In December, the M Resort had a promotion involving W2Gs. Simply put, every W2G you earned from December 1 – December 29 gave you a “drawing ticket.” For each drawing ticket you earned through those 29 days, if you also received another one on December 30, you received a bonus of $150 in free play. In addition to being able to earn as many of these $150 bonuses as you could, there were drawings based on those tickets.
A W2G promotion is basically geared towards high limit players. Lower-stakes players don’t earn very many of these documents — and the best lower-stakes machines were excluded anyway. There were still some high limit machines where I believed it made sense to play this promotion. So, by December 29, I had received a few dozen W2Gs. These would be worth a lot more if I could earn the same number of W2Gs on Saturday, December 30.
Unfortunately, beginning Tuesday, December 26, I began coming down with a cold, or maybe something worse. Beginning that day, I began scarfing down mega-doses of Vitamin C, drank a lot of water, and slept a lot. Even a pint of chicken broth every day along with DayQuil. I’m not positive such a regimen works, but I was optimistic.
By Friday, December 29, I was probably 75% of the way back to being healthy. Staying away on Friday and Saturday would have cost me a significant amount in EV. This was not a close decision for me. I was healthy enough. Was I still contagious? Probably not. I certainly told people I wasn’t. But I couldn’t be sure. I participated in their drawings on Friday (they forgot to call my name) and played heavily beginning at 1 a.m. Saturday (which was still December 29 casino-day wise). Beginning at 4 a.m., when the casino day became December 30, I continued playing heavily so as to match the number of W2Gs I had already earned.
Enough about me and this promotion specifically. (I did okay. Not great. Nothing to brag or complain about.) But what if I had been only 50% of the way back to being healthy? Or 25%? Or 10%? Or 0% for that matter? And it isn’t just me, of course. It’s hundreds of players in each casino who are making this type of decision independently. Players who might be too sick to go to work, but definitely aren’t too sick to go to the casino.
You should always assume that many people in the casino aren’t completely healthy, but during this time of year especially, there are players in every casino who are infectious. Don’t even dream about not washing your hands regularly. Whatever your health regimen — flu shots, exercise, getting enough sleep, eating as best you can — it is especially important now. New Year’s resolutions generally don’t work very well, but now is a good time to make some anyway.
I don’t have any new advice in this column, but just another reminder to “be safe out there.”
This is the wrong perspective. Your decision whether to go out on public when you’re sick–or recovering–should be based not on your own condition but on the welfare of others. If you still have symptoms, you are definitely still contagious. And given that in a casino, you are exhaling air that will be recirculated and touching surfaces that others will also touch, that likelihood of contagion is significant. That’s certainly a reason to take precautions this time of year, but also an even better reason to stay home when you’re sick.
I can see, and sympathize with, a person who needs to go out in public even when he/she is sick, such as a minimum wage worker who doesn’t get sick time off (or has used it up) and thus, has to work to survive. Do you fall into that category? Or if you’re self-employed, are you in such dire financial straits that you HAVE to go in to work, no matter what?
Anyone who has the wherewithal to pour hundreds of thousands into a VP machine in a few hours doesn’t need to be chasing down every promotion in town, even a really good one (and doing the math, a $150 bonus on W2-Gs is only barely enough to offset the negative EV of the machines at the M anyway). One never sees the harm one does by going out in public when one is sick and infecting others–but that harm is real nonetheless.
Parenthetically, that’s a very pragmatic reason for employers to allow sick days and pay employees when they take them. You don’t want them to have an incentive to come in when they’re sick.
“If you still have symptoms, you are definitely still contagious.”
Wrong. Totally wrong. Symptoms typically persist past the period when you can transmit an infection. Stuffiness, congestion, cough, runny nose from an upper respiratory infection like a cold can persist for weeks after the virus is no longer present.
There is nothing more upsetting to me than sitting near a player who is coughing , sneezing and spreading germs
It ruins the fun experience part of playing
In some cases persons are contagious at least 2-3 days before symptoms show up. The best chance everyone has is to always employ the aforementioned strategies to maximize one’s own immune system. We cannot possibly know who in our elevator or airplane is contagious with something.
Thanks Dr. Lewis, the world is a much better place with your wisdom and knowledge.
Raw garlic has been in MY routine for decades. Interesting, when I bought and read Burning The Tables by Ian Anderson, I found that he had a lot to say about it also. I respect Ian Anderson. Blackjack, and garlic. A good read.
Now I understand how come sometimes people wearing face masks are wandering through the casino and sitting in front of the machines like surgeons or dentists….
Unfortunately, medical face masks lose their effectiveness after about 45 minutes or so. Unless the technology/construction has improved in the last few years, which it may have. Likely is still false security if you believe that one mask would protect you (or others) for hours.
Doesn’t it depend on what the purpose of the face mask is? Doesn’t a mask continue to contain much longer than 45 minutes how far the air containing microbes from a sneeze or cough can travel away from the mask wearer and as such is better than just covering one’s mouth and nose to avoid propelling one’s germs many feet into a room when sneezing or coughing. The purpose, in that case, is to give a measure of protection to those in the vicinity of the mask wearer, not the mask wearer herself.
Ironically, we’ve all seen someone wipe down the tray table and arm rests with antiseptic wipes on an airplane flight (perhaps not a bad idea), but so far I’ve never seen anybody do that to a slot machine. I imagine that if you asked the pit boss to wipe down all of the chips in the tray before playing, he would probably protest. Or you could go to the cage and request to wipe down all of the paper currency.
Slot machines are regularly wiped down with a bleach rag, just as bar tops and dining tables are regularly wiped down. On slots a big problem is smokers dumping their ashes on the machine and seat.
I once asked how often the chips were cleaned. I was told “never”.
ewwwwww