Okay, thought I'd try a trip report,have taken numerous trips over the years but don't believe I have ever written a report, just got back yesterday from the Borgata.
I meet a guy that I used to work with and his nephew in AC once a year to play some VP and enjoy the very nice accomodations at Borgata. I got him off blackjack and introduced to VP many years ago and he is hooked, he no longer plays any blackjack. Trip did not start off well as a friend that was going with me on this trip had an emergency back home and we had to turn around and drive back to Virginia. We had left my house at 645am and turned around, already over half way there and in Maryland at 1030am. I called my wife, who loves to play the machines, and tried to convince her to call into work on Monday and spend these two days at Borgata. No luck, although she did meet us on Interstate 81, so I could at least get to AC before midnight. We are exactly 442 miles from the Borgata and it is over an 8 hour drive.
I arrived at Borgata at 8:30pm flying solo, would have been there no later than 3pm. There was a short line at check-in, I guess plenty of folks arrive late. Got to the desk and told the young man all that mattered was a nonsmoking room. He then informed me they only had smoking rooms left. Well it had been a long day already, but I was nice and informed him I have asthma and really did not want to stay in a smoking room or area. He said give me your Borgata card, the room was comped, and he would talk to his supervisor. This took a fairly long time it seemed, but success, they sent me over to The Water Club, where they had no smoking rooms available, and the room was very nice, and still seemed like it was brand new. I very much enjoyed the upgrade, but since the regular Borgata rooms are also nice, I definitely would not pay extra for the rooms at The Water Club.
Finally, sometime between 9 and 10pm I get to play some VP. My wife had instructed me to put $200 first thru a dollar 9/6 machine. Since she had driven an hour and a half to meet my friend and I, it seemed like an appropriate request to honor. I had told her I planned on playing the 50 cent 9/6 machines. So in goes the $200 and also downloaded the $50 in bonus money I received along with the free room offer. I can tell you it seemed to take this $250 in record time. The machine was very cold, so trip still not going well. I am a little frustrated and tired, so I put another $100 in, fortunately that did better and I cashed out only $150 down. I had played 343 hands on that machine. I was counting the hands to check the comp rate which is supposed to be .3% at Borgata. I then went to a 50 cent 9/6 machine and had just as bad luck as at the dollar machine. I put $200 in and it was gone in 414 hands. So I went over to the 25 cent super time play, triple play machines. I figure that even thought it is not full-pay, jacks or better is 9/5, I might as well have some fun while they take my money. When I put the card in I also checked my comps and it showed $6 earned so far, if you do the math on what I had played so far, at .3 the comp total should have been $8, as the math shows this total of play earning $8.25. I had much better luck at STP, put in $100 and cashed out $190. This game is really not that bad for some fun, I believe the return is about 98.7% on the game. Now that I at least had a little fun, it is time for bed, as I said it was definitely a long day.
Next day since I am concerned that I am not getting the proper .3% return in comps for my play I decide to do a little test. So a little after 7am with my choice of machines very good in a not so crowed Borgata on Monday morning, I decide to take my time and play exactly 800 hands thru a 50 cent 9/6 machine, which will put $2000 thru and give me $6 in comps. I also decided to make sure I was counting correctly, after 100, it is more difficult to keep count. So I put ten pennies in my pocket and decided to take a short break after every 100 and put that penny up on the slant-top machine so it was easier to just count 1 to 100 instead of 1 to 800. After the 800 hands I decide to make sure I have not miss counted by one or two so I play about 5 or 6 more hands to get to an even number to cash out. This was fun for me, I know how many people would sit there and count 800 hands, but hey I wanted to know about these comps! So this morning the luck was much better and my $190 ticket that went in was cashed out at $230. So I took a little break and then checked my comps earned. I earned another $5, so now I am definitely thinking the comps are not getting this .3% Later, during the day my friend and his nephew tell me they don't think they are earning as much in comps as normal. I did not bring this up they did. So I let them know I am pretty sure I am not getting as much either. They both play the 9/6 at the B bar, mostly 25 cent, but also some 50 cent.
Anyway to cut this long report short, I decided to count every machine I played for the two days. I have a log, to keep the IRS happy, just in case the wife or I do hit some handpays, and I logged in the exact amount of hands I played on every single machine. I played the dollars again and lost $195, but actually got lucky and won money playing some more 9/5 3play STP for quarters. Total net for trip was minus $150, not so bad, for two days. I put just over $15000 thru these machines in the two days. This should have earned $45 in comps, my total comps earned for both days totaled $35. I believe that is about .23%
The amount I played thru was about the same I play each year and I get from Borgata, two free nights any day except Saturday, $50 in bonus money and two free tickets to the comedy club. My wife has only been to Borgata one time. She played about $2000 more thru than I did based on her comp total. She gets same exact offer I do, except her offers each month include Saturday nights.
If you have read this far, I would be interested to know if others have had a similar experience receiving comps at a lower rate.
Thanks for reading. It was an enjoyable trip overall, and only took a little over 8 hours to get home. I enjoyed a free room, $35 in free food, $50 in free money to play thru when I arrived, and total cost this trip only $150 lost, which is not too bad overall, since the ever elusive royal did not show up on this trip.
Bill