Question of the Day - 07 September 2017

In the 7/31 QOD, you stated that 100% smoke-free gambling facilities are required by the laws of 24 states. One of the states listed was Arizona. I live in Arizona and have been to almost every casino here and have NEVER found one that is smoke-free! If it’s “required by law” that these are 100% smoke-free, then how is every casino here getting around that?

The 2006 Smoke-Free Arizona Act made it a law that all public casinos be smoke-free, but of the 25 casinos in Arizona, every one of them is operated by a Native American tribe and not bound by the state’s anti-smoking law. Most permit cigarettes in restaurants and gaming areas. One that doesn’t is the Desert Diamond in Tucson, which bans smoking in restaurants, in part of its bingo hall, and in separate poker and slot-machine rooms.

Ellis Island's Front Yard was originally scheduled to open in May of 2017, how is it progressing (or not)?

Yes, it’s progressing nicely. The new two-story outdoor dining, drinking, and entertainment space could open as early as November.

Recently, I visited the Fun Dungeon at Excalibur with my children. When it was time to leave, I still had $14 in quarters left over. I received those quarters from their change machine. On my way out, I stopped at the casino cashier to convert my quarters back to bills. I was told they have a self-help change-counting machine. I went over and thankfully read the fine print before using it and saw that they were charging 10% in fees. Of course, I went back to the cage and refused to pay the fees and they made a "one-time" exception for me. My question is: How common is this ridiculous practice now? This is the first and only time I've experienced this!

With the transition to ticket-in-ticket-out slot and video poker machines being almost entirely complete, most casinos no longer accept coins at the cage. Only those that still have coin-in machines do so; Excalibur isn’t one of them. Circus Circus and Slots A Fun, six downtown casinos, and the Eastside Cannery do, the last time we checked in November 2016, though they only accept coins in the same denominations as their machines—no dimes at most, for example. 

Just spent eight days in Vegas and Laughlin and found ALL video poker machines to be EXTREMELY tight. Has the state of Nevada changed the payoffs on machines?

No. The state has nothing to do with tightening the payouts on video poker machines. The state mandates a minimum payback percentage (except for some antique machines in Virginia City) and Nevada hasn't lowered it. 

Are some casinos limiting free drinks to some players and if so, which?

No. The big casinos aren’t limiting free drinks, they’re simply instituting stricter controls over them at the bars. MGM casinos, along with the Cosmopolitan, use a voucher system; Caesars Entertainment casinos employ a light prompt on the backs of machines. The vouchers and lights indicate when players have earned free-drink comps. But these are only at the bars, where the drinks are served by bartenders, not out on the floor, where they're delivered by cocktail waitresses.

Anthony Curtis wrote, “To be honest, I couldn’t drink fast enough [to keep up with the free drinks] and walked with two vouchers in my pocket.” He explained that it really doesn’t have anything to do with the players; the target is bartender theft, which is enabled by the power to comp at a cash bar.