Harrah's Comps

Michael -

I read your review, and you have confirmed what I've found playing Harrah's as well - their table game comps are very stingy. I know that the range for comping is 20-40% of theo, and I believe Harrah's properties use the 20% number more often than not. My experience with Atlantic City seems to be the opposite, of your review - if you hit 4 hrs of rated play, they seem to "increase" the room comps later down the road. However, I was wondering if the pit entered your data wrong - if you use $21 as your average bet with a 20% comp of theo, then the calculation comes out to $7.83, which seems very close to your $7.56. Just food for thought.

-B

No. I asked them what they showed for my play, and they recorded both time and average bet correctly.

Ouch! Guess that confirms the suspicions I had about their comps then.

-B

$100 blackjack at Paris for four hours nets about $8.00 in Total Rewards comps. Harrah's can keep their crappy "free" rooms at Flamingo or Harrah's. A $100/ four hour bettor at Mirage will get back roughly $140-$160 in comps, and you can play with a house edge that is TWICE better than what HET offers.

Wow! That is terrible. Certainly won't be giving harrahs much action when I'm in Vegas.


For anyone ever at Crown Casino in Melbourne Australia they have what I think (I may be wrong) are very good deals for interstate and international players. A buy in of $5k will get you on a program that returns 0.3% of betting turnover returned in comps. A $10k buyin with turnover less than $100k get 0.4% and over $100k gets 0.5%.

Quote: Aussie

For anyone ever at Crown Casino in Melbourne Australia they have what I think (I may be wrong) are very good deals for interstate and international players. A buy in of $5k will get you on a program that returns 0.3% of betting turnover returned in comps. A $10k buyin with turnover less than $100k get 0.4% and over $100k gets 0.5%.

Are you saying the Crown in Melbourne has a "promotional chip" program, where they add 0.3% to 0.5% to your chip purchases? These programs are common in Macau, as I explain at Wizard of Macau. If not, how would they know what the turnover was?

Apparently HEC has a very different view for comps for table games and is treating its table games like a slot customer.

If we take slots which earns 20 rewards credit per $100 bet (0.2%), the theoretical loss on a slot machine is about 7%. That means that for every $100 bet, the customer will lose $7 and receive a credit worth $.20, The casino is reimbursing only .20/7 = 3% of the theoretical loss.
Even at video poker, which earns 0.1%, (10 rewards credits per $1,000 bet), at a 2% game, the casino is reimbursing only 5% of the theoretical loss.

Some idiot in management at Harrah's probably applied the same formula to table games. After all, why should a blackjack player who is betting $10,000/hour (theoretical loss, $100) be treated any differently than a quarter video poker player who is betting ($1.25 x 10 x 60) $900 / hour (theoretical loss, $27 (at 3%, earning $.90) or a nickel slot machine player?

While 0.1% - 0.2% for slot machine/video pokers returns are pretty much the industry norms, to apply the same formula to table games, while fair, does not reflect what the competition is doing.

So you have to ask yourself how Harrah's has been penalized by reducing this compensation to table game players? First off, it offers very low room rates to its low level players and this encourages a very high return rate. Secondly, it takes away the cash rewards offered to the "hit and run" players who play for a few hours.

Gaming Market Advisors published a detailed white paper on the Total Rewards marketing program. Clearly, the aim of Harrah's is to build loyalty and not to give comps on short term play.

Some of the quotes:

Quote:

IV. Total Rewards Marketing Strategy
Total Rewards employs an aspirational strategy that is designed to get players to seek higher
tiers. Every element of the customer service delivery process at a Harrah’s property is designed
to show that Platinum, Diamond and 7-Star customers are an elite group and are deserving of
special attention.

Gold customers receive minimal service while at a Harrah’s property. Every queue is designed
to show that Platinum, Diamond and 7-Star customers are valued more. The queue at the
Rewards Center at every property has more windows devoted to Diamond/Platinum/7-Star
members than Gold even though the latter represents over 88% of their members. The same
situation occurs at the Hotel Registration. On Harrah’s riverboats, Platinum/Diamond/7-Star
customers can go to the Rewards Center on the boat while Gold customers must leave the vessel
and use the Rewards Center in the Boarding Pavilion. In Las Vegas, Diamond/7 Star customers
can show their card and jump into the front of the taxi line.

