Ask the Slot Expert: Gamblers say (and do) the darnedest things

Jean Scott recently wrote about how well she did in her latest casino visit in her blog:

Did we win? Well, not exactly, but we left feeling like happy winners. For the first six or so hours of play, I got deeper and deeper in a depressing hole while playing through $90,000 coin-in, holding one, or two, or even three deuces and never catching the fourth. Brad played a little during that time, but got tired and just wanted to watch, so he was there part of the time to share my groans. However, just when we were resigning ourselves to a "bad trip," suddenly a no-skill-needed hand popped up, four beautiful deuces! I was so happy Brad was there beside me and we could share our joy, just as we’d done for 38 years. That $5,000 jackpot didn’t quite get us out of the hole and we didn’t have good luck as I played the last $10,000 coin-in to maximize our bonuses. But when you go home just $1,000 down, you’re happy for the jackpot that kept you from being $6,000 down. That’s what I call being a happy loser.

I can't imagine too many non-gamblers being happy about losing only $1000.

Many years ago, the Suncoast had a recurring free movie promotion. Play a certain number of points to earn a gift card good for one admission at the Cinemark movie theater at the casino. I played that promotion many times, in addition to its predecessor, Dinner-and-a-Movie, in which you also earned a certificate good for special entrees at various restaurants.

I met up with Brad and Jean one afternoon. He asked me what I had done that morning. I said that I was at Suncoast playing to get my movie card.

"How much did that ticket cost you?" he asked.

"About $200," I said.

"That's not too bad."

Sometimes you win. Sometimes you lose. How many non-gamblers would have seen that price of admission as just the cost of doing business and just another day at the office.

My brother and his wife came to Las Vegas about a year after I had moved here. After Dim Sum at Ping Pang Pong in the Gold Coast, they wanted to try their luck at video poker -- well, they wanted to provide the funds and let me provide the know-how.

We picked a machine where they could watch me play. I put my card in the machine and my brother put $20 in. Oooh, I thought. A whale.

We were up a couple of bucks after hitting a few hands. "Wouldn't you stop now?" my brother asked.

That's so cute, I thought.

"Well.... It's not really so much about short-term results but what you get in the long run. You can try the quit when you're ahead strategy, but it won't affect your long-term results. I'm going to play again. The math doesn't care how you break up your sessions. Besides, I'm also trying to re-qualify for an elite level in the slot club."

I cashed out his small win and put my own money in. Then I tried to play very quickly because it was a multiple-points day and I wanted to get in as many hands as I could before we had to leave. They didn't want to spend all day in the casino watching me. That was before I knew that multiple-points day were a dime a dozen pre-Covid.

Speaking of re-qualifying for elite, it was leap day 2016. I hadn't planned to get Emerald status at Boyd, but all my movie-promotion and other play got me within striking distance with a marathon day of play. Plus, it was a multiple-points day. And it was the end of my qualification period, so if I didn't qualify that day I would have to start over.

At that time, there were limits on the number of points that would be multiplied. I went to Sam's Town and played 10,000 points of 9/6 Jacks there. Then Gold Coast for 10,000 points on NSU. Then Suncoast, where the limit was 25,000 and I could play 10-play 8/5 BP. I was really tired at the end of the day, but I had my Emerald card.

I once read about an unusual prep that a player did for a particular promotion. This promotion was very profitable, but it was going to last for only a few hours. Any time spent feeding a machine is time that the player wouldn't be earning anything, so he went to the casino the day before and converted his promotion bankroll into tickets. If (when?) he ran out of credits playing, he could just put in a $2000 ticket and get back in the game faster than if he had to put in 20 $100 bills and probably have one or two of them rejected.

Have you ever said or done anything that caused your non-gambling friend to say, "That's the craziest thing I've ever heard."

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