Meanwhile, Back at the Rancho

Dropped by the Fiesta Rancho for what turned out to be the last of the Senior Tuesday slot tournaments and learned of the following changes. Starting next week, the free 50+ slot tournament will move to Wednesdays and merge with the rest of the Station Casinos' Senior Wednesday events. At Fiesta Rancho, you'll still find it at the entrance to the Ice Arena. Meanwhile, Mondays will be video poker tournament day, next to the Sports Book. Both events are free to Boarding Pass card members, and both run from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m.

Spinnin' at the Riviera

I dropped by the Riviera Saturday for my weekly try at their free slot tournament, and out front what did I spy but this lovely wheel available for a spin to anyone who happened by. You have a chance to win free Comedy Club tickets, two-for-one show tickets, free drinks, $5 in free slot play, or a drawing entry for a Riviera getaway. And just for waiting in line, you get a nice batch of coupons, including a free drink, two-for-one entrees at the Wicked Vicky Tavern, $10 match play, two-for-one Comedy Club tickets or $10 off on show tickets. The coupons are good all the way through Labor Day, too. Well worth your time, I'd say.

Oh, and the Saturday free tournament? I rang up 19,500 points, which for the second time was enough for me to slide into 10th place and win $75 in free slot play. This time I was able to run that up to $60.25 in cold, hard cash, about $10 better than last time. Even though I played the video poker machine at the opposite end of the row from last time, the ticket printer still jammed on me a couple of times. The tech who came to fix it told me the machines are a little old. That's all right, as long as I still get my sixty bucks out of them. For my faithful readers who are keeping score, that means I've won a total of over $300 from entering free slot tournaments in just the past few weeks, so playing these might just have turned out to be one of my better recommendations. Ya think?

Get Out Your Daubers

The Cannery has joined the ranks of those casinos offering free bingo sessions to you early risers out there, with one free paper pack for the $1000 bingo sessions at 9:15 a.m. on Thursdays. Meanwhile, Texas Station has new times for its free $1000 bingo sessions: Sundays and Thursdays at 9 a.m., and Mondays at 5 p.m. 

Best Practices Update

I made the money in a free slot tournament! I took second place in my session at last Wednesday's Station Casinos free senior slot tournament, which was enough to put me on that day's leaderboard and win me $25 in cold, hard cash at Palace Station.

Even better, I found a quarter in the parking lot on my way back to my car. That's even better than the 20-cent slot ticket I found lying on the carpet at the Gold Coast the next day.

So don't give up heart if you haven't won yet at the free slot tournaments. You have 52 chances to win a year, multiplied by how many free tournaments you can enter every week (a number which keeps growing).

While you're at it: Your Can Club card is good for a free swipe every day in May at the Cannery, for a free entry into their Stars and Stripes Collect and Win game.

That's A Bingo!

Oh wait...I guess it's just "Bingo!" Never mind. Anyway, if you want to get your Bingo fix on for free, Boulder Station and Sunset Station are having two free games every weekday, at 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. If that starts to become monotonous, you can always break it up by having the occasional free game at South Point, which hosts them at 9 a.m. on Monday and Friday. The last time I played bingo for big bucks I didn't even get the free spot, but maybe you'll have better luck than I did. (I exaggerate for comic effect; in fact I've won some nice hats and t-shirts playing bingo. No big bucks yet, though.)

Wizards' Wonderland

For a guy with an hour or two to kill, the better part of a roll of quarters left over from buying the Sunday papers, and a mild case of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder, there may have been better places to stop off than the Pinball Hall of Fame at 1610 East Tropicana. But darn it, I was going to pry at least one free game out of that Captain Fantastic machine or I was going to go bust trying.

Behind the unprepossessing storefront is a veritable shrine to the silver ball, with machines dating back to the dawn of pinball (wooden rails! analog digit counters!) through the age of Playboy and Xenon and Son of Pin-Bot, to contemporaries like James Cameron's Avatar machine with obligatory 3-D back.

As with any museum, a lot of hard work and love goes into maintaining these classics in playable condition. It's the ultimate hands-on interactive museum; you can play these puppies. Not just pinball, either; there are classic arcade games too...not just video games from the 80's but real penny-arcade favorites like claw games and boxing robots. And what kid can resist playing with Peppy the Musical Clown? I know, me neither.

All this is the work of volunteers, and all the quarters are donated to the Salvation Army, which to date has received more than half a million dollars in donations. If most of the players are as rusty as I was, I can believe it. I did finally manage to claim my free game off of that annoying Elton John, but I might have been better off sticking with a classic like the 1960-vintage Flipper! game, the first steel-rail machine and the first to offer free balls. Designed for locales where awarding free games was illegal (!), it makes it insanely easy to win extra balls, although if you're me that quarter will eventually run out.