Wednesday, February 13, 2019

2019: A Year of Responsible Gaming - (Part VI What does all of this even mean?)

Over the last few posts I've laid out in light detail the various gambling options available both in Las Vegas, and at the increasingly popular locals casinos which are popping up in different States throughout the land.

But what does all of this mean?

How can gambling responsibly possibly have any connection to where you choose to gamble?

Short answer, it doesn't, AND it does.

It doesn't matter all that much because ultimately the key to responsible gaming lies with you, the player. If you're not practicing sound bankroll management if you're not practicing responsible drinking when you gamble and if you're not playing with some strategy then you're not going to succeed wherever you choose to play.

Does this mean that you have to go totally technical, be totally scientific on your gaming, stay 100% sober while playing (as some suggest)?

No, it doesn't.  Because at the end of it all gambling is a form of entertainment, just like a movie or a sporting event or partaking in athletics yourself (i.e. skiing). The point here is that you are, maybe just, a human, and humans are emotional beings prone to mistakes. Obviously if you're in politics you're not a human, but we don't want y'all in our casinos anyway so I'm not addressing you, maybe some day in a future post, but certainly not now.

Who I am addressing are the rest of you. The people who like to go to casinos and play, and have fun, and drink, and see shows, and go to clubs and spend too much for dinner and buy too many things in the shops.  Normal folk.

If you're a Millennial you might be thinking "yeah, but you've read the stories, WE don't gamble." to which I answer bunk.  You bet you do, and I've gambled alongside many of you in casinos across the country.

But here's the thing: 1. You're not very good at it, learning to gamble properly takes time and patience which your generation has little of. and 2. You tend to do it more socially than my generation, so your habits are slightly different.

When you see someone from my generation (Gen X, God bless us) gambling it's more than likely they're doing it alone. Yes, we play craps and roulette and other social table games but we're more a black jack/slots/video poker group.  If you see four Gen Xers gambling on slot machines there are usually four of us in a line, each playing our own games.

Contrast that with the Millennial group of four and a different scenario plays out.  One person is probably sitting at the machine gambling while the other three are clustered around taking selfies, Snap-Chatting wins or other social activities.

For casinos this has wrongly been called "The Millennial Problem" and has been incorrectly construed as "Millennials don't gamble".  But, and this is important, the facts are that you do gamble, and you need to get better at it as do we all.

Regardless of how much better we get the truth is that we're all playing negative expectation games. In old Vegas (real-truth: when the mob ran things) the idea was that you wanted some people to win, in order to spread the word) but understood that most people were going to lose so you'd make plenty of money for the skim.

In corporate (modern-day) Vegas the idea that a certain portion of gamblers need to win to make your casino attractive to the masses has pretty much gone the way of the Dodo. Fortunately, gamblers are responding in kind.

Despite gaming revenues being up across the State the big casino operators in Las Vegas (MGM, Caesars, Wynn, Sands) reported 2018 LOSSES in gaming profits because fewer people are choosing to put money into their machines. They've made them too tight, made winning too rare. Instead of realizing this their "solution" is to tighten odds even more, make it where even fewer people win. You can see where this is going.

When visiting Las Vegas I'm a firm believer that you should stay and play on the Strip, but you should only play enough to keep your offers alive and then take the bulk of your bankroll and move it to other parts of town. Spend a couple of days downtown (for now, unless Stripitis start effecting them too) go South or get a ride over the the Boulder Highway.

Spend the days in off-Strip casinos happily gaming into better odds, lower food prices and a different experience, while returning to the Strip at night.  Part of being responsible is to choose to spend you money where the losses are expected to be less over time.

Finally, gamble within your means. I cannot say this enough.  The rest of this series is going to be occasional, it's going to chronicle a year of me heading to casinos and practicing what I preach. I've already completed one gambling trip this year, and I'll address that one on the next post.

Good luck however you play.

