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Chilly Scenes of Winter

Garden State gamblers defied terrible weather to patronize Atlantic City casinos, where receipts were up 1.5% (helped by an extra weekend day last month). Tables were a bit slow, down 3%, but slots were up 3.5%. Borgata was tops with $56.5 million despite a 6% slump. Hard Rock Atlantic City leapt 21% to $46 million, while Ocean Casino Resort was relatively becalmed at $35.5 million (1%). The grind joints were bunched closely together, barely led by Resorts Atlantic City with $11 million or 2% higher. Bally’s Atlantic City crawled out of last place ($10 million, 3.5%) and incrementally past Golden Nugget ($10 million, -4%). The Caesars Entertainment trifecta was led by Harrah’s Resort ($16.5 million, -2.5%), followed by Caesars Atlantic City ($14.5 million, 8%), while players fled Tropicana Atlantic City ($13 million, -14%).

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Money in the Bank

Bob Dancer

Not long ago Bonnie and I invited a friend to join us for dinner at a casino restaurant. The friend, a woman in the same improv group in which I participate, was not a gambler. “Sandy” was a senior citizen and was retired. 

At one point, Bonnie and I told Sandy of a time I was playing in downtown Las Vegas and had gone through all of my cash on hand. I was playing a slot machine, in significant positive territory, and I didn’t want to walk away and leave the machine for others to capitalize on. So, I called Bonnie and asked her to get some cash and take Lyft to downtown (Bonnie no longer drives.) She agreed.

Sandy asked how much we were talking about. 

I didn’t remember for sure, but I told her it was probably $10,000. It was very likely more than enough, but if she was going to make the trip, we wanted to make sure we didn’t run out again.

Sandy remarked that this was way too large of an amount not to be earning interest.

I conceded her point — but suggested that it was a different calculation for a professional gambler.

“How come?” she asked. “Interest given up is interest given up, no matter what your profession is.”

I changed the subject, but have been thinking about this. While Sandy wasn’t wrong, here is my thinking on the subject:

  1. Gamblers have bigger cash swings than most people. Sometimes the swings go against you, and you need a “cushion” available for when that happens. If you have lines of credit at every casino you frequent, this can serve as a sort of short-term cushion. While I have lines of credit at a number of casinos, I regularly frequent casinos where this is not the case for me. So, I need a buffer.
  1. Gamblers for “large” stakes need bigger cushions than gamblers for smaller stakes. I’ve had some monthly negative scores in excess of $30,000 over the past few years. I need a way to cope with these swings. Overall, I’m a winning player, but not every week or month (or even, occasionally, year).
  1. Banks do not like large regular cash deposits and withdrawals from gamblers. Numerous gamblers have had banks terminate their accounts for such activity. I’m not sure why banks act this way, but they do. Perhaps they’re nervous about money laundering situations and don’t want to risk it.
  1. Even if banks did allow large cash deposits and withdrawals from gamblers, banks are not always near the casinos and not always open when the money is needed. Casinos are open 24 hours. Banks aren’t. 
  1. Sometimes casinos will lock up a machine for a few hours for a player. Sometimes they won’t. If a player has cash in a safety deposit box at a bank or casino near several other casinos, this can be used to fulfill cash needs for those casinos fairly quickly.
  1. If I did run out of cash, I have gambling friends I can count on to lend me short-term money. I very much try to avoid this because if I borrow, I have to be willing and able to lend money to others. While most gamblers to whom I have lent money have paid me back reasonably promptly, there have been exceptions. I would rather not open this door.
  1. I don’t know Sandy’s exact financial circumstances, but I suspect she is living closer to the edge than I am. She needs to make every penny count, so to speak, and to earn them while she can. So, she has developed rules of thumb that serve her well for this purpose. A good rule for most people is to keep your money working for you and don’t leave money uninvested.

While I don’t consider myself wealthy, I have enough money to comfortably gamble for considerable stakes without threatening my lifestyle or retirement status. So, I can afford to keep more cash around than many other people can. Very little of that is at home (for safety reasons). Most is spread out in safety deposit boxes in casinos I frequent.

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A Case for Diamond Elite Status at Caesars

I’ve had a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with Caesars over the years. Early on, in the mid-’90s and early 2000s, there was enough value to get Diamond status. Over the years, however, the value of Diamond has diminished greatly.

