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Checkout Rewards, a new gaming rewards program launched by Golden Route Operations (GRO) an affiliate of Golden Gaming (operating PT’s and Sierra Gold Taverns) recently announced three lucky winners of free groceries for a year in its $100,000 Grocery Giveaway.
Checkout Rewards is GRO’s newest gaming rewards program specifically tailored for local grocery store players. The Checkout Rewards slot machines are located in more than 140 locations across Nevada including Albertsons, Smith’s, Vons, CVS, Safeway, WinCo Foods, and SaveMart.
This Friday, Checkout Rewards will be launching “$40,000 Road to Riches.” Players can win a 2013 Ford Mustang and gas cards at each grocery store. The promotion will conclude Oct. 31.
Fiesta Henderson
Free Wine Gift Days will be held on Thursdays from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Earn 300 points and receive a free bottle of wine. Earn 700 points to receive a second bottle. On Thursday, the featured wine will be Columbia Crest Two Vines Chardonnay. Coming Sept. 20, Columbia Crest Two Vines Merlot and Sept. 27, Santa Cristina Pinot Grigio.
Chairman, President and Platinum Boarding Pass members automatically receive their first bottle for free and need only earn 300 points for a second bottle.
Rampart
The Summerlin casino is celebrating the debut of its new revamped slot club card with a $150,000 Resort Rewards Giveaway. Ten players throughout the month can win up to $10,000 at each drawing every Saturday at 7 and 8 p.m. A final $15,000 grand prize drawing will be held Sept. 29. Earn one entry for every 100 points with a Resort Rewards card and receive double entries Mondays through Thursdays.
Table games players can earn entries too, with one entry for one hour of play at $10 bet or equivalent. T-shirts are available while they last when picking up a new card at the player’s club booth.
The ‘D’
From Sept. 1- 29, the former Fitzgerald’s downtown is offering a month-long contest culminating in Bikefest. The grand prize winner gets a brand new Harley Davidson Street Glide FLXH. Players can earn tickets to enter the raffle-style contest all month playing slots and table games.
The “Play to Ride” drawing takes place Sunday, Sept. 30 at 10:30 a.m. in the Showroom. Entrants need not be present to win. Many additional great prizes will be awarded to those who in attendance at the final drawing including: two $1,000 Harley Davidson gift cards, two $1,000 gas gift cards, two prizes of $1,000 non-taxable play-till-you-lose promo chips, two prizes of $1,000 free slot play, an autographed Sammy Hagar guitar, one $500 Harley Davidson gift card, one $500 gas gift card and $500 non-taxable play-till-you-lose promo chips.
El Cortez
A big promotion this month will be a free play giveaway. Players winning a jackpot of $200 or more on a slot machine, a $200 or more jackpot on a video poker five-cent or lower denomination machine, a $300 or more jackpot on a video poker ten-cent or high denomination machine or a $200 or more jackpot on live keno will receive $10 to $1,000 in free play.
All jackpot winners will also receive an entry into the weekly Saturday night 40” LCD HDTV giveaway and $2,000 cash prize drawing. Visit Club Cortez for additional info.
Silverton
The Hotel/Casino invites those in the valley to experience a taste of Italy at the 33rd Annual San Gennaro Feast. The six day feast, which pays homage to Italian heritage, will feature authentic dishes from cannolis to meatballs and everything in between as well as amusement rides, games and entertainment for the whole family. The event boasts more than 15 main stage entertainers, including local favorites, Tony Sacca, Tony DeBruno and Enzo Selvaggi. The festival opens at 4 p.m. Tuesday and runs through this Saturday.
Until next week…good luck and good gaming!

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I don’t think there is a game in the casino more misunderstood than video poker. Even in the days when slots were mechanical, most people considered video poker to just be another slot machine, but one with a computer screen.
I think many people just think it was too hard to create a mechanical machine using cards, so they digitized it all, but it still plays like a slot machine – all because the hardware looks roughly the same. It is not the hardware that makes the game.
