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Bob Dancer writes a video poker column for beginners to experts. He also writes a column with Jeffrey Compton, "Player's Edge", featuring information on promotions at various Las Vegas casinos. Player's Edge is published each Friday in the Neon section of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Click here to send Bob Dancer an e-mail.

For a 3,000-word preview of Bob's juicy new novel, "Sex, Lies, and Video Poker", visit www.bobdancer.com.

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Jun 12, 2007

A Ruling from the Gaming Control Board --- Part 1 of 2

In the State of Nevada, the Gaming Control Board is the regulatory agency in charge of keeping casinos on the straight and narrow. Casinos may face sanctions for violations.

If a player has a dispute with a casino, the GCB is the arbiter. An Enforcement Agent decides whether the GCB has jurisdiction, and if so makes a ruling. Either side may appeal the ruling and ask for a hearing. A case decided in early May of this year illustrates this process. The situation is complicated enough that it will take me two columns to explain it all.

In October 2006, the South Coast casino underwent a change in ownership from "Coast Casinos" to "Gaughan South, LLC" and became South Point casino. As part of the changeover, South Point transferred all points in the Coast system to the Club at South Point on a one-for-one basis.

On November 15, 2006, a promotion at South Point was announced that would begin December 1. Under this promotion, all points at South Point may be redeemed for "double gas cards". That is, to receive $25 in cash, usually you need to redeem 8,333 points. During this promotion, however, the same 8,333 points would earn you TWO $25 Chevron gas cards. You didn't have to earn the points during the promotion period. Even pre-existing points were eligible for the gas cards.

Having heard about this promotion, a player named "Dorothy," came in to the South Point on November 27 to play. November 27 was already a "double point" day at South Point, so Dorothy calculated that it was, in essence, a quadruple point day in terms of gas cards. That is, whatever points she earned that day would normally be worth 0.60% (which is South Point's normal cash back rate doubled), but if she cashed them in on gas cards, she would be earning 1.2%.

An experienced player, Dorothy knew that 1.2% was a much-higher-than-normal cash back rate and she'd also heard that South Point had 9/6 Jacks or Better machines (returning 99.54%) for high denominations. To verify her understanding that the points would actually earn her 1.2% in terms of gas cards, Dorothy stopped by the slot club booth before she began playing. The slot club attendant assured her that the number of gas cards she could earn was unlimited and that points earned today (i.e. November 27) would indeed count once the promotion began the following week. Dorothy looked around the slot club booth area for some kind of official rules, or signs advertising the upcoming promotion, but saw none.

Dorothy began playing, and as it happened, ran poorly that day. Over the next several hours, she played $140,000 through the machine at a cost of more than $5,000. Dorothy's expected loss was about $650, but sometimes she'll win and sometimes she lose more that that. November 27 was one of the losing days. Between points already transferred by South Point and points earned November 27, Dorothy figured she would be able to collect $6,000 in gas cards. (Numbers are slightly rounded in this article to make them easier to understand).

The following week, Dorothy returned to the South Point to collect her gas cards. She was told at this time that her name was on a special list and that as a member of this list, she was only entitled to twenty cards --- worth $500. She was pointed to a sign with a rule on it that said, "Management reserves the right to limit number of cards to any individual or group." Her additional points remained in her account and were worth $2,750 if she cashed them out. Dorothy didn't want the $2,750 in cash. She wanted the additional $5,500 in cards she understood she was entitled to.

Dorothy insisted on speaking to a supervisor. There might be such a sign now, Dorothy argued, but there was no sign posted when she played and at that time she was informed by a slot club employee that the amounts were unlimited. Furthermore, she continued, in the Compton/Dancer "Player's Edge" column that had run December 1 in the "Neon" section of the "Las Vegas Review-Journal", it stated that the number of cards that may be earned was unlimited.

Dorothy argued that the only reason she played on November 27 was in anticipation of receiving numerous gas cards. Prior to November 27, she already had sufficient points to entitle her to the full $500 worth of gas cards, had she known that was the limit. Playing $140,000 at 9/6 Jacks or Better at "only" the 0.60% double point rate would not have been attractive enough to get Dorothy to come in and play that day.

Over the next few weeks, several players learned to their dismay about this $500 limit if they were on the "list." (Shirley and I were definitely on the list, so we collected our $500 worth of gas cards and didn't play any more.) Apparently the list had been compiled in conjunction with management of the other Coast casinos and consisted of players who played primarily the loosest machines (i.e. 9/6 Jacks or Better, NSU Deuces Wild, or 9/5 Super Double Bonus, among others) and only played on double point days. Although these players could easily be described as "intelligent gamblers" (from my point of view), South Point and most Coast casinos considers them undesirable and limits their play. Many on this list do not receive mailers from these properties.

Dorothy ended up writing to several South Point employees over the next several weeks, without the South Point budging from its stance that she was only entitled to 20 gas cards. She was offered an extra $250 in gas cards as a "peace offering" of sorts, but she declined.

Feeling she had no other option, Dorothy filed her case with the Gaming Control Board. After some time, she was informed by GCB Enforcement Agent Robin Byers that the GCB didn't rule on promotions. Dorothy was told that Byers had opened up an "Unsuitable Method of Operations" claim against the South Point on this matter, but whether the South Point won or lost that claim wouldn't affect Dorothy and her claim of gas cards.

Approximately one month later, however, Agent Byers contacted Dorothy and told her that Byers' boss had insisted that the matter was indeed suitable for Gaming to ruling on. Hence, Byers was instructed to make a ruling. Byers decided that Dorothy had the better case and ordered the South Point to pay up $5,500 in either gas cards or cash.

When Dorothy explained this to several friends, including me, we congratulated her. We knew that South Point had the right to appeal this ruling, but since it was only a few thousand dollars, we figured that it wasn't worth them hiring a lawyer to fight it.

We were wrong. South Point decided to appeal this ruling. Possibly they were concerned that if word got out about this ruling, other players on the list (including me, presumably), we would all attempt to collect more gas cards.

In next week's column, I'll discuss how the appeal process went.