New player promotion -- $2500 in video poker play worth $180 in free play.

The Las Vegas Club is running a promotion for new sign-ups for their player card. The rules card is a bit confusing, but if you earn 2500 points you get $180 in free play. $1 bet is worth 1 point, and they have $1 9/6 jacks machines way in the back, past the restaurant. The expected loss on $2,500 in 9/6 jacks is $11.50, assuming optimal strategy. Not bad for $180 in free play. I've heard they are pretty generous with mailers too.

Be warned that when I did this, on $1 5-play 8/6 jacks machines by the front door there was obviously some kind of disconnect between the machine and the server. I could see my points going up with each bet, and stopped after I earned 2525 points. However, when I went to the player club, they said I had zero points. Indeed, when I put my card in a machine, it registered zero. I was rather angry about it, not only for the waste of time, but I also lost about $500 earning the points.

However, after taking care of some other business downtown, I decided I would try again, and earn another 2500 points. To test a machine I earned about 20 points, and they took. Then I earned about another 100 points, and they took. Then I earned another 500 points, and they never recorded. Then I switched to the $1 1-play 9/6 machines in the back, although it would take longer to complete the play. Those seemed to record the points every time.

In short, the 9/6 machines seem okay. However, based on a small sampling, the multi-play machines by the front door only remember points half the time. My advice is to pull your card after earning a few points to ensure the system records them. You can tell by the little display that says "Hello Joe, you have x points" when you put your card in. It takes about 30 seconds for them to appear, if they get recorded in the first place.

Glad you had success with this promo. Here is another player's rather harrowing experience with that same (or at least similar) promotion.

Between my story and that at The Bear Growls, something is just not right with the Las Vegas Club computers. When the guy at the player club said I had zero points, I said that surveillance cameras would prove I put my card, and about $500 into the machine. He replied that I must not have put the card in properly. I countered by saying that I saw my points growing after every hand, and knew I earned exactly 2525. He didn't say anything to that, but gave me a look that suggested that he didn't believe me.