats losing a job, but I’m convinced that winning millions is more stressful than moving across town.

In the course of my job with a slot machine company, I’ve met scores of winners, usually in the first few hours after they hit a jackpot. Because verification of the win takes time as a technician runs diagnostics on the machine, I watch, listen to, and question the newly rich. I’ve seen criers and hooters and hollerers (including one family that, in the best New Orleans tradition, second-lined through the casino!) and, most common of all, the winners who just stare, glassy-eyed, as they try to process what has happened to them.

I’ve come up with some generalizations, admittedly very subjective, from all this observation. Couples seem to handle it better than winners who are alone or with friends. Older folks are more stoic. Women are more willing to talk about the changes they want to make in their lives. Men are more likely to say, “It won’t change a thing.” If not already retired, nearly everyone says they’ll continue to work. But you have to love the handful of winners who call their boss and quit on the spot.

One of my assignments is to convince the lucky winner to sign the media release that allows the casino and the slot company to publicize the winner by name. I have all sorts of arguments in favor of going public: It’ll be fun to be the center of media attention, maybe even on a national show such as “Oprah” or the “Today Show” if the jackpot is large enough. But rarely do I use what I consider the most powerful argument of all: It won’t be the strangers who learn of the jackpot in the newspaper that make your life difficult. Rather, it’s likely that the people who will make you crazy will be friends and family, some of whom you may have already called to share the good news.

Sometimes it’s easy to see problems ahead. The mid-50s widow whose son-in-law is already answering for her and planning to “manage” her money. The buddy with the chip on his shoulder, a chip that just gets bigger with every beer.

And the winners with whom I’ve kept in touch tell me that some relationships fail altogether and others undergo a radical change. One multi-million-dollar winner told me that she became the de facto head of her family, was consulted on all sorts of decisions, and expected to contribute financially toward such things as nieces’ education. She was also expected to assume the full burden, emotionally as well as financially, of caring for her ailing parents.

It will come as no surprise, then, that well-adjusted people seem to weather instant wealth with the least guilt when they say “no” and with the most pleasure when they help others. But even the mildly neurotic — where I would classify myself — can take steps to make being a millionaire the dream you always imagined it would be. Here are my top five suggestions:

* Be realistic about just how much money you have won. Many jackpots are paid as an annuity and even a couple million paid out over 20 years isn’t really all that much money, especially after taxes.

* Give yourself some time. In the short term, check into a hotel or find another retreat for a couple of days to let it all sink in before having to confront

3/26/2004

I really enjoyed my first experience of playing poker online, in the LVA Poker Free Roll earlier this month. In fact, I’m trying to forget how much fun it was – I’m already at my computer too many hours a day. I can’t take as much fun as I used to! And Brad says to tell you that this goes double for him.

If you’re not getting mail offers from a casino where you’re playing, don’t assume you don’t qualify for any. I’ve had several reports recently of people checking their mail status at the slot club desk and finding that for some reason the “”No Mail”” box had been mistakenly marked on their account.

Conversely, remember that almost all casinos have this “”No Mail”” option for customers who request it. This could be for various reasons: They have a gambling problem and don’t want to be tempted by offers to get them back to the casino; they don’t want their spouse or significant other to know how much they gamble or which casinos they visit; or they just hate getting free offers in the mail!

When you eat at the two Ellis Island restaurants, they will give you a $5 matchplay coupon (one per person in your party) that must be played that day. They rarely offer this, however; you usually have to ask for it. Good way to pay the tip – on a long-term basis you’ll average about a $2.40 win per coupon. If you don’t know how to play table games, you need to read the long chapter on couponing in More Frugal Gambling. The Frugal Princess helps me explain how the novice table player can become savvy enough to at least play a coupon and quit losing hundreds of dollars by throwing away all table-play coupons.

Ian, a loyal reader of my writings, wrote to me recently: “”On the bottom of page 43 in More Frugal Gambling you write a passage explaining the origin of the term “”close but no cigar.”” (Some slot machines paid off in cigars) Many years ago I was told that the term was from the old carnival days, particularly the game where you use a mallet to strike a board, which in turn sends a hunk of metal upwards toward a bell. If you didn’t quite make it to the bell they’d say “”close but no cigar,”” because that was the prize back then. I was just wondering if you had heard this version also?””

No, I hadn’t heard this – but perhaps both versions are correct since the concept is the same.

Last week I had a guest columnist who wrote about winning huge jackpots. I’ve received a lot of mail from people responding to this article, particularly telling me what they would do if they won a humongous jackpot. Maybe some of you would like to share your thoughts about this subject. If so, you can e-mail me at [email protected]. I get too much mail to answer every personal e-mail, but I will choose the most interesting
responses and put them in a future column here.

