"Cash Your Paycheck Here And Receive a 125 Coin Bonus On Your Next Four-Of-A-Kind" was a venerable old Nevada casino promotion that you don't see anymore. Here's why.
Laughlin, May 2002
"How much are you offering them?" I asked.
"Fifty dollars and the card benefits" Tim responded.
"Not much incentive" I quipped.
"Should be plenty of incentive. It only takes a half hour or forty-five minutes, average."
"Are you getting any takers?"
"Nope."
"You have to look at it from their perspectives. You are asking them to put down a $5 video poker play for just $50. What's going through their minds is 'what if I hit a royal?' They have to sign a $20,000 W2-G and all they are getting is $50 and the card benefits."
Tim and I were having a comped lunch at the Golden Nugget/Laughlin. The Pioneer, next door, was putting on the paycheck promotion. I didn't know many people in Laughlin but Tim did. He was in the catbird's seat. A former poker dealer at the Edgewater, he had lots of friends in the Edgewater and Belle that drew paychecks. His objective was to bankroll his friends on the paycheck promotion.
"Offer them half the royal too" I said.
"Half the royal? Are you crazy? That's $10,000" Tim blasted at me.
"No, it's 1% of the payback" I shot back at him. "You gotta give them some incentive to put the play down. With 9/6 Jacks you're gonna have 5.4% the best of it. The $50 is about another half percent. So you're still gonna have a 3.9% edge. Forget the royal....its a longshot. The money is in the quads. Besides, the play'll probably get squashed before you hit a royal....the quad cycle is 423. That's close to $11,000 in action per play. So it's worth about $570 a play. Even giving up that 1.5% its still worth over $400 a play to you. If anyone hits a royal then use the 5754."
Tim sat there mulling it over.
"Thanks for the ideas" he said. "I think I'll give it a try. See if I get any takers."
Over the next few weeks I would see Tim at the Pioneer sitting next to some Edgewater of Belle employee who was playing $5 video poker. They would cash their paycheck at the cage to get the coupon. Then play video poker until they hit a quad. Of course, they were playing on Tim's bankroll. And it was Tim who was making the bulk of the money.
One day I was standing in line at the Pioneer cage and heard a cashier yell to the back "We got another Belle paycheck!"
A few weeks later, one morning in my hotel room, I was shaving. The TV was on the Bullhead City channel. The morning talk show about the Laughlin casinos industry was on. They were interviewing the Pioneer casino manager.
"I see you've disqualified the $5 video pokers from the paycheck promotion" the interviewer said.
"Well....sometimes....when you put on a promotion....you get beat!" said the Pioneer casino manager.
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Posted by: mickeycrimm@yahoo.com
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