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americancasinoguide.com This video features Jean Scott who is also known as
the Queen of comps
and is about how to save money when planning a las Vegas vacation. Jean is an
expert on saving money in Las Vegas
and she's written several books on the subject including frugal video poker,
the frugal gambler and more frugal gambling. And now,
here's Jean Scott. The first thing you wanna do when you plan a trip to Las
Vegas is you want to choose the best day
Now some people don't have much flexibility but if you are more
flexible
you're liable and much more able to save money.
I can give you some hints here
one of the best times to come is
after the rodeo is over in December, the first two weeks in December
up until then after that's over into up to Christmas
that's a dead time of year the casinos just want warm bodies in the
casino
and they figure if you're gonna stay, there you're gonna play there
So you often get bargains during that
As a general rule, if you're not flexible
a weekday trip is better than a weekend trip
try to avoid holiday weekend although there is an exception
to that the Thanksgiving weekend seems to be a family weekend, people stay home
with their families
Sometimes you can get bargains on that holiday weekend
Another time to avoid is when there are big conventions
because prices go up are not only on holidays but during big conventions
once you have the dates that you've chosen
you want to decide how to get to Vegas
and how to get around
You usually need this is like a puzzle you need to check both things
if you're coming by car of course
you're a little more flexible. If you need to get airfare before
then you need to check the prices and also
at the same time you need to check the prices of the rooms
well sometimes you can get a bundle you'll get
a travel agency look in the Sunday paper and sometimes they'll have
packages that bundle the air and the room together
and often you can get these packages that are not much more than the
air itself. There's just one problem with a package
if you think you're gonna be doing some playing and might get
your room comped, once you've paid for a package you can't get the room comped.
if you've come to Vegas before and played some you might have some mailings
from casinos
that's one of the best ways to get rooms
because they give you either discounted or free rooms
sometimes particularly if it's not the most glamorous resort some of the smaller
places
they will give you free rooms or heavily discounted ones
the next thing that you're probably wanna plan is where you are
eating. I have a really good tip for that
as a frugal tip and that he is
eat a late lunch as opposed to a dinner
the lunch prices are always cheaper than the dinner rate
and then underneath that there's a little trick
if you're going to a buffet, a lot of the buffets in Vegas
don't shut down between lunch and dinner
they kind of keep going but let's say they stay open till 3:30 or 4 for lunch
and then they raise the prices sometimes as much as ten dollars
it always is funny to me when I would be in
the casino buffet and I would see people lining up at five minutes after
four
and I I was there five minutes before four because the rates
change at that and you get the same food
they start bringing out the little more exotic
offerings, so that's one of my best tips.
There's another rather new development in
food bargains in Las Vegas and that is the package deal
check out once you've chosen your
hotel where you are gonna stay or one that you're going to visit
sometimes they have all day packages you pay one
price and you can eat there, this is usually for the buffet,
breakfast lunch and dinner and you can go twice each meal period if you want to
Now this is for the heavy eaters and
it's for people that don't wanna be too adventuresome
to eat at the same buffet in the same hotel
for all three meals can get pretty boring and particularly if it's not the
best buffet in the world
so if you know that it's a good buffet and that you can do that but if you're going
to be running all over town
that might not be convenient for you to come back for your free meal
There is another package that makes the time frame
a little better and Harrah's has a package
where you pay one price and I think it's for like
24-36 hours or something and you can go to any
Harrah's property buffet and eat
again this is for the big eaters that want to eat buffets
three times a day maybe four and you have to really organize yourself to get
around
and check out the times and and make out a schedule so you can get
a good amount for your money and also this is much cheaper
if you have a Harrah's card and almost all of these you need a slot card
There's a specialized hint that I have here if you're around the sportsbook
or even if you're not a sports nut and you're hungry for a hot dog
at all the Coast properties and at Southpoint
there's almost always a hot dog wagon
near the sports book for all those hungry sports bettors
and usually you can get a hot dog for anywhere from 75 cents a dollar maybe a
dollar and a quarter
and with all the toppings that you want and that's a real bargain
