Gambling Forums

[Answerman]

Benny's philosophy for growing the business was "Feed 'em and give 'em a good gamble." He was always loose on the comps, and got even looser on graveyard shift. You could be playing 5 bucks a hand on single-deck blackjack, and Horseshoe would comp the coffee shop in Benny's day.

It's a different world with corporate ownership, more of a "let's squeeze every dollar out of those who happen to walk through the door" attitude.

[Brian in MI]

You are thinking like Benny Binion did - how to get people in the door so that they will gamble. Legend has it that he was the one who started the tradition of free drinks for gamblers and a few other perks. Binion's logic was that if you don't get 'em in the door, they can't lose their money. And since gamblers tend to be loyal to a casino, plus tend to gamble where they are staying simply because it's easier, gettin' 'em to stay in your rooms helps the bottom line. Unfortunately, the stuffed shirt suit-&-tie MBA types who run casinos now cannot see beyond this month's results. If they offer 1,000 gamblers $50 each in freeplay, they see it as having pissed away $50,000. They generally can't see beyond that one item.

A currently ongoing thread in vpFREE talks about how the Palms is becoming more aggressive with their mailers. They've got it half right as they're trying to get proven gamblers back in the house. Problem is, they're shooting themselves in the foot because they're apparently "no-mailing" winners. The winners - especially those who simply got lucky on a negative game - are exactly the ones they should be begging to return. But, because they won and therefore hurt the short-term bottom line, they're not wanted back. A prime example of MBA thinking in casino management. Morons.

Benny knew what he was doing. These MBA dorks don't.

[Vegas Vic]

The gaming recession is everywhere. On a hit-and-miss basis, you might find a local casino here in the Midwest reporting a miniscule uptick in revenue, but we all know that for the most part, casino managers should be breaking their backs to bring in traffic. Room offers, mulitpliers days, cash for playing, etc... the powers that be should leave nothing behind in an effort to attact people through the doors.

Due to my 2+ months incapacitation, I have not been to Caesars Windsor (which is my favorite Detroit area casino). Now, the reasons for my absence are unknown to them, but regardless, they KNOW I haven't been playing there.

I just received my February calendar of events from them. Generally I receive a cash offer (available at one of their kiosks) for "border crossing fees" which will pay for 2-3 trips. There is no February offer.

My weekly cash offers (also available at a kiosk) have been reduced 75%.

There is no food offer in February and there have been some previously.

Put all of this together, and that's NOT a tremendous amount of incentive to have me select them over their immediate competition: 3 Detroit casinos. (Again, I don't know when I will be back on my feet to visit any of them, but that's not the point.)

It's just amazing to the little guy like myself, who is apt to gamble away more than they give away, how stingy their marketing plans can be at this time. It just seems like if I haven't been there in a while, all their red flags should be screaming "where is this guy and let's get him back!"