Monday, February 11, 2019

2019: A Year of Responsible Gaming - (Part V - The Locals)

OK, so you've read all of the prior posts up to this point and, as a gambler looking to reduce your losses, you're feeling pretty low.  The Strip is bad and getting worse, Downtown is showing signs of becoming Strip lite. Gambling, as a form of entertainment, is dwindling on the vine.

Or is it?

As a last option I want to discuss the locals casinos in Las Vegas, and elsewhere, and whether or not they are a viable option, and their potential pitfalls.

Vegas local casinos are great, at taking money. In fact, ALL casinos are great at taking your money or they wouldn't be in business.  Everything in a casino, from the time you enter to the time you leave, is focused on taking every last cent from you that you're willing to spend.

That said, locals casinos are a better option for gambling than tourist-centric casinos because they have to continue to compete to draw in repeat, local business.  Because of this their odds tend to be slightly better, the comps tend to be a little more generous, and their loyalty plans tend to be more robust.

The problem?  They're usually not located near the tourist areas and you don't want to stay there because, unlike the Strip and Downtown, they're decidedly not in walkable areas.

Enter ride-sharing, the BEST way in Las Vegas to get to the casinos on the Boulder Highway, or South of town, or to any of the other casinos you hear about, have heard about, but might not have visited.  Amazingly, not all of these are sawdust joints, and most of them have outstanding entertainment and food included on-site.  I'm going to focus on four main areas, and some of the casinos in them just to provide you a picture of what's available.

Far South

Way South, passed the outlet mall and well beyond LAS, are three casinos worth a trip.  The Silverton, with a Bass Pro Shops attached and "free" Mermaid shows, South Point, with a bowling alley, an equestrian ring and some of the best video poker in the city, and The M Resort, which is s Strip-style resort with Strip-Level amenities and some of the best food in the area.

Odds at table games here tend to be a little better, the slots tend to be a little looser, and the video poker pay tables are more generous. Don't think that means you're going to win more however. They are still set firmly in a negative expectation range and you're still going to lose money here. Maybe you lose it a little slower here than elsewhere, but ultimately it's going to go away.

My favorite place to STAY in this area is The M Resort. The rooms are nice, the restaurants and bars are outstanding (try the Wicked Grape wine lounge and the Pappradelle Osso Bucco at the Italian joint) and the drink comps policy is much better than you find on the strip, especially when it comes to craft beers.  Customer service is fine, and the casino itself has a warm, friendly vibe.

My favorite place to PLAY in this area is South Point. They have the best locals sports book hands down, their video poker odds are top notch, and they have a wide selection. They're a little light on table games and their slot selection is not the most current, but plonk me down at the center bar, give me a vodka soda and a shot at a progressive royal flush?  Hours of fun provided my luck doesn't go ice cold.

Boulder Highway

"Mystic Falls"

This is an animatronic display at Sam's Town that has wolves howling, eagles screeching, and is one of the best things about off-Strip, locals Vegas that I've found.  The actual casino itself feels old, but not in a bad way, more in a vintage way.  The Angry butcher there is top notch, and again you might find the slot selection to be aged, but the Video Poker is pretty good.

My favorite casino in this area is, hands down, the Eastside Cannery. They have the best video poker in the area, their slots are relatively fresh, and their table games offer solid rules. They also have a decent local sports book and some good bar side VP with nice pay tables.

The only problem with this area is that it is a LONG way away from everything else.  Still, if you have the time give it a whirl.


Stations Casinos

Most of you know Main Street Station, but Palace Station, Red Rock, Green Valley Ranch Texas Station et al are good local options.  Red Rock is the nicest, and has the most dining options and better slots, the other Stations casinos are pretty much interchangeable, except that there's a BBQ restaurant now at Texas.

Most of these casinos offer a pretty good variety of slots, good table games, and good bar seating for video poker, but seats can be hard to come by at times.  I've found the holds and rules here to be just fair, but the video poker odds are much better than the strip, although about on par with downtown.

Near Strip

Food deals can still be found at Ellis Island, Silver Sevens is a sawdust joint that provides some options, Tuscany is a resort hideaway with a smallish casino offering so-so odds.

