Favourite haunts

[Clever duck]

  The screenshot is of a rank 2 pirate - he prefers the grog in the rank 3-5 gambling den to the rank 1-3 smugglers' dive.  There is no beer.

  He also prefers the betting there to the rank 1-3 animal pit.  There are no cigars.

  So the gambling den is always better than an animal pit when it's half-price.

 

[Severous]

If I recall correctly those haunts displays are not always populated and also dont reflect what that pirate gained...but instead the current quality of entertainment on offer. 

Entertainment quality is not affected by price. Affectted by extras like cigs and beer, the rank setting on the place relative to the pirate, and by the average staff quality. 

Finally the quality of entertainment earned is fixed at the instant the pirate enters the place.

I dont recall which was better.  I liked having the cheapest forms of entertainment though. Most of the time my pirates and overseers were broke and paid $1pm.  Set on cheap they could always afford entertainment if they needed it.  I just hiked the price on the door as they entered then lowered it down again after they were inside.  They were happy and I got paid top $ with money that appeared out of nowhere 

Link on entertainment research and observations:
http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~tropico/cafe/index.php?topic=8572.0

[Clever duck]

haunts displays are not always populated

 Is this what you mean?

[Severous]

Yes. Thats what I mean.  It was not uncommon for my pirataes to have few haunts.   I also have an inkling that they didnt remember there haunts all the time..or over a save.  There was something wrong with remembering them...but the rating bar always refelcted current quality...you can see that yourselfves by changing the satff and watch it alter the length of the haunt bar.

[Clever duck]

didnt remember there haunts all the time..or over a save

  Yes that's likely;  other game data is lost when a saved game is loaded (I know that some or all of the "game data constants",  e.g. production time,  in scenarios are reloaded with their starting values.)