vpFREE2 Forums

Harrah's

Members,
    It seems as though Harrah's has not receive many possitive
comments on this board. I am not supporting them in any way, but
this is what they sent out in their July E-Newsletter

"Harrah's Entertainment Wins 585 Honors in Casino Player's Best in
Gaming Awards
For the fifth consecutive year, Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.
received more awards than any other casino operator in Casino
Player's Best of Gaming Awards, the magazine's annual poll of gaming
customers from across the country!
Harrah's 28 properties received a total of 585 awards, including 255
first-place finishes. No other company received more than 300 total
awards in the competition."

     I do not have enough experience with comps, games, etc. to
evaluate ANY casino, but what gives with this statement?.

Bob

The fact that the statement was found in THEIR newsletter should be a clue. Some would say Casino Player magazine is not exactly a totally unbiased source, either.

I'm not saying Harrah's didn't really win the awards but you have to ask yourself, "Who's giving this award and how is it earned?" Customer surveys are notoriously unreliable. I've seen various Harrah's properties receive "Best Video Poker!" awards several times. How does that square with the lousy pay tables you find when you actually check them out?

Not that you asked, but here's my take on Harrah's:

- I would give them an 'A' for overall customer service.
- I would give them a good solid 'B+' for their restaurants** and many people think their Range Steakhouses are VERY good.
- Most of their contests/promotions are a silly waste of time. Rubes flock in from miles around to participate, though.
- Their VP generally sucks (the AA at KC Harrah's is the exception)
- I have no opinion about their table games.
- The recent addition of poker rooms is nice, but I don't know what the comp rate is.
- Cashback/comps are OK, not great.
- I've only stayed at 3 Harrah's hotels. No complaints from me about the rooms. Some room offers not being valid on Fri-Sat nights is irritating.

carlos

**KC Harrah's deli gets a big fat demerit for recently switching to those disgusting awful Krispy Kreme donuts. What in God's name is in those things to produce that aftertaste?? You want to run to the supermarket and buy Listerine.

···

futrend <futrend@yahoo.com> wrote:
Members,
It seems as though Harrah's has not receive many possitive
comments on this board. I am not supporting them in any way, but
this is what they sent out in their July E-Newsletter

"Harrah's Entertainment Wins 585 Honors in Casino Player's Best in
Gaming Awards
For the fifth consecutive year, Harrah's Entertainment, Inc.
received more awards than any other casino operator in Casino
Player's Best of Gaming Awards, the magazine's annual poll of gaming
customers from across the country!
Harrah's 28 properties received a total of 585 awards, including 255
first-place finishes. No other company received more than 300 total
awards in the competition."

I do not have enough experience with comps, games, etc. to
evaluate ANY casino, but what gives with this statement?.

Bob

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Harrahs distributes free issues of Casino Player in their hotel rooms. Ergo, the ballot box gets stuffed by Harrah's patrons, ergo they win every year, and continue to advertise heavily in Casino Player and distribute free copies in their hotel rooms. Cozy, eh?

John

futrend wrote:

···

Members,
    It seems as though Harrah's has not receive many possitive comments on this board. I am not supporting them in any way, but this is what they sent out in their July E-Newsletter

"Harrah's Entertainment Wins 585 Honors in Casino Player's Best in Gaming Awards For the fifth consecutive year, Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. received more awards than any other casino operator in Casino Player's Best of Gaming Awards, the magazine's annual poll of gaming customers from across the country! Harrah's 28 properties received a total of 585 awards, including 255 first-place finishes. No other company received more than 300 total awards in the competition."

     I do not have enough experience with comps, games, etc. to evaluate ANY casino, but what gives with this statement?.

Bob

DEATH TO HARRAH'S

If you hunger for the worst games and odds within your market, go to
Harrah's. If you want to test your act with bad rules and an overly
sweaty pit, play blackjack at Harrah's.
If you check a dealer's forum, you will find that most of their
complaints come from Harrah employees.
If you are fall down drunk but loosing a fortune in Harrah's Vegas
Horseshoe, they will ply you with more drinks, take your money, get
their wrist slapped and run their lying responsible gambling
commercial on tv.(check the BJ21 website)
If you want to go to a casino where every aspect of it is run by
cost accountants figuring out how to get the last penny out of it,
by all means go to Harrah's.
If for some odd reason you get the feeling that I am not a fan of
Harrah's, please note that it is my understanding that they do offer
some attractive mailers to their customers.

DEATH TO HARRAH'S, etc..