This past week I met a gentleman who told me he likes to play keno slots. I have to be honest and say I had no idea what he was talking about. He explained he picks a certain amount of numbers from 1 to 80. The machine picks 20 numbers and he gets paid if the 20 picked includes at least some amount of the ones he picked.
I politely looked at him and said there is nothing “slots” about what he just described. He simply was playing keno in video version, hence it is called “video keno.” He was playing the exact same game as if he was playing in a keno parlor marking the little pieces of paper and handing them to the scantily clad woman.
Ironically, the video version of keno tends to pay higher than the old fashioned version because the player can play far more hands per hour. I explained to this man that the machine pulls 20 completely random numbers and throws them onto the board. It does not decide ahead of time that you will hit three of the eight you marked and then decide which numbers to pull to make that happen.
This is in essence the very difference between a slot machine and a video keno machine or a video poker machine or a video blackjack machine. In the latter three games, the machine uses a random number generator to decide which card to deal or which ball to draw. You win or lose based on the specific cards/balls it randomly draws.
In a slot machine, the machine first determines whether you will win or lose. If you are to win, it will decide how much you will win and set the symbols in the appropriate fashion. If you are to lose, it will decide exactly which symbols to show you – always a losing combination – but potentially set up to make you feel like you almost won.
Over the years, when I’ve been asked what I do for a living and explain I analyze casino games, a frequent follow up question is do I do it for live games or electronic games. Since the majority of my work is in table games my response is usually just that, but I tell them it really doesn’t matter what medium the game is in.
As long as the game is using essentially a random deck of cards (or ping pong balls) where each card has an equal chance of appearing, it does not matter if you are playing a game with a real live dealer at a casino on an electronic multi-player table, on a stand-alone machine in the casino or playing at home on some software.
Video blackjack has existed for years in the casino. It was not always easy to find, but many players relished the idea of playing for only $1 per hand and having the same experience (well, mathematically) as playing at a live table. I would certainly understand those who feel playing on your own machine is not as sociable as playing at a table, but that’s not a mathematical difference.
In the past few years, many casinos have added multi-player electronic versions of popular table games (i.e. Shuffle Master’s TableMaster games). These games play identically to the live games. There are times when for one reason or another the casino chooses to employ different pay tables, but the probabilities of winning a hand or losing a hand or being dealt a particular hand remains the same.
Any changes to the payback as a result of pay table changes cannot be sneaked past the player. These payouts must all be visible on the machine. Because the digital cards are as random as real cards, we can always calculate the exact payback of any of these games based on the pay table.
While the name “slot machine” presumably comes from the different slots the wheels are in (well, were in when they were mechanical), and there is a little bit of similarity in the notion that video poker cards are in slots in the machine as well, this is where the similarity ends.
The critical difference between games like video poker and slots is that in video poker your cards are determined randomly and you win or lose based on the pattern of these cards. With slots, whether you win or lose is determined by the machine and then you are presented with symbols to match the pre-determined outcome.
Slots could never be replicated on a live table, but games like video poker, video keno and video blackjack are (or could be).

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Downtown Las Vegas has been undergoing a metamorphosis for the past few years – modernized from being “Old Vegas” to a more up to date and hip Fremont Street without losing its historical feel.
For better and worse there’s no more burnt felt on the El Cortez blackjack tables. The Fremont Street Experience lights up much of downtown Vegas now where you’ll see bands performing on three different stages for free and people “ziplining” above your head. Downtown Vegas is a pretty magical experience bordering on sensory overload.
One thing that hasn’t changed is the gambling. While the Strip has changed many of the traditional gambling odds and rules in their favor, downtown is where gamblers can go to play the casino games they love and get the fair odds they remember.
On Oct. 13, the D Hotel and Casino (formerly Fitzgerald’s) will be celebrating their Grand Opening. While the casino floor has been brought up to today’s party standards with loud music, girls dancing in between table games and the longest bar in Nevada called Long Bar, the casino is also boasting about their traditional great gambling.
