Seemoreroyals has joined alan Best Buys Las Vegas Forum

[seemoreroyals]

Another "oh so special 7 star" has decided to join your forum. I have been actively reading for some time now and have benefitted from the exchange of ideas.

Of particular interest going forward would be any issue involving video poker in regards to CET as that is the only group of casinos I gamble with.

I am interested in seeing what the effect of the 7000 new IGT video poker machines will be. I am not sure if they are all in place yet but I think I read somewhere that they all should be by the end of the year. I am afraid that CET will use this as an opportunity to lower the pay tables. Additionally it will be interesting to see how aggressive CET is with getting away from $10 per tier credit on their best machines.

Has anyone heard if CET is going to make any changes next year to their qualifications for diamond and 7 star? With the bonus tier points it is so much easier to reach 15,000 and 150,000 CET is bound to make some changes. It would be interesting to know how many diamond and 7 star members CET has compared to this time last year. Everybody we actively associate with has substantially more tier credits than they had last year. I am sure CET will make some adjustments and in some ways I think they already have.

One change I have noticed in the last several months is that they have become tight fisted with their free play. I think they are going to continue to make it more difficult for players like myself who like to rack up their points playing low volatility high EV machines. They are still generous in a lot of ways but it is amazing to me how their policies and comps vary from property to property. I am not ready to walk away from CET at this point but I am keeping a careful eye on what they are doing. I would be surprised if when they announce the requirements for both diamond and 7 star, they are not significantly higher for next year.

I look forward to participating in this forum.

[regnis]

Those of us who have been so loyal to caesars for so many years probably should re-think it. They were ousted from the Boston deal because of their monster debt; they broke up with Gansevoort on the old Barbary (Bills Gambling) deal; and they continue to kill VP and lower cash back and comps. It can only get worse until they reduce their debt or sell off some assets. So are the generous free rooms worth it anymore??

[Alan Mendelson]

Thank you for joining and you raised many good questions. At Rincon the new IGT machines all have weak paytables. I noticed weaker paytables on the new machines in the Forum casino at Caesars Palace but not in the Palace casino.

You might be right that another tier level adjustment is coming.

[seemoreroyals]

It seems that last year we did not find out until the very end of the year about the next years qualifications for diamond and 7 star status. By this time of year there were many rumors and speculations. With the end of the year almost here again, my hope is they will leave the 7 star program the way it is. The free $750 airfare was nice for hitting 80,000 along the way and was put to good use. The extra 7 star trip will be put to good use as well at some point in the future. In some ways CET has been generous although they have offset that by being stingy with their free play offers in many cases.

I don't like them changing the $10 per tier credit on video poker either. I for one will not play on a video poker machine that requires $25 or $50 to be ran through per tier credit. If there are any CET marketing people out there here is an idea for you. Have three levels of Video Poker machines. Any machine that does not have a payback of at least 97% only require $5 per tier credit as you would on an ordinary slot machine. We all know there are lots of vp out there with those types of paybacks. The second level would be for those machines that have a payback of between 97 and 99%. Leave them at $10 per tier credit. Thirdly, for those machines that have a payback of over 99%, go ahead and require $15 per tier credit. I think that is fair and would be willing to pay that.

One thing I have learned about CET is that things never remain the same. If you have ever read the book "Who Moved my Cheese?", CET is constantly moving our cheese. It is up to us to constantly look for new opportunities.

[redietz]

The old nickname for Harrah's/CET was "The Borg." They assimilate everything and improve nothing.

[seemoreroyals]

Thank you Alan for the warm welcome. Looking forward to a positive exchange of ideas.