Golden Gate review

I love the Golden Gate and love the Wizard's reviews (always entertaining and impartial) so I loved this review.

I do have some personal experience with comps there. They seem to offer both points and 'comp dollars' tracking on their player's cards, and after a great night of craps which may have been 3 or 4 hours at the table back in April (the session where I cashed 800 on a 100 buy in playing Pass + Come and odds), I returned the next day and noticed something like 22 Comp Dollars on my account when I was absentmindedly playing a nickel slot while watching a Mavericks play off game.

I thought that was extremely generous and set out on a quest to redeem those comp dollars for something liquid and strong. Curly at the bar (great bartender, saw him again in September and looking forward to having a few more drinks and stories from him in December) let me know that you cannot redeem the comp dollars by just swiping your card a la Total Rewards, MLife, B-Connected, etc. You have to go to the slot club and get vouchers. Those vouchers have to be for a set amount of your choosing, and no change can be returned from them. Bummer.

I ended up getting two 10-Dollar vouchers and turned those into Tequila and Whiskey. Because I could not get change they poured me the approximation of a double, but I don't think booze is that expensive there anyways.

So, just as the Wizard found the slot club contradictory in offering a good rate of return but along with stingier VP, I find the Comp Dollars kind of weird in that they were easy to accumulate (and I think my tipping at the craps table had something to do with that) but hard to redeem. I'm going to check my balance in December and will probably convert them into five dollar vouchers this time. That way you can pay a little cash to get what you need or not be out too much change if you go over when using them.

I'm hoping they get modernized in this respect now that GG has bought out Fitzgerald's.

Are there any other slot clubs other than this one and Binion's that allows for both points and comp dollars?

Quote: progrocker

I was absentmindedly playing a nickel slot while watching a Mavericks play off game.

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I ended up getting two 10-Dollar vouchers and turned those into Tequila and Whiskey. Because I could not get change they poured me the approximation of a double, but I don't think booze is that expensive there anyways.

Wha? Just keep playing your nickel slot and ask that waitress (you know, the one that has always worked there) for a drink. Why waste your comps? I would have gotten 11 shrimp cocktails :)

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Are there any other slot clubs other than this one and Binion's that allows for both points and comp dollars?

Silverton does, and they are very generous with both.

Good review and after reading so many negatives about the changes at the Plaza, I would like to see your thoughts after a visit. it seems like they put new furnature in old dirty rooms from what I have read. I was hopeing for more.

People on Vegas Message Board have been saying that the GG is closing and renovating the hotel this month, with all reservations shifted to the Fitz and that the casino will be closed a week sometime later in the month as well (to be open by New Year's Eve).

That is interesting, I have not heard anything about that and I am scheduled until the 18th to work so far.

Yeah, I don't know if it's just hearsay or whatever. So you ended up at GG? What do you deal, I'll be staying downtown next week (14th-17th) and always drop in there, usually to play craps and to get one or two drinks from Curly.