Dear Friends,
The following letter has been submitted to the LVRJ, LV Sun, and several local
reporters I know. If the Stations or Fiestas are an integral part of your lifestyle, and
you feel as I do about this imminent change, please consider writing letters to the
editors of our local newspapers and any relevant Stations/Fiestas employees.
You are also welcome to forward, reprint, publish, print-out, mail, etc., the following
letter as you see fit, provided you do so in it's entirety and properly attribute the
source as dictated by the Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs license (link
below). In other words, you can do whatever you want to with it, even make money(?),
as long you don't change it or take my name off of it.
Finally, although I feel quite passionate about this, I only have so much time I can
devote away from my publishing responsibilities. As such, I haven't been able to hunt
down the names, addresses, and/or email addresses of people in the Stations'
hierarchy to send a copy to. If you have any of these addresses, please either email
them to me or send them a copy yourself if you have time.
Any correspondence concerning this issue should be sent to viktor@rge21.com.
Good Cards,
V
ยทยทยท
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Stations and Fiesta Casinos to Bait-And-Switch Customers
To Whom it May Concern,
On January 1st, Stations and Fiesta casinos will begin giving full-pay video poker
players only half of the Boarding Pass reward points enjoyed by players of all other
machines. It will take $2 to earn a single point, as opposed to $1 for short-pay video
poker and slot players. This decision, made by executives several layers away from
the players, is dubious for several reasons, and appears to be an attempt to enhance
profits by punishing good consumers, and not by improving the product.
When you play a game of chance at any casino, the house edge is the cost of that
entertainment, like paying for a movie ticket. The points you earn, much like the
points you might earn on a credit card when buying that ticket, are a reward for your
loyalty to that casino. Your points also encourage you to return to the casino to eat
and shop, thereby tempting you into more play. It's a good deal for both the casinos
and the players.
As such, the dark secret of full-pay video poker is that, although the games can
potentially return over 100%, only a very small number of players can come close to
achieving those results. The casino's vast bankroll and the difficulty in playing every
hand perfectly for hours at a time ensure that even full-pay machines have a very
positive hold for the casino. The practical result is that, although the casino still wins
in the end, full-pay video poker gives the average player a fair shot. Most locals, and
those visitors who choose the personal touch of the Stations-brand casinos, know
this.
And because so many players know it, many casinos, including Stations and the
Fiestas, aggressively advertise their full-pay video poker inventory. You see these ads
in the newspaper, on billboards, and in television ads. I see it on my buffet placemat
at least three or four times a week. They're inviting you to come into their house and
play a game with decent odds.
But starting January 1st, the Stations will start punishing players who accept that
invitation. Your "reward" for being responsive to their advertising and/or just being a
good consumer will be to receive only half of the points as other players. With the
former this is the classic bait-and-switch, and with the latter this is nothing less than
a middle finger to the hundreds of thousands of loyal customers that have made the
Stations and Fiestas a success.
With the Stations stock trading at several times its value, and the increasing
competition from California casinos for visitors and casinos like MonteLago for locals
(which advertises over 600 full-pay machines), the rationale behind this alienating
decision is an inscrutable mystery. It would seem that instead of making more money
by getting more customers through better marketing, the Stations would rather turn
on the people who helped them get to where they are.
Locals are the lifeblood of the economy that has made the Stations wildly successful.
These faithful customers, and anyone who visits the Stations casinos because they
advertise full-pay video poker, deserve the same treatment as all other players. Or
maybe, in light of all their success, they don't need us anymore. Just the suckers they
think we are.
Viktor Nacht
RGE Publishing, Ltd.
www.rge21.com
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send a letter to Creative Commons, 559 Nathan Abbott Way, Stanford, California
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