The following is a true story, other than the names of the gamblers. It happened at Harrah’s Atlantic City a number of years ago. Since I’ve played little at this particular casino, and always as a tourist rather than a local, I might have some of the details wrong. But the gist of this story is accurate and might provide fodder for thought and discussion.

Amy and Bo lived not too far away from Atlantic City, and drove to visit this casino perhaps three weekends a month — except when they were on cruises (which they enjoyed a lot) or were otherwise busy. They played single-line $1 Double Double Bonus mostly, but sometimes went for the $2 game or perhaps $1 Triple Play.

While they played mostly an accurate strategy, the game there has a 1% house edge. Over the course of a weekend, their average loss was about $800. This was an average, but the swings in this game are fairly large. Occasionally they’d hit one or more royals, or aces with a kicker, and ended up several thousand dollars ahead — but when that didn’t happen, their actual weekend losses were on the order of $2,000 or so. As I said, this averaged out to about $800 in the soup for each weekend, for two or three weekends per month.

Harrah’s, of course, considered Amy and Bo to be excellent customers. Players to be rewarded. Players to be pampered. (If you’re willing and able to sustain repeated losses this size, you’ll get pampered too.) Amy and Bo each received regular bounce back free play. I don’t know the actual amount. I assume it was about $100 apiece per week.

At this casino at this time, though, you didn’t have to play off the free play immediately. You needed to download the free play to your bank during the relevant time period, but it would be fine to leave it sitting in your bank until you were ready to play it off. At most Harrah’s casinos today, once money goes into your bank you have a relatively short period of time to play it off. Perhaps 24 hours. Perhaps 72 hours. It varies by casino and sometimes other things as well. But back then, at that casino anyway, you didn’t need to play it off so quickly.

Amy and Bo were social people and over time got to know several gambling friends whom they trusted and also played at this casino. If our two players went cruising for one or more weeks, they’d have these friends visit a kiosk and move the free play into their bank. But the friends wouldn’t play off the free play. The money would wait for Amy and Bo to return.

Harrah’s discovered this was going on. (This wasn’t too hard. Free play downloaded with no play at all is a fairly simple move to spot.) The host took Amy and Bo aside and told them not to do this anymore. If they stopped now and didn’t continue the practice, it would be considered “no harm no foul” and officially forgotten about by the casino. After all, these were two valuable customers to the casino. But, if Amy and Bo didn’t heed this warning, they were told there would be consequences. 

Amy decided this was nonsense. They had earned the free play, after all, and they were the ones playing it off. No fraud whatsoever. So, they continued their practice, and were warned a second time — a little more forcefully.

Before I continue, what do you think should happen? Were Amy and Bo within their rights and the casino unjustifiably enforcing silly rules, or were Amy and Bo out of line? Players disagree on this, so whatever your opinion is on the subject, there will be some players who agree with you and some who don’t. I’ll give you my opinion, but I’m not trying to imply that whatever I think is the only correct way to look at the matter.

Players tend to look at this type of free play as a reward for past play. Casinos tend to look at this free play as an incentive to get the players in for another visit. For a cost of $200 (i.e., $100 each), Amy and Bo will typically lose $800. This is a nice trade off insofar as the casino is concerned.

But if Amy and Bo cruise for four weeks and have the free play saved in their respective banks, when they come back, they’ll be getting $1,000 in free play ($200 for each week they were away, plus another $200 for when they came in to collect it). Their losses will still be $800 for the weekend. Harrah’s isn’t in the business of giving players $1,000 when their expected losses are $800. Once or twice, maybe, but Harrah’s wants to make a profit.

Eventually Harrah’s restricted these players and they no longer received weekly bounce back money. They could still come and play, but now their benefits were reduced. After a year or so of “behaving themselves,” perhaps this issue could be revisited.

Amy was quite put out by this and wasn’t shy about letting people know it. (Which is how I happened to hear about it). She felt she was being treated unfairly. She earned that money with her play. She should be able to decide how and when to redeem that money.

