Pala Casino also has a $2-million promotion for 2013

We've been giving a lot of attention to the $2-million cash promotion at Harrah's Rincon, but Rincon's neighboring casino Pala which happens to be more convenient to the I-15 Freeway has a two-million dollar promotion of its own for 2013 that features a combination of cash and a new car every week.

Here is the press release from Pala:

Pala Casino Spa & Resort will give away a brand new car every Friday in 2013 in its $2 Million Cash and Cars Giveaway promotion and all anyone has to do to win one is sign up for a Pala Privileges player’s card, which is free, in the casino.
One lucky winner will receive a new Mercedes-Benz C-250 sedan in drawings that will start at 6 p.m. on Friday, Jan. 4, 11, 18 and 25. In addition, $1,000 will be awarded each half hour, a total of $10,000. The drawing for the car will be at 11 p.m. and winners must be present. Players can enter this drawing until 4 p.m., Friday,
Jan. 25.
Then starting at 9 a.m., Monday, Jan. 7, players can start entering to win a 2013 Toyota Avalon, sponsored by Toyota of Escondido. They swipe their Privileges cards at the Toyota Avalon kiosks located adjacent to the car display in the casino. A regular Privileges card holder will receive one free entry daily; Gold card members receive two; Platinum, three, and Elite, five. Entries can be earned daily until 4 p.m., Friday, Feb. 22.
Players who use their Privileges card at any slot machine or table game will receive 10 bonus entries into the Grand Prize Drawing for every tier point earned during the Giveaway.

Grand Prize Drawings for the Toyota Avalon will start at 6 p.m., Friday, Feb. 1, 8, 15 and 22. Every half hour, there again will be a drawing for $1,000 cash, a total of $10,000. The winner of the Toyota Avalon will be drawn at 11 p.m. Winners must be present to claim prizes.
Pala Casino Spa & Resort reserves the right to alter this promotion. Drawings will be conducted in accordance with the rules. In case of force majeure, safety factors, equipment malfunctions or extenuating circumstances, Pala Casino reserves the right to modify procedures with the fairness and best interests of all participants.

What is not clear is if tier points are earned equally from all games at Pala? I asked their public relations department to explain if the same coin-in at slots, video poker and table games earns the same number of tier points.

I doubt that tier points are earned equally at all games. I am pretty sure that slot players get more tier points per dollar than table or video poker players.

Some of you have reported that Pala has better video poker than Rincon including progressives on full pay video poker games. If you can, give us an update on the gaming there.

I will let you know what I find out.

I reached the marketing department at Pala and they told me that their tier points for table games vary with the game, the denomination and the time spent playing.
With slots and video poker the tier points vary with the denomination and the time at the game and the average bet. In other words, it's a more complicated formula.

Frankly, I never heard of a formula like this. I explained to the marketing rep that I was more familiar with programs such as the one at Rincon where $10 of coin-in earns one tier point. But the marketing rep said Pala's system is different.

Are any of you Pala players who might be able to shed some light on this? But clearly, the drawings for the cash and the car are going to be dominated by the high rollers, like at Rincon for its drawings. But at Rincon you earn one tier point for every $10 of coin-in at video poker, and one tier point for every $5 at slots. I'd certainly like to find out if the same ratio applies at Pala or if tier points for slot and video poker players require the same coin-in for the same tier point reward?

The public relations department at Pala sent me a sheet that describes how their "tier points" work. As I wrote above it is a bit complicated but when I looked at the sheet it becomes pretty easy to understand.

Here are the highlights:

Tier points are based on length of play, amount of money played, and type of game.

Some examples:

If you are on a multi line slot machine playing 1-cent, 2-cent or 5-cent you have to play five minutes on average to earn one tier point.

If you play multi line slots at 25-cents or $1 it is one minute on average.

On reel slots amounts ranging from $1 up to $100 earn a tier point for every one minute on average.

Now video poker:

At 5-cents, 25-cents, 50-cents five-minutes on average earns one point.
At $1, $5 and $10 one-minute on average earns one point.

All video keno games earn one point for 5 minutes on average.

All table games earn one point for 5 minutes on average.

Well, I can understand how "advantage players" and "serious players" will have additional questions and perhaps even "problems" with these formulas. There appear to be some wide ranges here. Plus serious players and higher limit players and certainly "advantage players" would want a more concrete representation of what they are getting for every bet made.

The Caesars Total Rewards system, for example, is specific about slots and video poker. But Caesars Total Rewards doesn't even give you any ballpark figures on table games except to say it varies according to various conditions.

I think for these reasons, higher limit players and advantage players would want to steer clear of the promotions for the cars and cash because they couldn't possibly figure out if they have any sort of advantage over lower limit players.

While Pala doesn't spell it out, it appears that $10 video poker players might be earning tier points at the same rate as $1 players, and $100 reel slot players might be earning tier points at the same rate as $1 reel slot players.

The public relations department has been very cordial and responsive to my questions about its tier point system and how tier points are awarded for various games and bets. My last question was if there is a specific formula that players could refer to for determining how many tier points they would receive for their play -- and I received the following response:

Each dollar of coin in can earn the same amount of Tier Points on different games. A dollar wagered on slots can earn the same amount of Tier Points as a dollar wagered on a table game. It depends on the type of slot or table game you are playing. As shown in the attachment, there is not one fixed formula. It depends on the type of game that is being played. Our formula is not as transparent as Rincon’s, but it is fairer to the guest because broad game segments like video poker and slots are too big, with too many different types of games, to have only one formula for awarding Tier Points fairly.

To answer your basic question, we have many formulas for determining tier points that are fairer to our guests.



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Also from Pala:

Our entire Privileges Card system is transparent. A guest can check their Tier Points online at palacasino.com and on property. At both places we tell them how many Tier Points they earned for the day as well as how many Tier Points to re-qualify for their Tier level and to achieve the next Tier Level. We try to be as transparent as we can and still award Tier Points fairly. What we recommend to our guests is to play as they normally play for a day and then check how many Tier Points they earned for that day. This is the best indication for a guest how many Tier Points they earn with the amount of money they spend on the game types they play.

Ramada Express (now Tropicana Express) in Laughlin used to have a similarly crazy (and it is crazy) system for earning points that penalized the $2, $5 & $10 players. If you played dollars you earned more points per dollar played than any of the other three denominations. In Pala's case, it looks like the best bet to earn entries for this promo is to play dollars if all games have similar paytables.