The Palms just underwent a massive renovation, and the Rio and Gold Coast are on their last legs.

The point is there are a ton of ways for you to 1. Visit Vegas and 2. Spend time doing things other than gambling, or shopping, or clubbing on the Strip.  Take some time on your next gambling trip and get away.

Your bankroll will be glad you did.


Finally, I want to address the increasing number of local gaming options.

These are OK for diversions but should be treated with extreme care.  The thing bout Las Vegas is that you have several diversions during your gaming day. This is usually not the case at a local casino where you either gamble, drink, or sit around doing nothing.

IF you are finding that you have trouble setting, and sticking to a budget, you should avoid these at all costs.

Next up, ending the introduction by putting a bow around all of this.

Thursday, February 7, 2019

2019: A Year of Responsible Gaming (Part IV - You'll Find me Downtown)

In the past I've made no secret that I prefer heading to Downtown Las Vegas over anything the Strip has to offer.

Yes, it's not as fancy, but it's also not near as expensive, the vibe is different, and while there's always the risk that you could get rolled, I've found it to be fairly safe, if not exactly inviting. I take some small measure of comfort knowing that someone realizes that they have to have you around to keep the bills paid, but isn't going to feel the need to fake unending enthusiasm about you showing up in their favorite place to play.

Fremont Street is where Vegas gambling started, and it's origins have, at this point, been romanticized to the point that the actual, ugly, reality has been white washed from existence. Early casinos were rough places, sawdust joints with Faroh tables, some Black Jack, craps, Roulette, and probably a poker game going on in the corner.  Early justice was frontier justice, and if you were caught cheating the house getting trespassed was probably the least of your worries.

It was smoky, dirty, smelly and not at all a place you would want to take your family.  Even after Benny Binion came to town from Texas it was pretty much the same, he just added carpet to his joint, but kept the games, and the frontier justice.  Pretty soon things got regulated, the downtown area did what most downtown areas do and started to decay. It was dicey, at best. You were just as likely to be mugged and rolled in certain parts as you were to have a winning trip. Tourists avoided the place, and locals and deviants moved in.

A funny thing happened though, it (partially) rebounded. Casino owners like Steve Wynn moved in (to the Golden Nugget) before moving on to bigger (but not necessarily better) things, and ultimately corporations such as Boyd Gaming and Landry's took over.  The Fremont Street Experience was built, and Tony Essilah of Zappo's fame made it his mission to revitalize the downtown district.

Then the Stephens brothers moved in, most publicly Derek Stephens, who transformed the struggling Fitzgerald into The D (horrid name, great place), bought and refurbished the old Golden Gate, and purchased the Las Vegas Club, demolished it, and recently announced the arrival of Circa, billed as the first downtown casino with Las Vegas Strip amenities.  Will it work? Time will tell.  But the outlying result is that Boyd just announced a planned renovation to the Fremont, transforming some rooms to suits which will include doubling their size, the Plaza just underwent a renovation which has improved the place, Golden Nugget continues to remodel and refocus under Tilman Fertitta, and the Downtown Grand continues to surprise, despite having trouble getting casino traffic.

The 4 Queens and Binions continue to chug along, with the 4 Queens currently being my favorite place downtown to play video poker. This includes the Long Bar at The D, which is still my favorite place to hangout.  I'm also partial to El Cortez. It's by no means fancy but the customer service is excellent and the odds are fair. Their "Cabana Suites" (we use the term suites loosely) are my favorite rooms downtown. It also helps that the detached building has it's own desk clerk, and a security guard at the door 24/7, making it one of the most secure buildings on Fremont.

Downtown is a mixture of Vegas and inner-city blight. Because of that it has it's rules, and you have to learn to follow them. The buskers do get out of hand and there are places I wouldn't want to be caught late at night. But overall I've never felt threatened there, but I have been on the periphery of things that were not....good.

