CASINOS SELF-DESTRUCT

For the Casinos in Atlantic City, N.J. the traditional “Writing On The Wall” may have already arrived: Resorts Hotel and Casino, the very first Hotel/Casino built East of Nevada in 1978, after expanding with an additional 459-room tower in 2004, was sold for $31.5 Million in 12/2010; then Tropicana Hotel/Casino – which had also built a new 502-room tower in 2003/4, went on the market for $1.Billion; it was sold for $200.Million; in February of this year Trump Plaza Hotel/Casino – which was built at a cost of $210.Million was reportedly sold for $20.Million – though the latest there is that the sale fell through; the most shocking is Revel - the City’s newest Hotel/Casino. Completed in May of last year, this 47-story Hotel/Casino built at a cost of $2.4 Billion, filed for bankruptcy – less than a year after opening.   

SLOT MACHINES

While table games: Roulette, Craps, Blackjack and similar less-frequented ones do bring-in significant income, Slot Machines have traditionally been the income-producer in Casinos. In the two major Casino markets – Las Vegas and Atlantic City (A/C) - attendance is down – which means income is down. While Vegas has always marketed itself as a Gambling and Entertainment center, Atlantic City has been mostly Gambling. The result is: A/C Casinos are in more trouble than those in Vegas. Back in the 80’s & 90’s, Atlantic City Casinos were booming. When you walked into any Casino you would soon hear the “jingle” of winning Slot machines. People would win even a little at some point in their Slot-playing. Then, GREED set-in. Apparently, just about all the Casinos had decided to change the player winning percentages (monopolistic collusion?); this meant that the player now won less-often while the Casino gobbled-up more of their money. After this change, winning “jingles” were few and far between. The Casinos had obviously convinced themselves that players were dumb-asses who would never notice this profound change. Instead, it initiated a significant decline in attendance. Noticing this, most Casinos added new Slot machines – penny & nickel ones – replacing most of the quarter Slot machines. The obvious idea was to make playing cheaper; but these new machines are designed to be deceptive. To win anything significant, you have to spend even more than you had to with quarters. The Casinos fooled no one – except themselves. This has now resulted in the inevitable – the number of Slot machines in A/C have been shrinking in Casinos like Showboat, Caesar’s, Ballys and Resorts. Probably the best way to encapsulate the decline/survival of Casinos, would be to compare the giant among them: one of the oldest - the Harrahs Organization – which owns the largest number of Casinos in the world – 37 in the U.S., with eight in Vegas and four in Atlantic City (Harrahs, Showboat, Ballys and Caesar’s) – with the ten-year-old Borgata Hotel/Casino in Atlantic City.

HARRAHS CASINOS (A/C)

Most Casinos have a Player-card-for-credits system; these credits can be used in exchange for buffet food, Casino store items or Complimentary Rooms. Harrahs created a four-tier “TOTAL REWARDS” card-system which can be used in any of their Casinos - Gold (the least “Reward”), Platinum, Diamond & Seven Seas. Each category lasts a year. You have to pour a lot of your money into the Casino to reach the “Diamond” level; to reach the “Seven Seas” level, you’d have to be pretty wealthy or deplete your life savings as well as get a new mortgage. I have never met anyone who reached that level. Harrahs was the leader in incentives to visit their Casinos: a unique cash-back system – where you were actually reimbursed a percentage of the cash used in Playing; giveaway of small usable gifts, free buffets and Complimentary Rooms for frequent players. Now however – after driving-away patrons with their cutbacks in Slot winnings which resulted in decreased income - Harrahs Mgmt. began to take what seems to be, desperate action to increase the bottom line; those incentives that have not disappeared have been significantly changed: cash-back and giveaways are gone; free buffets are now for players who reach a certain “level” of play (i.e. playing more than the buffet would cost you); and except for the Diamond, and Seven Seas levels, the number of Complimentary Rooms are now restricted, and the quality of rooms lowered. While Gold meant very little “Rewards”, Harrahs quietly decided to demote the Platinum level to the Gold, so now they are both entitled to next-to-nothing; for Platinum holders, there’s nothing quite like a Complimentary Room at Ballys:- instead of the modern Ballys Tower, you’re given a room in the adjoining Claridge hotel (built in 1930) which most players call “The Dump”; the room is straight-out of the19th century, complete with a plastic-covered sofa and melamine furniture; or a room at Caesar’s – which they would not rent to a paying customer - where you find the window in your room overlooks a view of the Casino’s escalators entrance. In one of the strangest acts of desperation: last October, with a reservation at Caesar’s, I was at the Reservation Desk before 12.00-noon; I was told that there was now a $16.00 fee for registration before noon, but “this amount decreases until 4.00 pm the official registration time”. Since I was already there, I decided to pay the fee. A few minutes after registering me, I was told that “The rooms are not ready.”, and I was given a refund. Hopefully for Harrahs these acts of trying to increase their bottom line won’t alienate more of it’s patrons. Nothing quite like “cutting your nose to spoil your face”.

