Thursday, April 16, 2009

Couponeros!: Stimulus Packet, Vegas Style!

Pattie and I are in a bit of a cash crunch this month. But living in Vegas provides a palliative: casino coupons! We spent Wednesday casino-hopping, using up free slot play coupons we had obtained via the Las Vegas Advisor coupon book (formerly entitled Pocketbook of Values, now entitled something less to our liking) and a few less-opulent sources. Pattie got the coupon book as part of her ClubWPT online membership.


We have done "Vegas Welfare" (our term for the free slot play coupons we get in the mail here and there) before, but Wednesday marked a more concerted effort than usual in this area.


There was some sort of nationwide protest taking place involving libertarianism and drinking tea. Pattie suggested that we play Texas Tea slot machines where available as way of participating in the protest. So we had a Tea Party, the Vegas Way!


We played at the El Cortez, Fitzgerald's, and Binion's downtown. We also got in some play at Planet Hollywood in the evening. Picking up one's "welfare" is enjoyable in this city, and we enjoyed playing tourist a bit by munching on hot dogs from Mermaid's and getting souvenir photos taken at Binion's of us with the famed million-dollar display (whether readers enjoy the photos is their concern, not ours). Click on each photo to view at higher resolution and drink in the aesthetic richness of the shoot.




By the time it was all over, we had cleared $36 in cash for our trouble (without risking one dollar of our own), kept the wolves from the door for another couple of days and had enough left over to enjoy closing out the evening with dinner at Ellis Island, taking advantage of their famous steak dinner special and a 2-for-1 entree coupon that we shared with our friend Andrew, who has moved here from Council Bluffs, IA.


Pattie was impressed at my preparedness and resourcefulness and took time from our busy grifting schedule to do a brief (Blackberry) video spot on location in beautiful downtown Las Vegas: