Free Drinks?

Quote: DRich

I saw this link posted on Lasvegasadvisor.com. If this catches on there are going to be lots of unhappy cocktail waitresses, bartenders, and frugal customers.



http://vitalvegas.com/mirage-las-vegas-tests-comped-drink-voucher-system-everything-is-ruined/

Love this blurb from the article:

"That’s right, your video poker machine decides when you deserve another drink. Not a person. Mirage now employs cocktail-deciding robots from Hell."

And this one too:

"Imagine being a Vegas bartender faced with customers who are gambling (holding up their end of the player-casino bargain), and you can’t serve a drink because a machine hasn’t deemed your customer worthy of one. Let the disgruntlement begin, assuming that’s an actual word."

Quote: teddys

I find that the El Cortez is one of the only casinos that treats low rollers fairly. That's kind of sad.

El Cortez is a good fair joint. Only problem I have is the perfume they pump in to mask the smoke smell. That shit gives me a headache.

Quote: JohnnyQ

Classic death spiral has officially begun ?

So where are the good places to park downtown now ?

Plaza or D valet. I don't mind saying this because I'm only 5 blocks down from the 3rd street stage. If worse comes to worse I'll leave my car in my buildings garage and just walk when I go, which I have been doing alot lately.

99% of the time I'll just use a cocktail waitress to get my drinks.. never did like the idea of being hassled by a bartender about "not playing fast enough" or whatever that means, nor do i like risking asking for what would hopefully be a free drink... only to get a $10+ bill for it

Quote: JohnnyQ

"Imagine being a Vegas bartender faced with customers who are gambling (holding up their end of the player-casino bargain), and you can’t serve a drink because a machine hasn’t deemed your customer worthy of one. Let the disgruntlement begin, assuming that’s an actual word."

I think the real question is how much play should it take to get a comped drink? I think the only way it could be measured is casino EV. If we assume a comped drink costs $2 on average how much win would the casino need to cover the cost of the drink, employees, plus normal overhead, and a small profit? Let's assume $5. If you are playing a 98% video poker game at the bar you would need $250 coin in for each drink.

Quote: DRich

I think the real question is how much play should it take to get a comped drink? I think the only way it could be measured is casino EV. If we assume a comped drink costs $2 on average how much win would the casino need to cover the cost of the drink, employees, plus normal overhead, and a small profit? Let's assume $5. If you are playing a 98% video poker game at the bar you would need $250 coin in for each drink.

I don't know much about the beverage business, but I think it's opportunity cost. The entertainment industry looks at liquor as one of their largest profit centers. A call drink at El Cortez is $7. A cocktail at MGM properties on the Strip is probably $10-$11, at Wynn and Venetian $12-15. (I don't know if that's correct; I've never paid for a drink in Vegas in my life). So the margins are huge. So I suppose it's not the question of whether we are losing $2 worth of drink, it's whether we are losing the opportunity for a $9 drink.

Not sure if that makes sense. I know if I were faced with the question of a $9 drink or no drink, I would take no drink. I'm very elastic. But apparently a large proportion of people don't think that way. On my last flight to Vegas the couple next to me ordered five drinks each. On Frontier Airlines, this came out to about $70 total. That was more than the cost of my round-trip ticket.

I wrote an Article of my own about this:

http://wizardofvegas.com/articles/Cocktails-Anyone/

There's the casino EV of a particular drink, then there's the quality of the Vegas experience that brings people here in the first place.

The basic idea seems to be that you spend big on rooms, $20 cheeseburgers, clubs and -ev games, but you get treated well. Free drinks are the number one symbol of this.

If they make a conspicuous practice of scrutinizing you to see if you have given them enough money in the past 20 minutes specifically to deserve one particular drink, it kind of kills the whole vibe.

It's like, if you have a fishy player all in in poker and he asks if he can tip the cocktail waitress with a 1$ chip. You'd have to be an idiot and a jerk to say no. You're (supposedly) there to have a time. Not ring every penny you can out of him as rudely as possible.

I do think there is a danger of this stuff adding up over time. The terrible games, stuff like this, -115 lines in sports books, etc. etc. At some point it feels like someone holding you upside down by the feet and trying to shake the change out of your pockets.

It won't be a mass boycott that happens over night, but maybe 20 years from now, with ever more legalized gambling, a lot more people will just be staying closer to home.

On the Strip a lot of people want a luxury experience and they're willing to spend money to have a good time. A lot of them don't even care about gambling they care about the shows and shopping and the restaurants and night clubs. Those people are willing to pay $15 for a cocktail, so that's why the casino has no problem charging that much.

If you're in Las Vegas and want drinks to be comped while you play games go to Dotty's. If you're on the strip and want everything the resort has to offer you'll have to pay for it

Quote: TomG

If you're in Las Vegas and want drinks to be comped while you play games go to Dotty's. If you're on the strip and want everything the resort has to offer you'll have to pay for it

Dotty's has the best drink comps of any casino in the universe. Most people don't know that.