{"id":4709,"date":"2016-10-18T09:37:15","date_gmt":"2016-10-18T16:37:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamblingwithanedge.com\/?p=4709"},"modified":"2016-10-18T09:37:15","modified_gmt":"2016-10-18T16:37:15","slug":"they-said-it-but-they-probably-didnt-mean-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/they-said-it-but-they-probably-didnt-mean-it\/","title":{"rendered":"They Said It – But They Probably Didn\u2019t Mean It"},"content":{"rendered":"

On September 15, I received an email from a host at the Silverton stating that two weeks later, September 29, there was going to be a Diamond Appreciation Party by the pool starting at 5:30. Light hors d\u2019oeuvres, cocktails, and 12x points from 5 p.m. \u2013 midnight for those who checked into the party.<\/p>\n

For those who aren\u2019t familiar with the Silverton\u2019s slot club, the base club returns 0.30% and the loosest game is 8\/5 Bonus which is a 99.2% game. Adding 3.6% (i.e. 12x points) in free play is very juicy. In the past year or so, they have regularly had big point multipliers for slots and have had 2x points for video poker once. Never more than that. Even though they rarely offer point multipliers for video poker, a number of machines in the High Limit room have small stickers on them that say point multipliers aren\u2019t valid there.<\/p>\n

But this invitation didn\u2019t say 12x points for \u201creels only.\u201d It didn\u2019t say anything like \u201climited to xxx points.\u201d It didn\u2019t say \u201ccheck at the club for complete details.\u201d It didn\u2019t say \u201cmanagement reserves all rights.\u201d It said 12x points from 5 p.m. to midnight if you check into the party. My guess is that the hosts made up the invitation and aren\u2019t used to dotting all of the i\u2019s and crossing all the t\u2019s.<\/p>\n

So, was this worth a play?<\/p>\n

I decided to test the waters first. On several occasions I went to the slot club and asked if there were rules published for the party. If so, surely the rules would list the disclaimers. But there were no rules published.<\/p>\n

I made it a point to not talk to any host in the two weeks prior to the party. If they told me \u201creels only,\u201d that would kill the play before it began.<\/p>\n

I figured I could play about $200,000 coin-in. My expected loss at 8\/5 Bonus was (round numbers) $1,700 offset by $600 in free play if I only got single points. But if I got 12x points, I\u2019d receive an extra $6,600 — making me a $5,500 favorite for 6.5 hours play — assuming I started at 5:30. (There was a final drawing at the South Point that night where your EV if called was $4,250, but it was not guaranteed I\u2019d be called — neither Bonnie nor I were called the first four weeks — so I didn\u2019t even play for that drawing that week.)<\/p>\n

I decided to go for it. I had no other plays that night worth $5,500 in EV.<\/p>\n

The two best eligible machines were $1 Spin Poker ($45 per play) and $10 single line. I could get more coin-in on the $10 machine, but it would also attract more attention as every four of a kind and higher generated a W2G. I figured to get 10-15 hand-pays — which would definitely get their notice. I\u2019m a well-known player and me hammering that machine for so long would be very atypical. It\u2019s possible they would ask me why I was playing — and I didn\u2019t want to have that conversation. The Spin Poker machines (actually All Star Poker machines where Spin Poker is my game of choice) are frequently busy and my presence there would probably not cause any undue attention.<\/p>\n

I also wanted to be first in line for the 5:30 party. If they opened the doors at 5:00, that would give me an extra half hour of play worth another $500 or so to me. They didn\u2019t do that. I also wanted to see if there were any signs up at the check-in saying anything about reels only or some kind of limit. There weren\u2019t.<\/p>\n

Bonnie and I were both invited — and we both got to bring a guest. We invited a married couple — who understood that I would probably be playing and not staying for the party. So I got the machine I wanted, created some $1,000 \u201ctickets,\u201d and had Bonnie hold the machine while I took the husband and went to check into the party. He stayed and I went to release the girls — and started to play.<\/p>\n

There were some other players who also decided this promotion was too good to pass up and decided to play on the same bank of machines. I don\u2019t know how many players were playing elsewhere in the casino for the promotion. I know at least two well-known players chose to play the Hundred Play machines even though they had a \u201cno multipliers\u201d sticker. I\u2019m guessing most video poker players ASSUMED the casino meant slots only and didn\u2019t realize that some key words were missing.<\/p>\n

I ran salty. Playing $200,000, I lost $8,900. Even if I collected the full $7,200 for the 12x points, I\u2019d still be down $1,700. The other players playing Spin Poker more than made up for my shortfall— if they got the points. Oh well. Being on the positive side of variance would have been more fun but anything can happen in the short run. I\u2019d love to find another situation like this someday. My negative result this time wouldn\u2019t slow me down in the least at trying it next time.<\/p>\n

