LVRJ: Revel in Atlantic City to close week earlier than slated

[Steve_Norden]

When polar opposites such as Larry F and Rob S both disagree with me (and with each other) I must be saying something right. Here are some thoughts on the disagreements. When Revel first opened up it was a breath of fresh air "literally". The Revel made a conscious decision to allow smoking on the casino floor and imperil the health of the players and their workers. They could have built the isolated smoking lounges instead and everyone would be happy and the non-smokers healthier. When I'm talking about a particular game I'm talking about the expectation of the game itself with perfect play and not the "extras" that come with it that can be changed at any time by the casino as Larry so eloquently points out later. I am very much aware of the ACVP scene but that does not mean that the tricks the casinos pull or the offers they renege on are moral, just common (and immoral). BTW I have never known Borgata to engage in any of this. They are honorable. To all reading this post - I did not know that NJ "forced" Revel to stay open 2 weeks longer than they wanted to. Now to some of the points expressed by Rob: no one that did the Revel Promo "expects" to lose $100,000 but the well financed ones were "prepared to lose $100,000". They were not prepared for the dishonestly displayed by the Revel later. Rob - are you so sure that all of the players that the Revel would not honor the loss rebate were cheaters? Sure some were and did not comply with the rules of the promotion. I do however think a great many of them were the victims of the Revel's overzealousness and that the secret list did exist. What is one of the first things a lawyer would tell his client when starting a lawsuit - "don't make any statements especially in public which are untrue". A fine way for you to lose your lawsuit. Has the Revel ever denied the existence of this list? You were right about one thing: The Revel had the finest hotel in Atlantic City. They had the finest selection of TV channels in the rooms, they had the NFL Network, HBO and more channels than any other casino-hotel in AC. I will not miss the Revel Casino. I will miss the Revel Hotel.

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[Alan1]

I think that all of the casinos are dishonest. What make things worse is that the casino employees generally don’t know the rules and/or provide misinformation, not because they’re dishonest, but because senior management doesn’t tell them anything, and the never cover all the possibilities. I don’t know how much of this is incompetence and how much by design. We wouldn’t have these problems if the Federal government regulated these promotions in a similar manner to how they regulate any contest by anyone other than a casino.

As far as the smoking, I found it amusing (but sad) when in their “We Made Mistakes” campaign they claimed that banning smoking was a mistake, when in reality it was the only good thing they did. Although the non-smoking sections are somewhat more bearable to play in, any level of exposure to secondhand smoke is dangerous, and once you allow it anywhere, a lot of drug addicted inconsiderate smokers will break the rules and smoke wherever they want. Casinos cater to smokers and don’t want to enforce the rules, and the Revel barely has any security.

The “You Can’t Lose” promotion was the absolute worst thing they did. Before I knew they were pulling 9/6 Jacks or Better and everything over $5, the thought occurred to me that this might be a good idea. My main problem was that I didn’t have anywhere close to $100,000 to lose, combined with the hardship of having to return 20x to collect the money. I didn’t necessarily think they would try to rip me off and not pay, but I did consider the possibility of bankruptcy.

The problem with “You Can’t Lose” wasn’t so much the promotion itself, but how they messed things up for many of their customers, to prevent a few people from winning. I only play 9/6 Jacks or Better. When they pull those machines, I can no longer play there. Even if they just pulled them for a month, the fact is that I was a customer, trying to earn points, get rewards, etc. Whatever goal I might be trying to accomplish ends as soon as they pull those machines. And now I have no confidence in their reliability. Why should I make a decision to give them a lot of my play, when now they’ve made it clear that they can pull my game at any time, whenever they want? What if I’m trying to achieve some reward, I’m 90% there, I have to return one or two more times before the end of the year to reach my goal, and now they pull the machines again. That didn’t happen, but how do I know that it won’t? I understand that any casino can do that at any time, but the Revel actually did it.

I can see that perhaps they don’t care about people like me who they only make a 0.46% profit on, but what about all $10 and $25 players, who may not play the optimal game with the optimal strategy, who have had their games removed as well. It makes no sense to alienate those people.

I think this was the most incompetently run casino in history, or at least what I’ve seen in Atlantic City. What I liked best was that it was fairly easy for me to get comped rooms, and they had free internet access. As a computer programmer, I can work from anywhere with an internet connection. There were several days where I was able to check in on a Thursday night and “work from home” on Friday in order to take advantage of more promotions. I’m not going to do this again, because I refuse to pay $15 for the “privilege” of being able to work remotely.