Cleaning out the Files

A new year and time to go to the virtual file cabinet and check some that have been begging for my attention. These are files that contain good little tidbits about gambling and casinos that I’m always collecting as I continue to read and research, even though I’m not able to do as much exploring on-site as when I lived in Vegas.  Some of these might end up being expanded to full articles in the future, but many can be useful shorts. I’ve always said that the key to successful gambling is not just one blast of a big informational bomb, but hundreds of thousands of tiny information lobs that come your way.

First, here are links to some of the gaming stories/articles you might helpful and/or interesting.

1. My Top Ten Casino Pet Peeves. This is a commentary by Dennis Conrad, a casino-management expert and my good friend, describing his top-10 list of casino pet peeves. I bet you have a lot of the same ones! If you enjoy his down-to-earth writing, you might want to check out some of his other articles listed at the end of this one.

2. Faces of Gaming: Anthony Curtis — Gambling Guru, Las Vegas Expert, Customer Advocate with Street Cred  Read this in-depth profile if you want to know more about the fascinating life and times of my boss, Anthony Curtis.  I’ve worked with him for over 25 years, but still found out a few interesting details about him that I hadn’t known before.

3. Want to know all about the big 25th anniversary of the Blackjack Ball? It was an extravaganza held last year at one of the most unique buildings in Las Vegas, the Cleveland Clinic – Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health. You can find them in the two-part article by Henry Tamburin: Part 1 and Part 2.

4. Sometimes I help out Deke with a Question of the Day answer. Here’s one that covers some questions that I have often been asked about comps.

5. Are you more a recreational gambler than a purely advantage seeker? This video gives you many hints on how to stretch your fun time in a casino no matter what game you play.  You can’t always win these days, but losing less is always a good goal. And you might be shocked by who is giving all the advice on this video. Then again, you might not.

And now for answers I’ve promised to some of your personal questions.

Q: Where do you like living better, Las Vegas or Georgia?

A:  I get this question a lot. In fact, I asked it of myself when I visited Las Vegas in the fall.  Would I be sad when I went back, wishing we still lived there? However, although I had a good time being there, especially getting to visit with old-time friends, I realized the Vegas of the present is not the same Vegas as before we moved away. Even the last year or so when we still lived there, I got tired of the intense work needed to find good advantage plays and during this visit, I saw that this was even more so the current situation.

I think of the scripture: “To EVERYTHING there is a SEASON and a TIME for every matter or purpose under heaven.” Las Vegas was a happy place for Brad and me for 20-plus years. But Columbus, Georgia, is a good spot for me right now. I live in a place where I can conveniently take care of Brad with the help of a loving family nearby.

Q:  I know you’re able to go to a casino and play VP a few times a year, because you write about that, but do you have any gambling opportunities locally?

A:  Not gambling, but lots of gaming goes on here at Legacy, most of which I instigate.  That shouldn’t surprise you if you read about my early life in the Frugal books. I came from a gaming family and I played a mean game of Uncle Wiggily and Chutes and Ladders before I even went to school. And when my two younger sisters were growing up, we played family Scrabble games for blood.  So I’m back to my competitive roots, teaching and organizing games: Phase 10, dominoes, Rummikub, and especially Mah Jong, in which I love the extremely challenging opportunity to play with an advantage. I not only play it often here, but I also play a couple of times a month with a group in the Newcomers Club I joined.

Legacy does occasionally run a bus trip to a local casino over in Alabama, the tribal Wind Creek. It’s slots-only (Class II bingo-based), but looks pretty much like a small Vegas casino, so I’ve taken Brad there several times just to give him the general bright-lights-and-exciting-clamor casino atmosphere that he may remember with pleasure. And we actually won money one trip!

Q: How is Brad doing these days? Has he  been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s?

A:  When someone has dementia and memory loss, as Brad does, there’s rarely a specific label; there are so many different causes with so many different symptoms. Most cannot be given a diagnosis with certainty until an autopsy is performed. However, the doctors believe he probably has vascular Parkinsonism, an atypical form, produced by one or more small strokes, rather than by gradual loss of nerve cells as seen in the typical neurodegenerative Parkinson’s disease.

He sleeps off and on for about 18-20 hours a day, and when awake, it seems as if he’s in his own little world. Still, it looks to me like he’s very happy and peaceful there. Most days I can bring him into my world for short periods: to go to the dining room for our evening meal, or visit with the family, or even play bingo. He doesn’t talk much; it seems such a struggle to process conversation and then to find words to respond. So he just smiles a lot and everyone here at Legacy sees the sweet person he has always been and happily helped celebrate his 91st birthday January 18.

 

Posted in Blackjack, Family News, Good Reads, Health, Interesting Reads, It's Personal, Medical, Q+A, Slots, Web Sites | 5 Comments

Las Vegas Trip Report Part 4

Hope all the readers here are having a happy and healthy holiday season. Despite unseasonably cold weather in Georgia and viruses hitting friends and relatives right and left, we felt blessed that we could spend some time with family members on Christmas Day.

Now that the festivities are over and our life can return to a fairly routine schedule, I want to finish up reporting on my recent visit to Las Vegas with granddaughter Kaitlynn.

One of the questions that keeps popping up was how different I found Vegas this trip from when we moved away three years ago. I’ve described in the last three parts how we could do some of the old things we used to do, such as the money-making coupon run, and how we enjoyed the new activities, particularly the mind-boggling Area 15.

But I must tell you about one of our evenings that encapsulated this merger of the old and the new so well. It began by meeting long-time friends at the classic Hugo’s Cellar restaurant at the Four Queens, a nostalgic visit to a place we first tried about 30 years ago.  Absolutely nothing had changed: We were once again greeted by a gracious tuxedo-clad host, who gave all of us ladies a long-stemmed red rose. The servers were also formally dressed and impeccably but warmly efficient. Once again, Jon Simons was our sommelier, giving us wine advice like he’s been doing there for 37 years. From the time we walked down the stairs from the casino level, I felt like I’d been transported by a time machine back to our early Vegas days when everything was so new and exciting.