Last year, I made Diamond Elite (75,000 tier points). Normally, it would be $750,000 coin-in on some bad video poker machines to achieve that status.  Even if you could find a 99% game that was $10 per point, it was still an expected loss of $7,500. Probably not worth it.

Tier multiplier days changed that. They run frequently at various properties and are between 4x and 10x, with a cap. If you play a good VP machine (99%) and even $20 per point and play only on 10x bonus days, your coin-in now becomes $150,000 and a 1% loss would be $1,500. What do you get for that?

  • $600 airfare reimbursement. Not as good as $600 cash, but it’s a nice perk. Let’s put the value at $400.
  • Four drinks a day with a $25 max per day. It’s hard to put a value on this, since it depends on frequency of travel and how much you value a drink. Let’s call it $15 per drink and 12 per year. That’s $180
  • $75 a month sports bet on Caesars app. You have to run $100 in bets through first. Let’s put that cost at $5 with a pretty big variance. And the $75 free bet is worth about $34. $34 – $5 = $29 per month, times 12 is $348 a year.
  • Celebration dinner ($100 max). Let’s put this at $70.
  • Lounge access (where available). Since this is property dependent, I’ll just call this one nice perk with no cash value.
  • Redeem Reward credits for free play at 1-1 at online casino and sports book. Maybe $50.
  • Free cruise for two. I’ll put a value of $500 on this. Lots of conditions, port charges, etc.

So adding up the value, you’re getting about $1,548 in value for your $1,500 loss. Add in the value of the free rooms and various other offers and it’s a positive play.

This makes a lot of sense if you travel a lot and your travel destination includes Caesars properties. There will also be some additional mailed offers from your primary casino.

To make this work, you have to play mostly on 10x points days and find a decent VP machine to play. That’s the most difficult part.

You may also be able to use the Caesars Diamond Elite for some tier matching at other casinos.

Here the link to Caesars Tier benefits.

It’s worth at least exploring the option. Also, if you earn status, you get it for the current year and the next year. So there’s the potential to double up on some of these benefits. I haven’t fully explored that option yet.

Also see my Las Vegas Savings Tips page for more ideas.

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Station: Better than Ever?

In spite of construction disruption that should have dampened revenues, Station Casinos beat Wall Street expectations for 4Q25. Cash flow of $213 million came in 4% above Wall Street’s consensus projection. Not to be outdone, revenues of $512 million were also ahead of forecasts. Investors were further pleased with $48 million in share repurchases and a $1/share special dividend. For one, Barry Jonas of Truist Securities was moved to boost his price target from $75/share to $80.

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Bobby Vegas — Good and Not-So-Good Offers and Something Hinky in Sports Betting

Bobby Vegas: Friends Don’t Let Friends Play Triple-Zero Roulette

As a devoted scuffler, I chase deals that collectively work out to being paid $20/hour to visit casinos. And every hour on their dime is good for the old bottom line. 

Heck, I drive to downtown Henderson all the time to my gold at the end of the Rainbow. Free meals, positive-expectation games, and it all grew from chasing MRBs.

As I’ve said before, Rainbow and Emerald Isle are stack heaven.

For decades, the MRB has been solid gold. In a bad year, it’s worth 10-to-one. A good year? 25-to-one or more. And that’s just direct savings and winnings. Add discovering a plus-EV game you hit a royal on, or in my case 4OAKs, and I’ll take that bet all day long.

Anyway, I stopped by Silver Sevens for their little free play re-sign offer, the MRB 3 to  1 on your first natural blackjack and free-gift MRB.

Back at home I got what I call a “non-offer.” Two “comped” nights (Sun-Thurs.). The resort fee​? $42.50. Please. That’s not a comp. Play $20 and get $5, but it takes two days to load?  Sigh … Please work on those, Mr. Sevens.

Now here’s a good offer, Plaza’s 2026 deal: 26% off room rates, $26 free bet, and $26 food credit. And great games.

Also, their $125 all-inclusive is back. Room (with no resort fee), breakfast and dinner, unlimited drinks. Add a slew of MRBs. And bingo is back up to $160,000 monthly. Once again, it “Pays to Play at Plaza.”

Now about something “hinky” (apologies to Tommy Lee Jones) in sports betting

A hypothetical question. Of all the adults you know, how many are legally betting sports? Your mom?  Your dentist? The barista?

