Bingo -- Should you avoid playing on weekends?

As I've mentioned on the radio and here, I've been spending much of my time analyzing bingo lately. Between studying 15 different casinos, 7 days of the week, 8 different sessions, and the multitude of promotions and types of cards, this is proving to be an enormous task.

One of many questions I am endeavoring to answer is what is the best day of the week to play. The going wisdom, even perpetuated by me, has said to avoid playing Friday to Sunday. It doesn't take a math wiz to see that the same casino and session will see about twice as many players on a weekend than a weekday.

However, I've been recording Cash Ball jackpot amounts form cashballupdates.com. After teasing out days where the Cash Ball was hit, or went up too much, probably due to a promotion, I looked at the overage rates of increase by day of the week. This table shows the average increase by the day of week of the play. For example the 6.70% for Monday, means that there was a 6.70% increase in Cash Ball jackpots on Tuesday compared to Monday, which reflects card sales on Monday.

Day	Increase
Monday	6.70%
Tuesday	6.53%
Wednesday	7.70%
Thursday	6.35%
Friday	7.22%
Saturday	6.81%
Sunday	7.14%

So, I submit for the consideration of the forum that there is not a statistically significant correlation between card sales (as evidenced by validation sales) and day of the week. How could this be when the bingo room are obviously crowded on weekends? My theory is that on weekends the rooms are filled with tourists spending $20 on cards. These crowds scare out the locals, many of whom are card hogs (like me sometimes), buying hundreds of them.

What do you think of this?

Also, do any forum members like to play bingo in Vegas on a regular basis. You may be able to help me out with my research, for which I'm open to paying.

Whoa there!!

Ever hear the expression: "Its my Friday"? In a world of casinos being busy on weekends and particularly nights... shift work means everyone works on the Official Saturday and Sunday.

So does this extend to the guy who drives the bus from the retirement home to the Bingo Room? Does this extend to the food service at the retirement home... which affects the bus schedule of the residents?

You might have to decide just what a "weekend" is in the Bingo World? More tourists means more likely that a bonus will hit and therefore be shared? I don't know.

WHICH casinos have "weekend tourist traffic"? Or is it a myth that Bingo is played by Blue Haired Retired Women. Stations has all those special bingo tournaments so some out of towners do get flown in for them.

Is rain, wind or temperature a factor? Are pension and social security checks distributed on random days? A monthly deposit at the beginning of a month might make a certain "day" significant but that same "day" might be meaningless towards the end of a month of losses.

Social Security checks are EFT'd on the 1st 2nd 3rd or 4th Wednesday of the month. Some in 2013 paper checks will no longer be issued.

I used to love playing bingo once or twice a week. Once I shared a $25 game on the way with 22 other people ($5 is the minimum they pay). The most I've won was $500. Me and my mom played this morning. She won a $100 bingo + $55 for the Lucky jar ( a bingo on a certain number). Oops time to start work.

Is Fiestas all paper bingo more advantageous to play over the computer one if you are quick with the marker?

It is true that in Vegas most of the players are "Blue Haired Retired Women." So they obviously can play whenever they want. I get the feeling that some are loyal to a particular place, and others float around according to Cash Ball jackpots and other promotions. However, it is no secret that hotel occupancy rates are higher on weekends, which bring in tourist players. I still say the tourists scare some of the locals off. I do intend to look more carefully at a caisno by caisno basis on card sales by day of the week. For now I can that on on average I don't think there is a strong correlation.

I have not looked at weather yet. The weather is usually good in Vegas, so it may take some time to accumulate enough data on that. However, I suspect there is not much correlation. While some players may stay home, others may be vultures who only play when it rains or snows, thinking they are getting a better value.

About the Fiestas, each card has the same value. So if playing is positive EV, then the more cards you can play the better. Of course, correctly daubing is essential.

Perhaps I should refine my concepts a bit.

As to weather, I was not thinking of wind, fire, ice and snow closing a casino's Bingo Room for a day so that sales would obviously be a bit "off". I was thinking more that the elderly would be more sensitive to wind and rain and that the "early" game might suffer if buses were delayed be they public transit or retirement home buses.

