{"id":839510,"date":"2019-07-09T09:50:37","date_gmt":"2019-07-09T17:50:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/gambling-with-an-edge\/?p=119788"},"modified":"2023-08-24T14:44:16","modified_gmt":"2023-08-24T22:44:16","slug":"least-favorite-type-promotion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/blog\/least-favorite-type-promotion\/","title":{"rendered":"Least Favorite Type of Promotion"},"content":{"rendered":"

Casinos have promotions all the time. Some are very useful to the winning player (such as point multipliers) and some are basically useless (such as 2-for-1 Margaritas during happy hour on Tuesdays.)<\/span><\/p>\n

Today I want to write about what promotions I like the least and invite you to respond. Wherever you originally read this article, it will be posted on <\/span>www.gamblingwithanedge.com<\/span><\/a>, where comments are welcome and discussed.<\/span><\/p>\n

To limit the discussion somewhat, I\u2019ll propose the following parameters on the promotions:<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a01. You must have an edge of at least a half percent.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a0 2. The promotion is within your bankroll (which will mean nickel games for some readers and much larger games for others.)<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a03. The promotion will last a reasonable length of time. (This will exclude such things as \u201ccome in Thursday and pick up $10 in free play,\u201d or \u201cpromotion limited to your first $1,000 of coin-in\u201d.)<\/span><\/p>\n

The promotions may include several things going on at once (i.e. point multiplier, earn tickets for a good drawing or two, and earn tier credits toward a tier whose benefits you desire.) This would be a good thing in my opinion — but opinions vary.<\/span><\/p>\n

I do most of my gambling as a \u201clocal,\u201d so comps such as RFB and airfare do not enter into my considerations. If you are not a local at whatever casino has this promotion, you\u2019re welcome to include such comps in your equation.<\/span><\/p>\n

So, with these parameters in mind, let me tell you what I like the LEAST. My list could very well expand after reading your responses.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a01. Very few relevant machines, so players must compete with each other for time on device. Sometimes you must show up six or more hours before the promotion starts in order to get a machine. Sometimes you show up six hours early and find that all machines are already taken with players who are planning on sticking around for the duration. Sometimes you can make a deal with a player to get the machine at such and such a time — sometimes you can\u2019t.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a02. A relatively smoky casino. I know I need to tolerate some of this in order to play in casinos, but some have smoke levels that keep me away, no matter what the promotion is.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a03. Very high variance (say, larger volatility than Double Double Bonus) for stakes that are at the high end of my bankroll comfort zone. This is especially true if the casino has the reputation of kicking out players who win more than a certain amount.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This means you\u2019re either going to lose a considerable amount or get kicked out. Being kicked out usually includes the forfeiture of future free play (which could well have been part of the calculation) and you can lose comps and other valuable things.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a04. It\u2019s at a tribal casino that has a reputation of not paying players. There is one such casino in Southern California where they recently offered a bonus on W2Gs, and a large number of players were kicked out. Understandably when there are a lot of W2Gs, things back up. Many players made \u201ctickets\u201d of, $2,000 or $3,000 to insert into the machines after they were paid in cash. The casino kicked out some of these players and refused to redeem their tickets. That means players were stuck holding worthless paper — which are only valuable if the casino says they are.<\/span><\/p>\n

This is not an isolated incident. If you are unfamiliar with what can and does happen at these places, check out Bob Nersesian\u2019s book, <\/span>The Law for Gamblers<\/span><\/i>, especially his chapter entitled, \u201cIndian Gaming: OMG, WTF\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a05. Uncomfortable machines. This could be because the chairs are locked into position and don\u2019t adjust — and the standard height doesn\u2019t fit my body. It could be the screens are very dark and hard to read. It could be the buttons are very sticky and so frequent mistakes are common unless you play extremely slowly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a06. Some of the benefits are uncollectible. It could be that there is a future drawing where I would have a decent chance at winning something, but I can\u2019t be there. It could be that a large proportion of the benefits must be collected sometime in the future at that casino and it\u2019s difficult or impossible for me to return. If the edge is high enough without these uncollectible benefits, then this doesn\u2019t have to be a showstopper.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0 \u00a07. I\u2019m already way ahead recently at this place. Even if a casino doesn\u2019t have a reputation for kicking players out, every casino has a limit for what they will tolerate. If I think I might be close, it makes sense to stay away for six months or so.<\/span><\/p>\n

Okay. That\u2019s my list at the current time. What did I get wrong and what did I forget to mention?<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Casinos have promotions all the time. Some are very useful to the winning player (such as point multipliers) and some are basically useless (such as 2-for-1 Margaritas during happy hour on Tuesdays.) Today I want to write about what promotions I like the least and invite you to respond. Wherever you originally read this article, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":6498,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[558,557],"tags":[561,683,585],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839510"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=839510"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/839510\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=839510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=839510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=839510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}