I play roughly $500k coin-in per year playing video poker in Atlantic City. I play only 9/6 JOB, mostly at the $1 level, which should give me an average loss of $2,300/year, much of which can be made up with comps (especially when there are multipliers and converted to slot play at CZR), plus it's nice to get comped rooms and free food and some other small gifts, sometimes gift cards. 9/6 JOB can get you close to break even on average by taking advantage of the offers, although admittedly the theoretical break-even is more difficult with all of the casino cutbacks on rewards.
I do tend to have bad luck and have lost up to $10,000 in a year, although this year I did very well with a record (for me) 5 royal flushes, which gave me an upper 4 figure win.
I see a lot of people playing 9/6 DDB and don't understand why, especially when in most cases you can play 9/6 JOB on the same machine. By doing this you are more than doubling your expected loss, and not only that but you are making it much more likely to lose large sums of money due to the higher volatility. Excitement might be nice, but I prefer a game with a better EV where I have more of a chance to come out ahead or at least break even, and less of a chance of having a year's worth of large losses in a few months. Not only that, but those playing at the $1 level or higher are reporting a lot more income to the IRS. To me, getting $125 for a 4 of a kind is exciting enough, with the occasional straight flush and hopefully at least 2 royal flushes per year, which is just as exciting on all VP varieties. I couldn't justify the excitement of better four of a kind payouts and a chance at a "half-jackpot" for a 0.56% loss in EV.
I will say the same thing about 8/5 Bonus, although the EV is a little better. I think it is extremely unlikely that over long periods of play that the higher four of a kind payouts can overcome getting less for the flush and full house. At least with 9/6 DDB you might have a chance overcoming the poor EV if you have a lot of luck getting the 2,000 and 800 unit payouts.
To me, 8/5 Bonus is only a viable alternative if you have free play that can't be used elsewhere, or perhaps if those are the only machines that you can play in a smoke-free area or that is the best game available in that city - and in the last two cases, my option would be to not play at all. Or perhaps an expert advantage player like Jean Scott who might be able to take advantage of some offers and have it work out to a positive EV, but I doubt you can do that very easily in AC. And even if you could, most likely you can use the same offer on 9/6 JOB.
Anyway, sorry for all my rambling, but for 8/5 Bonus I think the best place by far is Resorts. Resorts only has a few (I think 4) 9/6 JOB machines, and there are none below the $1 level and all are in the smoking section. But for 8/5 Bonus, you shouldn't have any problem finding a lot of these at the quarter level throughout the casino, including in non-smoking areas, and the comps, bounceback slot play, and monthly offers are very good compared to the competition. The only drawback is that the comps can't be converted to slot play, and if you don't need them for food, there isn't much of a selection of merchandise you can buy with them. The comps are also valid at the Mohegan Sun, and I don't know what you can buy with them there, but they did change their policy and I've been told that the comps don't expire if you play at least once every 6 months (but verify this at the promotions desk in case I'm wrong).
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