A creative promotion at Club Fortune

At this small full-service casino south of downtown Henderson, I noticed a sign outside the diner with an intriguing offer: Buy a $10 meal (beverage included) and receive $10 in free slot play on weekdays. I did not take advantage of the deal because it was late, but I did grab a sandwich from the adjoining concession stand. It was good-quality, comparable to what you'd get at the excellent Golden Gate deli downtown.

The meals offered as part of the deal are pretty basic and maybe a couple dollars more than you would pay at nearby casinos. Still, I liked the novelty of this offer, and might try it sometime. Unfortunately, the free play cannot be used on the full-pay deuces wild machines at Club Fortune.

The advertisement also said you could get an extra $50 in Blackjack (guaranteed play) for an extra $5. I had no idea what that meant and forgot to ask.

Overall, I was quite impressed with the cleanliness, the staff and the games offered. It has less smoke and a better-looking crowd than other small, low-roller casinos such as Joker's Wild and Eldorado.

I played double deck at a $3 minimum table, but bet $10 a hand. The pit boss was friendly but seemed to be watching my big action. Pretty funny.

CLICK TO SEE PROMOTION

Henderson and Boulder strip took a massive hit last year. The reported loss was in the billions. I suppose this is the price you have to pay to get people into a small casino.

There are all those tiny casinos within a four mile stretch. Joker's Wild, Club Fortune, Eldorado, Railroad Pass, and Fiesta Henderson. Fiesta Henderson was going to kill the little ones with it's new movie theater. I suppose that giving away a meal for a few dollars every weekday is simply the price you have to pay.

At least it has table games.

Quote: pacomartin

Henderson and Boulder strip took a massive hit last year. The reported loss was in the billions. I suppose this is the price you have to pay to get people into a small casino.

When you say "loss" do you mean a drop in revenue, a drop in profit or, literally, a loss?

Do many casinos report actual losses? Aliante Station can't be making much money.

Club Fortune is a nice shop. I might stop down there next trip since I have some cashback to pick up at Mystic.

I'd also be curious about the "add $5 for 50 in guaranteed blackjack play" thing.

I love goofy promotions.

There seems to be some interest in the small casinos in South Boulder Highway for their $1 or $2 craps, and their promotions, so I put them on a map for the out of towners.
* Railroad Pass actually belongs to MGM-MIRAGE and is one of their smallest properties. It does not share the player's club with it's siblings
* Joker's Wild, and Eldorado are non hotel properties belonging to Boyd Corporation. If you want to gamble at them and get player points then stay at Orleans Casino near the strip or Sam's Town 7 miles north of Joker's Wild on Boulder Highway
* Station Casinos owns Fiesta, Sunset Station (both of which have movie theaters) and Green Valley (the nicest of the group)
* Klondike is very small, and Skyline is a slot club.
If you are interested in low-rolling fun, and an inexpensive gambling oriented vacation stay here.

Quote: nyuhoosier

When you say "loss" do you mean a drop in revenue, a drop in profit or, literally, a loss?

Do many casinos report actual losses? Aliante Station can't be making much money.

Short answer: Yes they report actual losses or gains in profit (before income tax), but you only see collective values for a group of casinos (not an individual one like Aliante Station). The state reports are grouped by large regions, and the corporate groups by whatever grouping they choose. Rarely will a company break out their individual properties since it gives away too much information if they are going to sell one casino. Harrah's for instance only reports an aggregate performance figures for all of Las Vegas. They don't give you information on the Rio Casino (which they have been rumored to be selling).

After a 5 year break of reporting Las Vegas as a group MGM MIRAGE felt it had to release individual casino information for 2009, presumably because they would have too many questions on what constituted their loss. They still group the tiniest Nevada casinos together. MGM MIRAGE took their worst hit on the Mandalay Bay and Luxor properties since the convention business dried up. Also ARIA is not doing very well.

Very long answer:
Casinos fill out a rather detailed form annually for the Gaming Commission with their assets, their revenue from all different sources, their cost of labor, junkets, and their General and Administrative expenses (since most companies have more than one casino, they must apportion in some way). They generally show departmental profits (food, beverage, rooms, casino, other) and they show an overall income or loss. In Fiscal year 2009 they wrote down a lot of their fixed assets.

Now it would be nice to access a database with all this information for each casino. But in Nevada (unlike most other states with gaming) individual casino information is considered confidential. So the Gaming Commission reports it in geographic chunks. With monthly reports (gaming revenue only) they have smaller geographic areas (like North Las Vegas and Mesquite), but in the annual reports with all the non-gaming revenue they use larger geographic areas.

In 2009 some geographic areas like downtown reported losses in income that were commensurate with the drop in revenue (i.e. if revenue went down $120 million, you can see cuts in payroll, interest, food costs, room rates, and all the normal business stuff). In other regions like Boulder strip they reported losses of over $2 billion dollars. Now revenue did drop by billions of dollars. Actually Boulder strip did not have much drop in revenue at all because Eastside Cannery and M Resort opened up during the fiscal year and replaced much of the revenue drop in the older properties. These huge write downs were reduction in the value of property.

Boulder strip means Boulder highway and properties in City of Henderson (which includes Green Valley and M Resort). It does not include South Point and Silverton Casino.

Let me quote Liz Benston who tried to explain the pros and cons of these massive write downs. She breaks up the $6.8 billion dollar loss .
=========================================
Sour earnings generated by expensive buildings that were planned before the recession have taken a massive toll on the balance sheets of Nevada's casino companies.