Tourists infest the strip where there ain't much Bingo due to high priced real estate. Locals casinos do get "tourists" though so its perhaps best to start out at one of the more loyal places and see what happens. Arizona Charlie's Decatur!!! Do your tourism tests there since its mainly loyal locals.

I have a feeling those Blue Haired Ladies know ALL the deals all over town but are in practice far more loyal to one or two Bingo Rooms than is ever imagined. I think you will find any "Sunday" influence is not due to "Tourists" but is instead due to someone's "Champagne Special" somewhere.

I have been dragged to Bingo twice. Both times was the Saturday before New Years. The Bingo parlor has to give their win in X # of
numbers jackpot away at year's end. Are there similar advantage plays in Vegas ?

Quote: Buzzard

I have been dragged to Bingo twice. Both times was the Saturday before New Years. The Bingo parlor has to give their win in X # of
numbers jackpot away at year's end. Are there similar advantage plays in Vegas ?

I'm not sure I get what you're saying, as usual. There are lots of advantage plays in bingo, but you have to know where to find them.

Need a researcher in the pacific NW? Would be happy to accept pay for hours of strenuous daubing. Bingo is great to get the wifey to the casinos so I can play my games a bit longer. Usaully we play week days but going to give this coming week end a shot.

Quote: Wizard

I still say the tourists scare some of the locals off.

I would hazard a guess that this is probably not the case, at least not very much, for two related reasons:

1) Bingo is available and played every night almost everywhere in the country, and

2) How many tourists go to Vegas for the bingo?

Quote: Wizard

I'm not sure I get what you're saying, as usual. There are lots of advantage plays in bingo, but you have to know where to find them.

Allow me to elucidate. The local bingo parlor has a jackpot for covering the entire card in x called numbers. This jackpot is a progressive and goes up each week. At the end of the year, the bingo parlor has a night when numbers are called until there is a winner.

I understand that there are other advantage plays as well. The problem still remains that to take advantage ( pun intended ) of them, you must actually play BINGO.

Some of those tourist have wives who do.

As to "must give away jackpots before end of year" I think that is in some Non-Nevada location where its tax breaks for charity or something.

Quote: JB

How many tourists go to Vegas for the bingo?

My Wife, for one.

She loves playing 2 or 3 times a day at The Plaza.

We also take the shuttle to Sam's Town for a few sessions there on another day.

Wiz, would you mind if I asked your motivation behind researching Bingo to such an extent recently? I know you have floated the idea of advantage Bingo as ideal for an AP with a small-ish bankroll. Is this research for personal gain, i.e. are you becoming a career bingo AP??!?!? Because I think that would be awesome.

However, I would bet that you are just doing it to add content to your website and continue building on your title as the Wizard of Odds, which is admirable, especially since there is no direct monetary benefit to you for this kind of research.

I suppose the 3rd option is someone is paying you directly as a consultant for the research, for some reason or another. Seems unlikely though.

Quote: Wizard

As I've mentioned on the radio and here, I've been spending much of my time analyzing bingo lately. Between studying 15 different casinos, 7 days of the week, 8 different sessions, and the multitude of promotions and types of cards, this is proving to be an enormous task.

Yep. Enormous task. Yet who else has been studying it? The casinos and the Blue Haired Ladies have.

Let us now praise Advantage Play. No, no... I don't mean we should get out some microscope and see if some some retired dudes at SouthPoint really did get backed off at their red chip play or that we engage in any other esoteric rigamarole seeking out proof of the elusive Advantage Player and his tenth decimal place advantage.

I mean we can praise the Little Old Blue Haired Ladies. You go to the Gaming Board figures and the Gaming Board don't say nuttin' 'bout no tenth decimal place advantage at Blackjack but it sure does say something year after year about an advantage play for the Little Old Blue Haired Ladies playing Bingo all day and all night all over town. The Bingo Halls are usually about at a negative one percent win, which means that usually year after year the Little Old Blue Haired Ladies are beating the casinos by a slim margin. Coffee, donuts, gin ... and money!!