BORGATA

“Texas Hold-Em” has become the most popular Poker game in the world. Internet world-wide Poker in 2010 grossed approx. $6.7Billion. If George Bush had not cut-off the use of Internet Poker-for-money (as opposed to free Internet Poker) by Americans, it would be even bigger today. Recently, Nevada authorized the use of Internet Poker. Whether foreign Poker companies will have access remains to be seen.  

Last July, the most expensive Poker game ever, was held in Las Vegas, organized by the co-founder and CEO of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberte, who himself is an avid Poker player. The buy-in (what you pay-to-play) was $1,000,000.00 (yes, $1Million). There were 48 players; they paid nine, and the winner received $18.3 Million (Mr. Laliberte placed 5th and received $1.8Million. His Poker gaming appears to be simply for pleasure since his worth is valued at $2.6Billion). More than anything else, what this actually showed is the REAL future of Casinos.

Borgata is ten years old. It started out like any other Casino – mostly Slot machines and some Poker. Then, it discovered THE FUTURE: So many players were crowding into their small Poker Room in the basement, they decided to build a 85-table Poker Room extension on the Main floor. This has 58 tables in the Main Room and 18 tables in an Annex only for High-Limit playing; the other 9-table area seem to be for specific Poker-related things. Today, Borgata does more Poker than ALL the other Atlantic City and Las Vegas Casinos COMBINED; in fact, Poker here has been so successful that Borgata created it’s own series of seasonal “OPEN” Tournaments – Fall, Winter, Spring and Summer – in addition to participating in the national World Poker Tour (WPT) Tournament. Borgata guarantees the big pots at these Open Tournaments, and even though the buy-ins sometimes go as high as $3,500.00, there seems to be no shortage of players. This past Spring’s Open Tournament had a full auditorium and a reported waiting list of about 1600. Now the upcoming Summer Open has a $500,000.00 pot (half-a-million), with a buy-in of $2700.00. In addition, even though the actual Summer Open is only five days long, Borgata blocked-off 18 days that includes that Open and added four separate days with $100,000.00 games and one day with a $300,000.00 game. After all of this is over, Borgata resumes it’s weekly Tournaments which include two $15,000.00 and one $25,000.00 game. These are all guaranteed. In addition to all of that, Borgata always has it’s High Stakes single-table games going; here you can lose or gain your retirement nest-egg in one sitting.

If there is one thing that Poker at Borgata has shown, it’s that the overwhelming majority of mostly young players – the Casinos’ future - do NOT play slot machines. In fact, even though I frequently play Poker Tournaments, I do not recall ever seeing one player that I’ve met at a Poker table over the last ten years playing at a slot machine. With their usual head-in-the-sand mentality, Casino Managements in these two major markets of A/C and Vegas fail to see and respond to this drastic change in Casino playing – except Borgata.

In Vegas, there is nothing similar to the Poker system Borgata created - and has made it the most profitable Casino in A/C. The Harrahs Org. bought the annual World Series of Poker (WSOP) Tournament, which takes place primarily in Vegas, but most of Harrahs eight Casinos in Vegas do not have any Poker, while a few other Casinos there do have small Tournaments. Interestingly enough, the Aria Hotel/Casino – which opened in 12/2009 - started what has become the most popular Poker games in Vegas. Though it needs more variety in its Poker games, it has probably seen the future.

In A/C, Trump Taj-Mahal Casino/Hotel has the second largest Poker room after Borgata. Poker here used to be well-attended – until lax Security resulted in some criminal behavior – including the use of guns. That turned-off a lot of people. Harrahs Org. in A/C has small Poker games in all four of its Casinos, but has created some of the strangest NON-incentives to Poker playing that some unorthodox person/s in their organization could dream-up: in Showboat, their Poker started in a Poker room on the second floor that was perfect: quiet, comfortable and well-run. This was too conducive to enjoyable Poker, so they moved it to a larger room on the ground floor - next to the entrance/exit of the Boardwalk and a fast-food eatery, close to an escalator and banks of Slot machines and directly opposite a 30-seat bar. This Poker room has several door-size openings facing most of this, so then they installed glass panels to cover three-quarters of these openings (so as not to cut-off all the noise?). After that, they set-up more game-tables OUTSIDE this room (something like plunking these tables in the middle of Times Square).

