Good Marketing vs. Bad Marketing

At long last the casinos will be opening tomorrow (at the time of this post). I won't be going for awhile but I've been curious as to how generous the casinos are planing to be to get themselves up and running again.

I thought that there would be a lot of great offers coming to me; boy was I wrong!

I have received a few offers from my usual places and they are all laughable to the point of being insulting. Barely any show-up money or other incentives. In addition, my host hasn't made any effort to reach out to me. I don't care but if it I was a host and I hadn't gotten a penny in commissions based on my player's actions for over 3 months I'd be on the phone reaching out to my entire customer base all the live long day.

The rooms are soft comps and, frankly, so is show up money. You can't collect real cash and walk about the door with play 'till you lose chips. Don't reach out to your best clients and do whatever you can to seduce them in...

They've all failed Marketing 101 in my opinion.

The Exeption: Derek Stevens. Based on what a trip would cost for me to go there he's spending over $170,000 of hard cash (not a soft comp) to fly you in without even stipulating that you stay at The D or the Golden Gate. The D is to noisy for me but I'd love to give Circa a shot when it opens. Personally I think the man has the potential to be the next Steve Wynn.

In 2018 I used to get two $10 match plays good for half a week.
In 2019 I used to get one $10 match play good for a full week.
I bought a slice of pizza & soda with my comp points, once.
My points used to be good for 366 days. The next time I came in they were only good until December 31st or June 30th, and my $20 in points were gone and I was demoted to the beginner's card.

Question, if I spend $600+ in points on food/buffets over a period of time will I get some tax form about it? Or do they give you a tax form for just having $600+ of points on your Player's Card?
I may have to play enough rated to get mailers but play unrated if I'm gonna turn into a buffet addict again, especially when the buffets are closed.

Quote: ChumpChange

In 2018 I used to get two $10 match plays good for half a week.
In 2019 I used to get one $10 match play good for a full week.
I bought a slice of pizza & soda with my comp points, once.
My points used to be good for 366 days. The next time I came in they were only good until December 31st or June 30th, and my $20 in points were gone and I was demoted to the beginner's card.

Question, if I spend $600+ in points on food/buffets over a period of time will I get some tax form about it? Or do they give you a tax form for just having $600+ of points on your Player's Card?
I may have to play enough rated to get mailers but play unrated if I'm gonna turn into a buffet addict again, especially when the buffets are closed.

You don't get any tax forms for comps. They are considered a rebate not income by the IRS.

"Good marketing" is going to be data based and designed to maximize profits. Whatever information the casinos are using to predict how things will change in current conditions is very limited. It's very possible there is so much pent up demand and so much restrictions on seating that they don't have to do anything other open up and they can fill the floor with customers. In that case, "No marketing" is actually the best marketing, even we don't like it.

Quote: Lovecomps

You can't collect real cash and walk about the door with play 'till you lose chips.

Strongly disagree with this. If you really only want someone to hand you cash and you walk away, you should have no problem selling them for 50%.

I guess the question is, what is considered good marketing?

In this case I think it's mostly going to be one man's treasure is an advantage players trash. And an Advantage Players trash is going to be someone else's treasure.

I've said this many times and I'll say it again when casinos are doing bad they tend to give out way less. When they're doing good they give out more. However, this is significantly different with so many casinos competing with each other at the same time so there's bound to be some good things yet to come. I haven't seen anyting eye-popping as of yet.

I saw something semi interesting, but I haven't got all the details yet.

I just have a feeling they're going to spend most of their budget on cheap room, food and flight deals.

One also must consider, as I understand it, they are only selling 50% of room inventory. They could be banking on the first rush to be from the "I'm going no matter what" crowd. As I understand it, the casino will be at partial capacity, thus lower revenues to make up for offering lower room rates.

Some people will always be of the opinion, "my room should be discounted, I gamble enough" and that's fine.

I have a long running debate with a friend around minor league baseball...if you owned a team, would you:
a) discount/give away tickets to get a huge crowd and hope to make up the difference on concessions, parking, etc.? OR
b) never discount, concede smaller crowds (who also buy concessions and parking) but don't set a culture of having folks hold out for those discounted tickets?

Quote: IndyJeffrey

One also must consider, as I understand it, they are only selling 50% of room inventory. They could be banking on the first rush to be from the "I'm going no matter what" crowd.

This. From everything I've seen it looks like most casinos are having no problem getting people in the door right now. Vegas might be different than other markets since there is so much more competition in one area, I don't think Vegas casinos will be crazy busy right away.

I've gotten terrible offers in the mail from most casinos (free room, maybe some food, no free play) but then a couple places where I have high tier cards sent me waaayy more free play than I used to get. Maybe they're trying harder to get the bigger players in?

I also have to wonder if some casinos didn't "pause" their players clubs and now we're getting offers based on zero play for the last couple months.

I also wonder about restaurant prices. If they are forced to be down to 50% capacity, it will obviously be much easier to fill up. Prices to go up you think?

Quote: SOOPOO

I also wonder about restaurant prices. If they are forced to be down to 50% capacity, it will obviously be much easier to fill up. Prices to go up you think?