The December numbers in North Carolina, $665 million, in a month, stunned me.  SEVEN BILLION in 2025? Our state transportation budget is $5 billion. $2.2 million a day? Who are these people? With approximately eight million adults, EVERY ADULT  wagers $850 a year?

Then I looked at New York. Double that. $1,700 a year per adult.

How many people have sports betting accounts? How many people are in the target population, male 21 to 40? The closer I looked, the higher the per-person number went up. A lot. Frankly I find this odd.

Either a smaller group is betting astronomical amounts or these numbers don’t make sense.

That tsunami of money funneling through legal sports betting? The states and sports books don’t want to kill the golden goose, tens of millions in taxes and profits every month.

How would you launder through this method? Pay individuals for cover accounts? Cash through legal sports books? That’s tough. There are some holes, but the process requires real ID verification, even geolocation, and I’ve written how closely they monitor advantage account activity. But let’s say you could set up cover accounts, run money through, and lose only, say, 15%?  From a laundering perspective, that’s not bad.

I’m just having a very hard time accepting that either everyone is betting or some folks are betting huge amounts. Or is it something Hinky?

The numbers just don’t make sense. Your thoughts. Please.

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Hugo’s Cellar’s Split-Plate Deal

I’m a big fan of Hugo’s. It’s a step back in time and walking down the steps seems to take you into a different world. The noise of the casino is replaced by the conversation of people enjoying a great meal in a classic setting. Call it dated if you want. I view it as a tribute to old-school Las Vegas, where the customer was king.

Now, you can order two complete dinners and I’ll bet you will have plenty of leftovers. Sometimes, however, you don’t have a fridge in your room for the leftovers or just don’t want to bother with boxing stuff up and taking it with you.

If you order just the tableside salad, it’s $28. Ordering a split plate gets you the tableside salad, plus all the normal dinner accompaniments (bread plate, sorbet palate refresher, dessert platter) and the cost is $40. Plus, they split the entrée for you. This is one case where one-half plus one-half is more than one. We’ve done this move several times and it sure seems like we each get more than half of an entrée.

Wait people rarely mind splitting an entree, especially if there’s no split-plate charge. That way, they can bring you a lot of food for the price of one meal and most people, except for the worst stiffs, will tip like they paid for both meals. Also, if the waiter tips out the kitchen staff generously, they get in on the deal too.

While you’re at Hugo’s, if you’re brave, order a martini. They bring you a full martini, plus some extra in a little pitcher on ice. You get almost three full martinis out of it. Last time I was there, it was $14. It’s probably higher now, but that same drink at Circa would be $65.

Also, the wine list is tremendous and very reasonably priced. I’ve seen the same bottle of wine cost $100 more at other steakhouses downtown. Jon the sommelier is delightful and makes ordering wine a pleasure. He doesn’t try to upsell you and really enjoys his job.

Finally, the Kona coffee experience for two is $14. Well worth doing at least once.Overall, Hugo’s for dinner is a wonderful treat.

Also, check out my Las Vegas Savings Tips page for further suggestions.

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Hither, Thither & Yon

January was super-cold in Illinois … except at the casinos. They leapt 13.5% on a same-store basis (i.e., excluding Fairmont Park). An extra weekend day helped—but still! New Hollywood Joliet is fending off management’s fears of an early slowdown, growing 1% from December and 60% from the old place last year at this time. It grossed $11 million. If only it didn’t look from the outside like a strip mall …

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Weather or Not

Bob Dancer

A significant part of the country experienced colder than usual weather starting January 25 and lasting for a while. While Las Vegas escaped most of the cold weather, January 25 was a day I was scheduled to fly from Newark, NJ to Asheville, NC to begin an 11-day Cherokee trip. Both airports were snowed in, and I tried to cope as well as I could.

My flight from Las Vegas into Newark was on January 24, arriving about 6:30 p.m. When I arrived, I learned my flight the next day to Asheville was cancelled. I searched for any flight on January 25 that was still open and was traveling from Newark to either Asheville or Atlanta. I found one into Atlanta on Spirit Airlines, leaving at 5 a.m. I booked it, hoping I could travel before the storm hit. At that time, we didn’t know how big the storm was going to be, or exactly when it would strike, but it was supposed to be bad.

That left me about 10 hours to rent a car, drive two hours to Atlantic City, pick up free play on both Saturday and Sunday, play it off, sleep and eat if I could manage either or both, and then drive two hours back to Newark. When I left Atlantic City at 1 a.m. for the drive back to Newark, the flight status listed online was still “on time.” 

