An incident at the South Point occurred recently that was so irritating and egregious that I was moved to file a case against the casino with the NGCB (Nevada Gaming Control Board). South Point ran a gas card promotion in Sept. that would allow you to trade in $25 worth of your points to obtain a $50 Chevron gas card. Since this was a decent promotion, I'm sure quite a few of you locals participated. I'm going to tell you the whole story, so relax and grab a glass of your favorite beverage. Both my wife and I play here and receive monthly mailers and got the Sept. mailers in the last week of August. When she opened them and read about this promotion, she noticed two things right away that were different than the last time that they had run this gas card deal, which was in June, just a few months ago. In the June version, you could earn points at your leisure and then redeem them for a gas card when you hit the target figure, which was 8,334 points. Since their CB rate is .3%, this is the equivalent of $25 worth of points. In the Sept. version, you had to earn all of the points the same day. The second difference in the Sept. promotion was the total points needed to receive the gas card was now 8,000, not the 8,334 necessary in June. The mailer even stated that you could earn a second gas card by earning an additional 8,000 points. When my wife asked me what I thought the reason for the changes were, I gave her my normal answer for casino changes, which is, God only knows. I did mention that perhaps they are giving us a slight break on the points because they are requiring us to earn them all the same day. Plus, we both agreed that the nice round figure of 8,000 would look better on their jumbotron signs in front of the building than the not so round 8,334. However, since she likes to keep perfect track of all this kind of stuff, she decided since she was stopping at South Point to try and put dibs on the seats that we like in the showroom for the Sheena Easton show, she would make a stop at the players club and ask them before the promotion even started. She approached the club rep. Richard, whom we have dealt with for years, and asked the following question. " Richard, we got our mailers for next month and they say that we now only have to earn 8,000 points for the gas card, and when you did it in June we needed to earn 8,334. Are you sure that the 8,000 points figure is correct?" His response was, "Yes, 8,000 is the right figure. That's the way Mr. Gaughan wants it." She thanked him, made a note on her mailer that the figure was correct, per Richard, and off she went. September 7th was a 2X points day, so we made that day our first gas card play day, and decided to do it on my card on the crack pipe version of NSUD, which most of you know as Multistrike. As often happens on this game, we both were getting trounced, so after safely surpassing our 8,000 point goal, she goes to the garage to get the car to pick me up at valet, showing pity for my bum knee. Since play was on my card, I waddled over to the club to get the voucher for the gas card. Club rep. tells me that I am a little short on the points needed to get the gas card. So I tell her that I know I'm over the 8,000 figure, because I watched my wife make a note of it. She says, well yes sir, you are over 8,000 but to get the gas card you need 8,334 points. I tell her no, that was in June, and according to your associate Richard, this month we only need 8,000. She says no, it must be 8,334 and they have to be earned on the same day. Just then, I asked her to turn around and look at her plasma TV screen on the wall behind her. The gas promo ad had just come up, and I ask her, " how many points does you ad say?" She says, "Well I see that it says 8,000 sir, but my figure of 8,334 is correct. By now, I probably have smoke coming out of my ears. I say to her, you mean to tell me that the employee who put that info on all your electronic signs, the printer that made you players mailer, the graphics company that printed your posters throughout the casino are all wrong, but you're right? She says, "Well, that's the way that Mr. Gaughan wants it." I told her that I really didn't care what Mr. Gaughan wanted, but that I needed to get my card now, as my wife is on the way from the garage to pick me up at valet and your line is getting backed up quite a bit. She has a brief pow wow with a supervisor in a back office, and they decide to take the points that I am "short" from my account balance if that's ok with me. I agreed, got my voucher, hit the cashier for the gas card, and left. After I got in the car and convinced my wife that, no I did not run into a bud and was shooting the breeze with him, I relayed to her the real reason for my tardiness. So now, heading north on I-15, you've got TWO people such severe steam coming from their ears that we were probably fogging up the windshield. After the trip home we discussed this fiasco trying to determine why they would make such a blunder. We knew that someone in management must get an advance copy of the mailer at the same time that we do or earlier, at least a few days before the promotion commences at the beginning of the month. We felt that at least one of them may have noticed that 8,000 points is not the equivalent of $25 in cashback. We figured that somebody should have remembered that the point total was different than the one used in the same promotion that was run just three months earlier, but they didn't. Or, did they? We came to the conclusion that this promotion snafu, like most everything in a casino, did not happen by accident. This was a bait and switch scam from the outset. Besides the better looking round figure appearance already mentioned, what other benefit could the casino have by doing this? You know that for those of us that can read a sign or a mailer, we would be at odds with the club rep. if we wound up "short" of the their point total, which is obviously more than the clearly stated figure in advertisements. Would the South Point want to intentionally irritate it's customers by doing this? For what benefit? The only somewhat logical conclusion that I could come to is as follows. For customers that were supposedly "short", as I was, they could smooth it over by taking the small number of extra points from