Every restaurant has two queues: one for Platinum/Diamond/7-Star and one for Gold and others.
In fact, the Rio Hotel and Casino recently renovated its Carnival World Buffet and built a
separate dining room for Diamond/Seven-Star members. Premium status members enter through
a separate, more elegant entrance, are seated in a more attractive dining room (discreetly
separated from the main dining room), and receive higher levels of service.

The importance of aspiring to Diamond level status among players is clearly evident within the
online discussion groups that are dedicated to Harrah’s casinos. Customers ask each other about which casinos have the best DIAD program, how long their tier status is good for and what
additional benefits Diamond level and 7-Star players get.

Harrah's marketing strategy is to essentially then make the gamblers attempt to get to the "diamond level" by getting the 4,000 points required.

Quote:

In addition to Reward Credits, hosts at each property have discretionary comping authority.
After reviewing commentary from players on online forums it is clearly evident that players
know how to use their hosts to pick up the costs of meals and extra room nights. In other words,
like all casinos, Harrah’s Total Rewards program is vulnerable to abuse by savvy players.
However, Harrah’s hosts go through an extensive training program and, to their credit, know
how to handle “comp shoppers.” Even the most astute comp shopper has trouble abusing the
system.

Harrah's did (still does?) have the "Diamond in a Day" program which can be earned at Vegas by earning 1,800 reward credits in one day. If this is a case, according to the calculation above, a blackjack player would receive 3 point for every $100 played ($100 x 1% x 2%) you would need to bet about $100/hand for 8 hours. At that point, even though you would have amassed about $18 in credits, you would be a Diamond member and would receive heavily discounted hotel offers and front of the line offers, free shows, and Cash, to all Harrah's venues among other things.

Quote:

In addition to accruing 10,000 Tier Credits over the course of a calendar year players can achieve Diamond status in a day (“DIAD”). The levels that are needed for DIAD vary from property to property. One can also achieve Platinum status in one day at Harrah’s Laughlin (“PIAD”). Once
Diamond/Platinum status is earned using the DIAD/PIAD method, the player maintains that
status just as if that status was earned in the Calendar Year program.

This is very true what you said. The Total Rewards program is very aspirational. I made Platinum this year based on a positive E.V. video poker play that I hit pretty hard. They really do make you feel good by giving you tons of free offers for rooms, cash, chocolate boxes, slippers, etc. I must admit to occasionally finding myself itching for "Diamond" status, and then asking myself "Why?"
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I always tell people who get angry watching the Diamond people pass them in line, "Don't worry, they lost more money last year than you probably made this month."
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On the other hand, I find the Diamond in a Day program to be quite a good deal, if you can find a decent video poker machine on which to earn your points. (Admittedly, difficult to do at Harrah's).
I believe the Wizard mentioned obtaining this status at the Harrah's in Laughlin once. Perhaps he would care to comment on his motives for doing this promotion?

The DIAD promotion I believe is still there but I think the requirements are different: something like 3,000 - 4,000, some say that it can be accumulated over 3 months. So in general, this would be difficult to achieve.

The "Diamond in a Day" rule is that if you earn 3,000 points in a day you immediately make Diamond status. I'm not sure if it is a midnight to midnight day, or any 24-hour period. I will have to look into that. It takes $30,000 in action at video poker to earn 3,000 points. On a $5 game ($25 total bet) that is 1,200 bets, which would take about 2-4 hours, depending on the speed of play.

Around 2003 I made a trip to Harrah's in Laughlin, and made Diamond Status in about 2 hours playing either $5 or $10 10-7 double bonus, which has a return of 100.17%. So it was an easy way to make Diamond. The reason I did it is I heard that Diamond players received generous offers in the mail. As I recall, the caliber of the offers did improve, but I didn't act on any of them.