In Nevada, there are a large number of bars\/pubs with restricted gaming licenses that permit them to have up to 15 machines. I haven\u2019t counted these pubs, but I believe there are more than 100 of these in Clark County alone, a large chunk of land in the southern part of the state, which includes the two most populous cities — Las Vegas and Henderson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2022 and 2023, a number of these pubs had a promotion where if you bring in a W-2G from any casino, the pub would give you up to 10% of that, usually up to $500. Although each pub had slightly different rules, if you hit a $4,000 jackpot at South Point, for example, you could take that W-2G to places that would give you $100 in free play today, and tomorrow would give you an additional $300.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You had to bring in the W-2G within 24 or 48 hours, sometimes loosely defined. Some of these pubs limited this to once a week. Some once a day. When they found out how slammed they were getting, some limited the promotion to only jackpots earned in to<\/s> pubs, which for me was no problem because I played at Dotty\u2019s. Sometimes you could cash the same jackpot at two or more pubs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m not sure what the bar managers were thinking. Perhaps it was some version of, \u201cThese players will have $4,000 in their hands, and if we can just get them in the door, perhaps they\u2019ll leave a good part of this here.\u201d That must have happened some of the time, of course, but most of the time this was a losing promotion for the house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since I play at Dotty\u2019s where you get rewarded for W-2Gs, I can generate as many jackpots as I like. It\u2019s already a positive play at Dotty\u2019s to play $10 9\/6 Jacks or Better where I get a W-2G every 400 hands or so. Extra money for a promotion that was already positive is a good thing. My problem was: How do I milk these promotions? I know they\u2019ll eventually stop the promotion or kick me out, because I\u2019m definitely not the kind of customer they are trying to attract. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
When a bar would let you cash a W-2G once a week, I\u2019d limit myself to once every other week. When a bar would let you cash the W-2Gs once a day, I\u2019d never cash more than two in a week, and then I\u2019d take at least a week off. I\u2019d rotate the times I\u2019d show up to all three shifts, so bartenders didn\u2019t know how often I was cashing these. If the bar had several outlets around town, I\u2019d vary where I\u2019d go to pick up the money. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Usually, the best game was 6-5 Bonus Poker, a horrendous game worth less than 97%. Whenever I came in, I\u2019d play about an hour at quarters. That meant maybe $1,000 through the machines, which cost me $30 in EV. There were slot clubs and bonuses such as wheel spins for certain 4-of-a-kinds, reducing my expected loss to perhaps $10 — which meant a profit of at least $90 because the casino started me with at least $100.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sometimes I\u2019d come into each place and play for an hour or so without cashing any W-2G. I wanted my record to show that I was a \u201cregular player,\u201d not one who would just show up to cash a W-2G. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the earlier example, when I brought in a $4,000 W-2G and received $100 today and $300 put on my card tomorrow, I downloaded the free play as soon as I could. There was no doubt that eventually I was going to be removed from the promotions, and when that did happen, any unclaimed free play might well be forfeited.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I tipped the bartenders at least $5 or $10 each time. I knew the managers would kick me out eventually, but I didn\u2019t want the bartenders suggesting that I be eliminated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Eventually all of these promotions ended \u2013 at least for me. I\u2019m actually surprised they lasted as long as they did, at as many different places as there were. I guess it was a copycat effect where, \u201cThat casino is doing it and seems to be getting more business. Maybe we should too!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I ended up more than $10,000 ahead over all of these properties. Not a lot, and it required driving around some, but there was basically no downside. Yes, I could lose more than $100 in a specific day collecting the money, but over time it was guaranteed I would come out ahead. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
And when establishments are giving away non-trivial amounts of free money, I\u2019m the kind of guy who takes it. And if I learn about another bar with this promotion, count me in!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
In Nevada, there are a large number of bars\/pubs with restricted gaming licenses that permit them to have up to 15 machines. I haven\u2019t counted these pubs, but I believe there are more than 100 of these in Clark County alone, a large chunk of land in the southern part of the state, which includes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":843442,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[601,557],"tags":[561,585],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/spinach-2.png?fit=500%2C300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848029"}],"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=848029"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/848029\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=848029"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=848029"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=848029"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}