By the way, we’ll be traveling around the country some in the next few months. Perhaps we’ll be in your area and you can stop us and say “”Hi”” if we meet. You can keep track of us by clicking on “”Calendar”” at the homepage of http://www.FrugalGambler.biz.

2/6/2004

Jean Scott is still on vacation and will be till further notice. But check this page occasionally between now and then for exciting developments in the world of gambling, and/or at the Las Vegas Advisor, as they occur.

2/20/2004

Just a quickie note to say that I’m still on vacation, but Frugal Fridays will resume on March 5.

Meanwhile, you might want to browse the FF archive. Over the past four years, I’ve written more than 200 installments of Frugal Fridays, so there are undoubtedly at least a few frugal tips that you either missed or have forgotten. Uncover some new hints or refresh your memory about old ones over the next couple of weeks while I recharge my batteries in order to return from this brief hiatus rarin’ to go.

1/2/2004

Happy New Year, everyone!

Now that the late-December festivities are behind us, it’s time to turn our thoughts to all our plans for the new year — such as filing our 2003 tax returns! As Emeril would say, Oh yeah, babe! This can be a head-scratching event for all taxpayers, but especially for gamblers; the taxing of gambling is a confounding subject.

But there’s help on the horizon. A new report called Tax Help for the Frugal Gambler, authored by myself and Marissa Chien (my tax advisor), lays out the whole program in black and white (or with as little “”gray matter”” as is possible when it comes to this stuff).

This report covers all the subjects that face gamblers when they think about their tax situation: What about those W2G’s when you hit a big jackpot? What gambling records do you need to keep? What is a gaming diary? Are you paying more taxes on your gambling wins than you need to?

It gives a multitude of details that make taxes a little less taxing for both the casual recreational gambler as well as the gambling professional. Sample filled-out tax forms and IRS regulations are included in the Appendix.

Here’s the Table of Contents with a few annotations, so you know exactly what’s in it.

FOREWORD
How this book started out as a chapter for More Frugal Gambling and expanded into a book of its own — and how Marissa, my tax preparer/financial advisor and a qualified Enrolled Agent and gambler herself, came on board to add more help on those complex tax issues gamblers face.

PART 1 — Federal Taxes

CHAPTER 1 — Introduction: Why You Need Good Tax Information

CHAPTER 2 — The Basics
Gambling Wins as Income
The Gambling Session
Player Record-Keeping — the Gaming Diary (samples included)
Casino Record-Keeping — Win/Loss Statements

CHAPTER 3 — Special Circumstances
Casino Comps and Gifts
Casino Tournaments
Casino Drawings
Live Poker Play

CHAPTER 4 — Filing Your Tax Return
The Recreational Gambler
The Professional Gambler
Gambling Groups

CHAPTER 5 — Government Issues
The W2-G
Other Government Records
Withholding Rules

PART II — State Taxes, Including a Chart with Information for all 50 States

SUMMARY

WHO’S WHO IN THE TAX BUSINESS

WEB SITES

APPENDIX — Contains government regulations, court cases, and sample filled-out tax returns for various kinds of filers.

Tax Help for the Frugal Gambler will be available soon and you can order from Huntington Press by calling 800/244-2224 or going to www.greatstuff4gamblers.com.

1/8/2004

Hey, for all you readers in cyberland who think I’m frugal, here’s a guy who can run “frugal circles” around me!

Michael Bluejay is the Webmaster for Michael Shackleford’s www.wizardofodds.com gambling Web site and he’s an authority on staying in Vegas on a very limited budget, usually in the ultra-rock-bottom lodging options downtown. (He also has a Web site of his own, at www.bicyclesafe.com, which promotes bicycle safety.)

The following is reprinted (slightly edited) with permission from Michael Shackleford, author of Huntington Press’ upcoming Gambling 102, a book that lists the odds on all the casino gambling games and includes a brief description on how to play them.

Cheapest Stays in Vegas
by Michael Bluejay, Professional Cheapskate

I’m the expert on the absolute cheapest places to stay when you’re in Las Vegas. Jean Scott has nothing on me; I can frugal circles around her. Here are my top (or bottom) three.

Las Vegas Backpackers Hostel, $0-13, 1208 Las Vegas Blvd. S., 702/385-9955; www.usahostels.com/vegas/v-index.html.

Hostels are usually supposed to be just for international travelers, but LVBH sometimes takes Yanks — especially in the slower seasons, like winter. Last time I was there, the rate was $13/night. The catch is that you share your room with up to three other people. But if you can deal with that, you won’t find cheaper.

