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THE BEAR GROWLS
By LVBear
Long-time Las Vegas-based advantage player, casino critic, and frequent Blackjack Insider contributor LVBear offers his opinions on things that sometimes go wrong in the world of casinos. Current and past growls can be read, and comments posted, at LVBear's website,
TheBearGrowls.com.M RESORT BEHAVES APPROPRIATELY IN PAYING MISPROGRAMMED JACKPOT
It is too early to form an overall opinion of the M, but from this incident, it appears to be on the right track. Many other casino managers could learn from this incident.
GOOD NEWS — HERBST GAMING LOSES ITS CASINOS
From
this news article:Herbst Gaming, which has spent the past year seeking a financial restructuring plan for its $847 million in debt, announced an agreement Tuesday with its bondholders in which the company will lose ownership of its 15 casinos in Nevada, Iowa and Missouri, but retain control of its Nevada slot routes.
As I have
previously growled, the Herbst brothers were particularly rapacious in the manner in which they operated their casinos. Their shameless preying on addicted, compulsive gamblers with the miserable table games in Primm was the worst of their worst. Though they had a monopoly on a location at which few would even bother to stop, except for addicts who couldn’t stand to wait another 45 minutes to get to Las Vegas to give away their money, the Herbsts permitted atrocities such as double deck blackjack paying only 6 to 5 to infest their casinos.In Las Vegas, Terrible’s is a casino that truly lives down to its name. Management has repeatedly lied to patrons about various promotions, and the atmosphere in the casino is one of constant hostility towards patrons from the slugs employed there. Even after the sportsbook, long among the unfriendliest in town, was taken over by Lucky’s, some of the same inept, rude staff remained. The entire sportsbook staff should have been fired long ago, before the failing sportsbook was handed over to Lucky’s.
In Reno, the Herbsts continued a
bizarre and player-unfriendly blackjack rule they should have done away with when purchasing the dump Sands Regency. And they continued a culture there of hostility towards patrons. Even worse, in a casino surrounded by fleabag motels and populated largely by street people and gang-member types, they did little or nothing to clean up the place and make it safe for patrons.In contrast, Herbst Gaming did make substantial improvements to the other low-end Reno-area property it purchased, the seedy Rail City in Sparks. However, the typical patrons of Rail City are not much better than Sands Regency’s. Somehow, the Herbsts weren’t able to figure out that the money wasted on improvements to Rail City would never be recovered by continuing to cater to the coin-playing fleas that make up Rail City’s patron base.
In retrospect, it looks like the Herbsts did just about everything wrong. Judging by the terrible mismanagement, it appears that they actually wanted their little casinos to fail, for whatever reasons. Well, fail they did. Good riddance to the Herbst-operated casinos. Let’s hope that decent, competent operators take over after the bankruptcy proceedings.
The Herbsts can go back to their gas stations and car washes, with which they do a good job. And they can continue to plunder and prey upon the addicted gamblers who play the slot machines in those places and others on their "slot routes."
CASINO SECURITY GOES BEZERK AGAIN — CANNERY & STRATOSPHERE CRAZINESS
Despite many well-publicized settlements and large jury verdicts for casino abuse of patrons, casino security still doesn’t seem to understand the basics. Of all the casino security stupidity I’ve personally encountered over the years, and of all I’m aware that has happened to others, the one at the Cannery ranks among the stupidest.
They (Cannery guards) finally announced clearly that I was being detained and I was not free to go. Two of them were openly armed. I asked the grounds for my detention. They said it was because I was taking pictures. I asked whether they had reason to think that I had committed a felony, which is the only suspicion that triggers their authority to detain. Yes, I was told–taking pictures. I asked, incredulously, "You think that’s a felony?" The guy said, "Yes, it’s a violation of our policy"–as if that’s the same thing.
The writers at www.PokerGrump.com and www.vegasrex.com have done such a good job of chronicling the moronic behavior of both the guards and the police officers, there is not much to add except I hope the Cannery victim sues and receives a large amount of money from these jerks.
As for the idiotic guards at Stratosphere, we can only hope that someone with a functioning brain at the Stratosphere reads about the actions of the nitwit guard depicted below and fires him before he hurts someone. It seems to me that the economic situation has many casino employees on edge and on their worst behavior ever. The situation is ripe for someone getting seriously injured by these pinheads.
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GAMING CONTROL BOARD HYSTERIA OVERY SILLY iPHONE DEVICE
Users of iPhones beware -- state gaming agents are watching you.
More waste of time and taxpayer money by the shameful Nevada Gaming Control Board. The Board issued a memo to casinos about this silly device. The only people who are likely to use this device are beginners who will probably lose despite using the program, and probably have no idea that the program is illegal to use in a Nevada casino. The program does nothing that a competent card counter doesn't already do in his head, perfectly legally. I guess the Board has no time for properly investigating patron complaints of wrongdoing by casinos, but has time and money to waste on this nonsense.