If you come to Vegas you probably just don't wanna go to your room and stay
there obviously you want to
roam around and visit different casinos and some people want to know the best
way to get around
Well the first thing you sometimes have to get from the airport to your room I
have a little warning here be careful
taxi rates are very very high
in Vegas some of the highest in the nation and we have been known in Las
Vegas
our taxi drivers to take you the long way so be aware
of what they call long hauling the one time a taxi might be a good
bargain is when there are a group of you
and then that cuts down. If you have just one or two people
the bus system is pretty good. There's a bus that goes up and down the strip and
particularly the bus goes downtown so if you wanna go downtown
which is a good little ways, that's a frugal way to do it
and sometimes there are shuttles for instance there's a shuttle
from the hard rock which is off the strip to the strip
and some of the other casinos do have, so if you're staying off the strip
ask at the front desk desk if there's a shuttle
The Palms is off the strip and they have a shuttle
One shuttle that goes all the way around is the coast property shuttle
and it goes to the Orleans, the Gold Coast
and then Bill's that's on the strip so that's free
One way to get around town not my favorite way but
could be used for depending on where you're going is to ride the monorail
The monorail is on the east side of the strip
the problem with the monorail is if you're on the strip
it seems like you walk miles to get to the monorail station
so and then if you're only going a short distance you think well I should've maybe
just gone
down the strip to walk down the strip but you kinda have to look.
Another thing that some people do is they rent a car
Now Las Vegas traffic particularly around the strip is horrendous
and a lot of people aren't comfortable but if you have a group and you have a
a driver car rentals are very very expensive now
compared to two or three years ago there are coupons
that you can get on the internet you can go to the
if you have the American casino guide they have a coupon for rentals in
there
Sometimes it would be a frugal option but not just for one or two people
Another option that I think is nteresting for just sightseeing around town
there are nightclub tours like if you wanna
go to several nightclubs but you don't exactly know how to do that on your own
one of the tours will take you around and you don't have to stand in line
they'll get you right in
and also just for going up and down the strip there's an open
deck double-decker bus like you have in England
and that's kind of fun especially if the weather's good to go up and down the
strip
of course if you're in Las Vegas you're gonna say well I wanna see a show
and there are so many shows to choose from
alright here's the rule of thumb the bigger the show
the more popular the show the more expensive it's going to be and there's
less likely that you're going to be able to get a comp or find a discount
so there are a lot of what I call second level shows
that are in the afternoon or in the evening particularly comedy shows
there's kinda a lot of comedy shows and if you like
those you can find discounts on those
The first thing if you took a taxi as I did recently
to the airport or back you'll find a little book
in that back of the taxi seat and it
was just chock full love discounts on shows
I've been with people who have paid full price for a show
and in their hotel room was one of these freebie magazines
with discounts on all sorts of shows
it's a matter of looking around sometimes these freebie magazines are
at the bell desk
in the hotel. Now there is another way
if you don't wanna make reservations in advance there's same day
discount show stations around town there's a couple different companies
one's called tickets tonight or
they have names like that and they'll have a list of shows and usually
you would go there in the morning and they would have shows
usually just for that afternoon or evening, you usually will not find the biggest
crique do soleil shows for instance but
you'll get some of the others especially in the recession
shows are struggling to fill their seats so whenever that happens you're gonna
find some discounts
also Google free shows in Vegas
there are places that you can go and sign up
where you can get free shows because they're last minute
and they fill seats. One good source for show tickets
and these you could look in if you have the American casino guide book
you have the coupons and that and you can look in advance and know that those
are the ones that you wanna check out
and the discount could be pretty considerable
Another hint for somebody who plays
and that is you can sometimes ask your host
or a host if you don't have one of your own
particularly let's say you're sitting at a blackjack table you've been
playing for several hours
and maybe not at the minimum but a little more than the minimum
you can say to the pit boss
or ask the dealer to tell the pit boss
you can say say look I'm kinda interested in going to a show tonight
anyway to get a discounted ticket for that?
