I should be starting day 5 in Vegas, but I’m not..

Well, I should be waking up to day five in Las Vegas but I’m still in PA. Gina had some things come up and we couldn’t make the trip. I went without her in May so I didn’t want to go without her in June so I sadly canceled. Aerosmith had canceled so that made it a little easier…OK, I’m lying. It still sucked. So next on deck is IHeart in September. This is the first non covid 2020 cancel I’ve ever had and I’m not a fan.

Anyway, let’s go back a few weeks before I knew I wasn’t making the trip. I received an email my my host at the Hollywood Casino at the Meadows. Over the last year I have moved 90% of my local play to this location as 1) it’s close 2) my host is really good 3) I really like the streak house Bistecca, 4) I seem to do well there. Anyway, this is the first year that I’ve been at their top (Owners Club) level. I get the email and think, “that’s nice, they are giving players a gift”. Then I went on the web site. WHAT?? A Mercedes lease? A trunk full of Apple gear? Some solid gifts. Many more than I posted here. Think Gucci bags, Omega watches, things like that. So I’m looking over the list and scroll to the bottom and see free play. $5000 worth.
Hmmm, what should I do? Well, all of you know the answer to that. I chose the free play and it says it take 5-7 days for it to show up on my players card. Well, over the next couple weeks Vegas got canceled, I’ve been busy and I basically forgot about it. So the Thursday I was supposed to leave I was disappointed to say the least. So that evening I remembered the free play (since the May vegas trip I’ve played two times. When the weather is nice I would rather be outside and Vegas reminded me last trip that the house always wins, so I really haven’t had the desire to gamble local. So I decided to go over to the Meadows.

 

I get to the Meadows and the free play is on my card. Plus I had my weekly freeplay and you could choose a gas card or more free play. So in all I had $5650 in free play. I told myself the entire drive over that I was going to cash every penny and not playback anything. I hoped to convert $2500 and walk. I immediately hit Heart Throb for $1250. Cool. I walk over to the $200/pull DTD and load $800 of the freeplay in. BANG! Third pull $11,000. Get paid for both handpays and load another $600 in $200 DTD. Very next pull bonus again for $4500 (I took it down to the last offer). Get paid, play out the $600 and get another bonus for $4000! (Last offer again). Chase another $1000 through and move to the $100 wheels. (The DTD and the wheels are all on a wall next to each other at the Meadows. Hit both wheels for $3000 and $4000. I hit another lightning link for $2440 and I’m out of free play. I break my rule and take $1500 to play on. It worked. The next hour and a half I had five More handpays and several hits in the $900-$1100 range. These included one more $100 wheel spin and the last pic I posted of autumn moon and panda magic. Those machines aren’t in high limit. I was leaving for the night and saw one of the majors was like $9700. So I put $100 in and immediately got a bonus ($1 denom $25 pull). For around $1050. I said I would play it to $700 and leave. I got another bonus the handpay in the pic. While waiting i out $100 in the autumn moon machine and got a bonus for the handpay that is showing. I get paid for both of these and I still have money in the panda magic. I try a few more pulls and get another handpay. I try a few hundred more in both machines with no hits so I leave.
So to clean it all up, or if this is TLDR last Thursday I showed up at the Meadows with $100 cash, $5650 in free play and hopes and dreams and left with $33,840.00.

 

Funny you should say that. The steakhouse affiliated with The Meadows (same building, on a different floor) is very good. But they don’t have Mac and cheeee!!!

 

HA! Quite a ways from that! I honestly want to stop or greatly reduce my local play but I’ve been successful at The Meadows.
And only the Meadows. I get CRUSHED at the Rivers which stinks because I’m on the North Shore (where The Rivers casino is located) as Gina and I go to a ton of Pirate games (PNC Park is also in the North Shore) and would like to relax a play a little bit after a game. And I go on the PA gaming web site and the pay rate is almost identical between the Rivers and Meadows. But my experiences couldn’t be any more different.
But this run was nice. It made the $16k loss in May at the Nugget and the rest of Fremont a distant memory. And if the Meadows is going to keep the perks at the level they are now (have you ever heard of a car lease as a casino gift?) I will play local at the Meadows.

 

As I said it’s the first time I’ve been at this level so it was new. Maybe is status quo at non Vegas casinos? I just thought they were really nice. The Apple package was legit as well. But I’m a gambler. Period. So I always will take the free play.