Caesars Cuts The Value of Promotions Even More

[Alan Mendelson]

Caesars just found another way to cut the value of its offers. Caesars is now making Great Gift Wrap Up points part of the prizes it offers to winners of its various tournaments including slot tournaments. This reduces the cash value, or free play value to winners, and forces the winners to return for the GGWU events at the end of the year. I wrote about it here: http://alanbestbuys.com/id335.html

[slingshot]

Margarittaville uses this almost weekly. Some kinda cash/free play tournament and when you get there the music is intensely loud and of course you listen to an excited announcer yelling names all nite long. Only went to one and took aspirin after I got home.

[pkspins]

I got an invite email yesterday to a tournament like this to be held in March.

I have received tournament invites before but haven't paid much attention. This one lists total free play prizes of $150K plus the GGWU points for the winners.

Is this a reduction of their normal tournament prizes or an addition? I read it as an added kicker, because $150K total prize pot sounds familiar, but I am really not that well versed on the prize structure on these. I probably have old emails with past tournament invitations that I could compare this to if you don't know.

I personally can't see this as much of an incentive to make a trip but I have to fly there and I have much better offers for guaranteed free play than the $40 that they've included on this one. But for more frequent visitors who are already planning to attend the GGWU to use their points from normal play, I can see an offer like this as an incentive to actually participate in the circus that these tournaments are.

[Rob.Singer]

And yet the blinded sheep continue to flock to CET at the beck and call of their wonderful casino hosts....

[redietz]

I have never seen blinded sheep (I'm sure there's irony in there someplace), so I'd go with more of a "blinded lemmings" metaphor, although now that I think of it, blinded lemmings would be a real mess, as they wouldn't know which way to (blindly) follow.

[Alan Mendelson]

And yet the blinded sheep continue to flock to CET at the beck and call of their wonderful casino hosts....

No. I think the so-called APs will now see that these tournaments that give winnings with GGWU points will recognize that they aren't as advantageous as before and will not show up.

[Dan Druff]

I would need to see hard numbers in order to determine whether this is a "devaluation" of any kind.

If they are giving the same prizes but ADDING GGWU points to the prizes, then it's an addition, not a subtraction.

GGWU points' actual value should be computed by the amount they can be exchanged for freeplay, minus the expected loss at the best game in the market.

So if the best game in the market has a 99% return, you need to multiply the value of freeplay earned by 0.99.

Example:

- Prize is 105,000 GGWU points
- $100 in freeplay can be bought for 35,000 GGWU points
- Therefore, prize is worth $300 of freeplay
- Best game is 99% return, so actual value is $300 * 0.99 = $297

Of course, a 99% return game will have plenty of variance. Many times you will get less than 99%, but other times you will get more than 100%. But for purposes of value, my formula is correct.

Alan did bring up one good point, though. GGWU points can only be redeemed by coming BACK to the property during two (short) periods of time in November or December. If returning to Vegas to redeem them costs you more than the points are worth, then the value is zero, unless you were planning to go to Vegas anyway.

I have tossed away $100-$200 of GGWU points a few times (such as in 2015) because it wasn't worth the expense and efforts to be there for the events.

[Alan Mendelson]

It appears to me that the tournament prizes are now half free play and half GGWU points whereas in the past the same total prize was all free play or cash.

[Dan Druff]

Well then yes, a degradation has occurred, mostly due to the hassle of having to return to Vegas to use it.

[pkspins]

Here's a comparison. On the left is the prize table for the tournament that's coming up offering GGWU points as part of the prizes. On the right is the prize table from a tournament last year. Some of the FP prizes are the same with the GGWU points added, some are less. The one this year also has another tier of lower prize winners.

I still wouldn't make a trip just for this but it doesn't seem all that bad.

[Alan Mendelson]

You made my point: the value of the tournament this year with the GGWU points is LESS than the value of the previous tournament.

Assuming that the GGWU points are worth 35,000 for a $100 Shell Gas Card:

The first place prize of 1,000,000 GGWU points is worth $2,850 in Gas Cards (you lose some points in the transaction).
The $2,850 in Gas Cards is less than the $5,000 extra in free play that the first place winner got the year before.

Plus, you have to add-in the cost of a second trip to Vegas and the GGWU are not transferable.

4th place and 5th place finishers get less in free play this year. 6th thru tenth places get more, but...

Free play prizes for 11th place to 200th place are also less this year.

What I also noticed is the universal free play amount that everyone got was removed this year. If I recall, last year everyone got some small amount of free play which was perhaps $50. This year, there are free play awards of $55 each for everyone placing 501 to 750. So what they did was take away the universal free play that everyone got and turned it into a prize that the first 500 finishers will not get.

[Rob.Singer]

In other news....CVS just announced a 31.78% cutback of points rewarded to member cardholders on purchases of edible products in their stores--unless a "red star" appears on your sales receipt.

Of course, most addicted customers will whine and bellyache over this and will still return for more of the same. Playing the fool seems to require a certain amount of complaints.

[maxev]

This doesn't seem that bad to me. It's still a $150k prize pool; they just reworked prizes and opened the bottom prize to more people. To me, it seems they're just adding gift points to the pool.

I see the gift points as more an incentive to get the top winners back to Vegas to spend some of their winnings.

Looking at my email offer, I get $40 freeplay along with the tournament entry:


Be Our Guest and Receive
• $40 in Casino Play
• One entry into the $150,000 Slot Tournament
• Top 5 winners will receive Great Gift Wrap Up® Gift Points in addition to Casino Play
• Complimentary accommodations for up to three nights, March 24 - 26, 2017 at your choice of one Las Vegas Total Rewards® Resort:
Planet Hollywood Resort & Casino, The LINQ Hotel & Casino, Paris, Flamingo, Bally's, Harrah's or Rio All-Suite Hotel & Casino