Page 17 - July 2003 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Queen of the Ziplock Bag Sby Jean Scott
ome years ago a friend once saw me empty out my shoulder bag after I had completed a day long visit to many casinos. He remarked that I gave new meaning to the phrase “everything but the kitchen sink.” Since we live in Las Vegas (and are getting older and slowing down a
bit), we don’t do those all-day “death marches” the length of the Strip like we did when we were visitors without a car. But we still like to get our daily exercise, so we often park our car and visit a cluster of casinos.
Comfort items. Although many casinos have packages of moist towelettes at cashier cages and change booths, you often can’t nd them quickly when you really need them so I carry a supply in my
“comfort” Ziplock. As well as cleaning your hands that may be black from handling coins, they are great to wipe out the coin tray after the last person used it as an ashtray, to clean sticky buttons, or to shine a streaky video screen. I also add a few paper napkins, and a heavy glove to wear to scoop coins—really saves the ngernails. I include an apple or banana in each bag for a healthy snack when we get the munchies, and we never leave without a bottle of water for each of us. And the most important for me is lip balm and hand cream for the dry casino environment.
If you think our tote bags are pretty full when we start off on this casino trek, you ought to see them when we get back home. They have expanded mightily. There are always several new freebie magazines we picked up, casino giveaways, and gift shop items we got with coupons or “bought” with our slot club points.
Start prepared and organized—and you will be surprised at the goodies you can collect in a few hours on a casino run!
Jean Scott is the author of the best-selling book The Frugal Gambler, a casino guide for thrifty low rollers, plus a sequel, More Frugal Gambling, coming out soon. She stresses sensible, responsible gambling and shows how to stretch out casino fun time whatever your gambling bankroll.
I prepare for a “casino safari” with an expandable carryall, expecting to “bag” extra items along the way. And then out come the plastic Ziplock bags, in various sizes, the most important item in organizing our totes. Here are some of the items we pack:
Paperwork. I will use one large plastic bag as a portable “ le,” organizing it with smaller bags. One holds strategy charts for many video poker games — you never know when you might come across one that you usually don’t play. The coupon bag is always full: Cash-back that we need to collect; matchplays; and coupons for free souvenirs, food, and drinks. We won’t end up using them all, but I have them “just in case.” Then I have one small baggie for essentials, like driver’s licenses, credit
cards, and emergency information.
Slot cards. We have a huge inventory of slot (player’s) club cards, so we sort out only ones that we will be passing that day. Although we do not plan
to play at every casino we pass, we never know when we might need our slot cards, and although we could always go to the club booth and get a replacement, that is a bother.
Notebooks. I always carry a small spiral notebook loaded with important information. I have a page (or two) for casinos where we have food comps earned from previous play in our casino bank. Another page lists current promos, gleaned from casino newsletters, the Internet, local newspapers, and freebie tourist magazines (and papers like this). Another section is for individual casino information, such as names of casino hosts, number of points we have, video poker machines with good paytables, and bonusing slot machines to check out. I also have a separate calendar notebook with notes on our gambling for the day; i.e., name of casino, games and time played, win/loss gures, which I transfer to the computer each night while it is still fresh in my mind.
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Wednesday, July 30th
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SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
July 2003 Page 17
Column: The Frugal Gambler