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Posted by on Nov 16, 2013 in Blog, Las Vegas, Personal, Rants and Raves | 19 comments

My Argument with the VIP Casino Host in Primm

primm-nevada-photo

 

I’m not the one who lost.  Primm lost.  They lost my business — forever.

 

Drive 41 miles southwest of Vegas on the only highway headed in that direction, and you’ll reach Primm — a dot on the map that straddles the barren Nevada-California border.

Primm, Nevada has no residents.  It’s not even a town, really.  The closest full-time inhabitants reside about seven miles up Hwy 95 back towards Las Vegas, in an even smaller place called Jean, Nevada.  Never mind these good citizens just so happen to live in state prison.

All Primm is known for are a few second-rate casinos all desperately in need of renovation, a giant outlet mall which seems empty most of the time, a convenience store that sells nothing but lottery tickets (just across the state border on the California side), and the famous roller coaster shooting out from the ceiling at Buffalo Bills.

It must seem pretty strange for someone from Las Vegas to make this 82-mile round trip drive, to a dusty place in the middle of the desert just to shop and gamble.  Hello?  Doesn’t Las Vegas have shopping and gambling?  Talk about an act of madness.  It’s like living in San Francisco and driving to Fresno for fresh seafood.

But that’s the allure of Primm.  It’s so far away from everything else.  You can’t walk to or from here from anyplace else, so driving is the only option.  So, why then would anyone want to come here?

Well, Primm is the first line of casinos you see when driving from Los Angeles to Las Vegas.  Those who can’t wait another half an hour to get to Las Vegas, cross the state line, rush in, and start drinking and gambling.  It’s sort of a boring version of Tijuana.  One can only speculate as to how many bankrolls were totally wiped out in Primm before ever getting the chance to reach Las Vegas.

In fact, the three casinos here — Buffalo Bills, Whiskey Pete’s, and Primadonna — offer excellent perks and incentives for visitors.  They know there’s no other way to get people to drive out and stop in unless they basically give away money, hotel rooms, and good food.

I’m a believer.  A devotee.  I’ve been going to Primm for years.  They sent me a free offer many years ago, and I’ve been hooked ever since.

The deal goes something like this.  Offers come in the mail a few times each month.  You’re offered free show tickets, two nights in the hotel, and bonus cash to play video poker.  I usually get $50 to $100 per visit, plus the extra comps.  Over the years, I’ve enjoyed several free concerts.  I’ve also ended up blowing $1,000 a couple of times to see third-tier acts like KC and the Sunshine Band.  For me, the tipping point is the steakhouse, which is excellent (and basically free — except for the $1,000 I occasionally blow).

Here, player loyalty gets rewarded big time.  A similar level of play at Caesars Palace won’t even get you a simple hello or a free key chain.  But give them any action in Primm, and you’ll be a high roller for a few days, getting free hotel room offers and comp dollars for the remainder of your life.  In Primm, if you’ve got $20 in your pocket, you’re somebody — a contender.

Well, at least I used to be treated like a high roller.

Now, I’m a deadbeat.

Consider what happened to me this past week when I drove out to take advantage of a free $75 cash offer.  All I had to do was show up, and cash a voucher worth $75 in bonus.  Side Note:  The trip ended up costing me $400.

Imagine my angst at going up to the Players Club and being told I’d been downgraded in status.

That’s right, downgraded.  Me.  Nolan Dalla.

You know your life has hit a new low when you get downgraded in Primm.  That’s sort of like the ugly girl no one wants to date turning down your offer to dance.

Fact is, I always give this place my play when I come.  Accordingly, I’ve enjoyed “Silver Status” in Primm going on eight years now.  EIGHT YEARS.  I’m special.  A somebody.  A contender.

After cashing my free voucher the teller informed me that she was switching out my player’s card.  She informed me I was no longer a “Silver Status” player.  Now, I was reduced to something called “Red Status.”  This basically put me in the same category with broke jokers in shorts stepping off the tourist bus and walking in to sign up for a new player’s card for the first time.  I’m suddenly treated like some non-gambling deadbeat.  DON’T THEY KNOW WHO I AM?

Shocked and outraged, I demanded to speak to a supervisor.

Another woman came over.  She informed me that I had not played in Primm in several months.  So, my privileged status has “lapsed.”  The rest of our conversation basically went like this:

ME:  You gave me Silver Status for the past eight years.  Doesn’t that count for something?

VIP HOST:  No.  You haven’t played with us lately.  We only look at your play over the past year.

ME:  So, I haven’t visited in six months.  I’ve been really busy lately.  You can clearly see from my playing history that I’ve come in numerous times over the years, and always give you action.

VIP HOST:  We appreciate that, Mr. Dalla.  But we can only give higher-tier status to those who play with us regularly.

ME:  So now, I’m basically treated like a new player, like someone walking in off the street.

VIP HOST:  We try to treat all of our customers well.

ME:  Yeah, but shouldn’t all my past play history be recognized so it’s easier for me to get upgraded?  I mean, I cant drive all the way out here every week just to keep my Silver card.