If you’re going to be in Vegas for at least a couple of weeks, you might be able to get a gig at the hostel cleaning rooms or doing other jobs — and then you get to stay for free. I did this, but it was about three hours a day, seven days a week — or 21 hours for a $91 bed, not the greatest deal in the world. Still, it was an interesting experience. Plus, one of my co-workers was an interesting Belgian guy named Ronald, another cool roommate was Todd (a waiter at the Venetian), and there were a bunch of strippers who stayed there because even though they could afford to stay in a hotel, they preferred to stay somewhere where there was some semblance of community.

The Western, $22, 899 Fremont St., 800/634-6703

The Western is my favorite casino in the whole world. Why? Because it’s cheap! And it’s dangerous! You can’t have one without the other. And you’ve got to expect it, especially when you have $1 blackjack and quarter roulette in a stinky building with blazing fluorescent lighting in the middle of a crack neighborhood. Two guys tailed me out of there when I left one night, probably trying to nab the $67 they saw me win. Fortunately, I noticed them and got back into a public area before anything bad happened.

So let’s talk rooms: The Western used to offer rooms for $16 a night, any night, even weekends. I took advantage of this in 2001. No place can be so dangerous that I wouldn’t take advantage of its $16 rooms. Unfortunately, the rate recently went up to $22.

So what kind of a room do you get for $22? Better than you might expect. My room was fairly clean and functional. It was a nice quite place to sleep, which was all I wanted. Now, the safety of getting to and from your room is another story.

The Gold Spike, $25-30, 400 E. Ogden, 800/634-6703

If dangerous thrills aren’t your idea of a good time, you might like the Western’s sister casino, the Gold Spike. The rooms here are pricier — $25 on week nights and $30 on the weekends — but what do you expect in exchange for not having to politely decline the opportunity to buy large quantities of narcotics as you walk to your hotel? I don’t like this place as much, because the casino is a lot smaller, it’s dimly lit (compared to the Western’s blazing fluorescents), and it’s not as dangerous.

1/15/2004

Here is some more back and forth between myself and correspondents about points large and small in More Frugal Gambling.

Reader: Page 54: I’m not sure why straight multiplier slot machines are good for players who want to try for a higher jackpot, since a dollar 1-coin jackpot will be about the same as a quarter 4-coin jackpot. The real reasons I can think of to recommend straight multipliers are: 1) a dollar 1-coin straight multiplier slot likely has a better return than an equivalent 4-coin quarter slot; and 2) some people like to switch between 1, 2, and 3 coins.

JS: I agree with you here — and I would add another reason why someone might want to play dollar rather than quarter machines: A few slot clubs give more points per dollar-amount coin-in on dollar-denomination machines than on quarters, similar to the fact that dollar machines often have a higher payout percentage.

Reader: Page 61: Recommending that people play all the lines puts a lot of money at risk, when they might have just as much fun playing one or a few lines at 1-coin. I like to look for video slots where the bonus is based on a “”scatter”” feature, instead of lining up the bonus symbols on one of the paylines you played. In those games, the bonus happens just as often whether you play 1 coin or 250. Some suggestions for this are Jackpot Party and State Fair.

JS: I recommended playing one coin per line only as an alternative to playing max coins on a few lines, assuming you were going to play the same number of coins either way. The ultimate time-stretcher on any multi-line slot machine is only one coin on one line!

Reader: Page 138: “”Starting with a long winning streak probably cuts down the time [to get to the long run].”” I’m not sure what this means or if it’s correct. Anytime you start off with a result that heavily deviates from EV, it will take a longer time to reach the EV that you thought you had. I’m not really sure what the comment is based on, but it sounds fishy.

JS: Well, I did say “probably,” but maybe this isn’t very clear. I can’t remember what I was thinking yesterday, so who knows what I was thinking when I wrote this years ago — one of the problems of a book written over a long stretch of time! I think I was considering someone who had a small bankroll to begin his video poker play, a bankroll insufficient by math standards to provide the player with a high confidence level that he won’t go broke. If he has a winning streak early, he can build up his bankroll and be more likely to survive the losing streaks that are bound to come in the future, and thus be less likely to go broke before he reached the long-term EV than someone who began with a long losing streak.

However, I do go on to explain the concept, in that same paragraph and the next, perhaps in more accurate math terms: “However, any streak, good or bad, at any time during your lifetime play, will have less impact on your long-term results as it gets ‘lost or ‘diluted,’ becoming a smaller percentage in a growing total of hands that will slowly but surely, although in no pattern that can be predicted, gravitate toward the long-term expected return. Remember that this move works both ways: If you have a very long winning start to your VP playing time, you’ll be gravitating downward toward the EV, not upward as for someone who starts with a losing streak. The end result, however, given enough play, will be the same: You both will be near the EV. This follows the math theorem called the Law of Large Numbers, which in laymen terms for the VP player means that the longer you play, the closer your personal average return will come to the expected theoretical return.”