But after we finished our magnificent meal, it was time to have the time machine transport our whole group back to the present and set us down across Fremont Street at the shiny new(ish) Circa Casino. We were going to use our LVA coupons for complimentary glasses of champagne at the Legacy Club. We knew this would be a classy bookend to complete our classy start at Hugo’s. So we took the elevator to that elegant rooftop lounge on Circa’s 60th floor and walked around those floor-to-ceiling windows for a night-time bird’s eye view of the city lights.

From a dark basement to a sky of lights – yes, it was a dramatic difference, but perhaps symbolizing all the changes I’ve seen in Vegas since Brad and I first arrived in 1984. But on the way down on the elevator, we stopped just before the ground floor and had a passer-by take this picture of our group, we ladies still with our red roses from Hugo’s. And in the background was 43-year-old cowgirl Vegas Vickie, still kicking after being refurbished and a new leg motor installed when she was moved from outside on Fremont Street into the Circa.

I’m guessing that no matter how much Vegas changes, it will always be a “kickin” place.  How long will I be “kicking” enough to write about it? Hopefully, a long time to come.

But for a short time now, perhaps a few weeks, I’ll take a little rest from blog writing.

Below is a photo Kaitlynn took of me when I found a great vibrating couch in Area 15, with beautiful changing lights and enchanting music, where I could rest my feet after two hours of non-stop activity.  (Security said I was fine there, but just don’t close my eyes, since sleeping isn’t allowed!) I’m going to spend some time in January trying to replicate that relaxing experience, but sleeping will be allowed!

Happy New Year to all of you.

Posted in Couponing, Downtown Vegas, Four Queens, Holiday Greetings, Memories, Non-gambling Activities, Vegas History | 3 Comments

Las Vegas Trip Report Part 3

In my last two posts, I didn’t talk much about the actual gambling. That wasn’t an oversight. You’ll remember that I said at the beginning that this wasn’t my usual working casino trip, but a fun vacation with my granddaughter, celebrating the finish of her thru-hike of the Appalachian Trail.

But that doesn’t mean we didn’t do any gambling. I mentioned in Part 1 about a long coupon run one afternoon. If you’ve been following my writings, you certainly know what importance I put on using coupons. In fact, in the early days I was called the Queen of KuPon before Dan Rather, on “48 Hours,” nicknamed me the Queen of Comps. Couponing is still one of the best ways to make a short-term profit in a casino, perhaps about the only way in the current tough casino environment.

We were a group of four on our run, using just the downtown coupons from the Las Vegas Advisor’s Member Rewards Book, so we could make this a walkable activity. Gambling is always an up-and-down ride and if you do a coupon run alone, there’s a possibility that you might lose in one session, although you should always win in the long term. This could even possibly happen with a team of two. However, if you’re using a fair number of coupons, teams of three or more will very likely come out ahead. The four of us had a litttle extra bad luck at some casinos, but even then, we managed to pull out a $51 profit for each of us at the end. And we enjoyed the bonus of visiting lots of different casinos while chatting with friends as we pulled together for a common goal; in short, you just can’t beat making money while you’re having fun!

Although Kaitlynn and I kept busy looking for exciting non-gambling activities, we often took a break to scout for slot machines that looked like they would be fun to play. Kaitlynn had read online about the classic Sigma Derby horse-racing machines; unfortunately, when we found it at the D, it was out of order. But Kaitlynn excitedly found the newer Konami Fortune Cup machine at the Linq. It’s not the old mechanical kind, but an electronic version where you can still watch the horses run around the track and cheer for  the ones you bet on. We found it an addictive group adventure as everyone around the machine was loudly rooting for their picks.

We did most of our gambling on the Strip at CZR casinos, since we were staying on one of their comped offers and I wanted to show at least some play there. One good thing about playing slots is that we’re considered more valuable by the casino than if we play video poker, so less play doesn’t negatively impact your play level as much. Most of the time, we played the lowest denominations we could find and when we hit even a little bonus or jackpot, we moved on looking for another machine. Kaitlynn inherited my frugal nature, so she buys into my play-low-play-slow slot mantra.

However, by accident, we stumbled onto a machine on which you collected Buddhas. I forget the exact name of the game, something about a “Jungle.” Every 10th hand, all the Buddhas you collected on the first nine hands turned wild and you got a payoff from all the resulting completed paylines. Every spin had you looking for Buddhas, excited as you collected them, hoping you’d accumulate enough by the 10th spin for some extra payoff, maybe even a big one. We didn’t want to leave that machine after the first sizable jackpot win, so we played longer than usual. I commented to Kaitlynn that the slot manufacturers are learning how to keep you playing longer; we always had that hope for a big 10th spin.

If you’re a regular slot player, you probably wonder why I didn’t immediately realize what kind of machine I was playing. Remember, I rarely played slots for 35 years and have played very little the last couple of years. But eventually, I woke up to the fact that I was playing a machine that comes under the category of “advantage slots.”

I’d read some general information about these, but didn’t dive into the details before; I didn’t realize they’d become so available in the last few years. I knew these machines had a feature that you accumulated something or built up to something that got you to a short-term payoff point. Actually, I played a machine like that many many years ago, although we didn’t call it an “advantage slot,” just a “good” machine to play if you were an advantage player. It was the “piggy machine,” where you looked for a piggy bank that was almost full before you sat down to play it, knowing the bank would be breaking soon. There was another one back in those days where you collected firecrackers and it was good to play when a number of them were already visible on the screen. And more recently, a similar opportunity, I knew about Ultimate X video poker machines where some players did nothing but look for plays on those with bonus multipliers left by the previous player.