The drive to Newark was dry until I was very close to the airport. I kept driving past signs that told me serious weather conditions were coming, and non-essential driving should be avoided. I kept asking myself what in the hell I was doing.

When I went to check in at Spirit, I discovered my flight had been cancelled — as well as more than 80% of all flights in or out of Newark that day. Spirit had a seat available on a flight to Detroit which was scheduled to fly out soon, and from there, after a six-hour layover, I could fly to Atlanta if that flight didn’t get cancelled. Since some chance of getting to Atlanta on that day was better than no chance, I got on the flight to Detroit.

On the flight from Newark to Detroit, I had a window seat, and there was only snow to see out there. I couldn’t see the ground at all until just before landing. Detroit had snow, but the airport was operational. Some flights were taking off. Others weren’t — but that was a function of the weather at the destination rather than the weather in Detroit. Atlanta was currently allowing flights to land, but that could change at any moment. I got a brief amount of sleep sitting up in the Detroit airport. Not quality sleep by any  means.

While I waited to see if my flight would take off, I called Cherokee and inquired if by any chance they would have a driver in Atlanta near the time I was supposed to arrive? No such luck. It’s a three-hour drive from Cherokee to Atlanta — in dry weather — and their only drivers were booked elsewhere. 

Bonnie was traveling separately from Vegas to Asheville, North Carolina. Originally, I was going to fly from Newark and meet her there. A car from Cherokee would transport us both to the property. But now, I was flying to Atlanta, some 200 miles away from Asheville. I haven’t traveled the road between these two cities before, but I know it’s not all flat driving. The elevation at the high point on that route exceeds 3,400 feet — which is plenty high enough to be snowy and/or icy in the current conditions. Driving from Atlanta to Asheville was going to be out for me — I was too tired for a three-hour road trip in a car I wasn’t used to in bad weather. I’d concentrate on getting to Cherokee and let the casino driver pick her up and bring her to me. Bonnie and I both know the driver, Chris, who was scheduled to pick her up and that wouldn’t be a problem.

Renting a car in Atlanta was going to be an issue. There were cars to be had, but nowhere close to Cherokee to drop them off. Enterprise has a location relatively close to Cherokee, but the Enterprise rental location within the Atlanta airport was closed for the day. The cars I could get would have to be dropped off in Asheville — a full 60 miles away from Cherokee.

The plane did take off from Detroit and land in Atlanta uneventfully — and the passengers on the plane gave out a heartful cheer. I checked my messages and found out that Bonnie’s plane to Asheville had been cancelled. I texted this information to Chris so he wouldn’t drive out there for nought. 

I checked Lyft and found out that I could get to Cherokee for $320 from Atlanta. I decided this was better than driving in icy conditions to Cherokee when I was sleep deprived and in a car I wasn’t used to — and then dealing with getting to and from Asheville to return the car. Before I ordered the Lyft car, I checked Uber and found out the ride cost $260 — and if I was willing to share a ride, $165. Yes, I was willing. I hoped whomever I shared with didn’t mind my snoring. Not for the first time, I was amazed that the rates varied so much between these two companies that offered essentially identical service.

Turned out that I paid the “share” rate, but there were no other passengers. Sometimes you catch a break.

I arrived in Cherokee and checked in. I was more tired than I was hungry, so I immediately went to bed. My plan was to awaken at 2 a.m. and play $50,000 coin-in before the casino day changed at 6 a.m., earning me 5,000 Tier Credits and the maximum daily bonus of 10,000 TCs. I can redeem one Experience Credit (requiring 250,000 TCs) for $450 in free play, so earning some extra TCs would be worth money to me to obtain.  But when my alarm rang, I turned it off, rolled over, and slept longer. I was worn out by both the lack of sleep and the stress of not knowing how I was going to cope with my transportation problems caused by weather conditions that were both serious and uncertain.

I had my toothbrush and toothpaste, but no other toiletries. I’d flown into Newark for a day with just a backpack — and my clothes and things were in a suitcase Bonnie was bringing. With the weather, she ended up getting here Thursday night — four days later than originally planned. I wore the same clothes day after day, washing out my underwear nightly. The handheld hair dryer became a clothes dryer. When Bonnie finally saw me, she laughed at how scruffy I had become. But we were together again, clean clothes were at hand, and everything was okay in our world.