Pass line craps at full odds at the El Cortez, 600 Fremont St.
Prudent slot club play
Deuces wild video poker
By John L. Smith
Review-Journal
You know the name of the game in Las Vegas.
It's time you learned to play it.
Finding a place to gamble in Southern Nevada is easy. Being a smart, value-oriented gambler takes a little more effort. Learning the best bargains in the house may not make you rich, but it is sure to make the experience more pleasurable.
Asian high rollers and Texans with untold millions need read no further. This story is for those of you ‹ and there are a lot of you ‹ who want to increase your fun-per-hour quotient in the casino to its maximum potential.
Max Rubin knows what you're after. In his book, "Comp City," the third-generation casino man served up the skinny on the gambling industry's often-confusing complimentary privilege policies, or comps. Next to learning blackjack's basic strategy, understanding comps automatically increases your fun quotient.
"Seek out the places with the most liberal comp policies," Rubin says. "The absolute best value you can get is at Binion's Horseshoe playing 21, where because of the rules your expected loss is a little more than 1/10th of 1 percent. For every $10 wagered, your expected loss is a penny. They deal single deck, allow you to double down on any two cards, and they're very free with comps. Virtually anybody betting $5 or more gets comped."
Another venerable downtown casino, Jackie Gaughan's El Cortez, offers an inexpensive way to roll dice with quarter craps. Playing the pass line and taking full odds enables players to be taken to school without being taken to the cleaners.
"If you take full odds, your expected loss is almost nothing," Rubin says.
Before you write off low-rolling as beneath you, take a tip from gambling maven David Sklansky, whose eight popular books on the subject have assisted thousands in getting the most for their money.
"Many people don't realize this, but a serious $1 slot player is often afforded more respect than a black chip ($100 per hand) blackjack player," Sklansky says, explaining that on a 97 percent-return machine a $1 slot player loses approximately $50 per hour.
"There are two routine ways to gamble in the casino where you actually have a slight edge," he says. "One is the video poker machine that pays back over 100 percent, although it's only very slightly over 100 percent. This assumes that you are playing the hands dealt almost perfectly, something most people don't know how to do. It also factors in the royal flush jackpot. The royal flush jackpot, if it wasn't hit, you would be playing below 100 percent.
"Counting cards at blackjack also gives a slight percentage edge to the player, but, again, not everyone can do that."
Short of that, take to the pass line and grab all the available odds on the craps table, Sklansky says.
But remember, "Other bets on the craps table offer far worse odds."
Although sports betting puts the player at a 4 percent disadvantage, one $10 wager in effect buys the average football fan three hours of entertainment and sometimes includes a free drink or T-shirt.
If you hate sports but like to play, "Las Vegas Advisor Guide to Slot Clubs" author Jeffrey Compton suggests answering one question first: "Do you have more time than money, or more money than time? In other words, the player who has more money than time doesn't like to play a lot but wants a huge hit. He's looking for big bonus machines. Joe Player should look for the machine with the smallest jackpot. You'll stay longer in the game. The casinos have all this figured out. If Joe goes to the casino with $200, what is the maximum amount of time he's going to play before he loses his money? If he plays four hours instead of 20 minutes, what does that mean? Joe probably had a good time."
For video poker, Compton recommends players study the machines, read the pay schedules. One of his favorites: full-pay deuces wild quarter machines, which played perfectly yield 100.7 percent payback.
There's something else.
"Always join a slot club," he says. "Don't put a quarter into a machine if you have not joined a slot club. If the casino doesn't have one, find out what the comp policy is for players."
"Frugal Gambler" author Jean Scott, a value maven who CBS' "48 Hours" called the "queen of casino comps," echoes Compton's sentiments. She recommends players always take advantage of casino coupons and join tournaments, where the "investment" is the same but the benefits are greater.
Adds Compton, "The bottom line is, play for fun. The average person should do it for fun. Learn to play it the best you can and get the maximum enjoyment by getting the maximum benefits the casino has to offer through a slot club or its comps. You're going to lose your money, but you'll have a lot more fun losing your money."