Once Amy and Bo had been warned a few times, they should have known they either had to follow the rules or get restricted. My opinion is that they needed to make a determination. Is this particular casino “special” so that they don’t want to “burn it down?” If that answer is ‘yes,’ they need to follow the rules. If that reason is ‘no,’ they can take what they can for as long as they can.

Amy and Bo tried a third option. Yes, they thought Harrah’s Atlantic City was special. And they kept having friends move free play into their bank when they went cruising. This option didn’t turn out well for them.

What do you think?

Bonnie and I have been married nine years now, and she turned 80 years old June 3. From the get-go, she knew I was a professional gambler, and it became clear to me early on that she had no potential to understand advantage gambling. But she enjoys the meals, cruises, and other traveling that my profession brings me, and my life works better with her in it. 

One of the things we did early on was to insulate her from the gambling swings. The bulk of each of our assets are not commingled and file taxes separately. She had some assets of her own coming in — as had I. Our wills are set up that she gives her money to her heirs, and I give money to mine. We have a “Bob and Bonnie account” for household expenses and we each contribute to it.    

While it doesn’t affect her directly if I’m ahead or behind $50,000 or more this year, she’s definitely on my side. She wants me to do well, and she helps me as she can. 

I get offers from many casinos. Some local to Vegas and some from out of town. If I have competing offers on one weekend (I usually do), I analyze the promotions and select the best one for us. Usually that means the most money for me — but not always. If there’s a promotion that includes a shopping spree that would be of interest to her, and if the deal is otherwise acceptable with her getting all of the goodies, that promotion goes to the top of the list.

In early May, I received a flyer from Harrah’s Lake Tahoe about a celebrity golf tournament in July. I scanned it and put it in my “Potentially Interesting” stack and vowed to look at it more closely later. We had several things to do in May and June and there was no urgency to make a decision when I got the mailer.

In late May, it became time to look at that mailer and I couldn’t find it. I asked Bonnie if she had moved it from where I left it and indeed, she had. She had looked through my “PI” stack in order to see what might be interesting to her. Although she doesn’t dispute that I have by far the biggest vote as to which play is best for us, it’s not like she has no vote at all. If she sees something that catches her eye (perhaps a particular concert, or maybe an excursion that looks interesting, or even one of those shopping sprees that I’ve mentioned before) she lets me know that she has an opinion on it. I sometimes overrule her, but not often. 

From our history together, she has a sense of what I’m interested in, but not the details. When she reads that if I earn 8,000 Tier Credits over our stay, then I’ll get $400 in free play, she has no understanding how I calculate how much that is in terms of expected win or loss. She doesn’t remember the machines I play at each place, how much they are worth, or what it takes to earn 8,000 Tier Credits.

On this particular offer, she noticed there was a golf tournament in Lake Tahoe. She knows I don’t play golf and has seen me watch golf on television maybe five times in the nine years we’ve been together. So, she figured I wouldn’t fly that far to see something that wasn’t that interesting to either one of us, and that I had placed it my “PI” stack by mistake. She moved it to my “Probably Not” stack. She told me later that she almost threw it away. Clearly (to her) it was an offer we weren’t going to use.

Then I explained why I had placed it in “PI” rather than “PN.” I said there was an airfare component to the offer and what was also happening at the ROW in Reno at that time was important.

“Why? Reno and Lake Tahoe are 60 miles apart.”

“Yes, but you use the same RNO airport to go to both casinos. It costs a total of $120 for both of us to take the shuttle from RNO to Tahoe and back again. And our Reno offers do not include airfare. So, doubling up makes sense.”

“If you knew all of this, why didn’t you put it into the “yes” stack right away instead of the “PI” stack? It seems like you already figured out we were going.”

“Well, we hadn’t received the ROW mailers when I got the Lake Tahoe offer. The dates don’t have to match up. If we decide to go to the ROW at the end of July, this particular Lake Tahoe offer doesn’t help us. Plus, I want to participate in the Improv showcase on July 15 (If you’re in town, tickets will set you back $10 each and the show is family friendly. www.lvimprov.com  It’s a very funny show and please come up and say ‘hi’ afterwards) so I don’t want to be in Northern Nevada at that time. In addition, we do get offers from Las Vegas and elsewhere. Some are “can’t miss.” We can’t be in both Las Vegas and Northern Nevada simultaneously.”

