Richard Munchkin received a note from a Gambling with an Edge listener about a subject to talk about. The note referred to a casino where the formerly 8/5 Bonus machines were recently downgraded to 7/5. Part of the note said:
“Sharp players downloading their free play on the best plays is stupid. No wonder the casino took out the games.”
Maybe we will talk about it on the radio. I thought I would talk about it here first. I am not a player at the specific casino referred to in the email, so I’ll have to speak more generally.
First of all, let’s look at the premise which is (paraphrasing): Redeeming free play on the best machines alerts the casino that these machines are good and the casino then reduces the pay schedules because of this.
I doubt if this is the main reason the machines were downgraded. Let’s assume you get about a half percent in free play at a particular casino — meaning you run $20,000 through the machines monthly and the casino sends you $100 a month in free play. Somehow the casino isn’t going to be alerted by the $20,000 that each of the sharps play, but the $100 free play is going to tip the scales? Doesn’t sound likely to me.
I don’t know the specifics in this casino, but possibly a couple of dealt royals in the same month turned the results for those machines upside down and the GM said, “Fix it!” To my mind, this would be a far likelier reason for the pay schedules to be downgraded than the fact that players use it to collect free play.
Whether the premise is accurate or not, let’s look at the suggested solution — which was to pick up free play on lesser machines. In our example, it would cost $1 a month on average to play the $100 in free play on a 98% machine rather than a 99% machine. Clearly this is small change to someone willing to play $20,000 a month.
The question becomes: Would this do any good? For the individual player, the answer is “perhaps.” If the casino looks at the machines you play, and you sometimes play on 98% machines even if it is just to pick up free play, this might cause the casino to underestimate your skill level or your dedication-to-winning level. This could lead to you being less likely to be booted when the next purge comes. This could very well be rather cheap insurance with a decent payoff.
But to get everybody to refrain from using those machines to pick up free play? Dream on! Every player is going to act as he sees fit, and many players “know” that playing a 99% machine is better than playing a 98% machine. Even if you’re convinced that it would be better for the player community as a whole to do this, it’s just not going to happen.
On a personal level, I often pick up my free play on the same machine I’m going to play. When I was playing $10,000 every day at the South Point in April because of the April Showers promotion they were running, any existing free play (whether from my weekly mailer or from winning $500 in one of the drawings) was played off at the very start of my session.
I don’t look at free play money as “special.” It’s just part of my starting bankroll. Some people keep special track of free play results. I don’t. Let’s say I’m going to get $50 in free play. I might insert $950 into the machine, download the $50, and start to play. My records show the $50 in free play and that I started with $1,000.
If I end up cashing out for $1,200, I’ll record it as $50 in free play and a win of $200. If I end up cashing out for $800, I record it as $50 in free play and a loss of $200. To me, the free play isn’t the “first few hands.” It’s just in there somewhere, undifferentiated.
I do not take extra precautions to disguise my play. For better or worse, casinos know who I am. Assuming you are not such a high profile player, your situation may well be different.
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