Casino Reviews

All casinos offer slot cards and they all suggest that each person have their own card to track their play separately. There are several reasons why you really should follow this approach. For example when it comes to cashing in your comp’s, especially free play most people want to play their own free play and not share with their spouse or partner. Also if you win a large jackpot you may need to pay tax on it. The tax slip must be issued to the person that won the jackpot and not necessarily the slot card player. If you need a win loss statement it will only be issued to the person registered on the slot card. A win loss statement can mean that you get a refund on your taxes! Two Slot Cards on One Account is not always the best approach.

Two Slot Cards on One Account

Many couples will ask for two cards in the same name figuring that their points will add up faster. They will receive comp’s faster. While this is true in many casinos, some have decided that this approach is not following their rules. As a result they will discontinue a card if it is not being played in a machine beside the first card. Points are lost and the player loses out on comp’s as a result. If players playing on the same card, are playing adjacent to each other, the casino will usually let this go. If they play on machines that are far apart, the casino may decide that this is really not the same person. They may disallow one or both cards until the player comes to the casino host to discuss the issue.

We suggest that each player have their own card for these reasons. Many casinos will combine two cards if requested to determine comp’s for things like free rooms. Free play and meals are awarded on a card basis only at most casinos.

Many hotels are now charging travel resort fees to cover increased services and expenses. This goes directly to the bottom line and can greatly improve profit levels. These fees cover such services as the morning newspaper. Also free WiFi, access to the gym, and access to the business center. When you add this $10 to $35 cost to the cost of the room, plus a tourist tax, city tax and state tax, your $80 room suddenly costs $120 or more. That is for a relatively inexpensive room. The fees and taxes are much higher at major more expensive hotels in major cities. With many hotels adding these fees and the cost of the fees, it is to everyone’s benefit to figure out how to avoid these extra charges!

Avoiding Travel Resort Fees – Vote With Your Wallet

If you are a frequent traveler let the hotel chain know that you are upset and considering moving to another chain. Staying at hotels that do not charge these fees is another way to vote with your wallet. You can often obtain a hotel room without the travel resort fees, a free breakfast and free parking if you stay on the outskirts of a city instead of downtown. You may still need to pay a tourist tax, city tax and state tax, but at least you escape the dreaded resort fee tax.

Avoiding Travel Resort Fees – Frequent Travelers

These people who stay in hotels over 100 days a year can sometimes turn their patronage into discounts of various types in addition to receiving free rooms. By the way free rooms should not include any taxes, including travel resort fees.

Casino hotels routinely add resort fees to the cost of a room, unless you complain and negotiate the cost of a room and fees ahead of time. Always ask about the fees, what are included and if you do not need these services, ask for the services to be removed. You may not always be successful, but it does send a message especially if you do not plan to return.

Here are eight approaches to avoiding a surprise when you check out and / or eliminating the travel resort fee:

• Read the fine print before booking.
• Use hotel search engines that include all fees in their price comparisons.
• Be creative.
• Scrutinize your proposed hotel bill when checking in.
• Review your hotel bill before checking out.
• Be nice.
• Dispute any fee you weren’t told about in advance.
• Finally, complain to the corporation levying the fee.

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When can I get the best casino comp’s? The answer is pretty straight forward and only requires a little flexibility in terms of when you travel and a little effort on your part. First and foremost you must be a casino slot card member. Inserting this card into the slot machine when you are playing will ensure that the casino knows you are playing, how long you are playing and how much money you actually gamble with. Based on these statistics, they will offer you a variety of casino comp’s which can include free meals, free rooms, free play and even transportation if you are a high roller. Once you have accumulated points etc, the trick is to know when to use them to maximize your return in terms of casino comp’s.

When Can I Get the Best Casino Comp’s

the absolute best time to maximize your casino comp’s is when they are not too busy. For example, one casino with a hotel attached to it is experiencing a slow period right now. A combination of the weather, the fact that there are no meetings or conferences going on all contribute to a low occupancy rate in the hotel and not many people in the casino. This is the best time to score a free room, maybe a couple of free meals etc, because they want to get people coming to the casino and gambling.

The worst time to go to a casino in terms of comp’s is when the hotel is full of convention attendees. One time we tried to book a room during a major conference and not only were we not comp’d for the room, they wanted to charge us $700 a night because they only had a few rooms left. This is for a room that normally sold for $100 a night and was normally comp’d during slower periods. It really pays to time your visit with the slower periods if you want to maximize your comp’s and save money for what you really like to do and that is gambling.

There are many different kinds of Video poker slot machines, however one I enjoy playing is deuces wild, multi hand poker. You are dealt one hand and then you decide which cards you want to keep for all of the other hands. Once you have selected the cards that you wish to keep, you press deal to draw new cards for those positions you did not hold.

Video poker slot machines

The picture above shows a real, if not unusual hand where I was dealt four deuces! Obviously I held the deuces which is shown on this picture and was paid 1000 credits per hand. This was a very jackpot even if I was only betting nickels! Note that for 10 hands the total bet is $2.50, which is not a shabby bet.

Video poker can be a lot of fun however like most games sometimes you win and sometimes you don’t. This particular hand paid for our trip. It is one of the reasons I enjoy playing this game so much. When you do win a nice hand the payout is fairly large.

In this case you are playing 10 hands so you are betting ten times the normal amount, but when it pays it really pays well. The obvious trick is to get a really good paying hand dealt to you in the beginning which you then hold! Deuces wild ten handed video poker paid 10,000 credits !

A variation on this game is when there is a random multiplier that appears on the screen. In addition to winning whatever comes up on the screen the random multiplier will multiply the amount. This amount can vary from two times to as much as ten times your winnings. I have yet to win a large hand with a multiplier. One of these days there will be a large jackpot in my future!

If you have any flexibility in planning your vacation, the best time to visit casino hotels is whenever they are not busy. This is usually between conventions, off season time frames, and during weather events. If you are looking for an inexpensive vacation and have the flexibility in terms of when you go to Vegas, Biloxi, Laughlin, Tunica, or Atlantic City, this is the best time to get a deal. Combine timing with your slot or table play and you can most likely be comp’d for rooms, meals, and even be provided free play to gamble with. Casinos without hotels attached to them are at a bit of a disadvantage in this regard since they can only provide meal comp’s, free play, and sometimes free tickets to shows if they have that kind of venue.

Best Time to Visit Casino Hotels – Play where you Want to Stay

My wife and I have this discussion a great deal. There are some casinos where she feels that she is luckier or likes the ambiance of the casino better. She would rather spend time at these casinos compared to some others. Sometimes they have hotels associated with them and sometimes it is just a casino and a couple of restaurants.

The basic message is that if you like to stay at a particular casino with a hotel and want to receive comp’s for free rooms at this hotel then you had better spend some time playing the slots or the tables at this casino. They will notice this amount of play through their tracking system and aim to get you coming back again and again. If you are wondering how casinos make these decisions, there are a number of factors that go into the analysis. Each casino will attach more or less importance to some areas than others to make their final ranking, however, the bottom line is to spend time in the casino you want to stay at.

Some of the factors that the casino marketing people look at when making these decisions are as follows:

• Time spent playing at slot machines and tables
• Amount of average bet per hour
• Speed of betting
• Win loss ratio
• How often do you come to the casino
• Do you live far away  from the casino
• How much do you play in terms of time and money each visit
• What games do you play
• Comp’s already received and used.

There may be other factors, but these are the main areas that are assessed.