“So are we going to Lake Tahoe, Bob? This is all so complicated.”

“Well, the casino offer is okay, not great. We can make the dates work for double-dipping purposes and still allow us to be home for the Improv showcase. Don’t forget that Lake Tahoe in July is absolutely gorgeous. The comparison between the temperature and scenery in Lake Tahoe and Vegas in July makes that part of the decision a no-brainer.”

“So the golf isn’t that important?”

“Well, there will be bunches of stars to watch. You like Steph Curry, Patrick Mahomes, and Justin Timberlake. Watching Charles Barkley swing a golf club will keep you giggling for weeks. He’s in the basketball Hall of Fame, but is a duck out of water on the golf course. There’s a lot of walking, but if you’re up for that, it’s a new experience that you’ll very much enjoy. Maybe not every day. But at least one.”

“So we’re going?”

“I think so. And please don’t re-file my flyers. This one was in the “PI” stack for a reason.” She won’t remember all of my reasons why I want to go (or even what make the offers at the ROW so interesting), but hopefully she remembers not to re-file my flyers.

I missed my blog for May 30. Sometimes I have a number of blogs “in the bank,” but not at the moment. My cupboard was bare and I was too incapacitated to refill it. I thought I’d share with you what happened. It has nothing to do with gambling (although there was one AP move during triage), but perhaps you’ll find it interesting anyway. At a minimum, most of you have probably gone through your own version of hospitalization, and/or been close to others who have done so, and this blog might inspire all sorts of comments. 

I spent three painful days in a hospital for an obstructed bowel recently. I haven’t been hospitalized since my appendectomy 50 years ago, and things are different. 

On the day before I went to the ER, I went to an Urgent Care facility and they prescribed basically a “colonoscopy prep” which means drinking a gallon of liquid with various sorts of powdered laxatives. That’s supposed to Roto-Rooter my problem down the drain. I drank it all. Nothing came out. So, I was back in Urgent Care the next day.

I guess I thought Urgent Care was the same as an Emergency Room. They’re not. The Urgent Care room in which I started the day said I needed a CT scan to diagnose my problem. Yes, they could do that, but if the result came out a certain way, I would need to be hospitalized. This particular Urgent Care facility wasn’t attached to a hospital. And the fact that the colonoscopy prep didn’t work at all meant that my symptoms were serious enough that it was suggested I go to an ER. 

I did. I picked Henderson Hospital because it was relatively new and probably didn’t have the long lines some of the other places had. I don’t know how many people were at any other ER room, but this one had 40 or so people in the ER waiting room when I arrived. Surely at least some of them were there to support others and wouldn’t need treatment themselves.

While I was in considerable pain, ERs operate on a triage system, where the patients with the most urgent needs are seen and treated first. For some reason, these ER doctors put constipation complaints much lower on their list than gun shot wounds and ruptured appendices. Go figure. 

I moaned and groaned a lot, especially when I was meeting with the triage nurse. Partly because I was in real pain. Partly because I hoped that would place me nearer the top of the list to be treated. This was my AP move and I don’t know if that helped or not. But I don’t think it hurt. I ended up waiting three hours for a CT scan, and another hour for it to be interpreted, but it definitely showed a blockage and I needed to be hospitalized to be treated. After asking a lot of questions, they gave me some intravenous morphine to ease the pain.

I’m not a recreational drug user and I don’t think I’ve ever had an opioid before. I didn’t know at the time, but 2 mg of morphine isn’t very much. It helps the pain for a couple of hours. But it also makes you more constipated — which is sort of a Catch 22 because constipation was the original problem! Still, keeping the patient relatively comfortable seemed to be the game plan. At the time it seemed like the right game plan to me.

About six hours after I first arrived, I was moved to a hospital bed within the ER department. While I had been officially admitted to the hospital, there were no beds at the current time and the only beds were in the ER area. So that’s where I was originally placed. 

