Overnight at Bally's AC 4/7

Just got back from an overnight visit to Bally's AC, so I thought I'd write up a very quick trip report. We got there at about 6 pm and checked in within ten minutes of arriving. Our comp room was a corner room with oceanview in the Bally's Tower. A little dated, sure, but very clean. It had a large bathroom with shower and separate soaking tub with windows with a view of Caesars next door, Playground Pier, and the Boardwalk with the ocean in the distance. Not too bad.

We had a comp buffet for two at Caesars so we had that for dinner. We appreciated that they offered some decent seafood options since it was a Friday night and we observe Lent. Everything was tasty and our beverage service was quite attentive. We tipped nicely.

After dinner, we attended a special presentation about the benefits of Total Rewards and they gave us $20 of freeplay. Then, I hit the slots in the casino and the wife went back to the hotel room for the evening. I played dollar slots at $3 a spin and quickly won $300. I then proceeded to lose a total of $1000 over the next two hours, which annoyed me greatly. I ended up with only 470 tier credits from $1000 of losses, which I found completely unacceptable. I know that CET has increased their hold lately, but that's just ridiculous. It upset me so much that I stopped playing and went back to my hotel room and decided to invest the other $1000 of my bankroll with Vanguard instead. Sorry, CET. Don't waste my time.

We spent the rest of the evening soaking in the tub and drinking wine from New Jersey's Tomasello Winery that we had brought with us. We remembered to bring wine glasses with us this time too, because Caesars tried to charge us $7.50 to borrow wine glasses on our last visit. Not likely. We had meant to go dress up and have drinks at 1921 at Playground Pier, but my wife was feeling a little tired, so we decided to call it a night around midnight.

The next morning, we had a breakfast of cinnamon rolls and apple juice that we brought with us from home along with the room coffee (which is free in Atlantic City.) Saved us a ton of money. We checked out around 11:30 and paid the resort fee with reward credits, so there was absolutely no charge for the room.

Then, since they were already counting checkout day toward our play, we went and tried one of the new "skill-based games" in the Wild Wild West casino. This game is called Pharoah's Secret Temple (or something like that) and it's a pick three game similar to Candy Crush. My wife likes those kinds of games on her iPad, so she decided to give it a go. She was very disappointed with the game. Basically, the game is rigged so badly that it doesn't really matter what you do during gameplay. It's practically impossible to get enough of the "artifacts" to even win your bet back. Meanwhile, it takes $25 of play for every tier credit. No, thank you, CET. What a waste of money. Something like that could be successful in Atlantic City, but if they want to appeal to Millennials, then they need to make the gameplay actually matter toward the result in some way. They also need to allow players to win once in a while to keep them interested. I can't imagine these games are going to be very successful for the casinos.

After that, I stopped over at Caesars to use my day's $30 of freeplay, which I converted into $35 and we walked down to the Hard Rock Cafe at the former Taj for lunch. It was my first time there, because I had always avoided the place for reasons that would violate this forum's TOS, and I liked it very much. The artifacts on the walls were terrific and they even had a wall specifically for New Jersey musicians like Bruce Springsteen and Bon Jovi. I had their traditional burger which was delicious and got the souvenir beer glass to add to my Hard Rock collection.

After that, we got a massage at one of the Asian massage places on the Boardwalk, which only cost $20 for 20 minutes. Much, much cheaper than using the spa services at Bally's. As you can tell, I like to get my money's worth when it comes to casinos, etc. We picked up some saltwater taffy at one of the places on the Boardwalk and then headed home.

It wasn't my most successful visit to AC and I was deeply upset about the ridiculously poor play I received on the slots, but I did enjoy Bally's hotel more than I thought I would. If they give me some offers, I would probably return.

 

Thanks for the write up and the info on the games of "skill". I was wondering what they were like as i am not much of a slot player. It is a shame they only give you 1 credit for $25 in. They still have 3 casinos in AC you would think they would try a little harder.