To each their own. Our Harrah's experience has obviously been totally opposite from yours. We mostly play in AC. Find the atmosphere, people & the casino itself to be great. Feel much safer there than any boardwalk casino. We only play VP, no blackjack - so I can't speak for that & we only play the positive games, but have been very happy. We get great offers for other trips. Our comps are more than we can spend usually. We aren't into gourmet. As a matter of fact - heading for New Orleans at the end of next month for a few days on Harrah's. And have 4 free nights thru Nov. in either Vegas or Laughlin, so that's our end of year trip.
So, yes they do offer some attractive offers to players.

Liz

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

···

Victoria Rosado ros4144@yahoo.com, wrote:

If you take them up on their Vegas offer, stay there
and unless their buyout of half the strip has gone
through, you will find better VP almost anywhere else.
If you stay at the Harrahshoe, you will find good BJ
gone and some of their better food gone.
If you stayed at the Harrah Rio, you can find the
absolute worst blackjack game in the U.S. at their
bikini pit. The Rio was an in place for both locals
and tourists till the Harrah purchase.
If you stay at Harrah's, there are plenty of places
close by to play.
If you go to Vegas to play mainly VP watch this group
carefully, it will tell you where many of the best
games are.

Can not say anything about AC but in Vegas and in the
Indian Casino in California that they run, they are
bad.

They're not too bad in Tunica either. Prior to a recent loosening at
some other casinos, they arguably had among the best VP in the market
over the past few years - certainly the longest running 20+ machine
bank of JB 9/6, and several progressives that frequently turned
positive. And their buffet was one of the best, and they were hands
down the leader in quick hopper fills and hand pays. And just in
general some very nice people to deal with. However, all this came
from a casino that was one of the smallest in the market, located at
the very end of the Casino Resort Strip road. With the recent
acquisitions, they took control of our local Horseshoe, which has
been the hands-down WORST VP joint for 10 years or more (and proud of
it). We'll see if they change that picture at all. Also, some
employees there say that management has been anxious to move from
their present location to a more central one for a long time. And
they haven't responded to the recent loosening of VP paytables at
other casinos. So we'll see what happens there in the next 6 months.
I'm afraid I may have to send off to LV for some "I hate the evil
empire" t-shirts if current trends continue, but for now I'll wait
and see.

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Victoria Rosado <ros4144@y...> wrote:

Can not say anything about AC but in Vegas and in the
Indian Casino in California that they run, they are
bad.

Here would be another reason to be turned off by Harrah's:

In their Total Rewards July E-Newsletter, there is an offer for a "Sony
Portable Radio Walkman, Only 6,700 Reward Credits!" That's $67.00 worth of
points.

On SonyStyle.com, the exact same item (if the pictures are accurate) is
$39.95.

carlos

···

-----Original Message-----
From: Carlos Lebron [mailto:caleb…@…com]
Sent: Friday, August 06, 2004 11:09 AM
To: vpFREE@yahoogroups.com
Subject: Re: [vpFREE] Harrah's

The fact that the statement was found in THEIR newsletter should be a clue.
Some would say Casino Player magazine is not exactly a totally unbiased
source, either....[etc]

We will probably check out Laughlin for a chane, or Reno/Tahoe. Been to Vegas quite a few times & while I love it there, want to check out some other areas too. We used to stay & play at the Stratosphere for their positive VP.
Probably wouldn't visit the "bikini pit" at the Rio, lol. Not my idea of fun & while hubby may enjoy the sights, he isn't a great BJ player. :-)Played VP & ate at the Horseshoe a few years ago, wasn't my type of place. So.. guess I won't miss it.
Have been a member of this group for quite a while, just don't post very often. I usually post more on the ACVPP site.
Thanks for the info though, but for now I 'm a Harrah's fan. Our host in AC is wonderful & has never turned us down for anything.

Liz

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

what positive games?
dbdj?
http://members.cox.net/vpfree/E_Harr.htm

To each their own. Our Harrah's experience has obviously been

totally opposite from yours. We mostly play in AC. Find the
atmosphere, people & the casino itself to be great. Feel much safer
there than any boardwalk casino. We only play VP, no blackjack - so I
can't speak for that & we only play the positive games, but have been
very happy. We get great offers for other trips. Our comps are more
than we can spend usually. We aren't into gourmet. As a matter of fact
- heading for New Orleans at the end of next month for a few days on
Harrah's. And have 4 free nights thru Nov. in either Vegas or
Laughlin, so that's our end of year trip.

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, "Elizabeth" <mslizrn@d...> wrote:

So, yes they do offer some attractive offers to players.