Perhaps six or so different doctors came in, asked about my condition, prodded my belly, and gave their recommendations. I never knew which doctor was which. Once a doctor told me she thought I should get such and such a treatment, but what she told me didn’t get written on my chart. So as far as the nurses were concerned, the doctor never told me whatever it was. And I hadn’t written down the names and specialties of each doctor, and didn’t always know who had said what, so sometimes things fell through the crack.

Twenty-four hours after I was placed in a bed at ER, I was moved into the regular hospital. I was in a single room with its own TV and bathroom so I didn’t have any roommate issues. Perhaps I won’t be as happy with this when the bill comes. Right now, I don’t know how much my insurance is going to pay and how much will be my responsibility. Presumably the insurance pays for double occupancy hospital rooms and there will be a surcharge for the single room. We’ll see. At the time though, I was happy to have the single room. While I’m blessed to be able to pay whatever is required, I’m still a cheapskate and I won’t like it.

In the area I was in at Henderson Hospital, many of the nurses and other personnel  worked 12-hour days. I don’t know how many days a week they do this, if this was always the norm there, or if this was a post-Covid staffing shortage that has affected many businesses. But for the 40 or so hours I was there, this was convenient because I got to know them and they got to know me and my situation. There was even one nurse aide who would come into my room, sit quietly, and read her cell phone. If I needed something and asked her, she would comply, but basically, she was just killing time. This was her way of goofing off, I suppose, and I wasn’t going to bust her.

To fix a blockage problem, the options fall into three categories: things taken orally, going in from the bottom, or, as a last resort, cutting me open and performing some surgery. My bottom side was on fire with pain, and they would have to tie me down or totally sedate me if they were going to try to solve the problem from that end. 

Forty-eight hours after I had originally arrived, they gave me another colonoscopy prep. This one stronger than the one I had taken before. I wasn’t optimistic this was going to work because it didn’t work a few days earlier, but eight very painful hours later, my innards were clean. Soon it was time for me to go home.

Going home didn’t mean I could resume life as before. The colonoscopy prep still had an effect, and, shall we say, there were a few messes to clean up. Bonnie was an RN for 40 years, and was a good sport about all of this. That was one of the reasons I popped the question almost 10 years ago. If I ever needed care, she was competent at it. Although I’ve helped her more medically in the last 10 years than she’s helped me, this time I was the one in need and she was front and center on the job. One of her recommendations was that I wear a diaper until my system got back to normal. This helped neither my pride nor my masculinity, but I complied. Getting old is not for sissies!

It takes a few days to get your system back on a regular schedule after something like this. After that much purging of the system, things don’t just automatically readjust. 

I take a lot of care with my diet and am positive that this sort of malady is very unlikely when you eat the way I do, but my bowel became obstructed nonetheless. This makes me less confident that I know what I’m doing diet-wise. But depending on what my doctor tells me, I’m going to continue what I’m doing until I learn otherwise.

As I write this, I’m still in that readjustment process. It’s a guess for me exactly what food, medicines, and exercises will work the best and what should be avoided. I have a follow-up visit with my primary physician scheduled, but that’s about 10 days after my release from the hospital. I’m hoping I can make it that far without further medical treatment.

Posted on June 5, 2023 by Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling under Problem Gambling Awareness

Posted on June 5, 2023 by Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling under Problem Gambling Awareness

[Editor’s Note: This post is penned by Rick “Night Train” Blaine, veteran advantage player and author of our book Blackjack Blueprint, the most comprehensive book ever written on playing blackjack for profit.]

When I was recently asked this question in the title of this post, the first thing that came to mind wasn’t beating casinos, but boxing.

I recalled 24-year-old Leon Spinks becoming the heavyweight champion in 1978 by winning a split decision over Muhammad Ali, who was 36. Was age a factor? Yes. Physical ability is crucial to boxing. At the age of 36, a fighter is in a declining stage, while at age 24 he’s typically in peak form.

Many players in their senior years who are still out there taking money from casinos will agree that both the physical and mental toll is much more challenging than it was when they were in action 30 years earlier.

Let’s address the mental toll first.

