I don’t read a newspaper. I pay attention to the news, but get it online. Bonnie has subscribed to the Las Vegas Review-Journal for 20 years and reads it daily.
She is not particularly savvy about gambling offers, but she cuts out many of them and places them in my office. Mostly I either already know about the offers and/or am not interested. Occasionally, however, she comes across something I didn’t know about. One of those times was an ad for the Downtown Grand.
Frankly, I’d never heard of the Downtown Grand. It turns out it’s in the hip new section of downtown, where new bars and nightclubs are popping up. Since I’m not a bar or nightclub guy, and gambling downtown has been too far away for nothing special, I haven’t been down there for a while.
The ad said, however, “We’ll match your casino offer up to $300.” Well that’s different! Now it’s only 12 miles away — almost right around the corner!
Turns out it was the old Lady Luck — somewhat modernized. Not totally modernized. It still looks and feels like a downtown casino — somewhat old and shabby, although it has new carpet and its lack of a “downtown smell” is refreshing.
I searched a few machines. Although I later heard that they have 8-5 Bonus (99.2%), I didn’t find those machines. Mostly they had games tighter than that. In the high limit room I found $1, $2, $5 single line 9-6 Double Double Bonus (99.0%) so that’s what I played.
They honored my mailer up to $300 — and kept the mailer (this wasn’t critical to me. I gave them my Palms mailer and I already recorded when to pick up food and free play and it’s basically the same pattern every month there. But if you showed them a M mailer, for example, where you get some kind of offer almost every day and it’s a different pattern every month, you should consider making a copy of the mailer before you give it to them.) I learned it took $2 coin-in to earn 3 points and you can redeem 1,000 points for $1 (0.15%) Today (a Thursday) was 5x points (totaling 0.75%) either because it was my first day or because I was a senior. These numbers aren’t attractive when the top game returns 99.0% (which is what I thought at the time.)
I didn’t want to totally stiff them because you never know what’s coming in the mail. They had a first-day offer where for 2,000 points ($1,335 coin-in) you earn $30 in free play, your 10,000 points are worth $10, plus you get a T-shirt and a hooded sweatshirt (don’t need more of either.) Since $1,335 coin-in on 9/6 DDB has an expected loss of $14 (with big swings!) I decided to go ahead and play. It wasn’t a very high expected earning rate, but I wanted to give them SOME play, so I did.
When I went back to the booth (the lines were rather long but they had three booth workers and the lines flowed), I had the $30 placed on my card, was told that I could download the $10 worth of points at the machine without booth intervention, and was given the garments.
Surprisingly I was also told I had earned $50 in food and they told me the restaurants where the food comps would be honored. Bonnie and I had eaten a buffet elsewhere two hours previously, but the food comp was also good for food “to go,” so I drank a cup of coffee and read a book while waiting for the food.
I get enough casino food at a variety of casinos, but this was food at a 3.75% rate based on coin-in. If you’re someone who needs to pay retail for food, this is very generous. I don’t know if this was a “first day special” or this is their standard rate.
Had I played 5,000 points on my first day ($3,335) I would have earned two room nights — presumably any night of the week. — in addition to the free play and garments. At 8-5 Bonus, this has an expected cost of $30 or so (before including $22.50 in “cash back” free play when it’s 5x points along with the other sign-up bonuses.) This makes it a decent low-roller offer for tourists.
I don’t know what’s coming in the mail. With only $1,335 in coin-in, I doubt it’s very much. And I’m not going to drive that far for $10 free play offers. But who knows? Things might get juicier and now I’m in their system.