Ask the Slot Expert: Slot machines are cold, I need points, and I'm broke

It's near the end of the first half of the year and time to ensure that I have earned enough points, tier credits -- or whatever the casino calls its metric that determines whether you qualify for an upper level in its slot club -- for those clubs that run on a six-month cycle.

Even though I live by the motto Don't do today what you can put off until tomorrow, I'm usually very good at keeping on pace to requalify without having to panic near the deadline and spend hours and hours playing.

One year I got behind at one of my regular casinos. The club runs on a yearly cycle, which is both good and bad. It's good because I had all year to requalify. It's bad because clubs that run on a yearly cycle tend to have higher requalification requirements than clubs that run on a half-year cycle -- because you have all year to requalify, of course.

It was December and I was running out of time to requalify. Not a good time to hit a cold streak. I had already maxed out my credit line. The machines ate the bankroll I brought with me. I still had a few more points to go.

Getting cash from the ATM was my last resort because of the high fee charged. I had points I could redeem for free play, though. Time to start using them. Even though you don't earn points on the free play, you do earn points when you play what you won.

In this club, your free play isn't immediately added on to your credit meter. Your free play is given to you as a refund after a bet. So, if you bet $5, $5 of your free play is added to your credit meter along with any winnings at the end of a spin or hand.

You have to remember not to play until you have no credits if you want to use your free play. I've forgotten a few times. I've run out of credits and redeemed points for free play. Then I had to put money into the machine so I could make a bet to use my free play.

I redeemed points for $50 in free play, the max you can do at one time, and hoped that I would hit something good. When my credit meter was down to one hand, I had earned enough points with the multiplier to get more free play. I pulled my card to get the points I had earned credited to my account. Then I redeemed the free play from those points and repeated the cycle.

The details are fuzzy now, but I remember pulling my card to get the points added to my account a couple of times before I finally requalified.

It's not fun when you're running low on money.

Years and years and years ago, a good trip to Las Vegas was followed by a very bad trip. I had to look for free things to do. I played in a few free slot tournaments on the strip. I did the 20-for-20 promo at The Riviera. You paid $20 to play in a slot tournament. If you didn't win anything, which was kind of the default, you could pick a tchotchke valued at $20 (but was really worth only a few bucks) from the prize display case.

Would you like to see my Riviera water bottle collection?

If you would like to see more non-smoking areas on slot floors in Las Vegas, please sign my petition on change.org.

Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert™, at slotexpert@slotexpert.com.

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