Studies show that our cognitive skills reach their peak somewhere in our 30s or 40s, then begin to decline. Typically, the rate of decline picks up its pace after the age of 60, where it becomes more evident. Many seniors experience frustration when this occurs and it’s not uncommon to be in denial. If you’re realistic and able to grasp such decline, you can sit down an do a self-evaluation.

One method is to take note of what’s frustrating you and ask yourself two questions: 1) Am I doing something that’s causing this or is it the natural aging process? And 2) Is there something I can do to minimize these effects or slow down the decline?

Here are a few thoughts others have shared that may be helpful:

• Keep your mind active by reading and other mental exercises.
• Organize aspects of your routines where repetition is the goal.
• Look into legitimate supplements (avoid snake oil) geared toward mental alertness.
• Take measures to avoid stressful situations. If you’re subject to stress, learn to manage it by researching various methods and determine what you’re most comfortable with.
• Evaluate your diet and eating habits. Different foods affect different people in different ways. Most common are foods that cause one to be lethargic during the day. While there are many published diets out there, one thing to keep in mind is how long before you go to sleep you should eat. If you have a big meal and plop yourself in bed 30 minutes later, your digestive system will not optimally function.
• Make sure you’re getting sufficient sleep. Studies produced different results on this topic, but for most folks, a healthy amount of sleep is considered between 7 and 8 hours.
• Avoid isolating yourself. Socialize and engage in conversations with friends and family. This keeps you stimulated and provides a form of exercise for your brain.

Let’s now look at how a player is physically affected by the aging process.

Players in their 60s who’ve been in the game for several decades remember pounding pavement in Las Vegas, strolling the boardwalk in Atlantic City, flying overseas, changing hotels, and putting in marathon sessions at the tables, while repeating the process over and over. While it was physically draining, the average young player’s recovery time is relatively speedy.

As the years go by, the aches and pains from travel, scouting, and sitting in one position for extended periods become more pronounced. At times all of us wonder, why am I still doing this? Regardless of how tiresome it becomes, we keep at it and do our best to maintain the mental and physical stamina that’s essential to playing an optimal game.

Many of the measures mentioned above to battle one’s mental decline from aging are also helpful addressing physical decline. Here’s what I consider a valuable recommendation … Pick up Ian Andersen’s book Burning the Tables in Las Vegas. A chapter, “On Maintaining Physical and Mental Fitness,” provides helpful advice. Ian includes his daily regimen to ensure he’s in top form when he’s in action.

Back to the above boxing scenario. Seven months after losing the championship to the younger Spinks, the aging Ali won a unanimous decision in a rematch to regain the title for an unprecedented third time. Many chalk that up to the expert experience Ali had over his younger opponent. Similarly, while we can say that going up against the casinos is a younger person’s game, older experienced players still have a few tricks left.

For me? While the Night Train may no longer be traveling on the express track, it still makes local stops and is a long way from the end of the line!

Bonnie and I were staying at the Eldorado in Reno just before Mother’s Day. Through a combination of offers in both Reno and Lake Tahoe (about 60 miles from each other, reachable to and from the RNO airport by a $60-per-person-round-trip shuttle), it made sense for us to spend time at both casinos and fly back to Las Vegas on a 7:30 p.m. Saturday night flight.

Getting home Saturday night was important because I had $500 free play somewhere in Vegas that expired at midnight, and Bonnie had a big Mother’s Day church/lunch get-together planned with her sister and daughter. Bonnie’s sister and Bonnie’s daughter are less than a year apart in age, live less than five miles from Bonnie and me, and the three women do a lot of things together. Sometimes with me included, sometimes not.  This works well for all of us.

After we got to the Eldorado, we learned about an additional promotion on Saturday. Beginning at 6:30 a.m. Saturday morning and continuing into Sunday, you could earn high end purses. There were four different purses at different play levels, and you could pick the one you wanted. There was also a free play option if you didn’t want the purses. Within the past month or so, the machines I play now take $20 coin-in to earn a Tier Credit and Reward Credit rather than $10. That means it takes twice as much time to earn these gifts as the same promotion would have last month because those are based on Tier so those Credits. Reward Credits are redeemable for comps, so those got cut in half as well. Our mailers are based on theoretical, I think, and not Tier Credits or Reward Credits, so those haven’t been cut yet. As of now, it is still a good place for us to play, in my opinion.