Caesar’s has always been the only Casino that functions with such a “Holier Than Thou” manner that most of the people I know that go to Casinos, avoid going there. The Harrahs Org. apparently fosters this: Caesar’s has the nicest Poker Room of all their four Casinos in A/C. (Caesar’s in Vegas also has the nicest Poker Room of the few of their Casinos there that have Poker). Harrahs expanded Caesar’s Poker Room in A/C last year. The question is – why? Caesar’s – except for once-a-year participation in the preliminary World Series of Poker Tournament – does NOT have Poker Tournaments. It advertises Poker Tournaments – but people do not like Caesar’s and no one shows-up. It has primarily daily single table cash games; no High Limit single table Poker either. So approx. 75% of their Poker tables are empty most of the time. Then there is Ballys: from those who should know – the Harrahs Org. treatment of Ballys is totally opposite to that of Caesar’s - the feeling is that they “hate” Ballys. Some indications: last year, Caesar’s installed probably the most beautiful carpet of any Casino in these United States, on its entire Main Floor (with the thousands of square feet it covered, the cost must have been staggering). On Ballys Main Floor where there are hundreds of Slot machines plus gaming tables, there is the ugliest carpet I have ever seen either in Vegas or A/C. This carpet must have been gotten from a Homeless Shelter. Ballys Poker Room is on the 6th. floor – combined with the horse-race betting section. If there is a reason to think that the Harrahs organization “hates” Ballys (besides the decrepit way they keep the Main Floor), what has happened in their Poker room is almost unreal: the ceiling in this Poker room used to drip when it rains; this went on for months, until SuperStorm Sandy brought many of the ceiling panels down; then they were forced to fix it. Ever been in any Poker room in any Casino where the carpet is so old and dirty that they actually have duct tape holding parts of it together? That’s Ballys! When asked about this, the Staff there says that Harrahs Mgmt. promised to replace it - over a year ago; then there are the Poker chairs – which are not really meant for Poker playing where you have to sit for many hours; these are the most uncomfortable chairs of any Poker room in A/C or Vegas – and some of them made of fabric have permanent stains; add to this are the folding end-tables – used for snacks while you play – where you have to try to find a clean one – or not use any at all. Interestingly enough, the Poker Staff here is the about the best of any in the Harrahs system – including Vegas: they are knowledgeable, very friendly, and always ready to help. They are also quite inventive: to try to increase the number of Poker players they created all kinds rewards/incentives for Poker playing there. Word got-around quickly (Poker is very much a word-of-mouth game), and soon Ballys Poker was making more money than any other Poker Room in Harrahs properties in A/C. But the Harrahs Org. does not look kindly on any creative anything that is not initiated by their own Poker Mgmt. Staff, so most of these incentives had to go. So did many of the regular Poker players. 

REVEL 

Before the brand new Revel in Atlantic City opened, most Poker players that I spoke to were looking forward to seeing Revel’s Poker section when it opened. We all thought and expected that Revel management would see the writing–on-the-wall and create a great Poker playing area to compete with Borgata. Since Borgata is now focusing on expensive Tournaments, there is a need for regular, daily Tournaments which are no longer important to Borgata; add regular cash games and some High Limit Poker to this, and you’d have a real competitor. What actually happened was Revel blowing-away a great opportunity. They created yet another Slot-Machines Casino where none was needed, and their Poker section? Well, first no one could find it (GPS needed); then - after some wrong directions – it was finally found in the rear of the second floor – the most dimly lit Poker room in A/C or Vegas (you’d need to take a flashlight to see your cards). The question we were all asking – how could anyone invest so much time and $2.4Billion to create something like this?!?

Borgata completely changed what Casinos should and would be like in the future. The CEO responsible for that was grabbed by some Casino in Australia. To climb out of bankruptcy what Revel needs is to get someone like him and use Borgata as an example: take an entire floor of Revel and make it ONLY Poker - brightly lit, comfortable with friendly and knowledgeable staff; also add some of the “incentives” that Ballys Poker staff created. Revel should then try dealing with some realities: among most high-end amenities that Revel created are twelve fancy restaurants, using known Chefs. It did not check-out the many fancy restaurants in other Casinos that have been abandoned for lack of business. Ordinary, middle-class people (which is where most of the money will come from) when they come to the Casinos, do not have the time nor the inclination to spend hundred of dollars on meals in fancy restaurants. Create a small buffet (get one of the Chefs from Borgata or Harrahs Casino – these two have the best buffets) where people can get a pretty decent meal of their choice at a reasonable price. Does Revel have a nice coffee shop? No one could find it. In other words – besides focusing on some real Poker - try making Revel more down-to-earth, more middle-class-people-oriented – and that will most probably help a great deal in coming out of bankruptcy.

