Page 25 - April 2012 • Southern California Gaming Guide

Bob Dancer: Video Poker
Being Restricted
Author’s note: e casino examples in this article are from Las Vegas, where I know the details. e same things can happen in Southern California, and the same “solutions” work.
Both blackjack players and video poker players risk being restricted by casinos—largely for the same thing — which is winning too much. Many casinos view advantage players as highly undesirable, but most let advantage players who are losing continue to play.
ere are a lot of ways to be restricted, and a video poker player being restricted is very di erent from a blackjack player being restricted.
A blackjack player does not have to give his name to play — at least until winnings reach “cash transaction report” levels, usually $10,000. And when a blackjack player does give his name, it’s often given verbally without actual id being checked. So, misspellings of a name, intentionally induced or not, can easily create record-keeping snafus.
When a supervisor comes over and tells a blackjack player he can’t play there anymore, sometimes there is no written record of this. e player can easily come back on a di erent shift and play some more. Preparing for my radio interview with Tommy Hyland, well-known blackjack player, I asked if he’d ever been backed o from the same casino more than ten times. His response was, “Oh yeah, a lot more times than that at a number of casinos. I was even backed o wearing a Santa Claus out t, but I don’t think that counts because they didn’t know who I was at the time.”
Video poker players who get w2gs must produce id. If you want mail from casinos, you must give them your name and address. Since this mail is valuable in many casinos, most video poker players bite the bullet and produce accurate id. When a video poker player gets restricted, there is a good presumption that some record is made in their player account.
Some casinos (South Point for one) actually remove the slot club (players club in California casinos) accounts from those it doesn’t want to play. If you put one of your cards into the machine, it will give you a message telling you to
go to the club booth, at which point you’re paid for all of your existing points and told not to come back.
Some casinos don’t tell you anything. ey just stop sending you mailers. Sometimes when you go to the booth they’ll reinstate you, but not frequently. Sometimes you’ll be told to call up the vice president of marketing to present your case. Good luck. At some casinos (Sam’s Town for one), it’s not that critical for you to lose out on your mailers.
e cash-in-the-mail levels are fairly low, and most of the promotions are open equally to players with and without mailers. At other casinos (Orleans for one) losing your mailer is a show-stopper. ey have 7x or 8x point days that are only open to players with mailers — combined with very tight machines. Without the multipliers, there are no intelligent plays there.
Sometimes they partially restrict you. You can’t participate in drawings, or you can’t play on 3x point days, you can’t play certain machines, or you can’t use your points. ere are a large number of ways you can be restricted, depending on what the marketing department can come up with.
When you get restricted, it’s basically a negotiation between you and casino management how it all turns out. Probably 50% or more of people who get restricted gure they can’t win, and they go along with the casino’s dictates. Of the 50% of the players who at least try to discuss the matter with the casino, perhaps 80% of them are ine ective in getting things changed.
With the understanding that the percentages in the previous paragraph are estimates covering a lot of di erent situations, these numbers imply that 10% of the people
who get restricted can talk their way out of it, or at least talk their way into a lesser restriction. While you can never know whether you’ll be among the 10% or not, in my mind it’s always a good idea to try to talk yourself out of being restricted.
e pro table places to play are relatively few, and losing one to restrictions is a big loss. Plus, once your name is on a restriction list, casino employees sometimes take that list with them when they change jobs. So being on one casino’s restricted list today can transform into being on several casinos’ restricted lists in a year or two.
How you talk yourself out of being restricted is up to you. How is your case di erent from others they are dealing with? How are the numbers they are looking at in your particular case misleading? What do you bring to the table that makes you a particularly desirable customer?
Are there any restrictions you would voluntarily agree to (such as not playing particular machines or limiting your play somehow) which would still give you some of the bene ts at the casino you want? If so, perhaps you can talk them into a lesser restriction. It may well be that what they most want to restrict you from is not something you’re particularly attached to.
Listen to Bob’s radio show Gambling With An Edge, on Thursday evenings 7 to 8 p.m. Pacific Time on radio station 1230 AM in Las Vegas online at klav1230am.com. Dancer’s products may be ordered at bobdancer.com or at 1-800-244-2224 Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Pacific Time.
April 2012
SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA GAMING GUIDE
PAGE 25