Question of the Day - 04 August 2023

'Jean was able to take advantage of the system to such an extent that she could stay in various Las Vegas hotel-casinos for most of a winter (escaping the cold in Indianapolis, where she and Brad lived at the time) in comped rooms, enjoying three comped meals a day for months at a time. '

'slot clubs in their heyday offered endless variations on the theme of "the more you play, the more goodies you get."'

Not to dispute any of that, I'm sure that was reality, but what was the true cost to the player for all those comps? One could argue, sure, person A is going to play regardless of the 'freebies' and it blunts the losses to some degree but casinos were never dumb and weren't giving away anything even in the good old days, they always came out on top in the end no matter how much a player thought they put one over on the casinos. Losing 5% net is better than losing 10% net but both words are the same, LOSE, in the end, long term. 1990's room rates were also very cheap.

Jean and her husband Brad became skilled Blackjack and then VP players that they actually made money through their advantage play. By the time they decided to move to Vegas full time, they were playing enough that their bankroll could withstand down periods, and that according to Jean, they were in the black, most years.  Now, I'm just going by what she and others, like Bob Dancer and Anthony have mentioned.

PLAYER CARDS FOR COMPS WERE/ARE/WAS ACCEPTED BY A FEW FOLKS.  ONCE, I SAW A PERSON PLAYING A "BANDIT" INSERT WHAT LOOKED LIKE A CREDIT CARD INTO ZEE "BANDIT".  I THINK IT MAY HAVE BEEN A PLAYER CARD. IT WAS THRILLING TO SEE! 

Jean and Brad did just fine, thank you. It was a different time. And while most of the great opportunities are ancient history, a lot of Jean's advice in her first book still rings true. Always use your player's card. Don't worry about what machine you are playing (other than the pay schedule, of course.) If you are cold or a cigar smoker is next to you, move to another good-paying machine. And if you get lucky and hit a royal, don't worry that "the man" or the machine won't pop up another one that same day. It did for her, as I recall. Great lady.

@Doc H. I'm on board with most of what you say. But your last sentence is flat wrong.

Adjusted for inflation, today's room rates--even including resort fees--are neck-and-neck with historic room rates as far back as you care to go.

Indeed, there are many times when the real dollar cost of room today is substantially lower than they were in the 1980s, 1990s, even the 1960s and 1970s.

I know that what Jean did worked because I did the same thing myself for many years. It took work, research, and accuracy, but you could indeed get complete room and food comps for the duration of your visit while playing games that were already inherently profitable. The "true cost," as Doc the Sage puts it, of playing those games was already less than zero--IF you restricted your play to the good machines AND you played them well. Jean did both. So did I.
It was much more difficult to craft proper strategies and scout good machines, lacking the tools we have today, but much, much easier to find and exploit opportunities such as good promos. Then as now, the actions of unskilled players basically subsidized those of the APs. But back then, their player tracking systems were crude or nonexistent and they couldn't really tell if you were just getting lucky. Now, there's a bot perched on your shoulder, tracking your every move.

What about the Players Club International card.  The commercials on on you tube featuring spokesman Telly Savalas.

Brent, I could be off on the room rates. I'm just going by what I recall from the 90's in certain properties like the Stardust, the motor inn section rooms, were very cheap on weekdays. Westward Ho same thing and a few others. Not LV but remember in Laughlin signs up and down advertising $9 and $12 rooms in the 90's(!), no resort fees. Even with inflation, that was insanely cheap! 

Kevin Lewis, I have no doubt you did the same back in the day. I remember playing craps, mostly playing pass line/odds at the LV Club downtown when they had .25 cent craps in the mid late 90's, early morning hours of weekdays and they'd comp us food just for being there and having a warm body. Though with all that said, while the comps take the sting out of losses over the long run a bit, perhaps one can indeed be in the black at times, it's still not a way to make decent money long term. Just subsidizes a little of the fun of gambling many of us have but I wouldn't call it anything more. 

Today, not sure how many of you follow all these youtuber's playing slots, VP etc, but if I were looking to make some $ to make up for low comps, I'd start my own VP or slot play channel. There are quite a few who have large followings and make some very decent money monetizing advertising on youtube doing it. There was one individual who had only about 3k followers playing slots and he had a detailed video documenting how me made money on youtube and one year, with that fairly small following, made close to 30k, I think it was 29k, just in advertising by people watching him play. He said it takes work and time of course to get that following revenue. Those that have 12k views or more on a video daily, I can't imagine what they must make. It shocks me frankly there are that many followers watching people play slots mostly but there's a big market out there for it apparently. So those who miss the comp heavy years, this is a new way to get that element back and make some $ in a new way.

 Kevin Lewis adroitly penned the truth - everything he said (except for the bot on one's shoulder and the uncalled for "snort") is correct. I also was there during that time period in Vegas and concur with what Lewis says.

The real purpose of player's cards is to identify and eject winning players. All the rest is fluff to tease the suckers.

I'll make a dazzling little contribution that some might consider semi-embarrassing in a Bob Dancer kind of way. The first slot club I exploited was at the Gold Coast, I believe. Maybe '87 or thereabouts. When you bought in for ten bucks in coins for slot machine use, you got a punch on a punch card. A full punch card got you a free meal. I got a GC room and wore a trench coat -- LOL -- I would get ten bucks in quarters, run them through once on video poker, and pocket the quarters. Kept doing it. When my pockets were full, up to the room to dump the quarters. Filled more than 20 punch cards in a day and a half. Ate well for a couple of weeks. Never let it be said I passed up free grub.

I recall rates at the Gold Spike being $16 weekdays and $20 weekends during the 80's. I think it edged up to $20 and $25 respectively by late '80s. The El Cortez was a couple bucks more. The classic The Western was even cheaper (more dangerous, but cheaper). And I remember ads in the LA Times, either Friday or Sunday edition, where you could snag good rates by mentioning the ads.

Let's see...$25 in 1989 would be equivalent to $61.51 today. So, $61.51 a night to stay at the Gold Spike which was, let's be honest, a dump. I regularly get mailers from the ElCo offering my "casino rates" that come out to about $60 a night, on weekends, after their resort fee.

No, it's not every weekend; there are definitely black out dates. They had those back in the 1980s too. And I guarantee that the update rooms at the ElCo right now are better than the rooms they had in the 80s.

I feel like what the "it was cheaper in the past" crowd really means to say is "Years ago, when I was younger and willing to stay in pretty much any hole in the wall, I could get a really cheap room. Today, when I'm more concerned about comfort and safety, it's not as cheap to get a room I find acceptable."