UNREAL – BUT TRUE

POKER ROOM TV’s

Every Poker room in every Casino has one or more TV’s to give the stats and show the progress of the current Tournament; however for some strange reason, the TV’s used are almost always a 22-inch TV placed high-up on a wall – far enough away so that you are unable to read the info. Borgata has 52 (yes, fifty two) TV’s in its Main Poker room; the room is about 15-20 feet high (no one knew exactly); the TV’s are all about 22-inches in diameter – and all are placed with the tops against the ceiling; the result is that when you want to check the info on any Tournament, that TV is about 30-ft. away from where you are; then, if that Tournament even has hundreds of people, Borgata would use only a few of these TV’s (out of the 52) to give the Tournament info.; the other TV’s are tuned to mostly junk that few are interested in. Since it seems too logical and simple and easy to install 60-inch TV’s that players could actually read, maybe Borgata should be required to have hand-held telescopes available for everyone to use to read the info on any Tournament.     

CHAIRS

For people who play Tournaments, big-money ones can last days – with each day-long playing of at least 12-hours; small Tournaments (less than 50 people) can last up to eight hours of the day. This is obviously a lot of sitting. Another example of Poker mismanagement by almost all Casinos is their providing mostly uncomfortable chairs. A Poker chair should be on rollers, have a high back, be well-padded – and most important – be adjustable in height. Borgata is the ONLY Casino that have chairs that have all four requirements. The worst – as mentioned previously – is in the Ballys Poker Room – as provided by the Harrahs Organization. 

POKER CHIPS

Some of this is so mundane that you have to wonder – why is this happening? Going back to when Poker started in the 19th. century, Poker Chip denominations had to be clear; in bars – where most of the Poker was – if you messed-up with your betting and blamed the Chips for being dirty and confusing you, they might then be taking you out in a box. Denominations had to be clear. No thanks to Harrahs Org., the Chips they provided Ballys and have not replaced, now have the 500-Chip and the 5,000-Chip just about the same color. No need to mention the angst that causes. Interestingly, the newcomer on the block in A/C – Golden Nugget (they bought out Trump Marina about two years ago) opened a new Poker room. They are obviously new to Poker (their new Poker chairs are nothing like Borgata’s; their small weekday Tournaments are deep-stack and end-up being far too long – which loses many patrons); with their brand new Chips – the 100-Chip and 500-Chip are also just about the same color. Once again Borgata! Their Chips are just about the clearest and best quality. Maybe Borgata should have a Consulting Team to advise all of these Casinos all about Poker – their Future. 

A/C AND THE FUTURE

Location – location – location! What politicians and other “Powers That Be” do not realize is that Atlantic City has the very best location of any Hotel/Casino complex anywhere in America – and the world. Whereas Vegas is actually in a desert; the two New England Casinos are plagued by being in the middle of cold winters; Atlantic City is built right along the shore with a beautiful beach and Boardwalk. The climate is almost perfect - because of the ocean breezes, it’s not too cold in the winter and not too hot in the summer. It’s not too far from important cities like New York City, Philadelphia and Washington because of easily accessible bus and rail transportation. As for parking, just about every Casino has built more parking space adjoining its Casino than it gets customers. Because of all of this, Atlantic City can easily be an entertainment capital that outdoes even Las Vegas!

© Copyrighted 2013

AIRLINE NIGHTMARES

I have flown on many airlines including foreign ones, but our non-stop trips last week - New York to Las Vegas and return - on Delta Airlines was the worst. Booking Online, there was a little note at the end that offered to also issue Boarding Passes. My question: "Why would I want Boarding Passes when I have to check our luggage anyway?" My answer came when we checked our luggage: when THEY have to give you the Boarding Pass, you are now charged $3.00 per suitcase - plus tip (the attendant reminded us). If you get the Boarding Pass Online, you're not charged (except tip). Even though the weather was fine and there were no plane problems, we still left an hour and fifteen minutes late.
The plane was a Boeing 757 - seats 183 (in Coach); with an 18-inch aisle between six seats. The reason American auto manufacturers lost market share to everyone else is mostly because of performance, reliability and comfort; American plane manufacturers are losing to European ones for the same reason. This plane, which Delta apparently has a lot of, is rickety, the seats (obviously meant only for the comfort of small children) are tight with little leg room; for a six hour trip each way, you really need a pill to knock-you-comatose so you don't have to experience the discomfort. They also charge you $2.00 for earphones so you can follow the movie on the 8-inch screen on the ceiling in the middle of the seats. Our earphones did not work; instead of replacing them, they gave us a refund.
Delta advertises "In flight services" for these long trips. We therefore assumed that this would include a meal. "Dinner" was at offered for a charge. We each bought the veal-parmigiana-on-a-roll sandwich at $8.00 each. This turned-out to be a cold (previously frozen) sandwich. For water, it is poured from a large bottle; bottled water is only given to first class passengers.
The FAA - another of our useless government agencies - has no standards of how passengers should be treated on airplanes. Recently, with approval of the FAA, Delta and Northwest Airlines will soon be merging to become the largest - and most mediocre - airline in the world. Thank you FAA Board Members - we love airline nightmares.