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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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!<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.)<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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