Statewide, the value of casino assets fell by about $5 billion in fiscal year 2009, with most of that lost value concentrated on the Las Vegas Strip, according to the Gaming Control Board. These figures are through June 30 of last year and don't reflect $1.3 billion in write-downs taken in October to reflect devalued earnings expectations at MGM Mirage's CityCenter.

Companies are required to reduce the book value of their assets if those values exceed the expected value of future earnings generated by those assets over time.

These write-downs are noncash charges against income and don't reflect actual earnings generated by the underlying business. (Even after excluding the $5 billion in write-downs, casinos statewide still would have lost money on a collective basis. Minus the write-downs, operating losses would have been about $1.8 billion for the state's 260 largest casinos in fiscal 2009.)

Writing down the value of assets reduces a company's equity, which can hurt its ability to borrow money in the future, said Mitchell Hochberg, principal of Madden Real Estate Ventures and a board member of Orient-Express Hotels Ltd.
=============================================

Boulder strip and Henderson reported an income loss over $823 million dollars, a figure much greater than their payroll, and 68.4% of their income.

Even without the $5 billion in write-downs the statewide collective loss of $1.8 billion dwarfs the $33.5 million loss in the fiscal year including 9/11 . Downtown alone reported a $54 million loss. Only eastern Nevada near Utah reported a profit.

That 20.00 Colossal hot dog and 25.00 Colossal burger (13 patties?) would be a good challenge perhaps.

I like that availability of an included cocktail with your breakfast at six in the morning, I think its either Club Fortune or Jokers Wild.

Gas masks recommended to non-smokers.



Here is a link to the Guaranteed Play website. Guaranteed Play

Guaranteed Play details are more explicitly set forth at Guaranteedplay.com, a website that also lists the various casinos offering it for blackjack, slots and other games.

For Blackjack it amounts to an upfront purchase of any one of three optional packages wherein you engage in ONE buy in and the dealer simply keeps dealing.

An example: You pay 20.00 and bet up to an agreed amount such as 10.00 for 20 hands for a total value of 200.00 to the player. The player always has the option of cashing-in his unused GuaranteedPlay chips but probably never should do so.

From the website:
Your dealer will also provide Guaranteed Play chips for betting. Your Starting Balance and maximum bet depend on the session you buy. Hint: for best results, bet Max Bet every time. Remember, the number of hands you can play is guaranteed no matter the size of your bet.
For Example:
A $20 session, gives you $200 in Guaranteed Play chips. Max Bet is $10.
A $40 session, gives you $400 in Guaranteed Play chips. Max Bet is $20.
A $60 session, gives you $600 in Guaranteed Play chips. Max Bet is $30.

4. PLAY LIKE ALWAYS:
Blackjack with Guaranteed Play is the same game of Blackjack that you have always played. Play with the same strategy you have always used.

After 20 hands, if you have fewer chips than your Starting Balance, don't worry -- you pay nothing.

5. IF YOU RUN OUT OF CHIPS:
If you run out of chips before playing all 20 hands, don't worry. The Dealer will give you more Guaranteed Play chips and you can keep playing.

6. REMAINING CHIPS ARE YOUR WINNINGS:
At the end of your Blackjack with Guaranteed Play session, any remaining chips above your Starting Balance are your winnings.

Quote: pacomartin

* Klondike is very small, and Skyline is a slot club.

I've heard that Skyline is a rinky dink little hole in the wall with the absolute best Comp program for slot players in the whole town. I don't play slots and I have no intention of venturing to Nowheresville to get the details on their slot program to see if the statement is true or anywhere near to being true.

.....

Quote: gofaster87

Skyline is a small joint with mostly elderly for patrons. It has a mix of TITO and coin droppers. The place has a TON of full pay poker in mostly 25 cent. It has no players card or club.

Yes, they also have 100.76% Deuces Wild at $.25 10-coins ($2.50 a spin) which is the highest denomination you'll find it for anywhere. Beware that they except a tip on the $500 handpay for 4 decues. Don't tip them.

Anyone know if this 200.00 in guaranteed play for 20.00 is a bargain or not?
It sure looks like TOO MUCH OF A BARGAIN to be true. Maybe I'm misreading it or something. I can understand a casino giving away some free play or some matching coupon or something, but this Pay 20.00 and gamble 200.00 sure seems a fast way for a casino to go broke. I guess they make it up in dealers being able to deal rather than handle buyins or something?

What is a 'full stack' of pancakes, or probably how many is a full stack?

Beats me. Usually a "tall stack" or a "full stack" is three and a "short stack" is two pancakes.

At a casino its more important to not get short stacked when buying into a craps game.

.....

Quote: gofaster87

You sure you're not thinking of The Rainbow Club next to Eldorado. They had 25 cent 10 coin deuces. I dont remember seeing them at Skyline.

Yeah I played them last trip. They are in the room with the other DW, think it's called the "Deuces Wild Corral." All coin-droppers.

Quote: teddys

All coin-droppers.

I think its Aliante that has a whole roomful of coin droppers. I know I read about it somewhere. I guess some of these smaller, very local casinos have coin droppers and its not part of some sort of Nostalgia Room, its simply what they bought long ago and still use.

Anyone figure out whats up with that "Spend 20.00 and get 200.00" in Guaranteed Chips for 20 games of Blackjack"?

Quote: FleaStiff

I think its Aliante that has a whole roomful of coin droppers. I know I read about it somewhere. I guess some of these smaller, very local casinos have coin droppers and its not part of some sort of Nostalgia Room, its simply what they bought long ago and still use.

Anyone figure out whats up with that "Spend 20.00 and get 200.00" in Guaranteed Chips for 20 games of Blackjack"?

It's not Alliante it is East Side Cannery. They did set it up well after they opened as a Nostalgia Room. I don't know of any coin droppers at Alliante.