I wanted to forward a copy of an email I sent to our host at the Ameristar Kansas City, with respect to the changes seen in the database recently, which has all but eliminated any good plays from this property. I don't know if it will amount to a hill of beans, but I feel it important to let casinos know how these decisions impact the bottom line.
Chris
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I thought I would write you to let you know we are disappointed by Ameristar's decision to eliminate nearly all decent video poker inventory from the casino floor. As you are well aware, we have visited Ameristar many times over the past few years, even though we are less than a 2 hour drive away from Atlantic City, N.J. We have chosen to travel by air to Kansas City, instead of driving to Atlantic City for a number of reasons including the wonderful treatment we are given by Ameristar and the superb accommodations. However, what has drawn us most strongly to the Ameristar, and also in prior years, to Ameristar's Reserve when in existed in Henderson, NV. was the ample supply of very playable video poker options. The Ameristar has chosen to either eliminate or downgrade almost all decent paytables in the casino, including Super Aces, 9/6 Jacks or Better, "NSUD Deuces wild" 5-play at the "BlackJack" bar, 8/5 Bonus Poker and others. We do not consider ourselves to be perfect video poker players, but we are knowledgeable when it comes to differences in paytables and the effect that has on overall expectations from playing video poker. We have enjoyed supplementing our video poker playing with the selection of "reel slots" at the Ameristar, however a large portion of our action has been a result of our play on the aforementioned machines. We are finding it very hard to justify future visits to Kansas City, when there is no difference in what is available there versus locations much closer to our home and we do not have to worry about the $500 loss limit that sometimes makes it difficult to play at higher stakes. I hope our letter makes it's way to the people making the decisions regarding paytables at the Ameristar and they reconsider what we feel is a pennywise, but dollar foolish decision. I know this decision has nothing to do with your position at the company, but you have been nothing but a perfect host to us going back to our experiences in Henderson at the Reserve, and we have always thought of you as a player's advocate. What brought us out to Ameristar Kansas City was the article in Casino Player that claimed Ameristar KC had the best playable inventory outside of Las Vegas. We see that that is no longer the case.