I'm not sure the slots are any looser than the Strip, but the video poker sure is, and to be honest that's probably what's bumping up their hold percentage. The Table games have lower limits as well, and it's still (just) possible to find a 3:2 $10 denomination Black Jack game offered at any time of the day.

Of course there's the zip line, which is fun, and you can dine well downtown, with the Triple George Grill, Andiamo's Steak House and Vic & Anthony's being high-end options. But they also have mid-range choices, including Binion's on the Roof, Hugo's Cellar at 4Queens, Pizza Rock near Downtown Grand and many Landry's options.  In a class of it's own is Oscar's, possibly the best overall dining experience downtown.

But where downtown shines is in their value options. American Coney Island at the D, Magnolia Grill, Main Street Station and their pan roast, Bar B Que trucks and (still) ninety-nine cent hot dogs to cure that late night craving. You can, once, eat at Heart Attack Grill because you should, and Neonopolis has a selection of window-service street-food for when you don't really want something good, just something filling. Fast food and Starbucks and grab-n-go, it's all downtown.

Maybe my favorite non-casino restaurant in the city is downtown as well, just after you leave the Fremont Experience and right across the street from El Cortez is the Smashed Pig. I'm not kidding when I say that I was served the best fish n' chips of my life there. If you want a cocktail I recommend, without reservation, the Downtown Pimms.

Speaking of recommend, if you've never been to Oak & Ivy in Container Park go there, get one of the four seats on the inside, order a whiskey drink and watch the show, then enjoy one of the best cocktails anywhere in Vegas.

It's brilliant and trashy all at the same time, but there are signs that the cancer that is PGP is starting to creep in.

First it was Golden Nugget installing drink monitoring systems, adding to their already poor video poker odds.  I'm not opposed to these systems on principle, but they don't even provide a come-in drink and your first 2-minutes sitting at the bar will be taken up with a rather surly bartender informing you that you haven't turned the light green yet and they cannot comp you a drink. It takes a special type of person to be a GN bartender, and they seem to have cornered the market.

Even El Cortez has a light system now, but you turn it green on your first hand. and their bartenders are much, much nicer about it.

The biggest problem downtown is the arrival of 3-zero Roulette at the 4 Queens, and the complete and utter destruction of the B-Connected Loyalty card at Boyd properties.  I've already discussed the 4 Queens situation on a previous post, so I'm going to talk about B-Connected and it's problems here.

For one, their changes have made it impossible to earn comps unless you have moved to a higher level, and for video poker they have all but made the program useless. Like all companies, the rolled it out to great fanfare and advertised it as a boon to players, but the public saw through it and is now taken to calling it B-Conned. It's that bad. They've taken a once decent loyalty program and removed all value except at the highest tiers, of which they've decimated. This is too bad because Main Street Station, the California and Fremont are fun places to play.  The only reason to play at Main Street Station now is for the scratch-cards you get on VP when you get a 4OAK. The California is good for people watching, but the Fremont is in wait and see mode until after their renovation.

Hanging over everything however is the opening of 18 Fremont, now called Circa. What the Stephens brothers are announcing sounds awesome, including the pool and the sports book, but it's unclear whether or not this is going to be a viable gambling destination, although early returns are not all that promising.  The Stephens brothers are mimicking the Golden Nugget on their gambling, and that's not a good thing.

Tighter slots, worse VP odds, 6:5 (or even money) black jack and high table limits show that at least some of the current casino operators aren't correctly reading the room. People go to the Strip to party, they go downtown to gamble. If that proposition goes away, where do gamblers go?

Thoughts on that next time.

Tuesday, February 5, 2019

2019: A Year of Responsible Gaming (Part III - The Maturation of PGP)

In 2015, MGM resorts made a lot of noise about their Profit Growth Plan (or, PGP in curse-word terms) and it started the Las Vegas Strip on a long spiral downward in terms of it being a gaming destination.  Fast forward to today, and MGM 2020 can be viewed as PGP 2.0 or a further erosion of gaming on the Strip.  Caesars, as they do, Joined MGM on this race to the bottom with each company seemingly trying to outdo one another in terms of providing gamers with the least value for their buck.

