This is a timely question, since we just researched it for the August issue of the Las Vegas Advisor. If you play as a regular customer, you get your age in free-play or you can spin a wheel for a multiple, which goes up to 3X, but it's not guaranteed. The wheel has 16 slots—four each pay half, 1X, or 2X your age, two pay 3X, and two pay nothing. So there’s a 6/16 chance, or 37.5%, that you’ll get less by spinning, a 37.5% chance that you’ll get more, and a 25% chance there’ll be no change. The average return, though, for spinning the wheel is 1.25X, making it the mathematically better play when just walking in off the street.
If you use our Member Rewards Book (MRB) offer, you’re guaranteed to get 2X your age in free-play. That’s obviously better than an average of 1.25X, so that’s our recommendation, with one caveat: The deal off the street requires that you earn 500 points to qualify, while the LVA deal takes 1,000. Points are earned at a straight $1 coin-in = 1 point at slots, while video poker requires $3 per point. Playing video poker on the Plaza’s good schedules is easily the better choice, so you’re looking at the difference of playing through $1,500 or $3,000. A bad run over $3,000 of play can result in a significant loss—in our case, playing dollars to qualify faster, we lost $500. You can lower the variance by playing quarters, but it will take you three to four hours, depending on how fast you play. If you decide to play without the coupon, you can put $1,500 through on quarters in about two hours.
The payoff for the additional risk on the LVA deal is a free-play bonus of $86 (for the 43-year-old who asked the question), as opposed to an average of $53.75 for spinning the wheel. Obviously, the deal gets better as you get older.
The Plaza has Kings or Better Joker Wild paying 20 for 4-of-a-kind that returns 100.65% (with perfect play) and 10/7 Double Bonus returning 100.17%, plus several 99%+ games at the main bar, so your expected loss in qualifying is low, making this play is positive for anyone with reasonable video poker skills.
One more consideration. The Plaza continues to run its excellent $500-loss rebate for new members, but you can’t do both offers concurrently. Since you have to have a club card for the birthday bonus, the only way to do both is to sign up and play the rebate at least two days before your birthday. Plan ahead!
[Editor's Note: The 2X-your-age birthday deal is one of four excellent Member Rewards offers from the Plaza, along with $25 matchplay, $10 slot free-play, and 25% off your entire bill at Oscar's, making a trip to the Plaza worth about $102 in gambling expectation, plus, assuming a $100 bill for two for dinner, another $25 in dining saving for this LVA member.]