I ate at a restaurant in a casino the other night and it was definitely a little pricier than it was pre-pandemic. Maybe 20% on most items. They also had a smaller menu. I was a little surprised to see the prices on booze were the same as before.

Supply chain is the main reason food prices are going up. Lot of meat processing plants shut down with coronavirus outbreaks,

Quote: TomG

Supply chain is the main reason food prices are going up. Lot of meat processing plants shut down with coronavirus outbreaks,

Apparently, Roberto's in Las Vegas notified customers their price increase was due to meat shortages.

Personally, I'm not all that crazy about Roberto's like most locals are.

I really like Viva salsa at Sunset Station. You can help yourself to their spicy bean dip and it's a really tasty.

Quote: AxelWolf

Apparently, Roberto's in Las Vegas notified customers their price increase was due to meat shortages.

Personally, I'm not all that crazy about Roberto's like most locals are.

I really like Viva salsa at Sunset Station. You can help yourself to their spicy bean dip and it's a really tasty.

The prices at my local BBQ place were also raised for their brisket. They have signs up saying that meat prices increased so they raised their price $1 per pound.

Place by me raised their near-legendary burger platters $2 each, explaining that between the increase in beef and only operating at 50% capacity, they had no choice. They last much of my business when they imposed $1 per plate takeout fees during the shutdown.

Quote: IndyJeffrey

They could be banking on the first rush to be from the "I'm going no matter what" crowd.

That's a good guess.

My nearby native casino opened up a few days ago. I have not been there but I friend did and said there were large lines of people waiting to get in. I don't remember if they are allowing half or a third of usual customers in but whatever it is people were willing to wait.

I don't think we're really going to know anything solid (medium-term) about marketing until they open back up and see how initial demand is as well as whether or not that demand holds up. It stands to reason that they will start off marketing strong to their highest yield players and then do a game of, "Wait and see," in terms of who else comes through the door. Naturally, some people will be really averse to even going to casinos, so I think right now they'll want to find out what the minimum required is to maintain a steady 50% occupancy.

If initial efforts fail, then competition for medium and even lower-level players will be back on again. Some folks have reported that their offers are basically normal, but I'm not sure what normal is for them or what level of players they are. I will say that you can expect the casinos to get pretty aggressive (particularly in touristy markets) in the event that they are not hitting current maximum occupancy.

If ever there was a time that the players decide, that time is now.

As far as casino dining goes, I've never really looked at the prices because I generally do not pay more than nothing to eat in casinos and wouldn't. I haven't noticed any change in restaurants, but I probably wouldn't, because I have no interest in picking up from most places which is and has been the only thing allowed in the state. I think dine-in service is going to resume next week with limited occupancy, but my fiancee is a little apprehensive about dining in at places, so we might not even really do that much (if at all) anymore. The only non fast food/pizza place where we have been picking up is Primanti Bros., but I never really knew what their prices were to begin with as we almost never ate there before the shutdowns...it just happens that their food travels well.

This is from a link from an e-mail from Caesar's about their 5X Tier Credit promo. I assume item 7 excludes Video Poker ? ? ? Usually I think they differentiate "slots" and "video poker" from each other.

5X RCs and TCs Disclaimer

1. Promotion is valid for all Caesars Rewards members at participating properties. Please contact Caesars Rewards for details on participating properties and dates. No registration required.

2. Promotional day earning varies by property, please contact Caesars Rewards Center for details.

3. A maximum of 5,000 Tier Credits will be awarded per day. A maximum of 25,000 Tier Credits will be awarded during the entirety of the promotion across all participating properties.

4. A maximum of 10,000 Reward Credits will be awarded per day. A maximum of 50,000 Reward Credits will be awarded during the entirety of the promotion across all participating properties.

5. Where valid, a maximum of 10,000 Great Gift Wrap Up Points will be awarded per day. Where valid, a maximum of 100,000 Great Gift Wrap Up Points will awarded during the entirety of the promotion across all participating properties.

6. Earnings at other participating properties will apply to the multiplier maximums. If a member is offered more than one multiplier during the promotional period, the highest multiplier will be applied during the higher multiplier’s promotional period.


7. Tier Credits, Reward Credits, and Great Gift Wrap Up Points must be earned on slots and table games to be eligible.


8. 1X Tier Credits, Reward Credits, and Great Gift Wrap Up Points are earned on the promotional day and the remaining (4Xs) Reward Credits, Great Gift Wrap Up Points, and Tier Credits will be loaded to members’ accounts within 30 days of the promotion’s conclusion (may be uploaded in multiple increments).

9. Offer valid at participating Caesars Rewards properties. Not valid with any other Tier Credit or Reward Credit bonus programs, including corporate bonuses. Caesars Entertainment reserves the right to modify or cancel this promotion at any time.

I can't speak for all locations, but the email for Rincon specifically says "...activate your 5X Tier Credit Multiplier on Slots, Video Poker and Table Games all month long."

Quote: Venthus

I can't speak for all locations, but the email for Rincon specifically says "...activate your 5X Tier Credit Multiplier on Slots, Video Poker and Table Games all month long."

Thanks, that is unambiguous. Item #7, on the other hand...........

Usually caesar's properties include video poker for multipliers.