The initial results of these plans were evidenced in the rise of poorer rules for Black Jack (6:5 and no double after splitting, dealer hits on S17 etc) and Sheldon Adelson introduced the growing scourge that is "Sands" (or 3 zero) Roulette to his casino, which has now been replicated by NY/NY, 4 Queens Downtown and The Cosmopolitan sadly.  Add to this increase slot holds, absolutely horrible pay tables on Video Poker and a complete and utter devastation of their loyalty programs and you have a perfect storm of suck for the serious gamer.

In addition to this, some casinos have abandoned the gamer almost completely, as Sands Corporation (Venetian and Pallazo) and Wynn (Wynn and Encore) have switched their focus to the expense account spending, and casual, uneducated gaming, of the convention tourist while taking away perks and other inducements designed to bring in the big players.

It's to the point now that you can feel the changes on the Strip when gambling. Slot wins, always rare, are reduced to the point that they're non-existent, with big bonus wins becoming fewer and fewer, while small wins coupled with long dry spells are now the norm.  The Cosmopolitan, and to a lesser extent, TI and Casino Royale, as the lone exceptions in this area, offering marginally better odds and, in the case of Cosmo, much improved slot holds, but the Cosmo's Identity loyalty program is all but worthless for table games and, as stated before, they've even fallen victim to 3-zero Roulette, which is a crime against the gambling gods that should immediately call down repercussions.

When 4 Queens, still one of the best places in town for slots and VP, announced they were installing a 3-zero Roulette wheel which gives the player "more chances to win" and something that is "sweeping the country" they were forced to remove the video from Facebook because the push-back from gamblers was sudden, and it appeared that they might have been in violation of Nevada gaming regulation by advertising something clearly detrimental to the player as offering a better potential winning result.

While we'll discuss downtown Vegas in a future post in this series, I want to spend the remainder of this one addressing the systemic issues on the Strip, and encouraging you to go out and visit other Vegas locations and reward them with your play.

The Strip is no longer a gambling destination.

I've discussed this, at length, before and if you're so inclined I think a re-read of that post might do you some good.  I'm going to hit on the same things here but expand on them just a bit.  For one, winning at gambling is rare, it's almost non-existent today under the current operations of the large Strip casinos.

Even worse news are the recently announced layoffs. As a member of corporate management myself, I get the regrettable need to have lay offs occasionally, usually during a down turn or hard times. But the casinos are profitable right now, and they're cutting staff to become MORE profitable. This is horrible for staff, horrible for morale, and absolutely terrible for those who are losing their jobs.

Overlooked however is the negative impact on the consumer. Outside of a few bright spots, some of the dealers, some of the bartenders, customer service at MGM and Caesars is woeful. At the check-in desk, the front-door of a casino, you're more likely to be treated with indifference than as a welcome guest, in many cases you're better off using the kiosks that are rapidly replacing desk agents. Gone are the days of trying to make Vegas a special visit for people, in are trying to milk them for all they are worth, including nickle and dime charges like fee-based parking and CNF fees, which are one level below resort fees in terms of awful.

The ever-growing resort fees are about the worst thing however. In many cases the fees are more than the nightly rate itself.  And you get nothing of true value for them. Since they are not easily avoidable they really should be counted as part of the room rate, but instead their hidden to allow the casinos to advertise artificially deflated rates.

Since the rise of the celebrity chef in Las Vegas, restaurants more commonly pay rent for their space and are no longer owned by the casino. This means that comped meals, wine etc. have become more and more rare, increasingly limited to the casino cafe, or a buffet that's dropped in quality in recent years because of a lack of paying customers, or a desire to grow profits by using cheaper ingredients.