that won't always score you a show but many times it
will. If you're out machine player then you need to go to
one of the hosts a and you can always ask for a host
ask a floor person I want to talk to a host
and you'd be surprised particularly this is a good thing
to ask the host about an hour before the show
sometimes they just have show tickets in there
in their little booklet that they have and they'll say oh sure
I got a ticket here, so you can maybe make a good score that way
Of course you probably didn't come to Vegas just
to eat and see shows and just go around and sightsee
you might have come to gamble too surprise surprise
and people are saying well I don't have very much I don't have
a very big bankroll could I gamble some and not spend so much
money?
Well it took me four books to give all the hints that I know about saving money
gambling and I assume that if you're serious about gambling
maybe you have read or you will read so that you gamble wiser so that you don't
lose so much money
but if you haven't had time to study I and you don't wanna study just wanna go
for luck
but you don't have much money either here's some hints
the first thing is and this is probably the number one hint
play at the lowest denomination you can
I see people go in and they wanna play the five dollar machines they
only have a hundred dollars they're going to be here for three
days you know that could swallow you up in
two minutes or even less. So if you wanna play the machines
play a low denomination if your gonna play the tables
find the the lowest denomination table you can do
with the lowest minimums A hand here
is the smaller casinos usually have lower minimums
and particularly downtown is just full of casinos with
sometimes dollar blackjack you can
usually find lower minimums during the week than on the weekend but downtown
you can always find them
you can even find quarter craps downtown and when you're playing blackjack and
craps or roulette
and you're playing at this low denomination you can still whoop it up
and have fun with all the people that are playing with you and after all
that's what you wanna do have fun isn't it
you can order the same drinks as the people in the high limit
and so even if you play just pennies people say okay I don't have hardly any
money at all
I say and I wanna play the machines okay
find a penny machine that has the fewest lines that you can find sometimes there are
just twenty lines
don't have one of these that's got 500 lines
20 lines then play one penny a line
a little trick is and a little hint here
is that if you play every line
even the minimum of each line you're gonna get all the bonuses
the little pictures that come up the little games extra bonuses and so forth
obviously your bonuses and stuff won't be as big
but you can have the fun at the bonuses Of course I would be
remiss to not mention coupons you know before I was the Queen of Comps I was
the
Queen of coupon I and I still use coupons
and particularly for the lower roller coupons are
good use have your money your gaming bankroll because
they take a lot of time I have friends who
go all over the city and do nothing but use coupons they take up a lot of time
they're having a lot of fun
you say well where do I get these coupons well sometimes when you check in
to a casino they give you a coupon book
if again I mention the American casino guide and the Las Vegas adviser
both have a lotta coupons in their books
Coupons is a way to stretch your entertainment time
which is what I emphasize particularly when you don't have much money or you
don't come to Vegas very long
for very often or very long at a time the point is you wanna have fun
and coupons will stretch your fun. If I had to give one hint
and only one who about your trip to Las Vegas
I would say emphasize the free things that
las Vegas has if you just google
free activities in Las Vegas you will be amazed
at what you can do I can just name probably a dozen right off you know you
can watch the gondolas
at the Venetian, you can watch the
volcano erupt at the Mirage, you go watch the dancing
waters at Bellagio I could go on and on
and there are internet sites that list
literally hundreds of free things. I have had friends come to Vegas
who did not gamble and they did not gamble
and they kept busy every minute they were here by just doing free things
If you want to know more about me and some other things I've written
you can go to my website which is queenofcomps.com
and on there there will be a list of the books I've written
the frugal series
a lot of them well show you how to play video poker
and have more fun in Las Vegas Don't forget that you can see more of our
educational gaming videos on our YouTube channel
just go to youtube.com/americancasinoguide