Various explanations may be offered:
Bingo is usually played on the odd hours so Bingo Rooms make their money on the Even Hours when the women play the nearby slot machines, but the Gaming Board doesn't count this.
Bingo is a loss-leader for the wives and girl-friends of "real gambler" significant others.
Bingo is a loss leader for The Geritol Set and their need for a Walgreens.

Bingo is not a homogenous game. Just as a Director of Slot Machines wants to blur the experience to meet the needs of the average user, the Bingo Director wants to blur the experience to keep any one aspect from predominating. His room gets known for "Bingo" not any particular emphasis that could lead to cliques developing.

Yes, its an enormous task, but the Little Old Ladies do their analysis and you get to observe their results. So I'd read the tip sheets and talk to a few Little Old Ladies.

Quote: Wizard

...I still say the tourists scare some of the locals off...

That applies to other games too :)

I never play BJ on Fridays through Sundays, or when certain events like NFR or CES are in town. It's psychological; the way they play just drives me nuts and it affects my play.

Quote: mycran

Need a researcher in the pacific NW? Would be happy to accept pay for hours of strenuous daubing. Bingo is great to get the wifey to the casinos so I can play my games a bit longer. Usaully we play week days but going to give this coming week end a shot.

Thanks, but no thanks. It is a huge project to just study bingo in Vegas. However, I would be interested to know if they other parts of country have fixed prize pools, like they do here, or give back a certain percentage of sales, as is typical of church bingo.

Quote: JB

I would hazard a guess that this is probably not the case, at least not very much, for two related reasons:

1) Bingo is available and played every night almost everywhere in the country, and

2) How many tourists go to Vegas for the bingo?

1. I don't see much bingo going on in the states surrounding Nevada.
2. Based on just anecdotal evidence, a fair number.

Quote: Buzzard

Allow me to elucidate. The local bingo parlor has a jackpot for covering the entire card in x called numbers. This jackpot is a progressive and goes up each week. At the end of the year, the bingo parlor has a night when numbers are called until there is a winner.

I understand that there are other advantage plays as well. The problem still remains that to take advantage ( pun intended ) of them, you must actually play BINGO.

Sure, that might be a strong play. However, if the casino promoted it hard, it might induce too much competition. I do think that on a percentage basis, bingo can be very strong advantage play, if you choose where and when to play carefully. My research is meant to help players make these decisions.

Quote: AcesAndEights

Wiz, would you mind if I asked your motivation behind researching Bingo to such an extent recently? I know you have floated the idea of advantage Bingo as ideal for an AP with a small-ish bankroll. Is this research for personal gain, i.e. are you becoming a career bingo AP??!?!? Because I think that would be awesome.

However, I would bet that you are just doing it to add content to your website and continue building on your title as the Wizard of Odds, which is admirable, especially since there is no direct monetary benefit to you for this kind of research.

I suppose the 3rd option is someone is paying you directly as a consultant for the research, for some reason or another. Seems unlikely though.

You would win the bet. After doing my web site for 15 years it is getting harder to finding new ground to break when it comes to gambling. Yes, new games come along all the time, but I prefer to address games that are more ubiquitous. I see bingo as an area of casino gambling that doesn't have much written about it. So, I'm doing it for the benefit of my readers, as well as something to keep me busy. Nobody is paying me a dime to do it.

I don't see bingo becoming a major source of my income, but I wouldn't mind supplementing it a little with bingo. I used to play bingo on a regular basis at the Red Rock, until they capped the number of cards one could buy, I'm quite sure because of me.

Quote: FleaStiff

Yes, its an enormous task, but the Little Old Ladies do their analysis and you get to observe their results. So I'd read the tip sheets and talk to a few Little Old Ladies.

One thing I'm starting to suspect is there are indeed a lot of "Little Old Ladies" advantage bingo players. These are serious card-hogging players who tend to show up at the sessions that pay the most money. Can you elaborate on the "tip sheets" you're talking about? I don't find any good advice in the Bingo Bugle, which I used to write for. Maybe I should try to befriend the other players. However, the players who I think are professionals look like they don't want to be bothered, nor give up their strategies. I have met a couple professional bingo players, and know their angles more or less, which I will write about as my research progresses.