So, have I decided to concentrate on becoming an advantage slot expert from here on? Definitely not. This is very specialized gambling with complex mathematical calculations needed to know when you have an advantage. It’s also for someone who can constantly scout casinos (or hook up with a partner) and is happy to spend more time scouting than actually playing. And sad to say, this is the sort of thing that was a great moneymaker when not too many knew all about this good gambling option. Now, especially in Las Vegas, many knowledgeable players scout all the casinos. The competition may not be quite so tough in casinos outside of Las Vegas, but it will always take a lot of effort to find playable opportunities anywhere.

If you’re interested in this area of gambling, I suggest you search the Internet. Googling “advantage slots” will bring up a lot of information to get you started, but you have to be careful, since not all of it is mathematically reliable. You need accurate numbers about when to play. Figuring that out yourself takes very good math skills – or a good friend with them! You can find some very helpful information on advantage slots on LVA’s “Gambling with an Edge” podcast featuring Jimmy Jazz. In addition, a new edition of Michael “Wizard of Odds” Shackleford’s book Gambling 102 is coming out soon with a chapter devoted to accumulation slots.

However, even if, like me, you don’t want or are unable to add skillful advantage slot play to your gambling choices, you might find that this accumulating feature often makes a machine more exciting in your regular slot play. Kaitlynn and I found that out on our Buddha machine. We also loved the Ocean Grand machines. Watching those bubbles rise from the bottom of the screen is mesmerizing, as you hope to add more and more of them for a big jackpot.

I thought I’d finish up this Vegas trip report with this third installment. But I have more information and pictures and you all have asked more questions. So stay tuned for Part 4.

 

Posted in Advantage Play, Caesars, Couponing, Downtown Vegas, Online, Podcast, Slots, Video Poker, Web Sites | 3 Comments

Las Vegas Trip Report Part 2

I hope everyone had a good Thanksgiving. I had an especially fine one, just thankful to be alive — especially since my Facebook Messenger account was hacked and contained a notice of my death. It caused a lot of consternation in the Frugal kingdom, but didn’t upset me, except for one detail: The announcement said I was 84. If you’re going to write my obituary, at least get the details right. I won’t be 84 for another month!

I’m not only not dead; I seem to be as busy in “retirement” as I ever was, which has forced to me delay writing projects. But I must get back to talking about Kaitlynn’s and my mid-October trip to Las Vegas. So many of you are requesting more details, especially about the changes I noticed from the pre-pandemic time when we were locals. Of course, the whole advantage-play situation has changed drastically and I’ve written about that here for the last few years; I’ll write more about it specific to this trip in a future post. But right now I want to concentrate on the more general changes.

First, many of the major negative changes are not unique to Vegas. COVID-mitigation measures are still sticking around, whether from continuing health concerns, an uncertain economy, or just cost-cutting measures that don’t seem to be hurting the casinos’ bottom line. Most hotels no longer offer daily housekeeping, although you might be able to request it at some. You can always ask for clean towels and needed supplies to be delivered to your room.

The nationwide employee shortage is extra frustrating for Vegas visitors who are dependent on food outlets and so many are cutting serving hours or completely closing for entire days. That means long lines and slow service at those that are open.  We were meeting a friend at 6 p.m. for a casual dinner at Bellagio where she was treating us from her large comp bank. We checked the buffet; it had closed at 3 p.m. Then to Sadella’s Café and it was the same story: closed at 3. Jasmine was closed on Tuesdays, even though the city was teeming with visitors and many casinos were heavily booked. Other restaurants either had long lines or full reservations. We finally found immediate seating at the upscale Mayfair Supper Club, which is nice, but the loud entertainment made the catch-up conversation we were looking forward to almost impossible.

I missed the personal service I appreciated in past years when there were more employees around to help or answer questions. Kiosks are taking over the hotels and casinos. Yes, a kiosk is better than a long line at a desk, but often there was a long line at the kiosk, while many were out of service. I don’t know what the concierge does, if there even is one still available at some casinos. At Paris where we were staying, someone wanted to deliver me a small package earlier than our check-in time and the concierge said they weren’t allowed to accept that. Why not? Company policy, they said. Maybe new security rules? They wouldn’t say.

However, Kaitlynn and I didn’t let such negatives ruin our visit. For one, we kept busy sightseeing. Some were “oldies” we never tire of re-visiting: The Bellagio Conservatory, always changing, and the fountains that always create a happy feeling. We’d ridden the High Roller observation wheel before in the daytime, but doing it at night was magical.

However, the number-one adventure planned was to visit Area 15. I’d watched this large multi-building place being built near Palace Station for the couple years just before we left Vegas and I’d read much about it. The descriptions were full of words like “otherworldly,” “eye-opening,” “mind-altering,” “psychedelic,” “experiential,” and always “immersive.”  But I never really understood what it was. I just called it weird and I knew that I probably wouldn’t ever visit, unless I was with a young person who could show it to me and explain everything. Now I had Kaitlynn to lead me on this adventure.

We spent four hours in just one part of Area 15, ‎Meow Wolf’s Omega Mart. And I still can’t explain it. Here is how it is described on their website: Omega Mart sends participants of all ages on a journey through surreal worlds, immersive storytelling, and playful nuggets of the imagination. There is that word again, “immersive.” You’re not looking at the work of artists; you’re actually in and part of it.

Here are a few of the hundreds of photos Kaitlynn took of our adventure. (More on my Jean Scott FB page.) I’m glad I had her as my shepherd through the weird and helping me understand that weird can also be wonderful.

Grandma to Kaitlynn:  Take a picture of me like this.

K: Okay, here is how you get here.

Immersive Art

More Vegas trip details coming up in next blog.

