Total Rewards Money in the Mail

[Alan Mendelson]

total Rewards is sending out promotions I never saw before, like the one I got in the mail today. A free play slot machine ticket for one of the Caesars properties in Las Vegas that I don't play at.

No strings attached either. They just want me to check out their casino, and they sent me a letter with a $150 free play ticket.

I don't have to check into the hotel either, and I have about three months to use the ticket before it expires.

Usually free play offers come with strings like -- stay a night or stay two nights.

I just wonder now if the other gaming companies will follow this lead? This could be fun.

[Rob.Singer]

It will be fun if you're able to just play it thru once, cash out with whatever you are ahead, and leave. Most don't because they can't, and that is why this hook was sent out as I'm sure you know. I've received many such freeplay tickets over the years so it's not something new to the Harrahs system, but they were all from all the Harrahs around the country that I've been to. Some I never even played at--just had them stamp that passport they send out. What I've always done with all that freeplay since I was only passing thru for free nights on motoring vacations, is send the tickets and my card with PIN to someone I knew within striking distance, and they did whatever they wanted with it.

[redietz]

Well, I hope I'm on the list. Playing at an idiot property like Cherokee occasionally may get me in their sights.

[Rob.Singer]

I've been to Cherokee 4 times (my wife's parents live in Asheville) and that's one place I've never heard from.

[Alan Mendelson]

Rob, here's a related question which I posted on another forum:

Here's the situation:

If you are given an amount of free play, and your objective is to cash out as much money as possible after playing the free play through once, which of the three games would you choose:

Game A: 7/5 Bonus Poker at the $2 denomination

Game B: 8/5 Bonus Poker at the $5 denomination

Game C: 7/5 Bonus Poker at the $1 denomination

8/5 Bonus is not available below the $5 denominaton.

I don't know if the dollar-value of the fee play matters, but for discussion purposes let's say the value of the free play is $2,000.

So, which of the three games would you "play through" the $2,000 to get the best chance at bringing home cash? I am limiting the choices to Bonus for no particular reason except that it has lower volatility that Double Double Bonus, but has higher volatility than Jacks.

My inital plan would be to play the 8/5 Bonus game beause of the higher payback, and accepting that I would have fewer hands to play. The goal is to only play through the money once. If the goal were to play longer, then I would play $1 or even quarters to extend the "life of the play" but that is not the goal here.

On the other hand I would not play 8/5 Bonus at the $10 or higher levels because of the short number of plays.

[redietz]

Wow, small world. I have an old, old friend who's assistant DA in Asheville. Rob, I know you're a far righty, but you'd be to her left. Hope you got a chance to check out the Biltmore estate one of those trips.

It is a really small world; remarkable.

Not so remarkable is we are basically the worst place in the country for spring allergies, and we're setting records right now for pollen counts. Unfortunately, I'm gonna have to get out of here as I get older, because it's almost like having asthma three months of the year.