At the kiosk, there is a screen which shows the date and time and how many points you\u2019ve played today. I took a picture at 5:30 p.m. and another at 11:58 p.m. — so if it came to a dispute of how much I played when, I\u2019d have the backup. If it ever came to going to the Nevada Gaming Control Board, I wanted to have this evidence. I didn\u2019t think there would be a dispute about \u201chow much and when,\u201d nor did I think it would get to the NGCB in the first place, but you never know. Better to have the evidence and not need it than risk not having it when it could end up being necessary.<\/p>\n

Now came the tricky part. Collecting the extra $6,600 in free play. I was pretty sure it wasn\u2019t going to be given to me automatically. I\u2019d have to talk the casino into it. The other players playing Spin Poker were willing to let me have the first shot at collecting the extra points mainly because I\u2019m more experienced at successfully negotiating with casinos. I told them I\u2019d keep them posted.<\/p>\n

On other promotions at the Silverton, they sometimes say they need up to 72 hours to put the extra points on the card. Okay. On Sunday evening I went to the slot club booth and asked to speak to the manager. Alicia (possibly not the way she spells her name — I didn\u2019t see her badge) told me the 12x points were for reels only and there was a limit of 60,000 points. I told her that there was nothing published that said anything like that and I asked whether she would like to see the invitation?<\/p>\n

Neither agreeing nor disagreeing with my position, she told me adding 2.2 million points to my card was not something she was authorized to do and said she\u2019d email the marketing manager, Diane, who would reach out to me Monday. On Tuesday Diane and I spoke and she told me the decision needed to be made by her boss, Sheila, who wouldn\u2019t be in until Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The fact that I lost $8,900 on the play before slot club benefits was, in my opinion, an irrelevant factor insofar as whether or not I should get the extra 2,200,000 points. But I figured it might make a difference to the decision-makers. After all, even if they paid me, they still made money (on me anyway. Not so much on the others.) So I mentioned it. If I had a winning score, I would have kept quiet about it.<\/p>\n

There were a number of additional phone calls and some emails, but eventually Sheila called me Friday and told me I would be given all of the points — but it possibly wouldn\u2019t happen before Monday. No problem. Sheila would not discuss the other players with me, and said they\u2019d have to contact her if they wanted their situation to be considered. Okay. I passed that message along.<\/p>\n

Overall, I feel the Silverton handled this honorably. They didn\u2019t mean to offer the 12x points to video poker players — but apparently they reread the invitations and decided they should do the right thing. Hat\u2019s off to the Silverton. (If you think casinos always act this way Google \u201cPhil Ivey Borgata\u201d.)<\/p>\n

A strange \u201ccoincidence\u201d happened after the Diamond Appreciation Party and before it was resolved. The 5\u00a2, 10\u00a2, and 25\u00a2 Hundred Play machines in the High Limit room were downgraded from 8-5 Bonus to 7-5 Bonus. These were by far the most popular machines in the casino — coin-in-wise. (Not so much after the downgrade.)<\/p>\n

These machines weren\u2019t eligible for this promotion because they had a \u201cmultipliers not valid here\u201d sticker on them, so I didn\u2019t play them. I would have MUCH preferred to play machines where I could \u201cinvest\u201d $125 per play than $45 per play so long as I had a 2.8% advantage. I could have still lost of course, but it would have been much less likely and my EV would have been something like $12,000 rather than a mere $5,500.<\/p>\n

As mentioned before, some well-known players chose to ignore the stickers and play on those machines anyway and try to talk their way into the points later. They could argue the stickers were small and hard to read (very true) and the lighting in the room was very dim (also true.) Still, the stickers have been there for a year or so. Most video poker players who play enough to be Diamond know about those stickers.<\/p>\n

The pay schedules were pulled a few days later. If the casino was burned on the Diamond Appreciation party, it seems to me to be far more sensible to post bigger stickers so there could be no misunderstanding.<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"youtube\"<\/a>\"instagram\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

On September 15, I received an email from a host at the Silverton stating that two weeks later, September 29, there was going to be a Diamond Appreciation Party by the pool starting at 5:30. Light hors d\u2019oeuvres, cocktails, and 12x points from 5 p.m. \u2013 midnight for those who checked into the party. For […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[2,9,6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nThey Said It - But They Probably Didn\u2019t Mean It - Gambling With An Edge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/they-said-it-but-they-probably-didnt-mean-it\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"They Said It - But They Probably Didn\u2019t Mean It - Gambling With An Edge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"On September 15, I received an email from a host at the Silverton stating that two weeks later, September 29, there was going to be a Diamond Appreciation Party by the pool starting at 5:30. 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