Understanding the AP player and the AP community and why PT was out-
of-line in his post and why KingFish continues to the village idiot.
What is an AP?
First, I've stated that playing with an advantage does not
automatically make you an "AP." Second, the AP community is not
uniform as if a monolith. On a end, it's slash and burn AP's when
they sense an easy opportunity. While, on the other end, it's AP's
who want to preserve an opportunity. I am happy to say the first
set of AP's brought about their own extinction, many of which have
moved to live and/or online poker. What few that remain of the
first set like KingFish, the village idiot, barely makes more than
$50,000 a year in positive expectations in Reno. I belong to the
second set of AP's who understands that a casino needs to be
profitable in order for AP's to make money on a sustainable basis.
Marginal Rate of Consumption (MRC) vs Marginal Rate of Substitution
(MRS)
What makes AP a very challenging environment is the transaction
costs, such as finding new opportunities, asymmetrical information,
bad information, learning how to exploit opportunities, gas, time,
finding playable machines, etc. Another factor is the barrier of
entry. The first set of AP's isn't sophisticated and relies on
brute force to gain the value since there is low barrier of entry.
For example, you don't have to be resourceful to figure out $1 9/6
JOB with 1% cb is an easy opportunity. However, when there is a
high barrier to entry in exploiting marketing programs, the player's
club benefits, etc., then it's best to preserve the opportunity thus
forming the conflict of MRC vs MRS. Whenever I discover a limited
opportunity and it has a low barrier to entry that even KingFish,
the village idiot, could play it, then I do burn it out because it's
a dog eat dog world out there. On the other hand, if I discovered a
casino giving away an extra $200 bonus for a certain video poker
hand in dollars such that a game returns 105%, then I will do all I
can to help preserve the promotion.
About promotions.
Casinos offer promotions to stimulate business and to reward their
best customers. I'm the type that enjoys casino junk mail because
every month I get to choose the best promotion to attack. Each
month, there is at least one holiday or pseudo-holiday as an excuse
for a casino to offer a promotion. I will say that casino marketing
executives knows that there will be a small number of people who
take advantage of the casino promotions, but it's something they can
accept. What the casino (or the second set of AP's) doesn't want is
the first set of AP coming in and raping the casino because the
promotions were too strong. The reason is the casino gets burn and
is now reluctant to offer good promotions in the future.
What went wrong at Siena or how to fix it.
Siena needs to offer promotions that generate business and make
money in the process. Currently Siena has a philosophy of build it
and they will come. I say, figure out what kind of players they
want and how best to attract them and reward them for risking their
action.
The first thing I noticed last year about Siena was that it was
giving away about $50 in value a day to any casino employee. While,
on the other hand, it was trying to attract high end clientele such
you had both in the same table and the casino employees were
disrupting the table games with the coupons.
The next thing was the Udder nonsense promotion it ceased to be a
promotion when 4 people locked up the top prizes on a daily basis.
The quad bonus was inefficient and wasteful. The current situation
allowed a $0.05 player who plays 5 coins to get the same $2 bonus as
another $0.05 player who plays 20 coins. The coupon themselves were
highly inefficient given the cost of printing the coupons, writing
out the coupons, etc. I say just make quad 7s pay double on max
coins and a lot of Siena's problems would go away (note this bonus
excludes games with wild cards).
Part Timer's comment hinting about the AP burning out good
promotions is out of line. And for PT to construe a call into the
marketing department about current promotions as a wake-up call is
patently wrong. Siena already knew they were giving away the store
and had already hinted that their current promotions would change in
2007.
Lastly, please, please add an ASIAN noodle soup to the daily special
or at least add it to the Contrada menu. I just don't get it --
Siena bus in all these Asian players and it doesn't have an asian
noodle soup or ethnic food for them. Heck, even Cal-Neva has an
asian noodle soup for $6.25 and Harrah's has an Asian noodle bar.
I am being serious when I label KingFish the village idiot.
KingFish needs to understand that Reno casinos need to be profitable
and healthy in order to offer good and sustainable promotions. If
the Siena or another Reno casino closed, then there's less incentive
for the remaining casinos to compete for our business. It's a no-
brainer the first set of AP's wondering why they have nothing left
to eat after burning out all the easy opportunities.
Good luck.