their accumulated balance, as they did with me. I am sure that some customers would just be like herded sheep, and go back and play the necessary amount. There may have even been players who were short of funds that would just decide to forego the gas card and just keep the points for cashback in the future, because in this version of the promotion, the points had to be earned that day. That's the decision that the casino would like, as this is breakage, and casinos in general love breakage. Breakage is generally a benefit that the casino offers to you, but for whatever the reason, you do not take. Whatever their thinking was, I still concluded that this was a bait and switch scam from the get go. I decided that on my next trip to the South Point I would offer up my opinion of this whole situation and ask them to put the 334 points back on my card. I know that this may seem piddley to some of you, but that's not the point. I will also venture that nine times out of ten when you hear someone tell you that it's not the money, it's the principle of the thing, more than likely, it is probably the money. This is one of those 10% situations where I was going to make a stand for the principle of what was right. The club did not agree with my suggestion of a points credit to my account, so I stepped away to the side and called the NGCB on my cell phone and requested that they send an enforcement agent to the South Point to meet me by the players club to resolve the dispute. For recognition purposes, I said to have them look for the angry, short, fat, bald, bearded guy, with steam coming out of his ears. Within 40 minutes the agent, Scott Chowen, a very nice man arrived, and to no one's surprise, spotted me right away. I gave him a brief description of the problem, filled out a statement, and gave him a nickel tour of the property to point out the signs and the TV screen ads hyping the promotion. He told me that the case would go before the board and that they would have a decision in thirty days. I did not have to do anything else or make any appearance anywhere. Now, you all know that casinos don't like to lose anything. I found out recently on a call to a supervisor that Mr. Gaughan's "legal team" filed a multi page brief expounding why the South Point should prevail in the case. The decision was rendered on Oct. 16th, and the NGCB ruled IN MY FAVOR. Mr. Gaughan was given 20 days from the date of the ruling to file an appeal. He did not do so. Since it was not clear how this ruling affects everyone else who participated in this promotion, I had a phone discussion with the supervisor on the case, Mr. Robert L. Brown. They apparently decided that there would be no fine against the South Point for their offense, and they are not doing a mandatory instruction South Point to credit points to the promotion participants. This is going to be your own responsibility with the club at South Point. For your convenience, I am including the entire text from the ruling letter to Mr. Gaughan, so that you can copy it and take it with you to show at the club. I hope that you understand that I am redacting the mention of my name in the letter. According to Mr. Brown, they should willingly credit your account with 334 points for every gas card that you earned during the SEPTEMBER version of the promotion only, not the one in June. He says that if they do not comply with the ruling that you should send a snail mail letter to him at:
Robert L. Brown, Supervisor
555 E. Washington Ave., Suite 2600
Las Vegas, NV 89101
I know a lot of you will still think that this is trivial, but the South Point most likely redeemed thousands of gas cards in this promotion, and I know personally of players that earned 20, 30, or 40 of them. I'm sure that some of you locals have read recent articles in the paper regarding rulings and stiff penalties on casinos that might be doing anything that has an even remote possibility of tarnishing gaming in the state of Nevada. Even if a casino does not violate a gaming statute, the gaming board that is in place today will react if they think that a casino is trying to skirt around the spirit of the law. And now the ruling letter.
Nudge
STATE OF NEVADA
GAMING CONTROL BOARD
Oct. 16, 2009
Mr. Michael Gaughan
Chief Executive Officer
South Point Hotel and Casino
9777 Las Vegas Boulevard South
Las Vegas, Nevada 89183-4013
RE: CASE #2009-8579-LV
SOUTH POINT HOTEL AND CASINO
Dear Mr. Gaughan:
The investigation of a 334 club points promotional dispute by XXXXXXX XXXXXXX on September 9, 2009 has been completed. The facts and circumstances of the case substantiated Mr. XXXXXXX claim of 334 club points. My decision, therefore, is that the South Point Hotel and Casino is obligated to award this amount for the following reasons:
1. Regulation 5.011(4) states: Failure to conduct advertising and public relations activities
in accordance with decency, dignity, good taste, honesty, and inoffensiveness, including,
but not limited to, advertising that is false or materially misleading.
2. The September Frenzy advertisement was found to be misleading. The advertisement
causes a patron to believe only 8,000 points are needed to obtain a $50 gas card. When
the patron attempts to redeem the points they are told they need an additional 334 points.
3. The September Frenzy advertisement states: 8,000 sameday points needed to be earned
to obtain the $50 gas card. The additional 334 points should not have been deducted
from XXXXXXX account.
You have 20 days from receipt of this letter to forward proof of 334 club points being returned to Mr. XXXXXXX, in care of the Gaming Control Board's Enforcement Division, Las Vegas office.
If you do not agree with the above decision, you have twenty (20) days from receipt of this letter to file a written request for a hearing. This request must be directed to the Office of the Hearing Examiner, 555 East Washington Avenue, Suite 2600, Las Vegas, Nevada 89101, telephone number (702) 486-2000. Please see enclosed instruction form.
Sincerely,
Robert L. Brown, Supervisor
Enforcement Division - Las Vegas
BY: SCOTT CHOWEN, AGENT
RLB/SC:drh
Enclosures: Form ENF 35A
Certificate of Service
Hearing Examiner
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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cc: Mr. XXXXXXX XXXXXXX