Those of us who live in southern Riverside or northern San Diego counties in California, have a lot of choices where to play when we want to gamble: Pechanga, Pala, Pauma , Harrah’s Rincon, Valley View, Sycuan, Viejas, or Barona to name a few. There are even more casinos to the north and to the east of us. When I have the urge to share my retirement checks with the local Native American tribes — which is way more often than is really wise I’m afraid — I can choose either a short 11 mile drive from where I live to Pechanga - or I can make a long drive 67 miles from my home to Barona or one of the other SD casinos 70 or 80 miles away. Or I could decide to try someplace entirely new 40 or 50 miles the other direction such as Soboba or Morango or San Manuel or something near Palm Springs. Living in Southern California is both a blessing and a curse if you like to gamble.
Because Pechanga has not been lucky for us in the past, my husband and I usually pass on the short trip to Pechanga and set out on the 40 mile trip toward Valley View instead: south down HWY 5, then east on HWY 76, and finally a short jaunt farther to Valley Center Road. Why? Because along HWY 76 we also pass Pala (19 miles), Pauma (24 miles), and Harrah’s (29 miles) on the way to Valley View (40 miles.) There are comps to collect at them all, and if the machines at one casino are cold, they may be warmer at the one 10 miles farther down the road.
Gambling on the reservations is not as convenient as gambling in Vegas or Reno or Atlantic City where there’s another gambling hall just down the street, but it’s better than being at the mercy of just one tribe that is not required to publish or regulate its payback percentages because of tribal sovereignty. The tribes all try to give back as much as they can. They know Vegas is just a short plane ride away. But they have to keep as much as they can too to have the money fulfill their compacts with the State and their contracts with their managing companies.
There was a lengthy article on a recent slot-hold study in one of the magazines (Casino Journal) that I picked up at G2E. And, not surprisingly, there was a lot of praise in the article for the Barona experience.
First the study results. Analyzing payout percentage trends in 15 states, the study found that that the slot hold percentage increased by 6.2% from 2007 to the present. I’m sure that doesn’t surprise any of you. We’re all playing more and winning less. But not only are we losing more of our money, we are losing it four times faster. The speed of play would cause players to deplete their bankroll quicker ---- even if the hold percentages were to remain constant…which they haven’t. According to the Casino Journal article, “when you had to pull the handle and wait for the coins, it was about one play every 10 or 12 seconds. Now it’s one play every three seconds, or sometimes every two seconds. If its three seconds, that’s 20 pulls per minute. If it’s $3 a pull, you’re going through $60 per minute.”
UNLV’s Center for Gaming innovation says the cost of playing quarter slot and video poker machines was $20 per hour 20 years ago. Today it’s $125 per hour, a six fold increase. So, putting two and two together, most of the rising cost of game play has to do with speed of play, but tight machines are making things worse than they otherwise would be.
Another factor is higher max bets. Some gamblers believe you have to bet the max to trigger the features a game offers. Once the only bet higher than 3 coins was video poker, with 5 coins. Now players are playing faster and they are spending more money to do it. The worst change is the number of coins required to play. You can play a 50-line game with one coin per line, which is 50 cents, or you can bet max and 10 coins for $5 a pull. And they call these “penny games!” When we first played penny games, bets were 12, !5, 20, or 25 cents a pull, and we thought long and hard before raising our bet to a quarter.
Today there are holds of 10-12 percent on these lower denomination “penny” games. Higher denomination games might hold only 3%. When you’re playing penny games you’re paying 12% to play that same title. You make your bets and suddenly your money is gone. Sometimes it’s gone because you decide to bet max thinking it will improve your wins. Sometimes it’s gone because you are low rolling but the casino is keeping a bigger percentage of your money. Sometimes there is no way to win it seems. The casinos don’t think the player can tell the difference when they tighten their machines. But we can. And we will talk about it, write about it, blog about it — and there will be a slow and steady exit from the tighter property to the looser one — if there is a looser one.
What’s a casino to do? How can they win back these decliners and defectors? One way would be to let us win more often.
The CJ article talked about the successful result of revamping a video poker experience at a Vegas bar to film the reality show Bar Rescue. At the time the bar was selected, its best offer was a terrible 6:5 pay schedule, a 96% game. Immediately the bar rescuers put in a couple of 100%+ games, and they put them on quarters and 50 cents rather than dollars. They chose two of the most difficult games to play correctly Loose Deuces and 10/7 Double Bonus. An expert player might be able to make a average of $12 an hour on those games. The rest of the games - Bonus Poke, Double Double, Keno - were set at 95%. There were also some middle games like 9/6 Jacks or Better. The machines were advertised as the loosest video poker machines of any bar in Vegas - and within a week, volume had doubled, within a month volume was up 5 times. Structure some games so there’s a chance to win, and players will come they found. The games don’t all have to be winners - just enough loose machines that players think they might pick the lucky VP game to play. The same is true of slots — they don’t all have to be winners. But there have to be enough winners that we have a chance to pick the lucky machine to play sometimes.
I always smile when I read articles on gambling, and they suggest playing at the banks marked 95% payback. It makes me wonder sometime if these bloggers have every gambled in a California Native American casino. In the decade or more that my husband and have gambled at the locals close to where we live, we have never seen a sign advertising any payback percentage. Sometimes a machine will have a handmade sign on it advertising a good jackpot the machine has recently paid - but never a percentage figure.
The Barona Experience
Dennis Conrad concludes the discussion in the October issue of Casino Journal by sharing some of what Barona has done to earn the title of Southern California’s best casino with the area’s loosest slot in local gambling papers. None of this information is based on my personal experience - my husband does not like to drive 67 miles each way to gamble, and I gave up driving when I left Indiana. I have only played at Barona once, for close to an hour. But when you hear the same praise for the same casino where ever you turn, you feel there must be something to it — where’s there’s smoke there’s fire they say.
How did Barona get its reputation as the best place to play in Southern California? First, Conrad says, Barona reduced the hold percentages on its machines. Not on all of them. But they have great video poker schedules. They have “manufacturer’s bests” where they have asked manufacturers to verify for customers that the game they have on Barona’s floor is the best pay table they offer. They promote the fact that they’re been voted “Loosest Slots in Market.” And they have no ATM fees.
They have created a value package without any general brand advertising. That provides about $10 million in savings that they have to spend on their customers. One example is having executives walk around with $20 vouchers going up to strategically identified players saying “I see it’s your birthday,” of “I see you haven’t been winning in the last hour,” or “You haven’t been here in a while.” I get e-mails from Barona based on the single visit I made there one Mother’s Day telling me the casino is giving out 5x or 10x points because it’s raining or the temperature is is the 90’s or some other excuse to come and play. I watched a slot video posted by Beam Me Up Slotty filmed at Barona last year where the staff was celebrating the filmer’s birthday with song and chocolate cake. That’s a little different from those casinos who make you feel like a felon if you even film your game on your cell phone.
A lot of you gamble in Southern California. What do you think? Does Barona live up to its hype? Do you find its machines are noticeably better to you than its competitors’ slots? What would it take to get you to drive the extra distance to check it out?
Happy Thanksgiving to you all.
Here’s an oldie to help you celebrate the holiday.
Turkey Shoot
