A friend of mine, “Henry,” is a reasonably strong video poker player. His game selection is decent, his “play-of-the-hands” skills are better than average, and he only plays when he has an advantage. He likes multi-hand games with a total bet in the $10-15 range — so quarter Ten Play, 50¢ Triple Play or Five Play, or $1 Triple Play are all comfortable for him. He will occasionally break out of that comfort zone for the right promotion.
Henry used to play at the South Point, but not anymore. Four years ago, he could play $60,000 coin-in a month and get top-of-the-line mailers which included $200 per month free play, dinner for two in the Silverado Steak House, free show tickets, and lunch for two at Baja Miguel’s.
I don’t remember exactly when, but a couple of years ago, the South Point began determining your mailers based on their perceived profitability of you as a player. Therefore, slot players started receiving bigger mailers and video poker players began receiving less. For the same $60,000 coin-in, Henry now receives between $20 and $80 per month (depending in part on whether or not he had recently won), and food coupons limited to deals such as a 2-for-1 buffet or maybe a $15 meal somewhere.
Henry asked me if I was involved in the change of mailers. I told him, “No.” I periodically have lunch with Michael Gaughan (owner of the South Point) and consider him to be a friend. Although I have occasionally offered him advice, more than 90% of the things I have suggested have never been implemented. When there is any change at the South Point, I often get blamed by players who think they are “connecting the dots” which lead back to my friendship with Gaughan. In reality, they have no clue as to what he and I talk about. But players want to blame somebody and I’m an easy target.
Anyway, due to the small and inconsistent mailers, Henry has removed the South Point from the stable of casinos he usually frequents — although he did play enough to get $500 in gas cards not so long ago. While Henry was very happy with the gas cards, that gas card promotion was limited to only one month.
Henry played through $83,340 on single-point days (0.30%) and instead of earning the normal $250 in cash or free play there, he received $500 in Chevron gas cards when he redeemed his points. Oddly enough, Henry ignores playing on double-point days at the South Point where for the same $83,340 in play he’d get $500 in cash or free play when he redeemed his points. He thinks it’s a good deal when Chevron gas cards are involved but not such a good deal when real cash money is involved. Although Chevron gas cards are nice, I personally prefer receiving the same amount in cash. But not by much. If I had a choice between $450 in cash or $500 in gas cards, I’d take the gas cards. For $480 in cash, I’m not sure.
On double-point days, the game of NSU returns 100.33% (99.73% for the game plus 0.60% from the slot club) which is higher than Henry receives anywhere else for the stakes he is playing. (If he played 25¢ games and was happy with an $8/hour maximum return, there are still Full Pay Deuces Wild games to be found. But he wants more than that, so he needs to venture into higher-denomination games and take the slot club and promotions into consideration.) The South Point has NSU available in 5¢ Fifty Play ($12.50 per hand) which is definitely in his comfort zone — but there are only four machines and getting a seat is sometimes difficult.
Although Henry’s total return (game + promotions + mailers) at the South Point is higher than he could receive at the other casinos in his stable, Henry puts a lot of emphasis on two things:
1. His play at the South Point was more lucrative four years ago, and
2. The size of the mailer by itself is more important to him than the size of the total return (game + promotions + mailers).
I no longer spend much time with Henry trying to convince him of the fallacy of his position. I’ve expressed my beliefs enough times that continuing to badger him about it would be nagging him and likely costs me a friendship. His mind is made up.
One of the reasons I believe Henry feels the way he does is due to the way he records free play in his ledgers. Free play is recorded in a special column for Henry. He downloads it separately and records it separately.
If I have, say, $50 in free play, I might download the free play and insert $950 of my own money into the machine. If I lose it all, I’ll record the loss as $1,000 in one column and the free play of $50 remains in another column. If I cashed out for $1200, I would record it as a $200 win in one column and the $50 free play in another. I’m only concerned with the sum of the two columns, which would be minus $950 in the first case and plus $250 in the second. Whether that $50 in free play was the first $50 I played or the last is irrelevant to me. I record it and it is in the mix somewhere. Exactly where, I don’t know or care.
But the way Henry plays and records his free play is different. When he is finished with his regular play (and recorded his results), he’ll download his $50 and play it separately. He’ll then record whatever his results are for this. At the end of the year, Henry knows how much free play he received and how much he earned playing off that free play. I only know how much free play I received. Since I am playing games pretty close to 100% anyway, it doesn’t really matter to me exactly how much I earned playing my free play.
But it does to Henry, and if you can convince him otherwise, you’re a better man than I.