Liz

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Interesting discussion so will add my 2 cents worth. Lucky Lucy and
I are both Diamond level players at Harrah's and they have some good
points along with the bad. In the past we have been to the Rio and
Harrah's in Las Vegas, Harrah's in Laughlin, Reno, Tunica, Phoenix
(Indian), Topeka (Indian), Atlantic City, and of course, Kansas City
where we live. We love the portable comps so we can visit
restaruants/buffets at any location with no charge based mostly on our
play in KC. The Diamond lounges also provide a good source for food
while visiting different locations.

The staff is most friendly and responsive. As mentioned earlier, they
are the champions at hopper fills and hand payouts. When we hit W-2G
level jackpots, they are very quick and mail us the W-2s instead of
making us wait for them on the spot. Good VP is difficult but not
impossible to find in most of their casinos (but getting harder).

Their comps and cash back are pretty poor. Locally we get about 10
times the comps and cash back at Ameristar that we get for the same
play at Harrah's. Their so called bonus points is a joke. Sometimes
you get them, sometimes you don't; you never know. We get pretty good
monthly coupons but find oursleves playing less and less at Harrah's
for obvious reasons.

The local KC management pulls crappy little stunts all the time. They
are constantly moving the VP machines around and, of course, reducing
the payouts. Yesterday for example, we had a 7X points coupon. We
thought we would hit them hard for some serious play but when we got
to the casino, they had turned off the 25 cent AA machines (which also
have 9/6 JOB) and there was nothing else available but short pay
machines. They were also giving away some cheap gifts so the place
was packed.

Bottom line: The staff is friendly and responsive, the management sucks.

Rick

Rick - I was also there yesterday with a 7x coupon. I'll visit again on 8/19 if you want to meet.

I am becoming more and more convinced the bonus points are on a "according to which machine you play" basis. I stay away from the newer quarter machines because the BP I earn are always next to nothing, even after 2-3 hours of play.

Next time time, try the "old, green" machines along the wall. I played one of them last night for nearly an hour and earned 94 base points and 89 bonus points. If I understand how the 7x coupon works, thats 94 + (6 x 94) + 89 = $7.47 worth of comps for a little less than an hour's worth of work on a quarter machine. Not too bad.

I notice the older machines are harder to get on then the newer machines, too.

carlos

···

Rick & Lucky Lucy <luckylucy39@earthlink.net> wrote:
[etc]...The local KC management pulls crappy little stunts all the time. They
are constantly moving the VP machines around and, of course, reducing
the payouts. Yesterday for example, we had a 7X points coupon. We
thought we would hit them hard for some serious play but when we got
to the casino, they had turned off the 25 cent AA machines (which also
have 9/6 JOB) and there was nothing else available but short pay
machines. They were also giving away some cheap gifts so the place
was packed.

Bottom line: The staff is friendly and responsive, the management sucks.

Rick

vpFREE Links: http://members.cox.net/vpfree/Links.htm

Yahoo! Groups Links

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Carlos Lebron wrote:

Here would be another reason to be turned off by Harrah's:

In their Total Rewards July E-Newsletter, there is an offer for a "Sony
Portable Radio Walkman, Only 6,700 Reward Credits!" That's $67.00 worth of
points.

snip

So, a reward credit is worth one cent, if the above is correct. How much coin-in is required to earn one reward credit?

Thanks.

Bill Velek

blaw57 wrote:

> Can not say anything about AC but in Vegas and in the
> Indian Casino in California that they run, they are
> bad.

They're not too bad in Tunica either.

snip

... With the recent
acquisitions, they took control of our local Horseshoe, which has
been the hands-down WORST VP joint for 10 years or more (and proud of
it). ...

snip

Well, IIRC, the Jacks or Better definitely turned _remarkably_ WORSE sometime around when the news of the acquisition broke, or perhaps a bit afterward. All their JoB is just 6/5, and that includes their dollar machines. I don't know about other games. This may have been what gave Goldstrike, right next door to Horseshoe, the confidence to gut their JoB, too. Fortunately, the Sheraton, on the other side of Horseshoe, is improving their JoB.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Victoria Rosado <ros4144@y...> wrote:

Jean Scott will beat me around the head and shoulders for not knowing
the answer for sure, but I believe it takes $10 coin-in for 1 point --
VP, less for slots.

