Also, I just got back from Vegas, so here's a report:
Palms: They had a VERY generous promotion, where if you signed up for a player's card for the first time, you could get either 50% of your table games loss, or 100% of your slot loss, for the first 24 hours rebated back to you in freeplay, up to $1,000. The only real caveat is that you only 30% back immediately, and you needed to return 2 more times in the future to redeem the rest- so maybe not so great if you're flying in from the East Coast, but very good if you're living in Socal.
The slot play offer is a better deal from a pure EV point of view, but slot machines are boring and I wanted a smaller but surer win rather than trying to go for a royal flush or nothing on video poker. So I played at a $25 double deck blackjack table (fairly good rules, house edge of only 0.4%), higher stakes than I'd normally play, and won $880 in 2 hours. Thanks for the promotion, Palms....I wouldn't have played at $25 if I didn't know I was getting 50% rebated on losses.
My estimate is that the value of the table games promotion (what you'd pay to have that offer) is probably north of $200. And the value of the slot promotion is probably above $500 (but with a lot more variance to play it the right way). So good luck to the Palms, but I'm skeptical that they'll actually make a profit from this promotion.
Riviera: Another VERY generous promotion. $1000 rebated on slot losses for the first day (ending at midnight, so don't sign up for a player's card at 11 PM). Half redeemed in freeplay immediately, half after a month. I lost $400 on video poker, then redeemed $200 in freeplay immediately, and got another $200 available in August. I know, not the best way to play it- I shouldn't quit until I've either made money or lost a full $1000, because it's not my money I'm losing- but I figured the chances of making a big enough comeback to stop playing were pretty low, and I had better things to do than spend hours more playing VP. Plus I wasn't entirely comfortable with the idea of having $500 available next month, but not now.
The Riviera also has single deck blackjack with 3:2 payout. And for a $10 limit. I think they're really going after the gambler market, which is very nice for players, but I'm kind of skeptical it'll work because offering great deals to people who know what they're doing doesn't seem very profitable. They may have no choice though, given their bad location on the strip and ancient, dilapidated, hotel- gotta find a niche to survive.
Wynn: Very elegant place. On a saturday night at 9 PM, most of the blackjack tables were $25/hand and up, but I was able to find a couple at $15/hand. They did raise the limits to $25 a little after I started playing, but fortunately once you start playing you're grandfathered in for as long as you want to play. The rules were the standard you can find for reasonable limits (3:2 pay on blackjacks, 6 decks, hit 17, surrender available, resplit aces to 4 hands, double after split okay, 0.46% house edge).
MGM Grand: On Sunday night, most of the tables had the above "standard" rules for $10/hand. On Monday night, at around 7 PM it was the same, but by 11 PM or so everything had been raised to $25/hand- except for the trap games with horrible rules like 6:5 payout. I'm guessing this is what you saw on Memorial Day weekend, Smuffin- they had plenty of customers on a busy weekend so they decided to raise the limits. I did find the area with stand 17 games, but never for less than $25/hand. Maybe on a weekday morning? One complaint: I've been given rum coke after ordering normal coca-cola a full 3 times in this casino. Really? It's like they're trying to intoxicate me.
Tropicana: Very nice atmosphere, standard rules except you can't surrender.
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Congratulations to SuperNiceDog, Guru Winner, who was smart enough to pick
your 7 time champion, Link.