You can still, just, get comped tickets to a show, but more likely you're going to be aggressively, and repeatedly, accosted by a timeshare huckster in the casino who's paid them for the privilege of harassing the guests.  "Are you staying in town tonight?" has become even more annoying than the porn slappers on the street. At least you can have a moment's fun playing stripper card bingo with those.

The big lie is that Vegas is "no longer a value destination". The fact is it never was. Yes, they gave you cheap, or free, rooms and it was easy to get a comped meal, comped show tickets were plentiful and the pools were cheap, but you made up for it in gaming losses.

Now they take everything you've got before you even hit the casino floor and THEN they hit you harder on the floor than ever before. It's gotten so bad that I honestly feel paying $250 for a cabana rental at the pool is just about the best deal on the Vegas Strip right now.

All this doesn't mean that I don't think you should stay at the Strip.  There's something special, still, about being on the Strip, seeing the lights and the noise and the cacophony that is Las Vegas when it's in full chat. The touristy things are that was for a reason. The Bellagio fountains are a must see, as is the conservatory, and if you're not walking through the Venetian/Pallazo and WynnCore you're missing out on some truly beautiful things.

And there is some great, albeit expensive, food to be had.  The entertainment is still top notch and if you haven't seen a Vegas Golden Knights game absolutely plan to attend one if it's in the budget. You'll come out a hockey fan.

Just don't gamble there, don't give them your hard-earned (and budgeted, if you've been paying attention) gambling dollar except in small amounts. To be perfectly honest, the Las Vegas Strip Casino/Resorts need to prove to us again that they deserve to be the recipients or our gambling dollars. Right now they are not.

Next up we'll look at downtown, and why it's a better gambling destination despite the storm clouds that are building on the horizon.

Monday, February 4, 2019

The Shield: Yes, THAT was a bad Super Bowl.

I'm not sure there's enough whiskey in the world to scrub the game last night fully from our memory but we might want to give it a try.

It was boring.
It was antiseptic.
It was devoid of anything memorable.

The commercials sucked.
Halftime was devoid of anything truly memorable.

It was everything corporate and sanitized about the NFL, complete with rather improbable shots of NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell walking arm in arm with Civil Rights Icons. (SEE AMERICA, NO RACIST PROBLEM HERE!!!!!)

The shame of it all is, this was one of the most exciting, fun and unpredictable NFL seasons in quite a few years, it went against recent form, we were finally putting the politics (somewhat) behind us and focusing on the ball game, we were seeing points, and crazy things and good Saturdays.

As bad as the college football season was this year the NFL was our weekend salvation on many occasions.

Then they gave us a mud-fight between an (obviously) aging Tom Brady and an (obviously) not ready for this stage Jared Goff. Both defenses came out and totally befuddled their opponents. Both quarterbacks were inaccurate and (let's face it) bad, while neither team could get a consistent running game going, and we were 3-3 at halftime and there were only 10 points left in this game, but we didn't know it at the time Maroon 5 came out and pretty much underwhelmed everyone.

In defense of the halftime show, I thought Travis Scott's entrance was good, and Big Boi did what he does which is always pretty good.  My wife enjoyed the Adam Levine strip poker game so......


But the game itself was awful.

Borderline unwatchable like so many NFL games were for so many seasons prior. It was like watching the Houston Texans and Tennessee Titans play on loop. It had within it no redeeming qualities.

What it did, was cement the Patriots as the best team in the league, as they have been for many years now. There's no denying what Tom Brady and Bill Belicheck have accomplished together, silly "underdog" memes notwithstanding. The Patriots were -2.5 favorites and were almost universally picked by everyone, including me, to win the game. What this proves is that you can call yourself whatever you want, and no matter how false that may be some teams have a dumb enough fan base that they'll lap it up and make it go viral.

Boston is living in blessed sports times. Yet I doubt any of them understand that and are still living in the 'Curse of the Bambino' era in their minds.  Still, that's better than LA fans, who just don't care.

So we end yet another football season with the wonder of what could have been.

What IF the referees in the NFC Championship hadn't blown that call? What IF Brees hadn't thrown that interception?  What if the Chiefs had a clue how to stop the run?