 

Bally's has a pretty decent pool. You may want to try it next time you're in AC. Harrah's pool is phenomenal. CET gives 1 tier point for every $5 run through the slot machines (skill games excluded). To achieve only 470 tier points would mean you only got to cycle about $2,350 through the machine on your way down to a $1,000 loss. That's some really REALLY bad luck. I wouldn't expect these results often though they're certainly within reason. You might want to brush up on video poker, black jack or craps for a better chance of coming home with a win.

 

Yeah, ending up with that kind of low amount of coin-in for my loss really pissed me off, which is why I stopped playing. To me, having that level of bad luck is suspicious. It doesn't seem like something that would happen in a fair situation.

 

Really sucks you couldn't get anything going. But if this didn't happen in a fair situation unfortunately, slots would either be pretty boring, or the casino couldn't keep the lights on.

But for a "low variance" 1-line slot, seeing this event is a bit rare. Unfortunately most slot machine data is a damn secret. But if you were happening to play the 92.6% payback version of "Double Diamond Deluxe" (a pretty low variance 1-line slot...variance is similar to DDB poker) the odds of doing as badly as you did or worse is about 1 in 250. The PAR sheet data was released for that game in this linked paper, so I could actually simulate results:

http://www.nh.gov/gsc/calendar/documents/20091117_harrigan_dixon.pdf


Likely you were playing higher variance slots than this, and the odds would be higher than 1 in 250. But definitely a bottom 1 or 2% result regardless. I get mad when I get those kinds of results at VP where you're lucky to even get a high pair. But it's gotta happen every once in awhile.

 

Yeah, I had a session last week playing $1 9/6 JoB (99.54% return) where I went through $200 and only hit 2 winning hands (a high pair and a two pair). Unbelievable...well, actually believable just thankfully, rare.

 

I've basically given up on AC. I was looking yesterday for rooms on Total Rewards website for a Saturday in May or June. The best price was $300 the highest about $500. Screw that. Plus no great offers for food or free slot play. CET has gotten very stingy over the years. I'm staying at a non CET property for the first time in Vegas since 2008. I got a decent deal at Cosmo even though it's going to cost me about double for a week long stay I said the hell with it. Sometimes you've got to splurge a little. Back to AC. It seems not to long ago I would go to AC on a Saturday and get a free room with no resort fee and 2 free buffets. Now not even a bogo on the buffet and as I stated earlier outrageously priced rooms. I used to be a regular AC visitor, about 6 or more trips a year. When I was much younger and no responsibilities it was an almost weekly thing. I haven't been since January 2015. I haven't won anything in AC since 2001. I know casinos aren't built on winners, but it would be nice to come home with even a little more then what you left with. I've had 14 trips to Vegas since 2000 and half those trips I came back with some winnings. And on the losing trips I didn't lose everything except once. But I don't have to tell anyone on this board that Vegas is a much better experience and bang for your buck over AC.

Sorry for the long rant. I just get upset about what they've done to not only AC but the casino industry all together. I guess they've been tightening up the slots because they can get away with it.

 

My theory for what's caused problems in tripping to AC:

The job market has improved but 20-somethings are still living at home into their 30s. They make a decent living but find it cheap to live at home and so have a lot of disposable income. Not necessarily big gamblers, they will spend a lot on clubs. The clubs in AC do a great business hauling in the 20-somethings on the weekends. They pile 4 in a room and split the cost so the room comes out less than the bar tab per person. It makes getting a room for non-club aged people crazy-high on the weekends. If you live more than a day-trip away it's not worth it.

 

Thanks for the trip report, an enjoyable read but sorry to hear about your outcome.

Occasionally when we combine our Total Reward numbers my wife and I can get a last minute Saturday night stay for around $100 or so. If not, we will stay offshore, the Country Inn and Suites in Absecon has jetted tubs in most of the rooms.

Speaking of NJ Wines, did you ever visit Renault Winery? They have a brief tour and tasting, it includes wine glasses without stems. They still make Cold Duck and Blueberry Champagne. Jordan 2012 Cabernet it's not, but it's worth a visit. Renault is one of the oldest wineries in the US.

