David Waddell wrote an editorial in the Detroit News Michigan Gaming Guide
defending Greektown's decision to bar players to benefit others. Here is the
link to that article.
http://info.detnews.com/casino/columns/details.cfm?column=waddell.
In his closing, he states that nobody has accused Greektown of removing its high
paying, low hold machines. David, if I didn't make that clear to you, my bad.
I thought it was pretty much common knowledge that Greektown has lowered the pay
table on hundreds of its machines. They have also cut the cash back in half
twice, lowered the comps received by the same amount and deleted the comp
balance ( estimated at $10,000 - $15,000) of the players they have barred. And
now, Greektown has even outdone that questionable decision.
My wife, Peggy, stopped by Greektown yesterday. Even though she is a Pantheon
Club ( VIP club) member, she was not invited to the Pantheon Club Christmas
party. She went as the guest of a friend of hers. Peggy noticed a bank of
multigame, single line quarter machines that had the card readers taped up.
There was sign on the machines that said these machines will not earn cash,
comps or drawing tickets due to their high payback. What video poker gems were
on these machines? 8/5 JOB ( 97.3%), 7/5 Bonus Poker ( 98.1%), 9-4-4 deuces (
98.9%), 8/5 Bonus Deluxe (97.4%) and 9/7/5 Double Bonus ( 99.2%). This is
Greektown's idea of high paying video poker. Wow, this should bring in the out
of town pros. Greektown now has bank of $0.25 single line games that only cost
$8 to $27 an hour to play. I hope Northwest Airlines can handle the increased
air traffic to Detroit.
It gets better. Peggy asked for a comp for $25 and was refused. Peggy had a
$1200 comp balance last week. The boothling said that her balance was wiped
out. Peg asked why and the boothling , in a rare display of Greektown honesty,
said the new policy amount to " If you lose, we feed you. If you win you're on
your own". The booth person should have added that Greektown will also remove
your comp balance if and when they desire. This is the 5th major change to
Greektown's cash/comp policies in the last year and they have all been bad for
the customers. To all ( any) of you who still go to Greektown, use your comps
before they disappear. I wouldn't leave a nickel in the comp account because
Greektown has shown that they will remove them at their whim.
A cocktail waitress was complaining loudly about how her hours were reduced and
her shift times were changed. According to her, Greektown (figuratively)
performed an act on her that is still illegal in many states. That's a nice
Greektown Christmas gift to its workers.
Greektown was very empty. They are treating their customers and workers
poorly. They are trying to squeeze every nickel out of the cost structure
regardless of the impact on the business. They have laid off 100 or so
employees in the last month. I haven't seen anything in print, but this looks
similar to the poison pill approach some companies adopt when they are being
taken over. I wouldn't be surprised if Greektown changes ownership in the not
too distant future.
JZ