VIP HOST:  I’m sorry, there’s nothing we can do.  Good luck. Mr. Dalla.  Can we help you with anything else?

Yeah, you can.  Listen up, management!

This has got to be the most ridiculous policy imaginable when it comes to casino marketing.  And yet, as I came to found out, it’s common just about everywhere.

Once you go a certain period without play, you might as well tear up your old card, change your name, and start over again.  You’re a deadbeat — until you prove to them otherwise by losing thousands of dollars.  Well, here’s my two-word response — fuck them!

What I fail to understand is, once a casino identifies a player as someone that actually gambles (which is easy to do based on records that are kept), shouldn’t that loyal player (e.g. compulsive gambler) be afforded special perks that aren’t necessarily given to beginning players and deadbeats?  If I lose $30,000 eight years in a row and then skip the ninth year because I’m busy, should I really be roped off in line with the loser who makes one casino visit and loses thirty bucks?  Isn’t eight years of elevated status and untold losses inside the casino worth something?

Well, it’s apparently worth nothing to the casinos in Primm, or just about anywhere else for that matter.

So, why should I ever go out there again?

My guess is, I won’t.

Here’s a tip to casino marketers.  Once you tag someone who gambles, do your best to keep them as customers.  Do whatever it takes.  Don’t worry so much about how many “points” the player logs at a machine.  Once you see that someone plays dollar video poker for any length of time or multi-line quarter machines, you’ve caught the fish.  Reel him in the boat.  Put out the bait.  We will swim in your direction.  I promise.

As for me, I feel lucky to have slipped away.  I’m not the one who lost.  They lost.  They lost my business for good.

TAG: Primm Nevada casinos

19 Comments

  1. Nicely done Nolan

    • Mr. Dalla.
      I understand your frustration, and sometime at the WSOP I may choose to pull you aside and give you the lecture on Casino Marketing, which I think I am in the undergraduate program on understanding from the outside.
      Suffice it to say, you and other gamblers go into casinos and wander around, looking for a cute, bright, noisy slot, or some beneficial pay table on a video poker.
      I enter the casino KNOWING, which 3-4 games I have an advantage at, and scouting for ONLY other advantage machines. I route through, hit the kiosk, and cash out free play mailers, which are tighter and tighter. My weeks are down to $500-$600, whereas in March/April I was more like $1500, PER WEEK! Why is that? Because I approach every machine like a Marketing Terminal in a huge corporation, which is EXACTLY WHAT IT IS, and I am putting in my name, age, gender, average bet size, time on game, and etc., etc., etc. Every technical measure they make, I make. Everything they want to have presented straight I angle shoot. If you see me, with a dollar in a machine, you should KNOW, I have the edge, and the house is losing.

      I go in expecting to win/lose minimums, and reap huge rewards through the players club/marketing program. I know certain demands, and make plans to meet the casinos’ demands for play, while losing far, far, far lower than they dream. For instance, I put $16,600 coin in, and saw my host screen, Theoretical loss $1200, my actual loss…..$72, I now get $50X5 per month, and play with loss/win range of +/-$25, and spend less than an hour in the place. At another location, I have about an 8:1 win:loss ratio on my $1700 in comps I built up….that suxxors, it should be more like 11/12:1. But, if I take another 3 people to the steak house there, I will pick up a $500 tab that cost me about $60 out of pocket.
      I am leaving work now, and I have to run by 4 casinos, and I know EXACTLY why, and what I will play, and I will see my bankroll move UP this week, again, just like the last 4 months.
      Mr Dalla, you are a gambler in a gamblers world, while I am an AP, in an Advantage Players’ world. I am a game player it is true, but I never gamble. I spend my gaming time with gaming corporations, winning at the only location to win at in any casino, the players’ club.

  2. This is just another mirror problem I call the “tech behind the firewall”. With websites some pasty-skinned tech builds the website and then tests it himself. But since he is behind the firewall he is not a real world user. He doesn’t know how the site will be used by real people coming to the webpage for the first time. So his tests are less than useless.

    Here you have executives, non-gamblers, making business decisions without understanding gamblers. They make their unwise choices based on any number of stats or rules that have absolutely nothing to do with their customers – the only people they should be concerned about.

  3. Same goes here in PA. Only they keep your stats for 6 months only.

    What you really need to target and expose is how the “take” with slots have been changed – ALONG with these casinos giving away much lower grand prizes.

    Not sure how it goes out there – (I’ve been busy buying properties, restoring them to run off to Vegas) but here, the Mohegan Sun casino in Wilkes Barre – they don’t even let you get cherries anymore.

    Forget $20 to play – They won’t allow you to have fun for $400.00

    My biggest peeve – when the machines bells ring and ring and you lose 1/2 of what you put in.

    Greed is rampant in the industry.

    We are not playing at the old Horseshoe Casino are we Nolan?

    Gawddddd we had fun there back in the day – and ate a great steak at midnight!

    I’m with you – Fuck THEM!