Bill Zender, a respected and intelligent casino consultant, commented:
"How soon will it be before a customer is detained by security because he or she was simply text messaging their friend from the general proximity of a blackjack table? Worse yet, what about the possibility that this person will be arrested for possession of a cheating device which is a felony?"
With Nevada’s economy reeling, it makes no sense to give casinos something else to be paranoid about. The paranoia this will fuel will result in many "good casino customers" being hassled, and everyone with a cell phone to be looked upon as a possible criminal. This gives casinos another excuse to harass patrons, which will result in the typical cases of casino abuse. Lawsuits will of course follow, costing the casino industry far more money than letting a few wannabe card counters play. The Gaming Control Board again exposes itself as a laughingstock.
LUCKY’S SPORTBOOK TEETERING ON THE EDGE?
I have growled and revised my growl about Lucky’s in the past. But it looks like my original assessment of this feeble organization is proving to be correct: Apparently undercapitalized and definitely paranoid, Lucky’s is an embarrassment.
Within the past week, at least three patrons have had to wait unreasonable amounts of time to get winning tickets paid at the Lucky’s location at Terrible’s casino in Las Vegas. One patron had to wait about six hours for money to be delivered from some other location. Apparently Lucky’s cannot simply borrow the money from the casino’s cage, and apparently cannot keep enough money on hand to pay winning patrons. That’s inexcusable for a sportsbook; the book knows at all times the total of its outstanding liabilities to patrons. The only obvious reason for not having enough money on hand to pay is the lack of enough money. Otherwise, why would it take six hours to get money to a location?
In the case of the smallest of the three payment delays, the Lucky’s manager had the audacity to become belligerent towards the patron, instead of being apologetic. In further misconduct, he refused to call the Gaming Control Board, despite being obligated by state law to do so when there is a patron dispute of $500 or more. A sportsbook refusing to promptly pay certainly would appear to be a "patron dispute." Upon contacting Gaming, the latest victim got paid within a few minutes, and then was escorted out by two security guards. Imagine – being ejected for asking to be paid what the sportsbook owed him!
When the ejected patron later contacted Gaming again about filing a complaint over the Lucky’s manager refusing to notify Gaming of the dispute, according to the victim, this is what happened:
Gaming "Senior Agent" Pierce would not take my complaint about the sportsbook not calling Gaming. He said it was not a patron dispute. He told me, "If they don’t have the money, what do you expect them to do?" I told him they were lying, as evidenced by the fact that they immediately paid me upon getting the call from Gaming. He couldn’t care less. Ridiculous that there is a requirement to notify Gaming but there is no penalty assessed for failing to do so.
Ridiculous indeed. Not a patron dispute?" Even more ridiculous.
In further malfeasance, Lucky’s appears to have deliberately misgraded a Super Bowl prop bet to favor the side on which it had less action. See Wizard of Odd’s synopsis of another payment dispute that is currently before the Gaming Control Board. Considering the totality of circumstances in these bizarre events, one can conclude that Lucky’s is probably teetering on the brink of extinction. It appeared from the beginning to be badly undercapitalized. I hope the Gaming Control Board will audit Lucky’s to protect patrons, and move quickly to close it down if it lacks sufficient operating capital. It would be nice to see Gaming do something for patron protection once in a while.
Two relevant Gaming regulations:
1. No license will be issued for use in any establishment until satisfactory evidence is presented that there is adequate financing available to pay all current obligations and, in addition, to provide adequate working capital to finance opening of the establishment.
8. A book must calculate its reserve requirement each day. In the event a book determines that its reserve is not sufficient to cover the calculated requirement, the book must, within 24 hours, notify the chairman of this fact in writing and must also indicate the steps the book has taken to remedy the deficiency.
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NFL ARROGANCE AND STUPIDITY IN OPPOSING ONLINE GAMING
The NFL owes much of its popularity to gambling, online and otherwise. How many millions of people wouldn’t bother to watch a bunch of overstuffed, single-digit IQ thugs running around charging into each other like wild animals, if they didn’t have a financial stake in the games, however small any individual’s stake may be? TV ratings and attendance would take a severe hit. Advertising revenue would decline. Stadium workers and other employees would suffer layoffs. But the NFL puts its corporate head in the sand and bites the hand that feeds it. Ridiculous.
The NFL should learn from the bloated, self-important fat cats at Harrah’s, MGM Mirage, Station Casinos, and other casino companies that are now in or are contemplating bankruptcy. They can only gouge and sucker people for so long before many people stop coming. The economic downturn has quickly crippled the greedy, parasitic casino industry. By continuing to try to remove many people’s main reason to be interested in the childish games presented by the NFL, the league may find itself alongside the casinos in bankruptcy court. Wake up, NFL.
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