In a message dated 5/9/2007 2:46:08 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,
lodestone@cox.net writes:
I can't even offer a good guess as to why they did this. They have annoyed
some of their most profitable customers AND reduced their hold. Brilliant!!!
The other bad news: These machines no longer appear to pay bonus reward
credits. At least, mine didn't last night.
The answer is your bad news part (no bonus points). When I was there last
weekend, I had no trouble finding lots of empty machines. This change makes
Caesars a real bad play for out-of-state high-end players. The major drop in
cashback after HET took over made it a bad play but factoring in the really
nice rooms in the Augustus Tower and some good offers, it was still marginally
decent for out of state players. Now if I run thru $1 million over 4
visits, I will get $700 in cashback (that has also been lowered based on my last
play) and $1,000 in comps (a whopping $250 a visit). You will also get holiday
shopping points that you must spend on overpriced merchandise. At the MGM
properties, I will get $3,300 in freeplay (cashback), all of my meals comped
and some pretty good offers.
Beyond the economics of it, I would switch from Jacks to strip deuces for a
bit just to change the pace. It was nice to have the ability to do so. That
is no longer an option. I didn't check all of the machines but the $5 ones
I did check has some truly terrible deuces on them. If was strange seeing
whole banks of $5 VP machines completely empty when the casino was mobbed.
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