Following in the footsteps of Don the Dentist, I too have been
trespassed from El Cortez.
I think my main crime was allowing too much cashback to
accumulate in my account. I had never collected any cashback since
the inception of Jackie's Club, until last December. At that time,
I tried to collect an amount just shy of $2000. They had to call
upstairs for some supervisor who made me wait for approximately 30
minutes at the booth. I imagine he was reviewing my records for
machine type played and percentage of play on multi-point days.
When he finally arrived he asked questions like, "Why haven't you
been playing here as much lately?" and "How do you like our Joker
Wild machines?" I was truthful in my responses and said that I had
not been playing as much lately due to my job and that I did not
play Joker Wild but instead Double Bonus which was on the same
machines. At the time, he escorted me to the cage to cash my check,
but made no mention of my not being welcome in the future. For the
next six months I continued to receive mailings including the
local's postcard with free food and one 3X point day per month and
the newsletters with Jeffrey Compton's articles declaring what a
Mecca El Cortez is for video poker players.
Today I returned to play for the first time since that
occasion. When I was there a couple of weeks ago to get my haircut
at the barbershop on the second floor (I guess I'll be looking for a
new barber) I saw signs that they were giving double gift cards ( 2
x $10 ) on jackpots on Thursdays. As opposed to the $1 Double Bonus
on old slow machines, I saw they had 9/5 Super Double Bonus in
dollars on fast TITO machines. I played for five hours today and
only had two hands that qualified for the gift cards on $400-plus
hands. I lost $1000 over this period of time. I then went to the
booth and redeemed my tickets for the four $10 cards. Then I made
the big mistake, I asked if I could have one of the monthly
magazines behind the counter since I had not received one this
month. The boothling then looked into the computer and said she had
to ask a supervisor. When he arrived there was a lot of whispering
about her "just seeing a note in the computer". He said I "HAD" to
wait there for him. He returned in a few minutes with two security
guards and I was read the Trespass Act. This was not a soft barring
as in no more video poker, it was a DO NOT RETURN. When I asked
why, I was just told they had the right to refuse to service
anyone. I had to ask for my cashback or I would have lost that.
The guards then escorted me to the cage to collect my $29 and then
to my car in the parking garage.