Tonight was Palms Grand Prize Drawing for their 25 day Scratch and
Win promotion. They were to draw ten winners for $1000 each. Since the
prize money was very small by Palms' standards and the promotion was
quite long I debated whether to go since I knew my few entries would have
a very low equity. Palms drawings have a very large herd mentality
factor for local video poker players; very few know why they are going
but everyone follows for fear of being left out. So in the end I decided
to go.
Palms rules state that you must swipe your card by 6:45 PM to
activate your electronic entries earned in the past 25 days for the 7:00
PM drawing. I arrived a few minutes before 6:45 and the place was
packed. The line for what I believe were the standard two computer swipe
devices reached from the food court around the circular bar past the
sports book. They were still letting people in line so I walked to the
end. The line was actually moving pretty fast for the Palms and I was
about halfway to my destination when all of a sudden there was an
announcement. Essentially they said it was 6:46 and the computer had
automatically shutdown for accepting swipes. There was nothing they
could do and the rules did state that you must swipe your card by 6:45.
Even considering we are talking about the Palms, I was surprised by
their response. It seems to me that since they knew in advance how many
entries were in the system, they should have set up additional devices
for swiping cards. Apparently since this expenditure would not encourage
more fake ID carrying underage patrons on the property they must have
decided against that solution.
I have attended many other casinos where response to events has
been more than anticipated. Casinos that care about their patrons take
measures to compensate. Since there was a 15 minute window to the
drawings, why didn't they have someone close off the line at 6:45 and
allow those in line before that time the opportunity to swipe their card?
As I said before the line was moving fast, there would have been time.
I do not take them at their word that there was nothing they could do.
for the typical Palms employee but there must have been a supervisor on
property who could handle the task. If there had been a power
interruption would they have had to cancel the drawing?
The disturbing fact for me was not being shut out of the drawing,
but their attitude. They didn't care. They were packed. People would
come back no matter how poorly they were treated. Saying "too bad" was
the easiest solution with no consequences. Would anyone have a case if
they brought this complaint to Gaming Control?
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From my observations, turning a computer back on would be a complex task
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