Two new polls ask us to share out video poker score including
cashback and cash equivalents. For the most part this is
self-explanatory, but there are gray areas, such as, are gift cards
assumed to be a cash equivalent? Some (such as for Starbucks or maybe
Chevron) are rather specialized, but others (such as Visa cards) are
accepted almost everywhere. Personally I would prefer $100 in Visa gift
cards to $95 in cash but would prefer $50 in cash to a $100 Honeybaked
Ham gift card.
If you've had a prosperous enough year that you are at the top
level without including the gift cards, then the answer to this question
is irrelevant. (Likewise if you lost more than the lowest category given
even including gift cards at face value.) But several vpFREE members
will have their score change categories depending on whether gift cards
are to be included on not.
If it were my decision (which it isn't), I would suggest that
the scores should include gift cards at face value.
There are other questions as well. I know people who regularly
collect airfare from several different casinos for the same trip. Should
this be included as a "cash equivalent" (I suggest "no" on this one)? If
you used your points to buy bingo sessions, do your results on those
bingo sessions count as cash equivalent (I suggest "yes" on this one)?
Does money won in drawings count? (I suggest definitely yes) And even
with cashback, do you want the year earned or the year collected? That
is, if you've had a plus year, you may well let your cashback accumulate
to next year, when your year might not be so plus. (I suggest
"collected" is the correct measure, as when "earned" is tougher to
define.) If you won a car and the casino offered a "buyout" of 80% of
the cash value of the car, and you took it, does this count as cash
equivalent (I suggest "yes"). If you spent your slot club points on
"travel bucks", should the value of the trip be included as "cash
equivalent"? (I don't have a suggestion on this one.)
These questions were inspired by idiosyncrasies in Las Vegas
slot clubs. I'm sure other parts of the country have different sorts of
pecularities where the definition is gray as well.
Bob Dancer
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