Posted in Advantage Play, Caesars, Casino Policy, City News, Holiday Greetings, Hotel Information, Memories, Non-gambling Activities, Stations, Travel, Web Sites | 6 Comments

Las Vegas Trip Report Part 1

I’ve always said that the more fun you have on a vacation, the longer it takes to recover.  Well, my visit to Las Vegas ended more than three weeks ago and I’m just now rested up enough to tackle a trip report.

I could blame it on 28-year-old granddaughter Kaitlynn, my traveling buddy who energetically led us on long hours of vigorous adventures despite her having hiked the 2,200 miles of the Appalachian trail for the previous 6½ months. But I must take part of the blame; I was the one who planned and marched us up and down Fremont Street on a five-hour coupon run that had us hitting almost every downtown casino. Either way, every night as we hit the bed around midnight Vegas time, despite our Eastern body time of 3 a.m., when we got up eight hours later, we were both raring to set out for more excitement despite our 55-year age difference!

I will be giving you more details about our Vegas adventures in later posts, but first I want to talk about the most precious part of this visit for me – reuniting with long-time friends and meeting new Frugalites who had been acquaintances only on the Internet. I’ve purposely not mentioned any names here or identified any players in the photos. Some are  trying to keep a low profile at the casinos where they still play. But I was so happy to see every one of them.

Some of us had played together for years, all chasing the same video poker promotions all over Vegas. In fact, a couple became our neighbors for many years after moving into the Opulence condo complex where we lived. Some still live in Vegas and others drove in from their homes in Laughlin and Pahrump. Many flew in from out of state for a short-term Vegas gambling vacation as I was doing. I was pleasantly surprised to see one couple whom we had known for years who were in town for their annual escape from the summer heat in their home in Australia.

We’d made many wonderful memories down through the years by sharing in casinos all over town our many comped meals. Now some were returning the favor, including a  marvelous dinner at Hugo’s Cellar down the stairs at the Four Queens and an outstanding meal and show at the Mayfair Supper Club at Bellagio.

It was also good to be welcomed back into the Huntington Press offices once again. It’s been a wonderful 35-plus-year relationship partnering with publisher Anthony Curtis, who made possible my surprisingly long frugal writing journey.

A good many were able to attend the meet-up there hosted by Anthony. I was glad to once again see Tanya, who is responsible for so much of the production of the Las Vegas Advisor and who has helped me so much for many years with my blogs and books. And everyone was pleased to have the opportunity to meet Andrew who was in to town to join Anthony on the LVA YouTube Update video they were filming that afternoon.

There were people coming and going for the two hours scheduled for the get-together but here is a picture that was snapped when many could be corralled. That is Anthony and Andrew on either side of me and granddaughter Kaitlynn on the far left. All are  long-time frugal fans. You’ll notice one still has the red cover 1st edition of The Frugal Gambler,  published way back in 1998.

Over some beer from the mini Heineken keg brought in by one LVA fan (who knows Anthony’s favorite), there was non-stop reminiscing about the good ole days and sharing information about present gambling opportunities. Seems many are staying downtown these days and finding more bargain/comped room benefits and also more good gambling plays. Many had their LVA coupon books with them and were also using them heavily downtown. As usual, I was happy to autograph new and old copies of my books.

Actually, Anthony and Andrew were making one of their weekly YouTube videos while our meet was still going on and they talked about the meet and also put up our group photo.  You can watch it here.

Since not everyone was around for the picture-taking, I hope some of you attendees will send me more photos I can put in future blogs and on Facebook (facebook.com/queenofcomps). Attached them to an email to [email protected].

Stay tuned for Part 2 when I’ll describe some of the adventures Kaitlynn and I tackled.

Posted in Advantage Play, Comps, Couponing, Downtown Vegas, Four Queens, Meet-ups, Memories, Podcast, Public Appearances, Video Poker | 8 Comments

Surprise Trip to Las Vegas Next Week!

Yes, a surprise for me!

An unexpected visit to Las Vegas is in the works. It’s a result of a promise I made to my granddaughter Kaitlynn the first of this year: If she achieved her goal of hiking the complete 2,200 miles of the Appalachian Trail, I’d take her to Vegas to celebrate.

Well, she reached her goal last Sunday!

This is a far cry from the little girl who, 28 years ago in her stroller, screamed to high heaven when the animatronic wolf started howling in the Sam’s Town Mystic Falls light and water show. No longer does the wild scare her, not even if a diamondback rattlesnake blocks the path or a bear starts poking around outside her tiny tent.

But now she’s up for urban adventure and I’m hoping I can keep up on the trip, scheduled to start a week from today, October 15, and run through Wednesday the 19th.

We won’t be renting a car, but Kaitlynn is an Uber expert. We plan to do a monster LVA coupon run downtown and visit some new casinos and attractions that have popped up since Brad and I moved to Georgia.  I like running around with a young person; Kaitlynn will take me to places I’d probably never go on my own, like Area15, and lead me on geocaching expeditions to dark and mysterious locales. And we both want to hit the newly expanded Pinball Hall of Fame.

Again, as on my earlier trip this year to Atlantic City, this will not have a VP advantage-play purpose, just a fun visit with my adventuresome granddaughter. So yes, we’ll also spend some time looking for fun slot machines.

Of course, I immediately jumped on the opportunity to plan a Frugalite get-together, a chance to chat with old friends and some of you Internet friends I never got the privilege to meet in person. And it will be a great occasion for everyone to mingle with other gamblers, just like we often did in the past.

Anthony Curtis has graciously invited us to have this meet-up at the Huntington Press/Las Vegas Advisor office (3665 Procyon St.) on Tuesday, October 18, from 2 to 4 p.m. No reservations needed. I’ll autograph any new books you purchase and I love to sign those old dog-eared ones you’ve had and used forever! Also, Kaitlynn will be happy to talk to anyone who is interested in Appalachian Trail hikes.