Quote: Wizard

One thing I'm starting to suspect is there are indeed a lot of "Little Old Ladies" advantage bingo players. These are serious card-hogging players who tend to show up at the sessions that pay the most money.

Yes, indeed LOTS of them. However, before you get to the stage of defining them as "card-hogging sharpies", I think you should adopt the Economists viewpoint of VegasMadeEasy:
"The total bingo seats in the Vegas area is just below 10K with 188,713 total square feet devoted to the Bingo rooms. This assumes Riviera's is 6,000 as in their press release and does not count Jerry's Nugget square footage which is not yet in the Board's database yet."
VegasMadeEasy is proud of its ripping out the Board's government oriented gobbledygook and presenting it in a format usable by real people instead of bureaucrats. VME presents the initial information by general geographical area, smoking versus non-smoking and several distinct nuances involved in that classification, room size, etc. By the way, I suspect that the ill-tempers that smoking related posts can appear on this board, are pretty darned tame compared to the Little Old Ladies manner of expressing themselves.

If you have ten thousand Bingo seats or that 188,713 square foot area, you've got a staggering amount of capital tied up in Bingo. You can bet that corporate board meetings ain't overlooked the issues involved! Just look at the headlines made when a Port Cochere was razed, despite being brand new, to construct a Day Club. Just look at all the various businesses that have closed on the strip and reopened in some new form. All that competitiveness for space and image ain't goin' unnoticed. One thing you can be absolutely certain of is that if a Bingo Room continues to exist after those MBA types have whipped out their slide rules, Bingo is holding its own.

>Can you elaborate on the "tip sheets" you're talking about? I don't find any good advice in the Bingo Bugle, which I used to write for.

I was talking more about the vast quantity of Bingo Advice rather than my trying to use your site to talk about "valuable advice by Touts". I was referring to the general columns and blogs that exist all of which touch upon Bingo opportunities no matter what their official focus is. Casino promotions are mentioned, casino Bingo Contests and Tournaments get mentioned. There is just too much commentary out there for there not to be a great many avid readers of it.
> Maybe I should try to befriend the other players.
Careful. Some of them seem they would be happy to lend you their Husband but you just try reaching for their favorite dauber and you just see what will happen to you! A few Vegas bloggers have from time to time blogged about their having gone to Arizona Charlies 3:00am Bingo Session to goof off after work. A bunch of drunken dice dealers getting "shhhshed" by the Little Blue Haired Ladies can be fun from time to time. Heck, even those experienced Vegas Bloggers who write about visiting Mothers In Law hankering for Bingo can be informative.

I have a feeling the real strategy comes in Jackpots, including linked 50K ones, Cashballs which can be around 10K I understand and will have a variety of cutesy names all translating to Cashball and in room size and turnout nuances which depend on weather, whims and the wisdom of competing to win a prize or competing to just be in the Bingo Room at the time the prize is won and therefore shared by all.

Let us take one example, from VegasMadeEasy:
"At the Gold Coast, one of the 9 am sessions during high heat in June 2007 had less than 50 players for a room that can hold 720."
Okay. Room Capacity is meaningless here. What matters is what would be the attendance without the ultra-high morning heat. We know the attendance would never be more than room capacity but it might not even be approaching it. All we really can assume is that fifty players is a better deal than the number which would have been there had it not happened during an early morning hot spell.

"Arizona Charlie’s is very popular because they have sessions around the clock, reasonable prices and good cheap food."
Is this the place to find other Bingo Sharpies or would they avoid reasonable prices and good cheap food? I know there is no Bingo Room at the Venetian but is that the sort of place a sharpie would seek out? One that would keep other sharpies away? One thing is certain. If its 3:00am and you are at Arizona Charlies, you either get a bargain or you don't but you sure ain't gonna be traipsing somewhere else. You are either there and play Bingo or you play Advantage Bingo or you play something else, but its too late to trek elsewhere.

"As long as there is no mad surplus of knuckleheads with a hundred cards or more, your chances get better with fewer players."
How can you tell? Look around the room? By the time you are already there and see the Mad Knuckleheads, heck its too late to go elsewhere for " an edge ".

