Reading all of the goings on here recently, I have the distinct
impression that a high percentage of the members who post here were,
or are patrons of the Suncoast. I am going to further that and say
many people made the assumption that the posts I have been making and
the posts that Mr. Craig have been making only relate to the Suncoast.
I have made references to the Suncoast but my views were not
exclusively relating to that one property.
I contend that at the Suncoast, the management and designers of the
casino calculated that they could place full pay machines on the
floor equip them with the coinless system, and use the savings from
that technology to pay for the slot club. I have no idea what the
savings per year would be in eliminating hopper fills. I am sure it
is a very significant amount of money. They installed the system to
allow you to pay for meals and the like directly from your slot club
for the same reason. Fewer people were required to run the slot club.
Like everything, I am sure that after a period of time management
discovered that things did not work exactly as planned. A good
example of this would be players asking for a discretionary comp for
a meal. It is very possible that they witnessed a significant
increase in the number of these and decided to stop issuing them.
They reasoned that if had played long enough to earn a meal then you
had the points to pay for it. If you had not, then you should be
responsible for paying your own way. This is but one example where
patrons did not completely embrace the technology as they has hoped,
and management felt they needed to make an adjustment.
Technology has been used to replace employees for some time now, we
all know that. Newly constructed casinos have the edge in being able
to install everything state of the art. Older casinos frequently have
to make the decision if the time it takes to recover for cost of
technology is worth the up front cost. I can tell you that casinos
and countless other industries will continue to implement technology
in a attempt to lower the number of employees they must keep on the
payroll. All of this is in an effort to keep costs low, and profits
high.
Again I used the Suncoast as my example because it is fresh in
everyone's mind and it seems to a casino that many here can relate
to. What I say apples to each and every casino I have ever walked
into.
The day is coming when players may have to choose between playing
full pay video poker, and playing short play at a casino with a slot
club. There is one, and only one way for this not to happen. That is
for players to go to casinos to gamble, rather then to play for comps.
To this player video poker is the game. To others, collecting
buffets, tee-shirts, bounce-back cash, and coupons is the game. We
need to follow our own hearts and our own passions, and to those
folks who want things other then full pay I salute you for following
your heart.
Brad Humelsine