I have not played a single hand of VP in six weeks, except to cycle
free play through at the Palms. NEVERTHELESS:
The cash coupons, free room offers, free meals, shows, etc. continue
to stuff my mailbox. In fact, this month (Nov.) so far is the hugest
haul I have ever witnessed. I am getting stuff from places whose
doorstep I have not darkened in a year, and some of it's REALLY GOOD.
I am going on an almost daily paper route, picking up cash from a
dozen different casinos. Only a couple require me to even bother
fondling a VP machine; the majority are just, "here's the money".
I have so many hotel room offers, some of them at really NICE
properties like the Venetian and Paris, I am BEGGING friends to come
on down for a weekend and stay (and eat) for free, since I can't use
these offers myself.
This despite the fact that my coin-in in the entire Las Vegas area has
been less than $2000 since Sept. 1, and less than $100 since Oct. 1.
Now, I don't intend to ever put a single quarter into a VP machine in
Las Vegas again (unless some kind of promo DIRECTLY compensates me for
doing so, and I'm not talking about just some theoretical increase in
EV), so I will just happily collect money and eat out for free until
they stop sending stuff; the cash is going into a Christmas trip for
the family. Thank you, marketing departments!
The thing I was curious about: is everyone else experiencing this
tidal upsurge in couponomy? If so, it would seem to indicate that it's
not so much PLAY that generates casino offers, but EXISTENCE, and how
hungry the casinos are at a given time. We're in pre-convention
season, and the first part of December is notoriously slow, so this
may be a good time to harvest.
This also goes to why my experiment this summer essentially failed:
for example, I DOUBLED my daily play average as well as my total
coin-in at both the Palms and Sunset Station; as my reward, they cut
my cash mailings in half(!).
Anyway, just thought I'd say "hi" to the assembled multitudes. I hope
everybody is doing well playing all that "fullpay" VP, unlike
myself(!). I am minus 3.5% of total action for the year (ignoring
comps/cashback), an insanely low figure, happily offset for the most
part by good fortune in the sports betting arena and at the poker
table. So I have thrown in the towel; I can't AFFORD to lose $17/hr on
a quarter machine, which is what is happening. No problem. Since the
only two explanations are a)I'm absurdly unlucky and b)well, you
know...and in the rest of my life, I've actually been doing quite
well...no falling meteors have hit me, my house hasn't burned down,
etc., I guess I choose b) as the only explanation...so why should I
play....
Good luck to all. Tahoe, New Orleans, and Hawaii beckon.