 

We go to AC basically as a quick get-a-way with little anticipation of winning. Mrs. JG has been 50/50 on VP at least, me ,on a good rare day I may come close to breaking even.
Mrs. is Platinum so we get free ($32 fee) rooms sun-thru friday. Maybe hit Harrahs thu. Sorry you didnt win ,do you ever try Borgata?

 

I'll have to pay them a visit. I've toured and had a tasting at Willow Creek Winery in Cape May, which is one of the newer wineries in NJ, but I haven't tried Renault yet. I really like Tomasello's Rkatsiteli.

 

I have what I would consider to be a very healthy attitude about gambling, which is that I fully expect to lose every penny I play every time. That makes it a really pleasant surprise when I actually have a winning trip, which has only happened twice for me. However, I do expect to be able to at least play for a while with my money, which is why I was so upset about my quick big losses on this trip. For the amount I played, I should have ended up with at least twice that amount of tier credits if not more.

I have played at Borgata and they have been pretty good to me, but my wife prefers to stay on the Boardwalk whenever possible because she likes going shopping at the outlets a block away from Caesars and the Playground Pier mall. It's also nice to be able to enjoy a stroll on the Boardwalk along the ocean and go to some of the other places along there. There's a walking path behind the Borgata, but it's not really the same.

 

I know what you mean about the Boardwalk and the Outlets,now with the weather breaking its more comfy outside. I only mentioned Borgata because a lot of the people I know who are max bettors go there. They say the rooms are nice.

 

The Borgata has the best standard hotel rooms in AC by far. The Water Club in particularly is quite luxurious. After the Borgata, Caesars AC has the nicest rooms.

I checked my CET calendar today and it doesn't seem that my mere 470 tier credits of play damaged my ADT much. I was concerned about that. Maybe they were looking at my actual loss? I'll have to see if I do better on my next visit to boost things a bit again.

 

How were you able to check your ADT to see that it hasn't changed that much? Actually, I think the rooms at Harrah's Waterfront and Bay View tower are equivalent to Borgata and are better than Caesars-AC rooms.

 

I'm pretty well comped room-wise with CET and have had GREAT luck gambling at Ceasar's AC. The other two casinos are super tight. I turned 400 into 1700 on my last trip to Ceasar's (after losing 500 at Ballys). The previous time at Ceasar's I hit a 3400 dollar jackpot on top dollar. Going again in May and hoping for another winning trip. I'll tell you, though...there are plenty of times where I've ripped through a couple of thousand dollars to not even hit 1000 TCs. Fortunately, CET rates VP nicely so I've migrated to that.

P.s. on secret at Harrah's, there's a perfect play 9/6 VP machine that pays 20:1. Given that most people play 90% perfect strategy, I think you end up on top playing this machine (despite the low 20:1 point accrual). Funny, how nobody was playing on it...guess people would rather earn the comps than the actual dollars.

 

Where on the casino floor is this machine?

 

Assuming you're walking towards the Diamond Cove, and it's on your left, stay walking straight. It's just passed the escalator to Martoranos and Dos Caminos. It's the last bank of VP machines and sort of sits by itself in a cross-shaped bank of machines facing the slot machines. I couldn't find it on the list of machines at Harrahs, but I definitely played on it before.

Ps. here's the list of machines at Harrah's AC: https://www.caesars.com/content/dam/atl/Gaming/Slots/atl_slot_machines_january_2017.pdf

 

I really don't think there is much of a difference in the overall slot percentage payback from Caesars to Bally's to Harrah's. Your luck at hitting at Caesars is well within statistical norms. If you feel the place is 'lucky', power to you.
As far as 9/6 JoB, all three properties have about 6 machines at the $1 level ($20/tier pt) and another 6 machines at the $.25 level ($50/tier pt). My favorite machines are the full pay $.25/.50/1 9/6 DDB machines that give the full $10/tier pt rate.

 

I agree! I prefer Ceasar's outside of the fact I got lucky a few times. I'm just more so saying that sometimes you're up, sometimes not