Needless to say, I’m over the moon to have this unexpected opportunity. Yes, both Kaitlynn and I are sad that Brad can’t join us on this visit, but I’m so fortunate that Angela and Steve can take him into their home and give him the loving care that will allow me to have a worry-free respite in my favorite city.

Hope to see a lot of you there!

Posted in Couponing, Family News, Non-gambling Activities, Public Appearances, Slots, Transportation, Travel | 8 Comments

Fun Trip to Atlantic City – Part 3

Back home after a relaxing Florida beach vacation, I continue the story of my first totally recreational-only casino trip. And once again, as I found when I was writing about this earlier, I realize that I’m constantly using frugal tips that I picked up during the many years of advantage video poker play.

One of my top recommendations for any casino player of any game is to constantly look for promotions. Especially strong ones are often bonuses for joining the players club and we found two very good ones on this Atlantic City trip. Both the Hard Rock and Oceans gave us each $25 in free play just for signing up. We had to run the $100 through a machine once, but whatever we won after that was free money we could add to our shared bankroll.

A couple of caveats about this kind of promotion. It’s for new members only, although some casinos clean out their member lists after some years and you may be eligible if you hadn’t used the players card for long time. However, we found out that some casinos never forget you. We checked at the Tropicana for Susan, but she was still on the CZR players card list, although she hadn’t visited one of their properties for 10-12 years.

There could be another reason why you wouldn’t take advantage of this promotion: You won’t put much play on the card that first time, but later you might want to establish yourself as a higher-level player and put in major play on your first day. However, we knew we wouldn’t be going back to either of those casinos in the future, so this was a great benefit for Susan and me.

This promotion also had an extra benefit for us. It was another way to use a popular frugal suggestion for stretching a small bankroll: find free interesting activities outside the casino. In fact, any player, no matter what their goal or bankroll size, will find leaving a noisy smoky casino environment an oft-needed mental and physical break. Susan and I wanted to sightsee the whole length of the Boardwalk anyway, so this promotion paid for our tram transportation when our feet balked at making the six-mile roundtrip trek.

I know many of you have been waiting to hear about our slot machine play. I’ve left it for last, because it probably provided more fun than any other single activity. And that surprised and puzzled me. But after analyzing my feelings, I realized that it had to do with goals. With skilled video poker play, I was enjoying it, but my goal was long-term financial profit. With slot play, my only goal was to have fun.

However, I knew that I wouldn’t be having fun very long if I lost too much money too quickly, though I didn’t have a specific loss-limit figure in mind. I also knew Susan was feeling the same way. So we each contributed $200 to our trip bankroll and added the $315 surprise free play I found in my account at the kiosk.

Then we set a new goal: to do everything to stretch that bankroll so we could have more fun time.

At first, we used the technique of doing a lot of looking around for machines that looked fun, jumping from one machine to another for short-term sessions. We concentrated on finding those with smaller top jackpots, since they generally give more frequent payouts than those with big ones. But then we ran across some “Wonder Woman” machines. I’d played them briefly a couple of times some years ago in Vegas and on hearing that catchy theme song again, I remembered they were fun machines.

Well … once we sat down and played a little, we were both hooked and didn’t want to look around for any other machines. They fit our stretch-the-bankroll goal better than any machine we could find. They had very small top jackpots compared to most other machines, just $2,000-$3,000, so they had frequent hits and bonuses. One bonus was 21 free spins and that gave us a long period of play without any additional cost. They also had a tiny minimum bet – just 50 cents. Of course, if you made bigger bets, like the top $2.50, your wins would be bigger, but your bankroll would disappear very quickly and your fun time would be shortened. Another plus on this machine was that unlike on many others, you’re eligible for the top jackpots on all bet levels.

Although we loved playing “Wonder Woman” slots, we didn’t play for extended sessions, usually about an hour, before heading out for other activities. I didn’t keep exact records this trip, but we played 8-9 sessions during the 3 days. And when on the flight back to Georgia we counted and divided the remaining bankroll, we were pleasantly surprised.  From all our gambling, including table games and slots, we found that all those hours of fun had cost us each just a smidgen over $50. We decided that was a very reasonable entertainment cost!

I want to close out this report with a mention of one of the highlights of the trip, the Frugalite get-together. The group that met us in the food court of the Tropicana wasn’t large, but represented a real cross section of our gambling friends. Some were long-time friends we ‘d previously met in person, while others were online acquaintances; some lived locally or just happened to be in A.C. on vacation; and some had made a special effort and traveled a long distance to attend.

We didn’t have any special agenda for the meeting; we just pulled our chairs close together and for over 2 hours chatted about our casino experiences. We shared past thrilling gambling moments and, of course, moaned over the recent decline of good plays. And when we finally broke up and went our separate ways, I think everyone would remember this as an enjoyable meeting of kindred souls.

Thinking about this recent happy event reminds me again about the importance of friendships. One of the most cherished benefits of Brad’s and my casino life these last 38 years has been the opportunity to make so many friends that shared our enthusiasm for being wise gamblers. We’ve met many in person, during organized get-togethers or often running across each other in a casino. However, there are hundreds more we never met in person, but who have become our Internet friends, some who have written to me that they have been following our casino life story since my first book came out in 2000. Many of these are getting old, as we are, and no longer can visit casinos, but still like to read about the frugal good ol’ days.

And recently, I’m surprised and very pleased that a new generation of casino lovers is looking for information on social media. I see gamblers of all ages enjoying my Jean Scott Facebook page. And it’s amazing how many are commenting whenever I appear in a YouTube video and then buying Huntington Press products. Yes, frugal gambling isn’t just for old folks!

Keep sending your questions. I’ll try to answer them in future posts and always feel free to post in the comment section here. I still want to hear from old friends and make new ones!

