Bonnie and I regularly played at an out-of-town Caesars property where part of the monthly mailer was $200 in resort credit apiece. If we played our usual amount, our host would pick up food charges. So that left the resort credit to be spent at gift shops. They had a women\u2019s store, a men\u2019s store, and a jewelry store, in addition to a typical small gift shop where you could get various sundries. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Generally speaking, you don\u2019t expect casino gift shops to compete on price. At the men\u2019s store, I was told that if I paid with cash or credit card, I\u2019d get a 35% discount. If I used Reward Credits, I\u2019d get a 20% discount. And if I charged to my room, I\u2019d get no discount. Part of the deal with the $200 resort credit was that you had to charge it to your room. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
The resort credits weren\u2019t worth anywhere near face value to us — but they were obviously worth something and made the play worth more to me than if I didn\u2019t get to spend them. So how much are they worth?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No gift shop is worth the same amount to every player. I would wear a few of the shirts sold by this particular men\u2019s store — but not all that many. A younger man — or a man whose taste is different from mine — might find he liked a much larger percentage of the inventory than I do. Bonnie is usually with me on these trips — and she can usually find something in one of the gift shops. If I tell her she has $400 to spend at such and such a selection of stores, she\u2019ll find at least that much for one of us — or for one of our relatives or friends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I were thinking a $200 gift shop award might be worth $100, I asked myself, \u201cWould I pay $100 in cash to get that $200 gift shop award?\u201d For me, the answer was, \u2018No.\u2019 But I might pay $50 in cash. So, I figured that\u2019s what the award was worth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I find it useful to turn this into a percentage — so I can add it into the mix along with the return on the game, the slot club, and other such awards. If I regularly played $10,000 and they gave me this award worth $50 to me, the award would be worth 0.5%. If I played $100,000 (which is closer to what I actually play), the award is worth 0.05%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Frankly, something worth 0.05% would rarely be enough to tip the play-or-not-play scales into positive territory. Maybe if a play were already worth 100.3%, which is about the minimum I\u2019ll play, I\u2019ll make a play I might otherwise pass on. But that exact circumstance rarely happens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It turns out that I find such awards most valuable for \u201ckeeping Bonnie happy\u201d reasons. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bonnie and I keep our finances separate. If I win or lose $40,000 on a trip, it basically doesn\u2019t affect her finances at all. But if I have the advantage on the play, and I can play on her card as well as mine, it\u2019s good for her to make the trip with me, even if there is not much for her to do once she\u2019s there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, gift shop awards, at least one nice dinner per trip, free movies in the room, and excursions to sight-seeing places are all part of what we do while we\u2019re there. Sometimes I give her half of my win in a drawing. She\u2019s 80 years old, I\u2019m 77, and staying happy together is a significant part of our game plan. If there is suitable music, we dance for a few hours. If we earn cruises, she gets a big say in where we go. Bonnie\u2019s generally a good sport about coming with me when I take these \u201cbusiness trips,\u201d I want her to look forward to our time together. If getting to go shopping brings a smile to her face, I\u2019m all for it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Bonnie and I regularly played at an out-of-town Caesars property where part of the monthly mailer was $200 in resort credit apiece. If we played our usual amount, our host would pick up food charges. So that left the resort credit to be spent at gift shops. They had a women\u2019s store, a men\u2019s store, […]<\/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\/854283"}],"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=854283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/854283\/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=854283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=854283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=854283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}