1/22/2004

More MFG Input from Readers

Last week I started discussing questions or comments I’ve received from readers about things I wrote in More Frugal Gambling. This week I continue the thread. I’ve edited them for length and clarity and I’ve put page numbers for references in the book, when applicable.

Reader: Page 52. You said, “”For an recreational player, it doesn’t really matter if you’re playing a 94% or 96% machine,”” since it would take millions of hands before you could tell the difference. I don’t know if you realize it, but this works right into the argument of many people (even some self-styled “experts”) who say choice of games is unimportant. If you say that a recreational player doesn’t care if he’s playing 94% or 96%, then it wouldn’t matter if they’re playing 9/6 JoB or 9/6 DDB, since, based on their results, they’d never be able to “”notice”” the difference in the return on their game anyway.

JS: First, the quote you gave at the beginning of your comments was from the chapter on slots, and doesn’t apply to video poker. Second, you left out an important word. I said the “occasional” recreational gambler. And, third, I didn’t say he didn’t “care;” I said he couldn’t “tell. “

Reader continues: I tried to think of a good analogy, and this is what I came up with. Imagine that you wanted to sell your used car. You have the choice between two auction Web sites. On either Web site, your car could sell for anything from $5,000 to $15,000, but you know that on one Web site, cars like yours sell for $9,600 on average, and on the other web site, cars like yours sell for $9,400. Now, if you don’t know which Web site is which, you could sell your car on either site, and regardless if it sold for $9,550, $11,000, or $8,500, you’d never know which Web site you used. In fact, you could sell 50 cars and still not know which Web site you’re using with any certainty. But does that mean you wouldn’t care which site you sold your car on? You wouldn’t spend an hour of your time trying to figure out which one was the $9,600 site? Even though you won’t “”notice”” the difference in the results, you’re still getting a better deal – which is worth real money (in this case, $200).

I actually used this concept in real life. Once at Greektown Casino, I was playing late at night when new slot machines were being installed. At some point, a slot tech left his specification sheet lying on one of the seats near me. I took a look at it and it had the actual return for every single one of the machines they were installing. They ranged from 89% to 95%. I made a note of the machine that paid 95%. See, my aunt (yes, the one that was barred from Greektown and was on the front page of the Detroit Free Press) loves to play slot machines, when I’m not lecturing her to play Pick’em. And she always likes to take a shot with $20 before she leaves. So even though I would never play a 95% machine (unless it’s for pennies and has a cool bonus feature), I told her that that’s the best machine for her to play. And sure enough, of all the machines in that bank, when I walked past it, that machine was most likely to have someone waiting to be paid a jackpot. I don’t know that she had that much luck with it, but I hope it helped nonetheless.

JS: Of course, if you have the luck, as you did, of actually finding out the specifications of a slot machine, you would (or should) choose the best one you can find. However, slot machine players, even if they read the average payouts of specific denominations in specific casinos, published in various magazines, do not usually know which one machine is best to play, since there is no way of just looking at a machine and knowing its long-term payback. Slot machines that look exactly alike on the outside can have different chips inside, even within one casino, and certainly from casino to casino.

Video poker is a horse of a different color. In regulated jurisdictions, the schedule given on the machine do

1/30/2004

Jean Scott is taking a few weeks vacation. This week’s Frugal Friday’s contribution comes from Anthony Curtis.

The scheduled lead story in next month’s LVA is “Gambling on TV.” It will cover the boom in gambling on the airwaves. Since I’ve just finished participating in one of these televised gambling events, I thought I’d give you a little sneak preview.

I traveled to the Mohegan Sun in Connecticut to play in the “World Series of Blackjack” for the Game Show Network. Twenty-five players were invited, the majority known names in the gambling world. There were also a few customers of Mohegan Sun in the field to round things out. We played for $250,000 in prize money; $110,000 was the winner’s share. A quarter-million-dollar prize pool split among 25 players means a juicy $10,000-per-person in expected value just for being there, so the big names showed up.

“The World Series of Blackjack” was actually just a blackjack tournament that was played over a two-day span. I can’t tell you who won, or even how I did—sort of like “Survivor,” we have to sign agreements promising not to divulge information prior to air time—but I can tell you the competition was awesome. In fact, out of a total of seven rounds, six of them were absolute tournament classics, with the result often coming down to the final turn of a card on the last hand.

The series of seven shows is scheduled to air beginning on March 15. It will be the first show following the Game Show Network’s highly publicized switch to the name GSN, so they’ll be putting a lot of publicity behind it. I think it has a good chance to do for blackjack tournaments, and blackjack in general, what the World Poker Tour has done for poker. Check it out.