Comments on: The Flexible Gambler

By: William Wingo

William Wingo — Fri, 08 Oct 2021 22:10:48 +0000

Dittos on Laughlin. I’m still getting comp offers based on VP play, but for how much longer?
Also on Boyd. I was doing pretty well there till Covid, even after the points restructuring; but no comps now for over a year. Probably all my remaining points will disappear on New Years’ Eve.
As for downtown, I haven’t been back since 2013, mostly because of the parking fees.
And here’s a Riverside story: They have the second-best of the two remaining Laughlin-area poker rooms. My significant other went to play in a tournament there because Harrah’s poker room was still closed midweek. She got the last seat and they didn’t want to open another table, so I was out. I couldn’t drink because I had to drive that afternoon; couldn’t eat because I’d already had a big breakfast; and couldn’t leave and come back because she might go out at any moment, and besides we’d already checked out so there was no room to go back to. So, I played some suboptimal video poker which I wouldn’t even have considered otherwise, and not even very much. Now suddenly I’m getting comp offers from Riverside.
Go figure….

By: Mel A Rains

Mel A Rains — Thu, 07 Oct 2021 23:16:19 +0000

In my opinion the casinos no longer care about their customers. They just want all of your money. It’s like when you question a pit boss at the Flamingo (true story) about all of the 6-5 BJ tables. His answer was (and I quote) “It’s what the customer wants.” Then he turned and walked away. I haven’t stepped back inside the Flamingo since. Caesars
(back when it was Park Place) was a great customer service casino. Every new addition of Caesars gets worse!!

By: Maureen (Mo)

Maureen (Mo) — Mon, 04 Oct 2021 00:52:58 +0000

Recent trip to Vegas mid September sure was a flexibility test.. I thought of you and Brad when I’m standing in line for the Orleans hot dogs and those fresh soft buns, our first in Vegas since your visit with us in 2019.( Really long line on Sunday football) Boyd is still non committal on their soon to change tier benefits. but we still had half of our Boyds stay comped. Changing hotels once to be flexible for room comps… We were still disappointed that Mlife comps were very sparse due to corona virus( My Vegas excessive home play) and only 5 buffets open for that week. Flexible also means that many players WILL not go and play in a casino that wants to gouge us… If that hurts us in the future so be it … other offers will come in eventually!!! If we waited 20 months, we have learned flexible patience!!!

By: Kevin Lewis

Kevin Lewis — Sun, 03 Oct 2021 17:55:06 +0000

The sad fact is that there are very, very, very few decent gambling opportunities left. Exacerbating the general lack of good plays is the fact that whenever such a play does surface, it’s immediately swarmed–with the inevitable consequence of that play being killed off. You mention bonus slots–but have you been in any casino that offers a fair number of them lately? There will be as many as half a dozen vultures doing the rounds, checking the machines for plays, over and over and over, relentlessly. The chance of finding a good play on your own is essentially zero.

It’s like being in an abandoned grocery store during the zombie apocalypse. The shelves have been almost stripped bare, but there’s still a can of lima beans, a jar of baby food, and a can of tomato paste. So you have choices.

Whee.

By: Michael Alexakis

Michael Alexakis — Sat, 02 Oct 2021 16:01:30 +0000

The casinos currently have no incentive to offer games that better players can gain an advantage on, they have figured out that most gamblers will accept what they offer no matter what. It’s a time for advantage players to show the patience and discipline that led them to that designation in the first place. Use your feet, they are the only leverage you have, hustle around to look for something decent, and if you can’t find anything decent, do not succumb to the powerful urge to just play a lousy game. They will come back to us, we play, they do need us, just not right now… Learn from this, it’s a big challenge, they are trying to get us to forget what we learned over time and sweat…

By: Martin Moy

Martin Moy — Fri, 01 Oct 2021 21:48:40 +0000

I am feeling scrambled in these times. My (few) core casinos are minimal but still generate some low-roller offers. Laughlin is an example (if one is willing to stay/play there)–generally minimal play will generate some good offers at the Riverside, with more play needed for the Aquarius-Edgewater pair. I’m still entrenched in Boyd-B connected, but as the post-covid unfolds, the benefits are generally less. TBD though, as downtown seems to be opening up (mainly due to Circa and now Main St Stn- although a shell of its former vp glory past)…. Martin