What if?

Possibly the perfect metaphor for the NFL today.

From that perspective this was the most fitting end.

Friday, February 1, 2019

2019: A Year of Responsible Gaming Part II - Bank Roll Management

In the introduction to this year-long series I talked about taking your winnings and not churning them through the casino for losses. This is, obviously, an important step in gambling responsibly but it's all for naught if you don't have a solid bankroll system in place to keep you on budget.

What follows is what works FOR ME. This is not, by a long shot, the only budgeting system that works. It also requires some discipline (I'll go into more detail later) and it's not mine. I cannot claim ownership of it or to have any special creative genius that caused me to create it. In fact, I stole it full chat from 1000 Best Casino Gambling Secrets by Bill Burton a book that I still read from time to time today.

It's basic, yes, but it has a lot of information including game and odds basics, bankroll management, and a lot of the themes that you see me write on.  I'm not even sure he is the originator of all the material himself. I've seen the bit about gambler's believing in luck but casinos believing in math before, yet it's in his book and it's as true today as it was when I first read it several years back.

The point I'm trying to make is this:  Good advice is good advice, you don't have to be the originator of a good idea to find use from it.

With that in mind I give you......


The Envelope System of Budgeting for Gambling.

Responsible gambling takes two main things:  Discipline and prior planning. If you have one but not the other you might do OK, but you might also crash and burn.  For example, if you have discipline but fail to plan then you might bring more money than you're willing to lose. And the best laid plans in the world can fall apart quickly if you lack the discipline to implement them fully and properly.

Planning involves two things:

1. Setting your original budget
2. Understanding and knowing what your gambling patterns are likely to be on an upcoming trip.

Setting the Budget

How much, in real money, are you willing to lose?

This is the first question you should ask yourself in advance of any gambling trip. If you don't realistically know how much you can afford to lose before the losses cut into your daily expenses then you should not be gambling in any fashion.

If you have $1,500 in the bank, and a $900 rent payment coming up before your next paycheck, and you're planning on gambling $1,000 tomorrow in a casino, or at the track, or anywhere else, then you're gambling more than you should.  Because you have to look at that $1500 as already lost. It's spent money. In negative expectation games you have to view your bankroll as lost before you hit the door. Granted, you might win, but planning TO win is planning to buck the odds and that happens more rarely than you might think.

Also, don't think that you're going to take $1,000 but ONLY gamble $600 of it leaving you with the $900 you need to pay the rent. Odds are, in a fog of liquor and adrenaline, you're not going to stop gambling and will be forced to borrow money for rent payments or worse, investigate a pay day loan or pay late, which results in a fine, which could result in more bills messed in the next pay cycle.

Get the point?

To fail to plan is to plan to fail - Pete Brown

Houston had a progressive politician known as Peter "Plan" Brown. He sadly passed recently but he was the epitome of planning. He wanted to plan to plan the plan. While I don't take it to that extreme I do believe that prior planning is important.

"How much are you willing to lose?"

Answer this question by asking two things:

1. How much can you reasonably afford to lose?
2. What is your risk tolerance? (i.e. how much are you comfortable betting?)

To answer question number one I have established a savings account. In that account I take my average daily gambling spend, multiply it by the number of days I estimate I'll be gambling in 2019, and then deposit that total in there to start the year. Or, more accurately, I'll top off the account to get it to the number I need.

For the remainder of  the year that is my gambling budget. It does not affect my day-to-day expenses and should it go to zero, so does my gambling for the rest of the year. I will say this, by holding onto wins in excess of $20 above my gambling bullets I have never ran the account down lower than 1/2 of its initial balance. When I return from a gambling trip I re-deposit all of the money in my 'take-home envelope' into the account, unless I'm a winner and the account exceeds my original limit. If that's the case I use any excess for expenses. I might make an extra payment on my mortgage, or my car note etc.  But the account stays at it's original amount and remains my gambling budget for the year. In some cases I've done well enough to throw in an extra Vegas trip above what I already have planned.

