Question of the Day - 14 October 2018

No doubt about it, Boyd kicked over a hornet's nest with this move (Bee Connected?). 

Scarcely a day goes by without some anti-Boyd comment, such as this, submitted to QoD, posted to the Stiffs & Georges and Frugal Vegas blogs, and expressed to us privately. We’ve rarely seen so much player complaint over anything this side of resort fees.

As for a "full investigation," it seems unlikely to us that Boyd would have made such a radical change in its players club without running it by various regulators first. Then again, what do we know? When we queried Gaming about it, we received the following response from NGCB senior research analyst Michael Lawton.  

“The Nevada Gaming Control Board is aware of the actions you have inquired about regarding Boyd Gaming’s loyalty program. However, at this time, we have no further comment."

For those who haven't heard what's going on, here's some background.

On August 27, Boyd announced a re-segmentation of its player-loyalty program. The Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald tiers stayed in place, augmented by Onyx and Titanium levels. Said the company, “Boyd Gaming is adding unique new benefits for its loyal customers, including annual cruises on Holland America Line; vacations to Las Vegas, Hawaii, and Baha Mar Resort in the Bahamas; annual gifts of luxury jewelry and electronics; and unique and memorable trips and experiences you can't find anywhere else."

“No one has been demoted with the transition to the new program – in fact, quite a few people will actually move up, as we have lowered the qualification levels for Sapphire and Emerald. Additionally, all customers will keep all B Connected points earned previously in their accounts,” says Boyd Gaming spokesman David Strow. However, Boyd’s official announcement cautions that a player “keeps that tier level and its associated benefits through the next full calendar year,” whereupon the tier credits apparently sunset.

While tier credits and player points are accrued simultaneously, there's an important difference. Tier credits cannot be redeemed. Instead, they're used to qualify a player for promotion to higher tiers in the B Connected program. Player points are accumulated and exchanged for comps.

Jean Scott, our very own Queen of Comps, has analyzed Boyd’s new B Connected at length and finds fault with it in numerous respects, not least among them that Boyd isn't rolling it out at all properties at once, but in a staggered fashion (for instance, both of the Cannery casinos are excluded).

Also, she says she has looked in vain for an explanation of the new system and found none, not even at the kickoff party to which she was invited. “One of the problems is they changed the game in the middle of the year,” she says, adding that points will expire at year’s end, instead of being rolled over into the new year, as was past practice.

If you ask at the players’ club, you will be issued a credit-card-sized placard explaining the rudiments of the system. For instance, Bonus B Connected points “are now earned based on type of game, average bet and length of play.” However, you can’t earn them on table games in Las Vegas or, for some inexplicable reason, at Diamond Jo Worth in Iowa. Race, sports, and bingo questions are referred back to B Connected.

“Why,” Scott asks, “wasn’t this basic information put somewhere in writing online so anyone could access it?” (You can find Scott’s explanation here. Boyd’s own explanation is here. As Scott says, it's short on the nitty-gritty of point and credit accrual.) “Boyd Gaming retains the right to modify or update these rules at any time,” the company warns.

As for the tier system, Scott writes, “There are different earning charts for each of these systems with much different benefits! However, the two systems do ‘mix’ with each other at times.”

Lamented player Janet Steigerwald, “I was at a high Sapphire level (over 170,000 tier credits) the day before the change. I'm now at a low Emerald level with a little over 5,000 tier credits.”

Video poker player William Wingo wrote, “I logged on to BConnected, read some of the documentation, and couldn’t figure it out even with a math major and two Masters’ degrees.”

Video poker players feel particularly left out in the cold by the new rules. 

“If somebody was working toward [a higher tier] and was about there, they stayed at Sapphire,” and had no chance at Emerald, because now you need more tier credits, Scott observes. Also, Boyd is giving no points for Rudy-level players, instead issuing double tier credits to get them up to Sapphire, according to Scott.

As for the new prize incentives, “They’re trying to be like the Strip,” except that anybody hoping to score that level of a reward would be better off playing on the Strip anyway. For continuing updates on the Boyd debacle, keep an eye on Scott’s “Frugal Vegas” blog at LasVegasAdvisor.com.

Scott concludes, “I think they decided they had too many customers … and they did a good job.”