Blackjack
While many casinos on the Strip will only offer lower limits blackjack that pays out 6 to 5 ($6 for every $5 wagered) for getting blackjack, the D and most other casinos downtown offer a 3:2 payout. With all rules being equal, 6:5 blackjack has a house edge of almost 2% on an 8-deck shoe (1.93318% with perfect play to be exact), while paying 3:2 gives the house less than a .6% (.57519% with perfect play).
Cutting the house edge by almost two-thirds is smart. Every casino and every table is different so make sure you look at the rules before playing.
Craps
In addition to a good blackjack game, the D hotel has introduced craps with 10x odds. Odds bets can be placed behind your pass line bet or on your Come bet. Most craps games you’ll find on the Las Vegas Strip have 3-4-5x odds where you can place 3x odds on 4 or 10, 4x odds on 5 or 9 or 5x odds on a 6 or 8 being rolled.
No matter the odds, craps has one of the lowest house edges in a casino. The 3-4-5x odds gives the Strip casino a small house edge at 0.00374% while the D and some other downtown casinos with 10x odds only have a house edge of 0.00184.
Playing craps downtown can cut the house edge in half. Just be aware that not all downtown casinos offer 10x craps odds. Across the street from the D, the Fremont Hotel only has 2x odds for their $3 craps game. Much like blackjack, check the rules of the table before playing.
Video Poker
It’s not too difficult to find video poker games downtown that will return over 100% with perfect play. That’s right, over the long term there are some video poker games, such as Loose Deuces Wild, that will theoretically return more money than you put in.
High rollers on the Strip will be able to find some decent video poker offerings, but the quarter player is usually looking at a 7/5 Bonus Poker with returns of 98% as their best option.
The limits at the downtown casinos begin as low as a nickel for video poker and $3 for a game of craps or blackjack. The low limits at the table games bring out many novices learning to gamble so if you feel that your game may be adversely effected by other players, you may want to play a higher limit game. The odds never get worse when you risk more money.

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Every year the casino and gaming industry travels to Las Vegas for their annual conference called the Global Gaming Expo (G2E).
The conference brings together casinos from around the country with the manufacturers of the games and amenities that fill the resorts we all enjoy.
Discussing the inner workings of the casino business may be interesting to some but, business talk aside, the most interesting parts of G2E are what’s coming in the near future. Vendors include anything from the manufacturer that provides the kiosk for football contests to new games we’ll see in the casino.
Slot machines are the most prominent item found at G2E. Since slots take up more space on the casino floor than any other game it makes sense they occupy much of the Expo area. The trend of building movies and television show themes into slot machines has been growing over the past few years but this idea may have reached its apex.
The bulk of the slot machines on display were based on mainstream entertainment themes. While most of these themed games were new, there are also versions of some of the most popular slots. Here are many of the new slot machine themes we can look forward to seeing on the casino floor in 2013:
Movies: Willy Wonka and The Chocolate Factory,
Spider Man,
The Godfather,
Wizard of Oz (multiple new versions),
Star Wars (new version),
Lord of the Rings 3 – Return of the King,
Top Gun 2.
TV shows: Pawn Stars, Family Guy, Cheers, CSI: Video Slots, Judge Judy, Betty Boop (new version), Sex in the City (new version).
Musicians: Michael Jackson, Beach Boys, KISS, Dolly Parton.
Other games/sports: Zuma, NASCAR, Bejeweled, Wheel of Fortune (new versions), Monopoly (new versions), Yahtzee (new version).
Don’t worry if you’re looking for a slot machine that’s a little different. There were hundreds more new ones introduced with their own original themes such as Kung Fu Pig and Franken Mama.
These new slot machines may be the most fun games in the casino, but they will also offer the worst odds of any in the casino. These theme slots are more geared toward being fun video games than ones of chance that will provide a positive value for your bankroll.
As a general rule, the higher the denomination the slot machine you play the better the payout. A $5 slot machine will return a better percentage than a $1, which returns more than a quarter machine and so on. For example, a $5 slot machine will return approximately 96% over time, while a 5-cent slot only about 89%.
