First off, I want to say this is mainly about my shitty experience at Bally’s Las Vegas. I am not framing this as a PSA. I don’t think they will do this to poker players who stay over 28 days during the WSOP. I think some Paul Blart type got sick of seeing me on the cameras every day and decided to use his/her power to get off on ruining my experience.

Quick background. I had previously spent extended amount of time in Vegas, but was on the East Coast during the pandemic. I finally decided to come out for roughly a month at the end of November. I have status with Caesar’s (Diamond Plus) and have accumulated over 50K tier credits this year, mainly from sports betting. I am down significant money on the Caesar’s App (Well into 5 figures). I like Bally’s because of the value and the proximity to everything else, mainly the Bellagio poker room where I like to play 20-40 limit for fun nowadays.

When I booked the trip I had planned to stay mainly at Bally’s, but with at least two 3 day breaks at the Bellagio/Cosmo to treat myself a bit and stay in the higher-end hotels. I am good at booking shit and getting a great price. I have done well with Caesars in the past and of course they have plenty of problems, but all and all, I’m lucky I am able to do this. I enjoy it.

The first weekend I had the worst Golf Beat of my life. I had roughly 3K on a golfer that was 9-1 and going into the last day with a five stroke lead. This was looking like it may be a great trip. Well, he shit the bed and I had to sleep it off for a few days. I didn’t want to steam off.

At that point rather than move to the Bellagio for a few days, I cancelled that reservation and paid the normal rate to continue to stay at Ballys. Anyone who knows the system realizes that without going to another hotel for a few days, you can’t keep getting the discounted rates. I gladly paid full price as I was bummed by the loss and didn’t feel like moving. In fact I said screw it, I’ll just cancel the Cosmo as well and pay the normal rate for that gap to stay at Ballys for the entire month.

I have stayed in the same hotel in Vegas over a month many times. I typically have my room cleaned everyday. I tip generously. The staff likes me. Patrons come up to me to ask me stuff because apparently I look like I’ve been in a casino before, etc. Even if I’m in a bad state of mind I try never to make that effect how I treat others. I’m not saying I’m the greatest guy in the world. But it’s important to note. I’m not just staying in this joint being an asshole to people.

About a week and a half ago when I got back to my room I got the loudest knock on my door I’ve ever had. This wasn’t one of the annoying housekeeping knocks, this was like an FBI “Open the door now or we are breaking it down” knock. You would think I was being suspected for murder. I asked who it was. It was a man saying “Extended Stay Room Check”. There was a woman with him as well. This reminded me of the wellness checks they instituted after the massacre years back. I think making this seem justifiable and routine was the whole point, although the checks have almost totally been done away with in the Covid era.

I said sure and please give me a second to put on my mask. I wanted to say it’s the middle of the day did you need to knock like that?… but I bit my tongue. It was this Paul Blart looking guy. Most security here are wearing yellow shirts, this guy was a stocky white guy and had a uniform almost identical to a patrol officer wearing his full blues, all the way to the badge on his chest. But he wasn’t a cop, which I did find odd.

When I opened the door he did this strange tough guy walk. He never looked at anything. He did this weird strut to the window and back. Looking back now, it’s clear this guy just had a hard on for me. I am fairly certain I was being tracked that day and he waited for me to come back into my room. He grabbed the female employee to accompany him. He slammed the door purposely to startle me and did his little tough guy walk, probably half erect.

I don’t think they had other stops to make. This was for me. At the time I was pretty annoyed by the ridiculous knock, but I let it go. I do everything possible to not get agitated in a casino.

FYI, during my stay here there has been a shooting and just 2 days ago an employee was stabbed at Paris. But what was their priority? Well two days ago I am just getting back to my room around 1 PM after walking the strip and I receive a phone call. It was hostile. I was told the final day of my reservation has been cancelled and I must vacate the hotel one day early because it will have been 30 days.

It was a call from the manager at the Diamond lounge. She wasn’t very nice to me but we have since talked it over and it is clear she was just the messenger. She didn’t enjoy having to do it. My understanding this is a law where after 30 days in Nevada someone can technically try to invoke tenant’s rights. It’s a reason the hotel can force you out after a month if need be, but it’s not typically enforced. It is clear as day I wasn’t going to do that based on my history with Caesars, actions during the stay, etc. The whole thing is just fucking ridiculous.

Now, I had a 7 AM flight the day of departure. Meaning I was going to leave the hotel probably around 4:30 AM. I paid for an extra day of which I was going to leave in the middle of the night so I didn’t have a huge amount to kill before my flight. Of course I was pissed off as all hell, but I kept my composure best I could. I made all the reasonable arguments. I am out of the room every day and have it cleaned…I have status at the hotel…I have never had a problem with anyone here. I am clearly not going to invoke my tenant’s rights. But I was pissed as fuck. This was so petty and unreasonable.

I explained that I knew this was someone upstairs that is just getting off on using his power to ruin my experience. Unfortunately, he has succeeded. I even moved my flight up a day early. They offered to move me to another Caesar’s property, which I said 0.000000000% chance if I move for one day, I would pick a Caesar’s property.

The manager in the Diamond lounge did all she could. She gave me a 6 PM checkout time but that still left me 13 hours to kill at the airport. Delta, of which I currently hold no status as opposed to Caesars, was sympathetic and waived the $200 change fee without hesitation. Of course, I had to pay for change in fare which was about $70 bucks. But all and all Delta did the right thing. I wasn’t going to move all my stuff and check into a hotel for one night and leave at 4 AM. I had to move the flight. Such petty bullshit.

This whole nonsense over not even a day, just a few hours. I am not saying this is going to happen to poker players who want to stay at Ballys for the 2 month duration of the series. I am sure you will be just fine. This was about JeffDime. I am just glad now that they have taken care of ensuring I wouldn’t invoke my tenant’s rights, Ballys & Paris can now focus on lower priority items like the decreasing the shootings and stabbings.

Great job Caesars! As always!