By the way - if you scratch card yourself you can't use it. Scratching must
be done in front of a person.
This promo seems dumb to me from the Palms points of view. It is doing the
same thing that the current Wed. swipe does - issuing 3X, 4X, and other
"gifts" (mostly valued under $5). Now instead the scratch card will require you
to go in front of a person. This will mean long lines, and more people for
the Palms to hire (or else lines will be really long), since obviously it takes
longer to scratch than to swipe.
So I just don't get it. They've trained everyone to swipe - so why not just
have a daily swipe to get you in there.
People who accidentally scratch off to start with are going to be miffed,
and long lines make people unhappy too.
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If Palms wants to bring people into the casino, here are my suggestions:
1. Improve the buffet. Even if it is only 1/2 size, you could have an
excellent salad bar, offer crab legs and real good prime rib every day, with may
some other top quality items such as salmon florentine, filet mignon, and
crepes. Then up the price to $19.99 and call it - Filet Mignon buffet! Or
else bring back that excellent Hawaiian buffet they had when they opened, along
with singers and hula dancers.
2. Encourage high end players to play by having "anytime" freeplay of .025
(whatever the Coast offers) whenever your Monthly total play is over $20,000
coin in. Once you hit this level your mailer the next month will allow you
to pick up your freeplay on any date you choose, all month long.
3. Establish a sensible marketing strategy that offers higher level players
the same sort of slot tournaments/giveaways/shopping sprees that places like
Rio, Caesars, Ballys, Venetian, etc have -- well - just about everywhere in
town except Stations and Coast. And even Coast is now starting to have
tournaments. Forget those "daily" tournaments that everyone can enter (that only
encourages low level players to come, not higher level slot/VP players).
4. Put up some walls and soundproof the coffee shop and buffet and turn off
that horrible music! In fact, revamp the music. Just because you want
young people to come to your nightclubs doesn't mean you need to have
dance/nightclub music all day long. If you must put on the "top 40" hit music (rap and
whatever), start it at 9pm - and also vary it -- they play the same music
selections at the same time every day!
5. If you are going to have daily swipes/postcards and such, give out more
prizes at higher levels - even just $25 level so that people occasionally get
these instead of $5, $5, $5 all the time. Give out free play only with the
higher level prizes, and chances are you will get that money back anyway!
6. Have your "slot hosts" actually be hosts and contact higher level
players. When I was putting in $20,000-30,000 or whatever through on a day I never
heard from any host there - ever! Now a big day for me is more like $100
while waiting to eat dinner at the Palms, since they have turned me off so
much. The hosts should have a database on their players (after all we filled
out info when we first signed up such as birthdays and the like). Take a look
at all your players over 40-50 years old, who are playing significant amounts
and offer them free tickets for shows at other venues. Us "old folks" over
50 generally tend to prefer tickets to "Mama Mia", "Seinfeld" and "O"
instead of the latest rap group or free admission to the GhostBar.
7. Realize that if all your points do is give you free food, you really
don't need to send coupons for 2 for 1 buffets, $15 or $30 off food, etc. We
have those points for food! Send Cash which your points don't give! (Or
change to some sort of more sensible cash or comps system like the Coasts).
8. Realize that the Coasts and Stations are your main competition for
locals, but locals who play a lot can also go to the strip, so strip casinos and
their promotions are also your competition. A marketing person tried to tell
me that Palms was better than elsewhere and could have lower promos because
their machines were better. Maybe FP deuces is better than NSU, but Palms is
not giving any promotions on those machines (or NSU either!). Meanwhile you
can still play NSU and similar paying 9/6 JB on the strip and elsewhere and
get shopping sprees, instant cashback, and more. And the marketing guy tried
to convince me that the Palms "reels" were better than "reels" elsewhere. My
experience on Blazing 7s, Double Diamond, and similar hasn't shown me that
so I just don't buy it. But I can clearly hold in my hand the $2000 in Visa
cards that Paris gives me once a month, along with RFB and other benefits I
don't get from the Palms if I play "reels" there (as well as the same 9/6 DDB
machines that I play at the Palms).
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