One of the reasons we were there that weekend was that we each earned purses by Michael Kors or Coach on Friday. Bonnie got both of those, of course. I told her that she could have one of the nicer ones we earned on Saturday or cash for 50% of the face value of the free play of the higher-valued purse we qualified for. She wanted the cash!

We could redeem the awards starting at 6:00 p.m. Saturday. Exactly how much play was required to earn these awards wasn’t announced in advance. We were told the information would be on the kiosks starting about 3 p.m. or so — if everything went right. Since we were planning to play on Saturday anyway, I started at 6:30 a.m. and played continually until we knew how much play was required. If I found out at 3 p.m., I could either stop at that time, keeping the amount of free play I had already earned, or continue playing.

The free play would be good for 72 hours but I wouldn’t have time to play it off before we had to go to the airport. There was a table games option, and my host told me that if I picked up the vouchers for the table games and gave them to him on my next trip, he’d convert them into free play. Great! Nice to have a good relationship with a host.

Arranging transportation from the Eldorado to the airport (about a 10-minute drive) was easy for two Seven Stars players. I figured we could leave at 6:15 and still make it to the airport in plenty of time.

Unfortunately, the vouchers weren’t downloadable until 6:20 p.m. Critical minutes were passing — we had to make that flight. I was going through my options, including taking Bonnie to the airport, getting her on the plane, and then going back to the casino to pick up the free play. I’d miss out on my $500 free play in Vegas, but at least Bonnie would make her Mother’s Day date.

Still, getting to the car at 6:25 gave us a shot at making it. Our luggage was already loaded, and it wasn’t that far. It was a 10-minute drive and so long as we checked in before 6:45, we were fine. Unbeknownst to us until it was too late, they were working on the freeways at that time — four lanes were cut down to one — and the normally-10-minute drive ended up taking 25 minutes.

We got to the airport counter 10 minutes late. I showed the employee $300 and said he could keep the money if he found any exception that would allow us to get on the plane. He looked at the money plaintively — figuring he could put it to good use — but said we were on camera and it wasn’t worth his job. Thanks, but no thanks.

There were no RNO – LAS flights we could get. Southwest had one leaving fairly soon, but it was already closed. We had booked on Spirit airlines, and the next flight was 1:45 p.m. Sunday afternoon. We could get on it — $100 transfer fee for each of us. Bonnie looked sick. She didn’t want to miss her Mother’s Day date, but if she had to, she had to.

Southwest had a flight at 6:00 a.m. the next morning. It was considerably more than $100 apiece — and waking up at 3:00 a.m. or so and getting to the airport wasn’t going to be fun. But it was better than missing her date. So, we signed up for that and took the next free shuttle back to the Eldorado.

Fortunately, we had left the room but hadn’t checked out, so it was still available. I let my host know that we missed the flight. I thanked him for his assistance and told him I thought he had done all he could have to help us. I played off our free play and went to bed.

The details of this particular weekend are unique to Bonnie and me, but all of us have had to wrestle with “How early do we get to the airport?” and “Can we get one more thing done that’s worth $xxx?” If you’re like me, usually we can make it, but occasionally we get bit by cutting it too close. This was one of those times.

Sort of.

We did collect $750 apiece in free play which we would have forfeited completely if we had left earlier before the vouchers were downloadable. (Minus $375 in cash that went to Bonnie. Whether that gets counted depends on whether I’m concentrating on “my” net or “our” net.)  I did lose out on $500 free play in Vegas that expired before I got to town. The plane fare wasn’t free, and we were messed up on our sleep schedule for a day or two. But financially, we were slightly ahead by staying until we collected the free play in Reno.

I’m happy with how I handled it. My decisions were based on the best information I had at the time. Had I known the traffic lanes were going to be shut down, I would have handled things differently. Had I known the offers in the kiosks wouldn’t be posted until twenty minutes late, I would have handled things differently. But I didn’t know and by the time I found out, things didn’t go optimally. Oh well. Life’s like that sometimes, in and out of the gambling world.