AP outside the casino

[Villiam]

So, I was thinking about advantage play the last couple of days and I was reminded that expanding our view of it could be more profitable than any BJ pursuit. Basically, I need a job.

Anyway, I was wondering if you guys had any insights into advantage plays you've done or been privy to outside the casino realm you'd care to share. I'm talking specific ideas for the most part but would also entertain more general concepts of an advantage play if you got 'em.

Here's two examples I have...

1. I was at Dave and Buster's with my preggo GF looking for a way to win her some chocolate cake. You can earn food as well as toys for tickets. So I'm looking around at the ticket games and I find the two I want to play. Problem is: they're both occupied, and it becomes clear the players aren't going anywhere. It's half-price Wednesday. Their D&B cards, with their max credit/max bonus credit option buys, are firmly lodged in the card readers. They are playing the stop the light game, and the Chinese father figure of the bunch (there were an extended family situation of four at least) is stopping it on the 1000 tickets spot 2 out of every 3 tries. The machines are just shitting tickets into perfect piles on the floor for an hour, the same way they were loaded into the machine, as employees occasionally drop by to reload them.

SOOO, I found their version of a floor person, a suited one in fact, and I ask him the skinny. He tells me they are here every Wednesday at 11am and they don't stop until the game is turned off at midnight. He said that it's national company policy that you cannot remove people from their favorite games regardless of how long they want to play them. I asked how it was possible they could be allowing themselves to leech so much money, and he said they haven't decided what to do about it yet. People house-wide were enraged they couldn't play, and trust me, they weren't ever going to be able to on half-price Wednesdays until something changed.

I am assuming they were relieving the store of their entire stock of X-box Ones and PS4s every month. I want to say the cost per unit in tickets was at the time 84,000 (can't remember for sure if that's right) and that the ebay selling price was as high as $375 per. I did a basic calculation of daily earnings using a conservative estimate of rate of play 2 spins per minute (120 per hour) and a 50% win percentage (1000 tix) and subtracted out the cost assuming a voluminous (bonus) credit buy-in and got a minimum daily earning of $2800. I told this story to many people and you know the most popular refrain?: "Jesus, what a waste of a life. Would you want to do that every day? Press a button at the right time?" Food for thought, I guess; I, and one frugal girlfriend of mine actually, were the only ones that disagreed.

2. This one is less specific and more general, but I've found it interesting. Aristocrat gaming, from Australia, is known throughout the world for their slot machines. Last stats I read (2013, I believe), they were 4th in the world, potentially recently bought out, but they claimed a 36b market share from online gaming, primarily London based (illegal in Aus), and a 2b market share from their "free" entertainment only slots. At the same time those stats were taken casinos worldwide were experiencing downturns in gambling revenue, in particular and most concerning was the decline in slots. So it's not like anyone was doing well. Since then, Aristocrat has created a subsidiary corporation known as Product Madness (a great and honest name) to develop it's social media/entertainment component. The results have been somewhat astounding from what I can glean. I don't have any current stats, seems I am a poor researcher or they are under wraps. They have all the same products online as in casinos. You can play for a brief bit with free credits until you are out. But then you can buy more! Options range from $2.99 to $99.99, with the $20 option being the most popular. You cannot win anything other than "entertainment" from these slots. That is, these slots are 100% return for Aristocrat as opposed to their previous casino arrangements. Why would Aristocrat be interested in being involved in gambling ever again when they can just provide entertainment instead? Talk about an advantage play!

[Villiam]

C'mon AP people. Speak up about your plans to take over the world, one ticket at a time.

[Villiam]

You guys have all been out practicing your timing on the Dave and Buster's machine, huh? Tomorrow's the big day. Get there early.

[MJOK]

Cheap AP play (outside BJ) for you Villiam. You can get about $40-$50/month at least in gift cards by just using your phone. Ever heard of mpoints?

[Villiam]

Alas and alack! My phone is purposely not sophisticated enough to load a crapton of apps on. I have considered upgrading my phone soon so that I can drive for Uber though. Interestingly though, I applied for Lyft and was denied with the inability to give me a reason. I think it's because my record is "colorful," albeit benign.

[Villiam]

Ok getting this thread back on track, I'm going to be doing a little experiment next week: a gamble involving my timing (shitty, I'm a drummer after all) and my wits. I am going to be going to different amusement machines in my area and seeing if I can develop decent AP plays for them to end up ahead in the long haul. Some involve prizes such as gift cards. Some involve real money. I'll leave it at that for now but expect to hear about a couple successes or failures in the realm of AP gaming on "amusement" machines.

By the way, I believe it's a law that you have to label such machines "amusement" machines, thus denying that you can be a winner at the start of play. Any ideas about the law behind this? Boz?

[JohnDoe]

There are a lot of excellent opportunities for credit card signup bonuses; I get a few per year at $200-$500 each.

Then some offer 2% back on everything, up to 6% back on specific categories. If you've got a job where you get reimbursed for expenses, this is gold. I make a few hundred a month this way, doing very little.

Others manufacture spend to get points, and there are a lot of techniques, but that's more work than I'm willing to do.

[Boz]

There are a lot of excellent opportunities for credit card signup bonuses; I get a few per year at $200-$500 each.

Then some offer 2% back on everything, up to 6% back on specific categories. If you've got a job where you get reimbursed for expenses, this is gold. I make a few hundred a month this way, doing very little.

Others manufacture spend to get points, and there are a lot of techniques, but that's more work than I'm willing to do.

Yeah, I've been doing this to pay for plane tickets for awhile. I haven't been doing it long enough to need to churn any of the cards yet. Just a few days ago, I got approved for CitiBusiness AAdvantage. Still got 38K United miles left. Even after the primary bonus, you can sometimes squeeze about 4% out of them for a secondary bonus, which makes them worth using until the free year is over, to me anyway. Which is why I'm still using my Barclay. 2% isn't worth it, you can get that anywhere.