‘Free cocktails?’ a dying call at non-vegas casinos

I bought a bottle of smirnoff for $9.99 at CVS tonight! Last winter CVS had Jack Daniels on sale for $13 and Skyy for $12!

Quote: NicksGamingStuff

I bought a bottle of smirnoff for $9.99 at CVS tonight! Last winter CVS had Jack Daniels on sale for $13 and Skyy for $12!

That is an official loss leader! Unless CVS got some great special pricing for their liquor guy to clear some invetory.

It's not the state governments that are being disingenuous here. IT'S THE CASINOS! Think about it; If the government bans free drinks, that doesn't mean you can't charge a quarter for them. They've crunched the numbers and determined that free drinks cost more than charging full price. I, for one, call that calculation into question, as I believe there is a direct correlation between alcohol consumption and dollars wagered. But, make no mistake, governments have almost nothing to do with whether drinks get comped.

I would think the casinos would actually prefer customers to drink. I would think that would encourage "loose" play.

Quote: JustJose

I would think the casinos would actually prefer customers to drink. I would think that would encourage "loose" play.

I've always assumed that was why casinos started comping free drinks - so customers would make more dumb plays. A lot of serious VP players refuse to drink while gambling so they can think straight. Now I like the atmosphere in the Mississippi casinos: VERY free with their free drinks, unlike many Vegas casinos which scrutinize the "player" pretty thoroughly to make sure they really are playing. But, Vegas is much more likely to have deadbeats trying to get free booze than a lot of the Mississippi places, which may be pretty isolated from urban areas.

Quote: JustJose

I would think the casinos would actually prefer customers to drink. I would think that would encourage "loose" play.

Hmmm. This raises an interesting question. It's known that if a person leaves a party drunk, and drives, and gets into an accident, that the people throwing the party, who allowed the person to leave the party and drive drunk, can result in receiving blame, or at least a part of the blame, for the ensuing accident. The same thing is true for bars and bartenders.

So if the local Indian casino gives out free alcoholic beverages, and a person drives home drunk from the casino and gets into an accident, could they try and hold the Indian casino partly liable? What about from a Las Vegas casino?

Quote: konceptum

Hmmm. This raises an interesting question. It's known that if a person leaves a party drunk, and drives, and gets into an accident, that the people throwing the party, who allowed the person to leave the party and drive drunk, can result in receiving blame, or at least a part of the blame, for the ensuing accident. The same thing is true for bars and bartenders.

So if the local Indian casino gives out free alcoholic beverages, and a person drives home drunk from the casino and gets into an accident, could they try and hold the Indian casino partly liable? What about from a Las Vegas casino?

Most Indians pass through life in a drunken stupor anyway. But the States won't prosecute them if either they get caught driving drunk or someone who was playing at a Tribal clip joint kills 3 people on their way home from guzzling firewater. There's a certain sentiment with these people, the same sentiment that allows them to get back at the stupid white man by cheating them at all their glittery casinos.

Quote: konceptum

Hmmm. This raises an interesting question. It's known that if a person leaves a party drunk, and drives, and gets into an accident, that the people throwing the party, who allowed the person to leave the party and drive drunk, can result in receiving blame, or at least a part of the blame, for the ensuing accident. The same thing is true for bars and bartenders.

So if the local Indian casino gives out free alcoholic beverages, and a person drives home drunk from the casino and gets into an accident, could they try and hold the Indian casino partly liable? What about from a Las Vegas casino?

Depends a lot on the jurisdiction, so it would matter greatly whether you were on an Indian reservation or in a regular casino. Also depends on whether the jurisdiction has dram shop laws and social host liability. It's a pretty complicated area of law, and you have to know your own state's statutes and case law very well. Sometimes casinos are regulated differently than normal bars. For example, in Michigan you can't smoke in bars and restaurants now, but you can still smoke in the casinos. Not sure how they got around that one, but it shows that casinos get special treatment from the state.

Quote: Nareed

All major casinos in Vegas hand out free drinks, yet Vegas is festooned with bars. I don't think the free drinks at the casinos does anything to the bars' business.

Nareed, I agree with you. There's a theory out there that state legislatures have banned free alcohol at casinos because of lobbying pressure from local bars & restaurants who don't want to lose cocktail revenue. Perhaps that's true for new casinos in urban settings like downtown Cleveland. But California bans it too, and most of California's Indian casinos are in desolate unpopulated areas with virtually no restaurant competition.

In most of these jurisdictions, the reason for banning free booze is to compromise with the churches and MADD to keep the political fight to a minimum.

As far as Ohio goes, they definitely had huge pressure from MADD not to allow free drinks from what I read online. And if you think about it, the way midwest casinos are generally set up, giving out free drinks is definitely a bit more dangerous than Vegas/AC because anyone not staying at the casino hotel will need a car ride home.

With the midwest not giving free drinks, I am more tempted to save gambling for other destinations. Speaking of which, I'm going to Tunica this weekend.

Free booze! Woooooooooooo!