Over the last couple of years I've visited Reno once every couple of
months. I usually stayed at the SL, but I always played primarily at
the Peppermill, especially since the SL murdered most of their decent
VP. I usually played dollar single-line this-n-that, and a lot of
triple and five play quarter NSUD and TDB. My results were pretty
good, better than the stats would suggest (I usually had a -0.3%
disadvantage). I rarely used my accumulated comps, eating there only
occasionally, and since the SL always comps my rooms, no bullshit, no
questions asked, I didn't stay at the Pepps. So one day recently I
asked one of the slot boothlings just how much I had accumulated in
comps. Those of you who have dealt with that asinine psychotic slot
club know that there is no such thing as a simple answer to that
simple question, not at the Peppermill. I decided to ask differently--
I had five (imaginary) friends coming into town and I wanted to take
them all out to dinner at the steakhouse, would I have enough comps
to do so? Oh, yeah, the answer came, in fact you could do it twice.
Bingo! So, if we assume that dinner at the steakhouse would be at
least $50/person, then I have at least $600 in available comps.
Right??
Well, last month I got a mailer--two nights in the new Tuscany tower,
plus $75 in free play. So I decided to take them up on it (I can hear
you all saying, "uh oh"), and roared into town. The Tuscany tower was
very very nice; the room was one of the best I've ever slept in. My
VP sessions, however, were awful. Playing almost exclusively 3-line
and 5-line NSUD .25, I managed to drop $3000 (!!). No royals, only
two sets of deuces in about $65K of coin-in (only an estimate because
the system at the Pepps doesn't let you know). Well, I signed a
couple of meals off to my room, so when I checked out, I felt
confident that that $65K of play would be enough to comp away the $60
worth of meals---but when I checked at the slot club, the boothnit
said, "I'm sorry sir, your comp balance is zero." WTF???
It turns out that they charged the two nights at the Tuscany tower
against my comp account AT FULL RACK RATE. This meant, of course,
that the room wasn't "complementary" at all: I had to pay for it out
of my comp account. Somehow, two nights at the Pepp's new tower had
obliterated what was at least $600 worth of comps, plus whatever I
might have accumulated from the most recent $65K play.
I just recently spent the weekend on another offer, and my play was
more modest--$35K this time, and my losses were more modest as well, -
$900. I had one meal at the Pepps which totaled $30--they refused to
comp it at checkout. I decided to talk to a slot host. I got this
tall older guy in a blond suit (I don't remember his name). He
adopted a condescnding attitude from the start, and said that
I "should have read the fine print" on the offer. I pointed out that
the phrase "based on play" could refer to PAST or FUTURE play and was
subject to interpretation, and I had had no reason to believe that I
would be expected to generate another $65K of action to pay for
my "complementary" room. I also asked him what had happened to all
the comps that I had accumulated over the last couple of years, and
had disappeared during my last visit. He then sneered--literally--
that I had "used them all up" and "shouldn't expect to get something
for nothing". At that point, I nearly lost it, and I asked him if his
casino employers considered over 1.2M in action over two
years "nothing". He then just tossed my player's card at me and
walked away. What an asshole!
The Pepps doesn't make ANYTHING clear to their customers, and while I
put the responsibility on myself for being surprised by some of the
things they do (caveat emptor), that doesn't mean that I ever have to
grace their doorstep again. And I won't. Which is too bad, because
the rooms and food are nice, and the VP is decent (no longer
excellent, just decent). I just don't like being told that a room
is "complementary" and then finding out that they have an entirely
different notion than the rest of Earth of what that term means.
The Atlantis, just down the street, with better food, better VP, and
equally nice rooms, and a non-asshole slot club, beckons.