Posted in Advantage Play, Atlantic City, Bankroll, Caesars, Casino Player Benefits, Casino Promotions, Comments, Public Appearances, Slots, Travel, Video Poker | 2 Comments

Fun Trip to Atlantic City 2022 – Part 2

In my last post, I talked about the trip non-casino activities; I emphasized from the beginning that this vacation with my friend Susan was purely recreational. However, that didn’t mean that we would avoid casinos. I was looking forward to introducing Susan to this exciting entertainment environment. In past years, she’d made a few brief casino visits during business trips to Vegas, but she’d seen them only as a quick way to lose too much money.

I explained in past blogs that I wouldn’t be visiting the Atlantic City Tropicana this trip as an advantage player, since I’d already reached my Harrah’s tier goals for this year. It was my chance to have a relaxing vacation and a break from taking care of Brad. However, although I was leaving advantage play, I would not – actually could not – be leaving frugal play. I found myself, almost unconsciously, using many of the same frugal techniques I’d learned and used for the last 38 years of casino play.

One of the first things I did when I reached the casino was to check the players club kiosk, something I routinely do, especially if I haven’t visited the casino for a while. I didn’t expect to find any new information; I’d been closely following my online CZR account and already knew my point balances and company-wide promotions, along with offers from specific properties where I’d recently played. But since I hadn’t been to Atlantic City for many years, I really didn’t expect to find any extra goodies for this visit.

So was I surprised to see a $315 “gift” on the kiosk screen! It was from a free-play promotion that I didn’t know about. I hadn’t seen any publicity about it – no signage indicating if it was available to all CZR players or if it was specific just to the Tropicana. Maybe it was an extra perk connected to the CZR Reward Air package I was on, but I’d received no notice of that. I’m not sure I would have known that this was available to collect on any slot machine if I hadn’t stopped at the kiosk.

This wasn’t the first time that checking a kiosk reaped big benefits. Often when a casino is running a drawing promo that you hadn’t known about, you can check your account at a kiosk and find you can register there to be eligible to participate.

Susan and I had already each contributed $200 to a joint gambling bankroll that now had a $315 boost! We were ready to see how long we could make it last. We agreed that we weren’t looking for big wins; we just wanted to stretch out our entertainment time. To that end, we did a lot of “sampling” as we hit the table-game area. Moving around a lot reduces your time at the games where the casino edge will want to feast on your bankroll.

A good way to stretch your money is to bet the smallest amount you can and the casino will just nibble slowly on your bankroll. Therefore, we looked for the minimum-bet tables.  However, I knew we wouldn’t be playing table games very long; even though it was a weekday, there were no $5 tables that would provide us longer fun time; $15 was the lowest.

We hit the crap table first. As many people are, Susan was intimidated by all the busy complex action, so she chose to watch me. I know the best crap bets, but with a $15 minimum pass line bet, I knew our small bankroll wouldn’t survive long with taking the 5x odds offered behind the line. So to show Susan a few more fun options, I instead took the 6 and 8.  That got us lucky for a few minutes, but when my short roll quickly sevened out, we decided that a $100 loss in a few minutes didn’t provide enough bang for our buck.

Next, we headed for the Three-Card Poker table. I’d never played this game before and needed the help the kindly dealer gave me. (Don’t put a chip on Play first; you have to put it on Ante. You look at your hand to see if you want to play it and if you do, then put a chip on the Play space.)

I’d checked my latest book, The Frugal Gambler Casino Guide, when preparing for this trip (another good frugal tip) and found the best simplified strategy was to play only when you had queens or better. We were lucky and got good hands and when we’d won $100, we left, cashed in our chips, and decided that it was fun to get even!

Next we played a little roulette on the stadium option. Rows and rows of machines face a screen where you can play video blackjack, craps, baccarat, and roulette. Susan’s son had asked his mom to put $50 for him on black. It took a few hands to figure out how to play our machine, but she finally won $35 to take back to him.

These stadium games might be a good choice for players who are intimidated by the live tables and they might provide lower-minimum choices. However, they also provide the opportunity for faster play that might take away any advantage the low-minimum might afford. And, of course, you don’t have the social contact that makes live games more fun for many players.

We saved my favorite table game for last – blackjack – with which Susan had some experience thanks to just-for-fun BJ sessions at Legacy. We chose a crowded table since on any negative game the fewer hands you play, or the fewer bets you make, the longer your bankroll will last. We played almost an hour, with the expected up-and-down results. After one large down, we hit a good stretch and quit when our loss was only $100. We really enjoyed the session, but didn’t want to risk another big downhill slide.

We discussed how we enjoyed our play at the table games and would have stayed much longer if the minimum bets had been lower. But after about two hours, we moved away from the pit, looking for something that didn’t shrink our bankroll so fast.

“Did you play any video poker?” you might ask.

My research in planning this trip revealed that this would not be a casino where one would probably find an advantage VP play. However, I thought I might find some of the exotic games I usually didn’t play back in Vegas because of their bad paytables. But they could be a fun short-term option to play if I found them in very low denominations. It didn’t take me long to check out the VP inventory there: extremely small proportion of the machines on the floor and very few of the newer titles and variations. In one corner, I did find one very old sticky-buttons Ultimate X, at multi-line nickels. I wasn’t excited about playing it, but I wanted to show Susan a little glimpse into what I’d been doing in a casino for the last 38 years. She didn’t get my fascination with video poker and was certainly unimpressed when I lost $100 in just a few minutes. (It’s hard to explain that short-term losses “don’t matter” along the way to the long-term win.) She was looking bored and truthfully, I was bored too. Short-term play can be a real psychological downer. So we kissed that machine good-bye and labeled it “NO FUN.”

Off we went to a game we’d found earlier, one that unexpectedly gave us more entertainment value than all the others we’d played on this trip. I’ll tell you about it in Part 3. Just a little hint: We nicknamed ourselves the Wonder Women!

