Today Brad and I entered two drawings. At one, when we finished our play, we went to the players club desk and picked up our tickets. The amount of play to earn one ticket was fairly substantial so we had only a few tickets. However,
the drum wasn’t very full and the prizes were quite large so we felt we had a good chance. The tickets were issued with our names on them so all we had to do was tear off the stub and drop the other part in a nearby drum. The drawing will be tomorrow and we don’t have to be present. The casino will notify us if we win.
At the other drawing, we had picked up our tickets a couple of days ago. Good thing because the line at the players club desk was long in the hours before the drawing started, with some big players getting hundreds of last-minute tickets.
Also fortunately we had wisely waited to do the ticket pickup until our play was finished for the month or so of earning time, instead of picking up every day we played. Therefore, when they gave us the tickets, they were in one bunch of sequential numbers. We could have put our names on each one but that would have taken a lot of time, even with a stamp. So we had a piece of paper with the beginning and ending numbers, and figured we could fish out the right stub in the allotted two minutes given to claim the prize.
You had to be very near the drawing podium to hear the numbers being called – so you couldn’t go play a table game or a machine unless it was very close – and most of those were taken by non-players who had staked out a seat earlier. The rest were consigned to stand in the pack around the podium.
There were 30 prizes in this drawing – and they called ONE number at a time, waiting two minutes for the ticket to be presented. If no one showed up, another ticket was drawn and the 2-minute wait began again. Of course there will always be some people who drop tickets in the drum all month long – and then decide to not show up. So we waited…..and waited….and waited. It was TWO HOURS AND FIFTEEN MINUTES before the final prize was claimed.
Which casino had more people happily playing during those same two hours and 15 minutes? Which casino was going to have more customers leave swearing under their breath – or muttering audibly that they were never coming back to this casino again?
Great comments Kevin, I hope they are listening!!!
Casino marketing departments are frequently staffed by bright-eyed, bushy-tailed young MBA’s from Green Grass State University who, despite their degrees, shouldn’t be entrusted with running a hot dog stand. Case in point here. Was the purpose of the promotion to get people to PLAY (i.e., to earn drawing tickets), or to hang out in the casino, waiting to see if they had won? It seems that the real point was to get people to play, since it took substantial time to earn those tickets. Thus, once people had played and earned them, the casino’s objective HAD ALREADY BEEN ACCOMPLISHED. Presumably, some number of people played, or played longer, when they wouldn’t have done so without the incentive of the drawing. So deferring the reward–drawing out the drawing–simply made people wait unnecessarily for something they felt they had already earned. And there was not even any additional benefit to the casino from making everybody wait–those people weren’t going to be gambling while the drawing was taking place, for fear of missing being a winner.
It amazes me that casinos spend $$$ to hire people like Sweet Old Bob (Dancer) to destroy their video poker and rat out advantage players, but they won’t even talk to experienced local players to find out how to set up promotions so that they actually attract players instead of antagonizing them. It certainly seems like a waste of the casinos’ resources to spend money pissing people off. (Jean, have you ever offered to consult in this area? I’ll bet your knowledge would be extremely valuable to them–you might have even helped keep Stations out of bankruptcy!!!)
I have been when you get dozens of tickets you need to fill out, can’t get near a machine or even a place to sit down and wait and wait til all the numbers are called. I vowed I would never again visit a casino during these drawings and I never have.
I like your first scenario better.