Now that I've got my funds, I have to decide what games I want to play.

What is your risk tolerance?

As stated before I'm someone of a mid-to-low roller. I don't make extravagant bets, and I tend to keep my bets somewhere below $3.00.  I typically play quarter-denomination, single-line video poker ($1.25 per hand) or I play slots somewhere between 75 cents to $3.00.  Because of this I typically spend somewhere around $500-$800 per day on gambling depending on what other plans I might have (a fancy dinner, a show, a hockey game etc.)

Looking over my planned itinerary I set my daily budget in order to determine my total budget. A fictional example might look like this:

Day 1: Arrive at 4:30 Vegas Time $300 (This is only a partial day after all)
Day 2: Gambling on the Strip $500 (I typically risk less on the Strip because of poorer odds)
Day 3: Gambling, dinner and Vegas Knights game $400 (I'll reduce it a little because of non-gaming activities
Day 4: Transfer to downtown $700 (I always risk more downtown)
Day 5: Locals casinos $700 (Same as above, always try to play more at casinos with better odds)
Day 6: Locals, Dinner, Neon Museum $600 (Slight cut because of non-gaming activities)
Day 7: Fly our at 7PM $300  (I usually gamble lightly on the last day)

Total budget for the trip: $3,500

So, three thousand, five hundred dollars is the money that I am expecting to lose on this trip.  Granted, I don't WANT to lose it, and my goal is to come home less than $500 down but I'm ready to put this money at risk understanding that, due to the house edge, it is more likely than not that I am going to lose some of it.

So, now I have a plan, the question is how do I try and stick to it?

For me that answer is the envelope system.

I am going to take my bankroll and I'm going to divide it up by day, according to the budget that I have selected, I am then going to put the amounts per day into an envelope and place all of that in the safe.  Each morning, I'll take out the money for the current day, while placing any money from the previous day into the "take home envelope". That includes money from my original stake that I did not gamble, or money from my wins that have been put away into a safe place. I'm then ready to attack a new day with only my current day's stake in play.

As I stated before, this method takes discipline. It's not easy to run out of money at say....5PM because you hit a down streak and not go tearing into the next day's envelope, or churn through winnings that you've previously banked.  But, and I admit it's a big, huge, gigantic but, if you CAN follow through with this program you should find that your losses on gambling trips are greatly reduced, and a winning trip suddenly becomes more attainable.

2 things:

1. Depending on your bankroll I wouldn't travel with much cash on you.  Remember that the TSA will make you account for any cash you hold over $10K. Typically a car service (I use a limo) will stop by the bank for you so you can withdraw money prior to arriving at the hotel. NEVER USE A CASINO ATM their surcharges are ridiculously high in addition to what your bank will charge to use one of their non-bank ATMs.  Go by your bank's website before your trip and see where they have branches or affiliates in Las Vegas. Alternatively, you can apply for a line of credit at the casino, but you cannot use the envelope system for that. In that method you will need to withdraw markers for your daily budget.

2. DO NOT walk around Las Vegas with a lot of cash.  If you make a big enough jackpot, ask for a check. If you're close to your home casino go to your room and put your winnings in the room safe. In today's Las Vegas you're not safe, even on the Strip. Don't be a victim.

And that's MY system for bankroll management.  Well, not really MINE, but the one I use. It's been successful for me but it is certainly not for everyone. Regardless of what system you use make sure that you're using a system that allows you to control what money you put at risk, and one that keeps you playing all day at a level you can afford, comfortably in the budget.

If you do this you might find that you're having a lot more fun in Vegas than you had on past trips.  And it's a much better feeling coming home and putting money in the bank then sitting on the end of your bed wondering in vain where it all went.

Over the next few days we'll revisit Profit Growth Plans, and why Strip casinos should not be your go to for gambling any longer, but also why the Strip still has it's place and why doing SOME gaming there is a must.

Until then, I wish you the good side of the standard deviation.

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