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Mesquite Gravytrain Derailed

I am not criticizing anybody in particular, but...I find it interesting that we often hear of these good opportunities (apparently) after the fact -- the Mesquite "gravy train" is one example, another would be at the LVH -- I don't recall anybody ever posting what a great opportunity it was until AFTER the casino starting downgrading...then we started to see lots and lots of posts complaining about the situation.

Why didn't anybody ever post telling the rest of us how good things were at the LVH when they actually were good? Then it might have actually done some of us some good, at least the non-LVH regulars who weren't familiar with that casino.

Frankly, I am close to removing myself from the group because it has become so negative....

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-------------- Original message --------------
Big changes at the three Mesquite properties owned by Randy Black
(Casablanca, Oasis and Virgin River).

The coin-in on video poker to earn one point was increased from $10
to $20. This has the effect of reducing the comp rate from .4% to .2%.

Most of the paytables in Casablanca were changed from NSUD to the
9/4/4/3/2/1 variety...which, if I remember correctly, is below 99%.
This is about six weeks after they changed the paytable on a $1
progressive from 10/6 DDB to 9/5 DDB.

The $1 Deuces Wild prograssive at the Oasis was also shorted from
NSUD to the same paytable as the Casablanca.

On the surface, one can argue that these are marginal games to begin
with...which is true...but both properties had frequent promotions
which made the value of the progressives and comps in the +2 to +3%
range.

Here's a good example. In September, the Oasis had double points on
Monday to Thursday from 6am to 6pm, which made the comp rate .8%.
They also has a scratch card promotion, where one received a scratch
card for every 75 points earned ($750 coin-in). These scratch cards
were for cash prizes, ranging from $5 to $50. I averaged over $8.35
per card (1.1% return). The royal on the progressive was around
$6,200 (about.8%). All this adds up to 2.7%.

Tha Casablanca had a cash back promotion in August, September and
October where if you earned 10,000 point during the month ($100,000
coin-in) you received $1,200 cash back the next month (1.2%)...and
you kept the points (.4 comp rate). The 10/6 DDB progressive was an
excellent play with the royal very frequently in the $5,000-6,000
range.

Premium players were comped to suites, with no point reduction...and
there were monthly gift baskets sent to the room.

And you were able to use your points to buy gas, so the drive up
there was comped as well!

It was good while it lasted. Now I need to find another play were I
can earn points faster than my wife uses them in the spa!

Don the Dentist

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[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

There were many, many posts about the LVH here.
This site is where I learned about the opportunities

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at the LVH. I admit to not seeing any posts about the Mesquite casinos, however. I never have checked the database regarding Mesquite. --- mchaud@comcast.net wrote:

I am not criticizing anybody in particular, but...I
find it interesting that we often hear of these good
opportunities (apparently) after the fact -- the

__________________________________
Yahoo! FareChase: Search multiple travel sites in one click.
http://farechase.yahoo.com

All the plays I mentioned are in the database...

Don the Dentist

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--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Joe Pucek <joepucek@y...> wrote:

I admit to not seeing any posts about the
Mesquite casinos, however. I never have checked the
database regarding Mesquite.

That's not the point. The poster was talking about all the other info
that came out in your original post. Info about CB, comp rates, scratch
card promotions,etc.,etc. I think these good plays are kept close to
the vest because there are not that many any more. Look how far you
have to go now ,Don, instead of right here in town.

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--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "dds2124" <dds6@c...> wrote:

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Joe Pucek <joepucek@y...> wrote:
>
>I admit to not seeing any posts about the
> Mesquite casinos, however. I never have checked the
> database regarding Mesquite.

All the plays I mentioned are in the database...

Don the Dentist

...I find it interesting that we often hear of these good opportunities
(apparently) after the fact >>>

I appreciate hearing about good opportunities after the fact for a
couple of reasons. First it may be a play I have knowledge of and its
posted cancellation may save me an unecessary trip. Secondly, and more
importantly, it gives me a reason to kick myself in the butt for
missing the opportunity and hopefully will sharpen my radar in the
event the opportunity is repeated.

I won't name the casino or specific machines in the next example so if
you don't want to believe me that's OK. A casino recently installed a
couple of video poker machines that awarded slot points. By playing
the top denomination, these machines yielded an advantage of 10c per
hand. The play lasted about 1 month that I know of and after a while
more and more people knew about the play and I assume this increased
play volume alerted slot management and they corrected the mistake. A
couple of weeks later I checked the two machines and they were still
giving points correctly. I then checked the two adjacent machines in
the same bank and these were now set to give slot points. They were a
different game but now the advantage was 40c per hand. This play
lasted about three months and was just recently corrected. I found it
surprising that more players that had know about the first error never
returned to investigate the situation after the first correction.

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, mchaud@c... wrote:

From: mchaud@comcast.net
Why didn't anybody ever post telling the rest of us how good things were at the LVH when they actually were good? Then it might have actually done some of us some good, at least the non-LVH regulars who weren't familiar with that casino.

Frankly, I am close to removing myself from the group because it has become so negative....

···

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"No sense being pessimistic. It wouldn't work anyway."

Interesting..........

The LVH was always known as one of the top visitors plays in Las Vegas for medium or even low rollers. It is still pretty good for the mid-roller, and decent for a low roller. There are better places for the low roller, but it isn't the worst.

Sure, comps are tougher there now, but with the exception of maybe the Gold Spike, aren't they tougher everywhere?

How long have you been on the list? Two different times there were brief discussions here about the cashback "mistake" that was occuring at the LVH. Did we talk about it everyday? Of course not. But it was there. Twice.

SK
When push comes to shove...somebody's gonna figure out that "push" and
"shove" mean the same damn thing."

"If life deals you lemons, make lemonade;
if it deals you tomatoes, make Bloody Marys."