About 2½ years ago, McCarran International Airport underwent a name change to Harry Reid International Airport. Under whichever name, it’s a major portal to and from Las Vegas, with 57.6 million passengers passing through it in 2023 — probably more this year. In terms of passenger arrivals and departures, it’s the19th busiest airport in the world (8th busiest in the U.S.).
Because it’s Las Vegas, there are legal slot and video poker games to be played at the airport. The slot machine concession at the airport is owned by Michael Gaughan, who also owns the South Point casino in Las Vegas.
The South Point, of course, is one of the best places to gamble in Las Vegas. At the airport, maybe not so much. Michael Shackleford, the Wizard of Odds, estimated that the airport slots are as much as 8% tighter than slots in Vegas casinos. Why this is so is because the airport has a captive audience. If your plane is delayed by an hour or two, very few of us would hop into an Uber to go to the South Point or elsewhere to receive a better gamble. If you have the urge to gamble (and that’s not so rare among passengers in the Las Vegas airport), you gamble in the airport as you’re killing time.
As a video poker player, I’ve always avoided gambling at the airport — just as I usually avoid gambling at video poker on cruise ships. When casinos have captive audiences, the odds are not in the players’ favor. And since I live in Las Vegas, I have good games available to me 24/7 and do not need to play bad games to scratch any gambling itch I might have.
That all changed when I started playing slot machines a few years ago. Certain slot machines store up value. Although there are many formats for beatable slots, a common one has three or four meters, which rise with coin-in and eventually, randomly, give you however many spins are on the meter. And the meter is then reset to a lower number. Players learn that on such and such a game, if the mini meter is 20, or the minor meter is 30, or the major meter is 40, or the mega meter is 140, it’s a winning bet to sit down and play. You don’t always win, of course, but you’re playing with an advantage. If you find these games at the airport, you probably want to bump your strike numbers up to 22, 33, 44, and 155. The lower return to players (RTP) means that you do not get as much per spin in the bonus round as you do in casinos with a higher RTP.
In regular casinos, when the meters get high enough, players continue playing until the meters go off. But at the airport, if they call your flight and you HAVE to get home today, most players will leave the machines and get on the plane — no matter how high the return percentage currently.
As you might expect, this has given rise to airport slot hustlers. Some players will buy refundable tickets in order to get past airport security, and then walk (and take free shuttles where available), from one terminal to the next. I’m guessing it’s three or four miles of walking to check every machine in all of the terminals. If you have a refundable ticket, once you’ve checked all the machines (and played the ones you believed were positive), you leave the airport without even getting on a plane. And then you do it the th e next day. And the next.
As a general rule, casinos do not like the idea of certain players always beating them. Casinos in Nevada are allowed to 86 such players — for virtually any reason at all that doesn’t involve discriminating on the basis of sex, skin tone, national origin, or a few other categories. Harry Reid International Airport, however, is United States Federal property. MJG Airport Slots does not have the right to 86 players from the airport.
I’m not sure of exactly what legal rights MJG Airport Slots has to prevent unwanted players from playing their machines, but it definitely takes actions. They know the slots that the pros commonly examine and if you show up several times a week checking those machines, in all the terminals, you will be noticed. The airport has security cameras all over the place. Perhaps MJG Airport Slots has access to that camera feed — or has its own cameras which it uses.
If they believe you are an advantage slot player, you will be approached and told not to play the airport machines anymore. Your picture will be taken. You will be told that if they catch you again playing these slots, the police will be called.
If we still had the Gambling with an Edge podcast, I’d ask Bob Nersessian to tell us what rights players have and what rights MJG Airport Slots have.
I fly in and out of this airport a couple times a month. Sometimes I’ll allow time for a slot run before or after the flights. Since MJG Airport Slots senior personnel used to work for Michael Gaughan and have paid me hundreds of jackpots over the years, I assume I’m recognized on sight and considered an advantage player. Making extra trips to the airport to check these slots wouldn’t be worth it to me. I’d be picked off for sure. For me, if I were asked not to play there and the police would be called if I did, that would be sufficient grounds for me to cease.
The Reno Airport, which is much smaller than Harry Reid, also has slot and video poker machines. I assume there are slot advantage players there as well. I don’t know how they are dealt with in that airport.