Just as some people are advised to check the various web sites for conventions before trying to book a room, is it advisable to check the web sites for various Bingo Bonanzas? If any "Bingo Event" is scheduled for a particular location then would a real Bingo Sharpie go elsewhere?

Where are those quotes coming from?

Quote: Wizard

Where are those quotes coming from?

http://www.vegasmadeeasy.com/gaming/bingo

Quote: Wizard

However, I would be interested to know if they other parts of country have fixed prize pools, like they do here, or give back a certain percentage of sales, as is typical of church bingo.

All of the ones that I've been to in Washington are fixed payout for most games. There are extra games for a buck or two that have jackpots (or an opportunity to spin the wheel) if you bingo in a certain number of calls (or on a certain number), and they have a fixed amount or a percent of sales as a consolation prize.

Quote: miplet

Where are those quotes coming from?
http://www.vegasmadeeasy.com/gaming/bingo

Tnx.
I realize much of the material is out of date but the general principle would still pertain: if its inclement weather or an inclement traffic situation that first game of the day may be affected. Also if events at retirement homes change, so too will the bus driver's schedules.

I don't know what sort of "edge" anyone can get at Bingo, but if someone is pushing it there just might be an advantage to it.

Bingo has almost always been the death knoll for casino's in Colorado. Ottos' went to bingo shortly before closing. Harveys went to bingo shortly becoming Fortune Valley. Years later Fortune Valley revived Bingo, just before rumors surfaced it would become a Hard Rock cafe in 2011. A guitar shaped bar was added during renovations. A grand opening with a mystery rock star was announced for July. But it never happened. In November it became Reserve after being bought by Red Dolly's. Expect Bingo to start soon.

Casino employee are not fond of bingo, at least not in Blackhawk and Central City.

Quote: AcesAndEights

Wiz, would you mind if I asked your motivation behind researching Bingo to such an extent recently? I know you have floated the idea of advantage Bingo as ideal for an AP with a small-ish bankroll.

It isn't really practical to do anything in the B&M world with a small bankroll. You get eaten alive by expenses.

There are lots of AP angles at bingo, but the game is slow, the variance high, and the experience crushingly depressing. Your hourly wage would be unspectacular unless you want to take on a high ROR.

I'm guessing the Wizard means bingo is a good option for a recreational B&M AP who wants positive EV for its own sake, and wants to minimize the cost of vacations. I agree it probably makes more sense to do this than play red chips at blackjack.

There is no question it is a slow game that yields little money on a square footage basis.

The Bingo Players are often lured there by lunches and cheap transportation in the hope that there will be major non-Bingo spending at the various slot machines but often the Bingo operations absorb income and do not disgorge a sea of slot-hungry players at all.

Quote: Wizard

One thing I'm starting to suspect is there are indeed a lot of "Little Old Ladies" advantage bingo players. These are serious card-hogging players who tend to show up at the sessions that pay the most money.

I've never thought much about this topic, but I have recently noticed that some casinos are touting their $12,000, $25,000 and $30,000 Bingo Specials for New Year's Eve. And I sure think most gambling couples would put a NYE bingo night near the bottom of the list.

So if a casino is willing to do some special bingo splurge on New Year's Eve you can bet there is a financial reason for it. Casinos are not all that whimsical about their budgets.

Cashball. Still not quite certain about this term or its equivalents. Apparently South Point has hourly cashball games but also streams their dollar value on their website. Nothing appears to make the earliest hour the better cashball.

Quote: Wizard

It is a huge project to just study bingo in Vegas. However, I would be interested to know if they other parts of country have fixed prize pools, like they do here, or give back a certain percentage of sales, as is typical of church bingo.

I ran a monthly charity bingo session for many years in a local bingo hall in BC for many years. Many of these halls also now have slots but no table games and no longer require the charity to be present and provide card runners. I don't believe that the rule relating to payout has changed however. The rule is that a MAXIMUM of 50% of the revenue can be paid back to the players. This would seem to make any AP impossible here.