Happy Labor Day to all. Brad and I are going to Florida to relax with the family over the holiday weekend. And then I’ll be back to tell you more about the Atlantic City trip, including a report about the great frugal get-together.

Posted in Advantage Play, Atlantic City, Bankroll, Blackjack, Caesars, Casino Player Benefits, Casino Promotions, Craps, Gambling Resources, Holiday Greetings, Non-Vegas Casinos, Video Poker | 6 Comments

Fun Trip to Atlantic City, Circa 2022 – Part 1

This was my first purely recreational casino trip.

Yes, my first casino trip, to Las Vegas in 1984, was mostly recreational; it was Brad’s and my first vacation together in our new wonderful relationship. Still, there was a tiny bit of “trying to do the smart thing.” I had read that table players were smarter than slot players, so I played blackjack, although I didn’t know there was anything called “basic strategy.”  Brad hadn’t read anything about casinos, so he merrily hit the slots. I couldn’t understand why I was losing my behind and Brad was coming to my table showing me heavy buckets of dollar tokens. Of course, by the end of the trip, we both were responsible for our disappeared bankroll.

When we got home, I hit the library and we started becoming life-long students of smart gambling. I’m not saying we didn’t think having fun wasn’t an important goal. For 38 years, we had more fun than we could have ever imagined. But we found that playing smart – losing less and winning more – increased the fun factor.  Kind of having your cake and eating it too!

However, circumstances change. Because of Brad’s declining health, we could no longer do casino trips together like we had for so many years. Three years of caregiving were taking its toll on me. I needed a vacation and Angela and Steve volunteered to take care of Brad. I love to travel, so where did I want to go and what did I want to do? Lie on the beach?Sightsee in new places or visit old haunts? Look for entertaining activities? Whatever I chose, the main goal was to just relax and have fun.

Fortunately, the answer came in my mailbox, a great offer from Caesars Rewards Air that was generated by my previous heavy play at CZR properties: A free charter flight to Atlantic City and a three-night stay at the Tropicana, right on the Boardwalk.  And best of all, I could bring a guest. Susan, my good friend and fellow senior resident at Legacy Reserve, was happy to help me use this comp. She recently lost her husband after years of being his caregiver, so she shared my goal to have a fun and relaxing vacation.

On August 9, we started our adventure. The first good news was that we didn’t have to go to Atlanta to catch our flight, like on some of these charter trips. That airport is a zoo!  Since I don’t drive anymore, Susan drove us in her car to the Middle Georgia Regional Airport, located in a lonely country “field” outside of Macon. We parked in the free lot just outside the tiny (compared to Atlanta) terminal to check into our flight and give them our luggage. And making us feel like we were still back in the ’50s, we walked right out onto the tarmac to climb the stairs rolled up to the airplane door. Surprisingly, the plane was a large 737 and we hadn’t nearly filled it up. But then we were informed we would stop in Augusta, where we picked up a lot more excited CZR players. The atmosphere grew even more enthusiastic when it was announced that Caesars was comping everyone to a free alcoholic beverage.

Once we arrived at the Atlantic City airport, buses were waiting to take us to our hotel. By the time we ate lunch, we were given our room keys and found our luggage awaiting us there, a smooth operation that saved our old backs! My host had requested an upgrade, so we were given an extra-large studio. This is an old casino building, but they’re doing a lot of renovation. I would call the room nice, but not fancy.

As is the usual these days, both in casino-hotels and others, there was no daily room service unless you requested it. (I miss those days when in some hotels, they gave you free play if you skipped the daily room service.)  However, we had no complaints. We had plenty of space, the beds were comfortable, and an ocean view provided us a picture-perfect full moon to enjoy at night.

Neither Susan nor I are foodies and we both got bored with the restaurant-style meals we were mostly served every evening in the Legacy dining room. Although there were many full-service and upscale dining options at the Tropicana, our mantra for this trip was “Bring on the fast food!”: tacos, ice cream treats, deli favorites, hamburgers at Hooter’s, and an unusual breakfast crepe at LaPetite Creperie. We did have one special meal at P.F. Chang’s China Bistro, where we split an orange chicken main dish. Good thing we didn’t order two entrees, because we’d first ordered to share their house-specialty appetizer, lettuce wraps. These were the best I’ve ever eaten and almost a meal in themselves.

Of course, we could have chosen to eat at other places in town: recommended famous gourmet restaurants on and off the Boardwalk and food offerings in other casinos and all along the Boardwalk. However, I had a big balance in my Reward Credits account, so we could eat free at any of the three CZR properties, Caesars and Harrah’s as well as the Trop. But we were so busy relaxing that we never got to either one of the sister properties and we easily found enough fun food at the Trop.

One of the places where we were planning to relax was the beach. Storms had been predicted, but to our delight, the first day dawned sunny and dry and we were into our bathing suits and out the casino door right onto the Boardwalk. Just a few steps over a sand dune stretched a wide beach right to the edge of the Atlantic Ocean water. Many brave souls were in that water, but mostly younger than us. We put our feet in, just to say we were “in the ocean,” but it was too cold and wouldn’t be relaxing for our old bodies.  Relaxing would be stretching out on our beach towels and soaking in the sun.

I had kind of figured that we would spend a few hours relaxing here, forgetting I hadn’t laid out on a beach for 25 years, plus I suffer heat exhaustion if I’m in the sun very long.  So about an hour of trying to get comfortable on our beach towels – I’d also forgotten sand was so hard – we decided to go back to the room. I’m glad there wasn’t a video camera pointed at us as we struggled to get up. It would have been a good scene for a comedy film. Susan is eight years younger than I am and a little more limber, but we were both laughing so hard that it was making the task of getting upright even more difficult.

