vpFREE2 Forums

Why Not Call It The "Short-pay" Strip?

#1

I visited six mid-Strip casinos on Saturday.

I'll admit it - I didn't examine every single video poker machine.
Just a whole bunch of them.

Know what I found?

There wasn't a single full-pay machine in any of those six (MGM and
HET) casinos that wasn't located in a high limit room.

Not a one.

But, wait - it gets worse.

Even in high limit I couldn't find any better than 98.9% Airport
Deuces. NSUD has vanished and full-pays with 5 for four-of-a-kind
don't exist. You frequently are insulted with a payback of 20 for a
wild royal, not 25.

At the Flamingo, I played the $5 9/6 jacks on the far right machine
in the afternoon. I assumed the entire row was like that. But on a
return in the evening, I discovered it was ONLY that machine which
was 9/6, the rest 9/5. Give up $25 a flush? I ain't that generous.

At Bally's, I didn't see a single player in High Limit playing video
poker on a busy Saturday night. Same with Paris.

Only Caesars was bustling, with a whopping two machines that offer
multi-play 9/6 $5 Jacks. And the two guys sitting at those machines
weren't going anywhere any time soon. Trust me - I waited a solid
half hour before slinking back to lowly Harrahs.

#2

I think you have pretty much covered it. From a VP players point of
view, the strip is a debacle. On the other hand, if demand is high,
I would raise prices (also known as increase the house edge). People
will balk at some point. But for now, most people continue to play
whatever is available. Just using Wynn as an example, I used to look
forward to a visit there to challenge the full-pay machines. Now,
there is no reason to go unless out of town guests want to go there.

I visited six mid-Strip casinos on Saturday.

I'll admit it - I didn't examine every single video poker machine.
Just a whole bunch of them.

Know what I found?

There wasn't a single full-pay machine in any of those six (MGM

and

HET) casinos that wasn't located in a high limit room.

Not a one.

But, wait - it gets worse.

Even in high limit I couldn't find any better than 98.9% Airport
Deuces. NSUD has vanished and full-pays with 5 for four-of-a-kind
don't exist. You frequently are insulted with a payback of 20 for

a

wild royal, not 25.

At the Flamingo, I played the $5 9/6 jacks on the far right

machine

in the afternoon. I assumed the entire row was like that. But on a
return in the evening, I discovered it was ONLY that machine which
was 9/6, the rest 9/5. Give up $25 a flush? I ain't that generous.

At Bally's, I didn't see a single player in High Limit playing

video

poker on a busy Saturday night. Same with Paris.

Only Caesars was bustling, with a whopping two machines that offer
multi-play 9/6 $5 Jacks. And the two guys sitting at those

machines

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "npf15251" <npf15251@...> wrote:

weren't going anywhere any time soon. Trust me - I waited a solid
half hour before slinking back to lowly Harrahs.

#3

Yes or they could call it Strip your pockets. It's all supply and
demand they can at present rent out all of the rooms for really high
rates and still get a fair amount of play in the casino's. Still we've
got thousands of new rooms about to come online. And a good deal of
the demand has been coming from China where they just barely opened up
the worlds largest casino on the Cotai strip, with tons more projects
in the works. That should decrease demand for the Vegas strip. The
U.S dollar has been very weak for the last 6 years so if that ever
strengthens that will take alot of demand out. Vegas has always had a
fair amount of overseas visitors but I can't remember it ever being
like this where they are in the majority on the strip. What's funny is
the strip is just way too crowded for my tastes nowadays. It's too
much of a hassle getting around, LV Boulevard is a perpetual traffic
jam. I'll take the relaxing atmosphere in GVR or the cannery any day
over that, and they have playable machines and actually want my
business even though I don't date Paris Hilton, imagine that.

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Charles" <fromthevault@...> wrote:

I think you have pretty much covered it. From a VP players point of
view, the strip is a debacle. On the other hand, if demand is high,
I would raise prices (also known as increase the house edge). People
will balk at some point. But for now, most people continue to play
whatever is available. Just using Wynn as an example, I used to look
forward to a visit there to challenge the full-pay machines. Now,
there is no reason to go unless out of town guests want to go there.