You have summarized my feelings on this issue. Stories of cash rebates, a casino returning a percentage of your losses, comp points that you can actually buy something with and casino errors in the player's advantage are an entertaining read on a rainy day afternoon. In reality, I have never seen or heard of such things except in a book.DaBurglar wrote: ↑Thu Sep 20, 2018 9:45 pmNO one earns a straight up long term significant cash PROFIT anymore (i.e. simply Cash Out MORE money than they put in); If they do like Bob Dancer allegedly does and acts like an "AP" by counting every single giveaway, promotion, freebie etc. the casinos give them in the casinos' efforts to keep them pumping money in, then maybe...MAYBE they might show a hypothetical profit over the long term. But I'm sorry, I do not derive utility or satisfactory value for having lots of t-shirts, Crockpots & frying pans, Luggage etc in exchange for my cash.
Video poker costs money to play. I don't care if you count free beers or dog grooming as profit, that's the way it is. If you play the right games the right way, you can hold down your cost to play. In return you will get all kinds of free stuff. Some of it is enjoyable and/or useful. If you play VP as a hobby like I do, you can enjoy playing it regularly without a lot of financial damage. I've added this up a few times and not counting comps or free play, together it costs us on average about $5,000 a year to play VP. Back out the free play, free rooms, free food, free drinks, sunglasses, jackets and wine glasses and it's a lot cheaper than playing golf, buying a boat or RV or cruising Europe. My classic car hobby cost me 10 times more than that, but I get to sell the car at the end.
Unless you want to turn into a vegetable watching Fox News all day, you have to have a project to keep your mind working. VP is exercise for the mind. Young people don't understand this. They will some day.