Most state gaming regulation agencies have payback percentages available.
It’s important to remember the bright lights, loud noises and familiar themes will rarely offer good returns. Gambling is fun and so is winning money, but the two don’t always go together on the slot floor. This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t play games for fun, but knowing the expected results should keep you in a positive frame of mind to let the good times roll.

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Bally Technologies’ presence at G2E, the annual Gaming Expo, was impressive with one of the largest display areas at the show.
The company recently won top honors in the 2013 Gaming & Technology Awards for its Elite Bonusing Suite, continuing a streak that has seen the company win more than 40 innovation awards the past three years.
Casinos utilizing the Elite Bonusing Suite are able to reward players’ right at their machine while playing their favorite games, thanks to the iVIEW display and iVIEW Display Manager. In Las Vegas we can see this new technology in place being featured at South Point Casino.
For example, in recent months players have been able to activate a virtual horse race or a NASCAR race, while still playing their favorite game, for a chance to win extra slot play betting on their favorites for the outcome. The NASCAR-themed car racing event lets players choose their favorite from eight famous drivers and cheer him across the finish line.
NASCAR is also the theme for one of Bally’s newest slot machines, expected to be a huge hit with players on the casino floor. The game will offer a linked wide-area progressive as the top jackpot. Other features include surround sound action chairs and bonus rounds that include a Pit Stop Pick’em Bonus, Burn Out Free Games with U-Spin and introducing a new “you race” that allows players to simulate steering and directing the car during the bonus.
NASCAR fans will love the audio roaring of the engines and tires spinning and the video of many of their favorite drivers. The game is expected to hit the Las Vegas area casinos by June 2013.
Las Vegas locals will be happy to see our local celebrities become even more famous when the new Pawn Stars slots debut this coming January. The game will be a non-progressive with a top award of 7,500 credits x line bet x denomination and bonus features that include a U-Aim Bonus and a Free Games Bonus.
Pirates Quest is a new interactive penny slot video game that will debut in early spring, 2013. The game is 5 reels, 40 lines with up to 400 credits for max bet. In the bonus round, players can point and fire their cannon at ships to down targets and earn more credits. Games of this type are a “perceived skill” and not an actual skill, but it makes the new interactive games much more fun to play.
Sumo Kitty, being introduced this spring, is a comical game depicting two large fat cats squaring off in the bonus rounds. This game will feature the “Super Hot Zones” made popular with other similar Bally games already in the market.
Other games coming out in 2013, all beginning at the penny level, include Texas Dice, Triple Trouble, Instant Riches, Golden Empire. A new version of the Playboy series will be out soon too, called Playboy Prize Ball, simulating an old-fashion-style pinball game in the bonus rounds.
My new personal favorite is a Beach Boys game. It will feature three local area jackpot progressives. At the show you can set up demos to have the machines do pretty much whatever you want them to do. So I set up mine to give me some huge payouts and watched the screen go nuts blasting out Beach Boys Wild symbols while I was rockin’ to the music in my surround sound chair! Great fun!
Bally Technologies, is the oldest slot manufacturing company in the world. It was founded in 1932 by Raymond T. (Ray) Moloney and was created as the arm of parent company Lions Manufacturing Corporation to develop a small, but highly profitable pinball game called the “Ballyhoo.”
Today, the company’s primary technologies include gaming devices for land-based, riverboat and Native American casinos, video lottery and central determination markets, and specialized system-based hardware and software products.
As players, we just love the games!

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Another G2E has come and gone. This always leads to me getting questions about this year’s show from my friends.
They want to know how it was. On one hand, I had fun walking through the Sands Expo looking at all the vendor booths. On the other, I can’t really say it was a mind blowing adventure the way a Consumer Electronics show can be.
For those who have never attended, you need to understand that a relatively small percent of the show floor is taken up by the stuff the player actually pays attention to (at least consciously).
