Alan's VP plan: "Wait til January 1st to do anything besides freepay"

I read something today in another thread which I found interesting.

It is October 12.

Alan, who earned 1,000,000+ tiers last year, and is definitely no comp whore, has decided to shut it down with his VP play until January 1st.

This is because of the law of diminishing returns with the Seven Stars program, something I've discussed before here.

They are simply under-rewarding players who continue past 150k tiers, and players like Alan are taking notice and rebelling with their wallet. I bet that there are many like Alan who decided that they will simply wait until January 1st to start playing again, knowing that the benefits of continuing at the end of the year are just not enough to justify the expected losses.

A casino should never operate this way. It should have players excited to come and play and earn more perks, not waiting until arbitrary dates when it's "worth it".

They attempted to fix this by introducing the new "points" system for Signature Experiences, but they bungled that effort badly.

We will see if they change this for 2015.

Yes Dan I see little value in putting more cash for a limited adfitional return in benefits such as reward credits, tier points and Great Gift Wrap Up points. However I want to take advantage of offers and free play. I am going to the 7 Stars Experience which includes Shania tix and $1400 free play.

At Rincon today Gwen and I cashed $685 from free play. That's the ticket!!

But how much free play did you start with?

$685 is a great pay day from a local casino. Even if they started with $1000 in free play.

Alan's plan sounds fine, except that only a loser would perceive an "expected loss" by playing on.

Vpnewbie, I just noticed Murrieta, Ca. on your location. Isn't that the town that threw out all those illegal kids? Good for you!

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Originally Posted by Alan Mendelson

Yes Dan I see little value in putting more cash for a limited adfitional return in benefits such as reward credits, tier points and Great Gift Wrap Up points. However I want to take advantage of offers and free play. I am going to the 7 Stars Experience which includes Shania tix and $1400 free play.

At Rincon today Gwen and I cashed $685 from free play. That's the ticket!!

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Alan, I agree with what you're doing. I was criticizing the CET Seven Stars program.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Vpnewbie

But how much free play did you start with?

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Gwen and I both had free play and once again I cashed in Reward Credits for free play. Gwen also won $10 in the "CA$H" promotion. We had a total of $700 of free play and cashed out $685 playing $1 Aces and Faces. NO quads, two full houses, but we did well with straights and two-pair.

By the way, had I played $700 real cash in the machine it would have been a losing session -- and our loss would have been $15. Near the end of the time we played, when I added up the tickets in my hand plus the credits on the machine we had a total of $715.

When the final hand was cashed out (a pair of aces) and I added up the tickets ($685) I asked Gwen "do you want to take this home or play some more?" She looked at me and said "what do you want to do?" I quickly said "take it home" and she jumped out of the seat.

We walked around looking for the Nashes and then bolted.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Dan Druff

Alan, I agree with what you're doing. I was criticizing the CET Seven Stars program.

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I was agreeing with your agreeing.

I have one problem with what Alan is doing. Alan has always stated that he goes to the casino for pleasure, not as a comp whore. So if you go to the casino for pleasure, then the free offers and comps etc. should be secondary. I'm not saying what you are doing is wrong in any way, but if you feel like playing VP before year end, why shouldn't you play?


On a side note, I was at the casino outside Baltimore this weekend (horse tournament nearby). Very impressed--great looking casino with decent restaurants and non-smoking. Didn't even pay attention to the VP pay tables for the whole $100 that I invested for my wife. But she got 4 aces and was thrilled and cashed out. Not a place for VP however as there was only one little area with maybe 15-20 machines. They did have 6 or 8 craps tables going and all were full.

Regnis, part of the "pleasure" of going to casinos is getting my money's worth in promotions and comps. I don't generally go just to "play." If there isn't a promotion offering free play or show tickets or something else I won't go.

Give me a free play promotion and I will consider either a local visit to Rincon or a trip to Caesars. But if there is no incentive for play over and above the free play amount why should I bother?

Now in January, the "tier score year" starts all over. I will want to "renew" 7 Stars so I will play again because there is value in being 7 Stars.

If other comps were more worthwhile I would have more incentive to play, but looks what's happening:

The Great Gift Wrap Up isn't so great anymore -- fewer vendors, poor selection of gifts.
The $500 Gift Cards are being wiped out.
Free play and comps in general are being lowered.

All of these make me more selective about what I choose for "entertainment."