I myself have talked to a member a management at River Palms and have talked to four people who have talked to either the new general manager of the properties or to a member of management at Tropicana.
We were all told that the shortened video poker pay tables will remain that way ... because while a few people are smart enough to know what the pay tables mean, most people will play any paytable as long as its a game they like (to specifically quote the person I talked to "most people don't have any interest in learning how the paytables impact them or the brains to even comprehend a paytable -- they just see a machine sitting there").
Well, a lot of the employees who depend on tips might not agree with that approach ... at the River Palms today, the bartender at the high limit bar had ZERO people at the bar (and there were all of two people playing in the high limit area). The downstairs bar had one customer at the bar. It looked like there were more people eating at Denny's than were playing in the two levels of the casino.
[Yes, it was a rainy day today, but I was at Edgewater and C-Belle before going to RP and they, while not crowded, were far busier than RP. After I left RP, I stopped at Pioneer which had only one seat open in at the full pay machines most of the time I was playing.]
Enough of a rant ... just sorry to see two casinos so slow compared to what they used to be (and to the other Laughlin casinos). RPalms especially!
Tom in Indy