Originally Posted by
redietz
Las Vegas locals are considered a "mature market" by the gaming industry. That's a euphemism for saying they've had a generation to get hooked on the "crack cocaine of gambling," video poker. I'm going to attempt to give a short answer -- monet could certainly explain this better and in depth.
If you previously played at some Stations or Boyd properties on Senior days or multiplier days, you were at worst treading water if you play well. Boyd has fluctuated the quality of its vp by casino and over time, sometimes radically. Now it's basically frozen lower end players out of its comp system, so that's a problem. And Boyd has now begun to correlate rating to machines played in a big way. Video poker players are persona non grata. Jean Scott gets into this a little on her LVA blog. She's usually overly positive and chipper, but even she recognizes it's time to hit the trail if you play video poker at Boyd. There is a good discussion on lvadvice.com regarding all this.
Palms used to be a decent vp place, and was 10 years ago pretty great, but no more. Stations seem to be replacing some vp inventory with penny slots, and their comps and such suck, but they may be among the best of what's left.
Westgate just instituted a new comp program, so it's a bit of an unknown. They have some good vp near the sports book. Impossible to say at this point how rating and comps will function with their new program. They folded the race/sports betting into the main comp program in a permanent fashion this week.
If I play much vp in LV, I'll be playing at Westgate and Four Queens downtown until I find something elsewhere. I'd check vpfree for the latest updates on games in other states. Dan had some insights on Cherokee Casino's idiosyncrasies in my neck of the woods. Given the pullback in Las Vegas, I'm sure other locales are superior, but mickey and monet would know. Basically, you're likely to find better vp in non-mature (i.e. not addicted for a generation) locales.