The first time I attended, I was amazed by how many vendors there were that dealt with the stuff players clearly use but undoubtedly take for granted – chairs, tables, neon signs, artwork, slot machine cabinetry, TITO machines, etc.
These are all very necessary parts of a modern casino, but I doubt very many people can tell you the name of the company that makes the chair they are sitting on when they play video poker.
Taking up a fair amount of space at the show are all the slot machines. As I typed that, I almost subconsciously wrote “video games.” I’ll get back to that in a second.
IGT, Bally’s, WMS, Konami (my apologies for leaving any others out) all have large booths where you can try out their latest offerings in the slot machine world. If you’ve stepped into a casino in the past decade, you are well aware of the movement toward creating themes for the games such as a popular movie series, TV show or pop culture character.
Internally, the games might be nearly identical, but change up a symbol of Batman for one with Luke Skywalker and voila, you’ve taken care of both a Batman and a Star Wars slot machine.
But, it no longer stops there. Get into a bonus round and your mission is to destroy the Death Star. I’m not really sure how much control the player has over what happens in the Bonus Round, but while I was walking through these booths I had to hand it to the developers
The lines have been so blurred between slot machines and video games that it is almost hard to tell them apart. While watching the Star Wars ones, I wanted to run home and tell my 5 year old (who is very fond of Star Wars Legos) about this new game I saw; and I thought about how much he would love to see it.
Then it hit me; the only place he could see it would be in a casino in the year 2028 when he would be able to legally play it.
By that time it will probably be in 3-D with full motion. Uh oh, I might’ve spoken too soon because I also saw one slot machine that had motion seats. The seats actually vibrate depending on what happens in the game!
For those who read my column on a regular basis (or even occasionally), you know my thoughts on slot machines. The paybacks are not good, too much is unknown and I desperately try to steer players in a different direction.
Of course, my readers also know I consider casino gambling to be a form of entertainment. If you’re not having any fun, then you shouldn’t be playing. Given this, I can’t deny many people will consider playing slots a lot of fun.
No matter what characters you like, there is a good chance you can find them in the casino (thankfully, I have yet to see any Disney or Peanuts themed slot machines). So, now you can play with some of your favorite characters and you’re not just watching reels go around.
You can play a simplistic and very graphical video game for your enjoyment. The big downside is your money will still be leaving your bankroll at a faster pace than most any other casino game.
What I also found rather interesting is that through the years the slot concepts have never been added to the video poker machines. To the best of my knowledge, there are no video poker games with themes. How come no one has simply taken a deck of cards and added popular movie characters/themes to them?
Imagine a Joker’s Wild video poker machine. The Joker is Darth Vader. The King is Luke Skywalker. The Queen is Princess Leah. There’s Hans Solo as the Jack. Before you hit the draw button, the machine says “May the force be with you, always.”
Why don’t really cool bonus rounds exist in video poker? Maybe anytime you’re dealt a Natural Straight or better, you enter a bonus round and Superman has to take out the bad guy. If he succeeds you win $500.
While walking through some of the booths, I saw some newer twists on video poker, but the machine itself was essentially the same as the ones we already have in the casinos. Why all the bells and whistles (or graphics and moving chairs) for slot machines only?
I have a few theories on why things are the way they are. The first is that video poker players would not be impressed by all this extra stuff. In fact, many would consider it to be a distraction. In other words, video poker players are there to play the game. They take it seriously and that’s what entertains them.
Slot players prefer the games with no strategy and thus need the entertainment to entertain them. The game by itself isn’t enough.
The second theory is more of a conspiracy one (but they seem to be in vogue nowadays), which I have to admit is a bit more farfetched (I hope). Casinos make a lot less money with video poker machines than they do with slots.
As such, they don’t want to make video poker as enticing anymore and all the innovation is going into slot machines in the hope of regaining all that casino floor space the video poker machines have taken up in the past two decades.
After more than 20 years of my father and I telling people to break the slot habit, it would appear the Empire may have finally struck back!

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