Rick

Carlos Lebron wrote:

> Here would be another reason to be turned off by Harrah's:
>
> In their Total Rewards July E-Newsletter, there is an offer for a

"Sony

···

--- In vpFREE@yahoogroups.com, Bill Velek <billvelek@a...> wrote:

> Portable Radio Walkman, Only 6,700 Reward Credits!" That's $67.00
> worth of
> points.

snip

So, a reward credit is worth one cent, if the above is correct. How
much coin-in is required to earn one reward credit?

Thanks.

Bill Velek

Rick & Lucky Lucy wrote:

Jean Scott will beat me around the head and shoulders for not knowing
the answer for sure, but I believe it takes $10 coin-in for 1 point --
VP, less for slots.

If that's correct, and if that's the way it works at Harrah's in Tunica where they no longer have discretionary comps but rather will take a buck off of the buffet price for every 100 points I earn, then ... in order to eat a $10.00 buffet, I need $10,000.00 coin-in when playing VP. At a reasonable rate of 800 hands per hour, full-coin on a quarter machine, it will take me 10 full hours of constant play, without even so much as a rest-room break, in order to get a free meal. If that's their deal, then they can kiss my ass.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

Bill Velek wrote:"buck off of the buffet price for every 100 points I earn, then ... in order to eat a $10.00 buffet, I need $10,000.00 coin-in when playing VP.

Bill,

Math isn't my forte - but Tom & I only play 9/6 JOB at $1. level & the DBDJ at quarter level, don't put anywhere near that kind of coin thru & have far more comps that we can use. We try to play only on double or triple point days. So, thinking there must be more to the formula than that. In our beginning of the year "diamond run", we went for a weekend with $2,000. between us. Played to get 2000 points in one 24 hour session, we both accomplished that and some extra points, and had over $500.00 in comps after we finished.
We are heading down this weekend & are going to try to keep better records & get a clue as to how much play it actually takes to earn those comps.

Liz

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

This is what the web site says, and at (most) Harrah's it's easy to verify it it because you can see the counter notch up 1 point every 8 hands of quarter VP:

IF YOU PLAY . . . YOU EARN . . .
$5 coin in on Reels 1 Base Reward Credit
$10 coin in on Video Poker 1 Base Reward Credit

carlos

Carlos Lebron wrote:

Here would be another reason to be turned off by Harrah's:

In their Total Rewards July E-Newsletter, there is an offer for a "Sony
Portable Radio Walkman, Only 6,700 Reward Credits!" That's $67.00
worth of
points.

snip

So, a reward credit is worth one cent, if the above is correct. How
much coin-in is required to earn one reward credit?

Thanks.

Bill Velek

vpFREE Links: http://members.cox.net/vpfree/Links.htm

Yahoo! Groups Links

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

···

Bill Velek <billvelek@alltel.net> wrote:

I was poking around Harrah's web site this morning and went over to the My Offers page. For those of you not familiar with Harrah's, this page lists out all the coupons and other offers available to you that have not expired yet. Under "Events, Harrah's Prairie Band" I found this link:

  Come in for a complimentary ho

So now I'm thinking.... Wow. How does this work? Are they hanging around the entrance, or do I have to go round back to the alley? Do they come with a room? If I want to stay longer than an hour, will my Reward Credit balance take a hit? Do they change the sheets after every, um, visit? Probably not. Eeewww.

Ok, the link was cut off. It's actually "complimentary hoTEL room."

carlos

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

Harrah's comp situation is certainly nothing to brag about, but it's not quite as bad as all that. Depending on what you're playing, you also earn Bonus Credits that apply towards your comps. There's no set formula for BC and yes, that's irritating. However, any dollar player who frequents Harrah's will tell you they can eat quite well based on their play. Finally, I'm not sure where you got the idea you have to play non-stop without being able to take a break.

carlos

Rick & Lucky Lucy wrote:

Jean Scott will beat me around the head and shoulders for not knowing
the answer for sure, but I believe it takes $10 coin-in for 1 point --
VP, less for slots.

If that's correct, and if that's the way it works at Harrah's in Tunica
where they no longer have discretionary comps but rather will take a
buck off of the buffet price for every 100 points I earn, then ... in
order to eat a $10.00 buffet, I need $10,000.00 coin-in when playing
VP. At a reasonable rate of 800 hands per hour, full-coin on a quarter
machine, it will take me 10 full hours of constant play, without even so
much as a rest-room break, in order to get a free meal. If that's their
deal, then they can kiss my ass.

Cheers.

Bill Velek

vpFREE Links: http://members.cox.net/vpfree/Links.htm

Yahoo! Groups Links

[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]

···

Bill Velek <billvelek@alltel.net> wrote: