Although I'm not familiar with the Laughlin hotels, Bob, this time of year is probably the easiest to get low priced or comped rooms at the Nevada hotels. The period just before Christmas and after the New Years madness is over is normally slow and you can get lots of free benefits.

On the general subject of comped rooms, if you ask to have your table play tracked and average $10+, there's a good chance you'll get mailers offering reduced rooms rates, free rooms, free food, entries in tournaments, etc. It never hurts to ask for comps; you never know what they will offer.

I thought the Harrahs New Orleans situation was interesting; they cannot comp meals due to the agreement they made with local restaurants when the casino was approved. They can't even have a fine restaurant in the casino. What they do is give you cash to spend whereever you want for food. Every time I said I was hungry, I got a voucher for $17 to cash at the cage!