Yes, some casinos are fighting the economic downturn by increasing promotions. Good way to keep old customers and attract new ones. After all, customers are the lifeblood of all casinos. Yet, some casinos are fighting the economic downturn by decreasing slot club benefits, the one thing that will drive away even many long-term loyal customers. 

Here are some specific details: 

The Venetian is continuing its on-going practice of frustrating customers by trying to micro-manage their slot club system. Go to their Web site for their new ironically-named “Resort Loyalty System” which cuts point values the biggest percentage I have even seen since slot clubs began!   

Some casinos are now basing their bounce-back (BB) mailers on whether you win or lose, i.e., Hard Rock and Gold Coast. They have every “right” to do this, but it does not make their customers happy. In fact, many will play about the same amount every month (or every quarter, depending on the qualification period) and then when one time their mailer amounts take a big plunge, they are given a because-you-won answer. Many vow they will never play there again. The old timers will remember the time, and not that long ago, when casinos just looked at your action and rewarded you accordingly. They figured everyone wins at least part of the time, and they knew that if they cultivated the customer and encouraged him to continue to play, they would usually still make money on him in the long term. Bean counters are big on looking at the short term! 

Some casinos go to even more extreme measures. Sometimes Wynn doesn’t just cut your BB amounts; marketing will cut off your mailer completely and disqualify you for any events like drawings and tournaments. Casinos sometimes try to identify skilled video poker players but they often have no idea just how to do this. Looking at short-term results can have them making a lot of misjudgments. A drunk who doesn’t know a paytable from a coffee table can win more on some days than the most skilled player on earth. Actually someone who is unknowledgeable about video poker strategy will usually get more royals than a knowledgeable player. And the biggest example of casino ignorance – and one I have seen more than once – is 86ing someone who gets dealt a royal on a multi-line machine – as if there is any skill involved in this.

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Tried to find a decent VP paytable at Venetian/Palazzo and couldn’t find anything below a $25 machine? 

Just walk across the pedestrian bridge to Wynn and you will find good video all over the place, starting at the $1 level. There has been 9/6 JoB there for a long time, but recently they have added NSUD (Not-So-Ugly Ducks, which has a 1,2,3,4,4,10,16 paytable).   The database at vpFree gives some information on machine locations. Subscribe at vpFREE-subscribe@yahoogroups.com.

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