South Point VIP Party

South Point had its annual VIP party last evening. Plenty of appetizers (lobster, shrimp, etc.).

Excellent dinner (surf and turf).

Every attendee received $500 free play, $300 VISA card and $50 Chevron gas card.

They also had 14 gift baskets of various prizes. I'm guessing each basket had a value of $200 - $300. We didn't win.

Another example of South Point treating their local customers very well.

You and Mrs. Don play them at more or less breakeven, albeit with substantial coin-in, so your worth to them is, from a mathematical standpoint, almost zero. So it's interesting that you're a VIP there.

I contrast this with my experiences at Boyd/Stations/El Cortez back in the day. They had full pay this and that, good promos, etc. And you got your monthly bennies based strictly on coin-in. Results didn't matter.

But I remember when the Orleans--where I used to play a LOT--suddenly burned down my and everyone else I knew's benefits. Suddenly, we were all at Dirt level and didn't receive a coupon for a stale bagel in the mail. Obviously, our offers were now being calibrated to our EV, not our action. 

We found out later that Bob Dancer had been hired by Boyd/Orleans as a "special consultant" not long before we lost our benefits. Anecdotally, he would still visit several times a week and play the highest denom AP opportunities, without being told to go away. I don't know whether he received players' club benefits as well.

The dominoes fell in rapid succession after that. Local APs all over town stopped getting mailers from Boyd, Stations, EC, and others. Some lost their players' club memberships altogether; many lost their tier status; and a few were kidnapped, trussed up, and thrown into Lake Mead. Or they left town. We're not sure.

So once again, South Point proves to march to the beat of its own drummer. From a mathematical standpoint, you and Mrs. Don are worth less to them than that LOL playing nickel keno. But good for you--you get the VIP treatment without having to suffer bloody losses. I'm sure that most of those VIPs at the party with you dump $10K or more a month.

We dealt with the Orleans/Boyd reduction as well.  One of our favorite spots to play and stay before they seemed to give us the middle finger, and didn't appreciate our play.

The most fun and final kick in the nuts was when I had achieved Emerald status at Boyd (which wasn't easy to do), and then returned to Vegas after a four-month absence and found that I had been kicked all the way to Booby--at that point I was semi-willing to play to build back my status, until I found out that you earn NO points at Booby level. They explained to me that I would have to dump in $75,000 before I would even START to earn points, at which juncture I would presumably earn their magnificent 0.1% rewards. Not that I would get a tier upgrade (regrade?) at that point--Sapphire would take five times that much play to achieve.

I mentioned with a smile that there was something that THEY would have to do 75,000 times before I would consider ever playing there again, and congratulated them on completely alienating a customer who had, lifetime, given them over $20.000,000 worth of action.

I don't know what their current players' club policies are, but I'm not interested enough to find out. I wonder what wet-behind-the-ears UNLV Hotel Administration graduate with a specialty in Customer Alienation was responsible for that 180-degree change. No one with even the vaguest sense of the Vegas casino market would ever have cooked up an abomination like a players' club where you initially earn NOTHING.

I was emerald and wife was sapphire and like you,  after about a 6 month absence, we were both Ruby upon our return.  Now we just go to use our meager FP, or hit a movie.  They do have some games we like. 

Same here, we were mostly Boyd (mainly MSS, but also Sam's Town and IP Biloxi) for over a decade, until their "new, improved" players club (when was that, maybe 2017?) decimated everything.  As Kevin mentioned, it would take about $75K coin-in per year (on JoB) to even start earning any points or be eligible for any promotions.  Then there were the VP downgrades.  MSS is a graveyard now, I was there last year on a Saturday night around 7pm, there were exactly two patrons at the bar.  Someone else had posted here that Boyd is doing well financially; they've certainly purged their knowledgeable customer base.  Bastards.

I do love SP, though.  Guessing that the VIP thing is just for locals, right, Don?

I assume it was just for locals.

SP is very good and I definitely still play there BUT, and a very big BUT, they have stopped being kind to me as I'm an out of towner.  I was putting in maybe $20K-$40K per trip 5-6x a year and that seemed to do the trick.  As soon as that dropped to 2x a year, I get casino rate on rooms......big deal!  

So it definitely helps being a local and finding the sweet spot on how much to play.  

Jerry, consider talking to a host; SP historically has sent out very few mailers, and often weak ones.  Hosts can be more generous, in my experience.

Oh I am, they are not helping me and it isn't like I've had some big winning trip either lately.  

I'm going to give them some play this next trip (this week) and then see how they treat me in May when I come with the family for like 5 nights there.