She finally got on her feet, then helped me up. But by that time, I was well on my way to a sun stroke. Where we were on the beach, nearer the water, the sand was smooth to walk on, but as we make our way back, the sand became heavy and deep. I really thought I was going to pass out and Susan would have to go back to the lifeguard tower to get help. This was not part of our relaxing plan. However, I summoned up some inner strength I didn’t know I had and finally made it to the Boardwalk, where I slumped on a bench and drank some water.  After a little rest, I caught my breath and walked back into the Trop. I was gonna survive! We stopped at the deli and ordered a brunch sandwich to take back to the room where we rested and laughed about our non-relaxing beach adventure.

Fortunately, this picture was taken, by a friendly lifeguard, before we started our sunbathing.

As you all know, it’s hard for me to tell a short story. So this has become Part 1. I haven’t even mentioned gambling and yes, we did spend quite a bit of time in casinos.

Fortunately, it was more relaxing than our beach time. And although I promised you in my last couple of blogs that this was not to be an advantage-play trip, I actually surprised myself that so many of the smart-gambling concepts I’ve talked about over the years could be applied during a strictly recreational casino visit. I guess being frugal is in my DNA. Stay tuned for Part 2.

Posted in Advantage Play, Atlantic City, Caesars, Casino Hosts, Casino Player Benefits, Comps, Food Review, Hotel Information, Non-gambling Activities, Slots, Transportation, Travel | 8 Comments

Prepping for Atlantic City Visit and Frugal Get-Together

In my last blog, I popped the news that these days, I don’t always play advantage video poker when I am in a casino. Most of the time I do, but because of changes in my personal life circumstances and in the general casino environment, I’m also finding the joy recreational gambling can bring. If you missed reading that earlier blog, you might check it out. You might find it surprising, but perhaps helpful in coping with your current frustration with casino downgrades.

Having fun will be my goal when I, with Susan, my good friend and fellow senior resident in Legacy Reserve, head to Atlantic City August 9-12. Down through the years, Brad and I had scores of casino vacations, often taking along family. Most of these were almost completely free, thanks to the comps our heavy video poker play generated. However, because of my current limited play, I know that discounted vacations will be the more realistic goal for my future. But the savings can still be substantial. This trip is on a comped CZR air-charter package that includes airfare, baggage handling, and a room for 3 nights at the Tropicana Hotel, regular price of $800-$900.

As usual, I’m doing the research that I do before any casino trip. No matter what my goals are, I want to find the most frugal way to do anything and everything. I do a lot of Googling. I ask a lot of questions on my Jean Scott Facebook page — and a grateful thank you to so many of you who took the time to give me excellent helpful information.

I’ve been to Atlantic City quite a few times, but so much has changed over the years. Actually, the first visit was in another lifetime, a honeymoon getaway 63 years ago. No casinos were there back in 1958, but we loved the Boardwalk, which has always been a main attraction. I don’t recall many details of that trip, but I do remember the beach wasn’t crowded and we spent a lot of time cuddling on a blanket back in the grassy bush area of the sand dunes!

Brad and I have been there many times down through the last 39 years we’ve been visiting casinos. Back when we lived in Indianapolis, we made it a road trip. And once we took a train to New York City to sightsee at Christmas time, then made a bus side trip down to AC. I’d have to pull out my records that are packed away to see when we were there last, but it might have been 10 years or so ago. Not much incentive to go there once we moved to Las Vegas in 2000.

Susan and I plan major beach time and sightseeing this trip, but we’ll also be spending some time in casinos. Although Susan isn’t a serous gambler at all, she is interested in my showing her the ropes around casinos. And since my goal is to have fun, I’ve suggested we just roam around and play all sorts of games. I soon  realized my best resource to do this frugally was to grab my copy of The Frugal Gambler Casino Guide.

“Whaaat!” you may ask!  “You wrote that book. Don’t you remember what you write?”

Actually, I don’t always remember all the details of old writings. And when I wrote the chapter, “The Casino-Game Buffet,” in that book six years ago, I wasn’t thinking that I’d ever use all that information myself. This book was an update of the information in all my previous books and I included that chapter because I could see the serious downgrade in good gambling opportunities happening all over the country and knew players might be broadening out their choice of games. Brad and I were still living in Las Vegas and could still find advantage VP plays at that time, although we were finding our edge was getting thinner and thinner. But I didn’t foresee the changes coming in our personal life circumstances or how a pandemic would so drastically ruin the advantage-play environment for so many. However, I did stress in the book how I would be changing the emphasis in my writings: less about how to win and more about how to lose less.

Now, I needed to refresh my memory, studying that chapter that covered every game you might find in a casino and the smartest way to play each one in order to lose less. That will be a big part of the prep I’ll do for this trip. I know about video poker and blackjack, but what about Three Card Poker, Casino War, Ultimate Texas Hold ’em, Pai Gow Poker, big six, baccarat, roulette, and craps? Not that we’ll play all of them or that they’re all offered, but I do know we’ll tackle the slot machines. And I wrote a whole separate chapter in that book, giving the many ways to stretch your bankroll when playing this most popular choice. I’ll need to read that one carefully!

In the last blog, I mentioned that there was interest in a Frugalite get-together during my visit. Yes, it is going to happen!

It’s hard to arrange something complicated that needs reservations and a lot of organization. So I’ve chosen to plan an informal meet-and-greet, 4-6 p.m. on Wednesday August 10, in the Tropicana Hotel food court. No RSVP needed. Feel free to come and go or stay the whole time. Perhaps some Internet friends will enjoy meeting in person. I know all of you will enjoy chatting about gambling and sharing casino experiences. I will and I’m looking forward to meeting old and new Frugal friends.

Posted in Advantage Play, Blackjack, Caesars, Comps, Craps, Discounts, Gambling Resources, Gaming Writing, Non-gambling Activities, Non-Vegas Casinos, Online, Public Appearances, Slots, Travel, Video Poker | 8 Comments