  4. Entertaining and topical. I am always worried that the Stations will demand that I return their Gold card and go back to the dreaded Red beginner card.

    I must have earned Gold for some reason. So far they let me keep it.

  5. If I owned a casino, I’d give you $100 free play a week, and I’d get rich! These people obviously made a terrible mistake.

  6. It’s just about the stupidest policy every. I learned that the hard way with Caesars properties. I used to drive out 5-6 times a year, and one year spent 34 nights on property.
    Then we had a daughter so we cut way back, only our annual WSOP trip and one or two other long weekends a year. My spend per trip is way up and annual spend is about the same, but same as you found, they have their rules. Now after being a dedicated Harrahs/Caesars customer, I go with whoever will give me the best rate and they have lost a lot of action because of it.

  7. Sorry to hear you didn’t give them enough action and are now a ‘deadbeat’ in their system – their loss.

    I once went on that roller coaster that shoots out of the roof and the down into a hole in the ground there in Primm – it was so hot and dry out (August of course) that it blew both my contact lenses out of my eyes!!

    • Now that is funny!

  8. Hi Nolan. Its a bit of a suprise to me that you of all people didn´t know how it works? I mean its the same in basically all customer loyalty programs, flights, hotels, casinos, you name it, its the same, if you don´t spend or do this or that within specified period your will loose your status. And the same goes with online sites, unfortunately. Past behaviour counts for zero, sadly.

    Nevertheless, hope to see you next WSOP, this time as a player.

  9. You don’t mess with the Zohan

  10. Re that “convenience store that sells nothing but lottery tickets” from Howard Stutz:

    The Primm Valley Lotto Store isn’t much of a convenience outlet. Bottled beverages and ice make up 100 percent of its inventory. But that wasn’t why it was opened in 1992 on the California side of the border with Nevada, just off Interstate 15 and adjacent to the three Primm Valley casinos. Because in part of its proximity to Las Vegas, the store regularly ranks as the No. 1 or No. 2 location in the state for lottery sales, according to a spokeswoman for the California Lottery Commission. Long lines that routinely snake around the building when lottery jackpots reach into the millions of dollars are testament to the store’s popularity.

  11. Maybe Nolan already understands this, but it’s worth noting that most customers are simply a number to large casinos marketing computers.

    All those coupon mailers are done strictly via computer software and, until you show a very high level of play with hosts becoming involved, little human judgement is used in what offers you receive.

    If you have gambled a fair bit at some casinos and quit for a year or more, you’ll sometimes receive a generous set of “We miss you, we want you back!” coupons. Even that decision is made almost strictly via computer software. Caesars did this with me not too long ago. Not sure if it’s done in Primm.

    For the absolute best in casino marketing coupons as a general rule, avoid hosts as much as possible and just let the computers do their job (as counter-intuitive as that advice may sound).

    • I need to clear something up from my last post.
      Only deal with hosts and accept their comps when they come to you with an offer of a free meal, show ticket, hotel room, etc. This helps to keep your computerized casino mailers in tip-top shape, so to speak.

  12. Held a Diamond card from Harrahs for ten years. Hurricanes Katrina and Rita came in and blew
    Harrahs off the Louisiana Coast. There went the Diamond card. Go figure!

  13. I agree Nolan. All casinos have this mentality anymore.. I just quit chasing the dragon so to speak trying to qualify for their BS give-aways and free play gimmicks..

  14. Amen – Law school and a baby means I’ve lost my status pretty much everywhere. People have lives, and fortunately are balanced enough to have their life interfere with their gambling. People have good things happen, and sometimes people get really, really sick or have family to care for or get laid off – but for good reasons or bad reasons need a break. Casinos should have ways of putting your status on hold and be able to differentiate the payer who hasn’t been there in awhile from the player who used to bet black chips or play higher denom. machines and now just plays penny slots and $5 tables. It’s poor customer service.

  15. Insane it is. Happened to me at the old International. From pickups at LAS by a driver, holding my name up in the baggage area, to a ten stop bus tour because I had not been in their casino for awhile. They lost me forever. Makes even me rethink capitalism occasionally. Stupid.

  16. I know a lady who was Seven Stars at Caesar’s in Atlantic City for years and years. Then she was sick for a year and needed a kidney transplant. Obviously, that prevented her from going to the casino for that time period. When she fortunately got well again, the casino didn’t welcome here back. Instead, they handed her the Gold card, which is the lowest tier. She took her business to one of the other casinos in A.C. and hasn’t looked back.

    This is an unfair policy everywhere, and you are right, Nolan, that casino promotions programs should keep a list of names in the “dormant” list. They shouldn’t make you start from scratch when they know that life happens, and you have to potential to bet big again.

    Maybe it’s best just to start at a new casino again. Put in a big amount of play on a day. Then talk to a host once the day is almost over or later. Show him or her your old, higher level card, and say that you want them to trade it up for you. The host should be able to estimate, based upon the play you actually gave them in a day, and based upon your previous status elsewhere that you can become a good customer at their establishment. It’s worth a shot.

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