I don't think that's possible. Tournament overlays would have to be funded by previous tournament rake or a casino promotion.

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Kat's Monthly Poker Column: http://www.blindstraddle.com/category/kat-martin/
Twitter: @TheGameKat

Some other Caesars (at that time I think still Harrah's) rooms have previously used cash game promo funds for prizes that are buy-ins to tournaments from which they collect house vig. Not the same issue, but I think at least a first cousin of this question to my mind.

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Life is six to five against.
-Damon Runyon

If true, the revelation definitely puts a different spin on Chris' brag...

"We have paid out over $36k in overlays since we started these guaranteed tournaments."

...can be changed to read...

"We have siphoned off over $36K in jackpot funds from the cash game players to give to tournament players."

I don't get it. What is the motivation to try to promote the hell out of these crappy daily tournaments? Does the floor get paid $1 per player entered into the tournaments? That certainly gives them a reason to push tournaments over cash games even if tournaments are an overall detriment to the room. Do the dealer tokes from tournament tables amount to a significant fraction of their daily take?

Whatever the motivation, it's one thing to cough up the casino's own promotional funds to pay for overlays. It's another thing to force one set of customers to take money out of their pockets to pay another set.

Definitely need some confirmation about the funding source of the overlays.

Might I suggest we let Chris respond before damning him? As I understand it, the NV Gaming Control Board specifically prevents cash game jackpot drop from funding tourney overlays. So he's either up [censored] creek and no longer of relevance, or, far more likely, the "revelation" is plain wrong.

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Kat's Monthly Poker Column: http://www.blindstraddle.com/category/kat-martin/
Twitter: @TheGameKat

I can't find anything in print which says Gaming prevents cash game money from funding tournaments. I think the basic concept is sound, that poker money can't be sucked off to give comps to pit whales, but would they balk at cash games vs tournament? Or hold-em vs omaha, say? Or NL1/2 vs NL2/5 or NL vs Limit? But I don't see anything about it in Reg 23 or in the MICS Card Games doc.

http://gaming.nv.gov/modules/showdocume ... entid=2898
http://gaming.nv.gov/modules/showdocume ... entid=4507

I'm extrapolating from a conversation I had with a Strip poker room manager about how tournament jackpots were funded. I may have misunderstood what was a matter of legality rather than ethics.

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Kat's Monthly Poker Column: http://www.blindstraddle.com/category/kat-martin/
Twitter: @TheGameKat

Casino AZ does that all the time for added money tourneys and their big AZ State Championship Event. Don't think this is a brand new sceme thought up by PH.

But Arizona is a very different regulatory environment for the business than Nevada, and I'd expect casinos in jurisdictions like Arizona and California to routinely do a lot of stuff that might result in a fine or serious threat to a gaming license in Nevada, just as jockeys and trainers at Evangeline Downs in Lafayette, Louisiana constantly do some interesting things (and may even proudly boast to some of doing them cleverly) that would get them escorted off the grounds and banned by the CHRB if they did the same at Santa Anita. I'm not arguing that is or isn't the case with the particular issue raised here; I really don't have any specific knowledge about whether it potentially is or not. But along with the very different regulatory environment for things like rake and promo drop and very specific Nevada Gaming mandated procedures for handling each of them, it is also a different market environment with different expectations.

This particular property also happens to have some very special reasons to consider it wise to pay extraordinary attention to being extra super above board and ultra transparent about anything related to promo funds. *cough-cough* *ahem*

_________________
Life is six to five against.
-Damon Runyon

Is there some kind of program where cash players can qualify without buying in? My local card barn here in CA has monthly freeroll tournaments that you qualify for by getting 10's full or better x number of times in a month. I believe some or all of the payout money for these tourneys is from the jackpot drop, which is fine because only cash players can qualify for the tourneys (you can't even buy in if you want to).

If they're using jackpot drop money for tourney payouts at Casino AZ, I wouldn't have too much of a problem with it if they at least give some benefit to the cash players, like allowing regs a chance to qualify free somehow.

Allow me to state the painfully obvious here: It's unethical to use jackpot drop money in a way that has zero benefit for the cash players who pay into it. The whole idea of dropping that extra buck for promotions is that the money will come back to the players.

Someone just pointed out to me (privately) that Planet Hollywood does in fact make this use of their promo fund publicly explicit to players in their flyer describing the tournament.


PHo tourney flyer

_________________
Life is six to five against.
-Damon Runyon