Harrah's Rincon and the mysterious One Million Dollar Winner

[Alan Mendelson]

Harrah's Rincon Casino in San Diego held a million dollar drawing New Year's Eve. One winner gets one million. You did not have to be present to win. If your name was drawn they would notify you.

A name was drawn. The winner was not present. And so far, Harrah's Rincon has not been able to reach the winner... according to posts on its Facebook page.

Terms of the promotion are that you give permission to Rincon to use your name, likeness, etc if you win. That was in the fine print early on. And I am sure Harrah's Rincon would love to promote the winner.

But who is the winner?

Did Harrah's Rincon have the wrong phone number in its Total Rewards directory?
Did the winner leave the USA for a long holiday cruise and can't be reached?
Did the winner go into a witness protection program?
Did the winner pass away?

What if the winner can't be located? Will there be a runner-up chosen? Or will there be no winner?

Come to think of it, had the rules been different -- if the winner had to be present to win -- at least there would have been a winner. But by not requiring the winner to be present the door was opened for all sorts of problems in finding and announcing the winner.

On their Facebook page, Harrah's Rincon is saying keep your phone open for the call. But it's been 48 hours and I am sure the call has been made. Or... hasn't it? And... will it be made?

A question for anyone who was there for the drawing: when the winner's name was announced did anyone indicate they knew the winner? Did anyone do a Google search or check a telephone directory for the winner's address or phone number?

By the way I have an announcement to make. I held a drawing shortly after midnight on New Year's Eve for a free milkshake from Jack In The Box. I will be phoning the winner. The winner was John Hinkle Dinkle Doobie Doo of North Sherman Oaks. Oops... I just realized I don't have his phone number. And... where is North Sherman Oaks? And does anyone know the Doo family?

Well... I'm being too critical. I am sure the winner of the one million dollar drawing has in fact been contacted and now is making arrangements to drive to Rincon to pick up his check as soon as he sets up a trust with his attorney who is the passenger on the two week holiday cruise to the Mediterranean.

[Perdition]

Well if it is as you suspect and the winner is a high roller that the contest got tailored to, maybe they will just refuse the terms and browbeat CET into getting the money anyways. Maybe CET will have to get a stand in to have pics taken. Could go all Alex Jones and make theories but it could be an issue where the person is out of the country or in a bad spot like the east coast currently. The lack of updates is a little troubling though. Not like it is a free toaster, it is 1 million dollars and people probably want to know what's up one way or another.

[Alan Mendelson]

Why not put the winner's name on Facebook?? It was announced in the casino? It is a public contest?

[John]

Did they ever announce a name at the Great gift giveaway? I hope these scratch off tickets for the Getaway fever actually produce some winners. Hopefully me

[Alan Mendelson]

I received a phone call this morning with some disturbing information. It seems that a dealer at Rincon told some of the players that there is a rule that if the million dollars is not claimed within ten days, the casino keeps the money.

I understand a "name" was announced at the event (I was not there, so I can't confirm). But again I wonder if anyone knows this person or if the name is available anywhere publicly so we could at least see if this person exists?

[Alan Mendelson]

Someone sent me a message that an announcement was made at the drawing that if the "winner" did not claim the prize within the specified time then a second drawing would be held. This is the first time I heard that. Can anyone confirm?

[Bagiant]

Sounds like a lot of BS to me! If you have the winners name...SHOW IT! Simple as that. What are they trying to hide?

[Alan Mendelson]

Just off the phone with another Rincon regular who told me he was not at the actual drawing on NYE but the next day he went to the promotion desk and he was shown the winner's name. He can't remember it except to say it was very long with about fifteen characters in both the first and second names. He didn't pay attention to the exact name because he was taking out his cell phone camera to snap a photo of it and that's when a supervisor told the promotions person NOT to show him the name. So he never got the photo.

I don't know if this is really significant or not, except that I can't understand why they would keep it a secret if the name was announced publicly.

Remember this was a public contest with no purchase necessary and open to everyone because everyone who signed up for a free Total Rewards account received one free entry. Of course they have to give one free entry so this does not violate California's lottery laws.

[Dan Druff]

So there are all sorts of possible conspiracies here, from a fake winner to a rigged contest.

But here is my guess:

If they really aren't going to award a prize if it's not claimed in 10 days, it is to their advantage NOT to release the guy's name. This way his friends won't see it and contact him (nor will any other third parties who want to help or hope to get a goodwill piece for notifying him).

So when the dude wasn't present, they probably went silent, hoping 10 days would pass and they would keep the 1 million.

Otherwise this makes no sense. It is to the casino's advantage to publish the identity of the winner, for marketing purposes. It's only to their advantage if they get to keep the unclaimed money.

On a side note, does anyone know the formula for entries? Everyone who swiped got a free one, but how many bonus entries were given right off the bat to high rollers? How many entries did you get per tier point?

Alan, how many did you get?

Boy this whole thing looks shady.

To be honest, I just didn't think Rincon looked like it carried enough high limit action to justify a promo like this. Now I think they're trying to worm out of it.

The "you don't have to be present to win -- only swipe" BS would suggest that they were hoping something like this would happen.

If you want to get really conspiratorial, perhaps they rigged it to be won by someone with a history of being hard to reach. Like someone they knew had a bad address/phone # in the system.

[Dan Druff]

From the Facebook page, a woman commented:

Before we left, we asked who the winner was and we were given the person's name that had won. Although I don't remember her name. We were told that she was a diamond member and that she was not present. We asked if they planned on notifying her and they said that they would call and email her. If she does not contact Harrah's within the next 10 days she forfeits the prize and they will draw another name, however the person we spoke to said that they were pretty sure they would reach the winner in time.

[Alan Mendelson]

I had about 435,000 entries which is what the screen said when I swiped my card. My tier points for the year at that point were north of 950,000 so it's my guess that the entries were based on ACTUAL tier points (not bonus points) from play at Rincon, only.

Several people have now posted on Facebook that an announcement was made over the public address system that if the winner doesn't claim the prize then a second drawing will be held. But I think it is unfair to the original "winner" that their name is not being publicized. Rincon has a Facebook page and a website and they could put out a PR news release. And frankly, if I were head of their marketing that is exactly what I would do because I think it would make for great marketing. I'd even hold a news conference and invite the media and milk this for all it's worth. And that could mean a million dollars worth of publicity.

Imagine: Harrah's Rincon is looking for MaryJoeCallie Callahanalla the winner of our Million Dollar Drawing. Come and get it! Your check is waiting!!

[Dan Druff]

How did you get 950k tier points? I thought you were at 450k not too long ago.

Anyway do you think you earned 435k regular tier points (not bonus) at Rincon?

I don't understand the motivation of Rincon to withhold the name of the winner if they are just going to redraw after 10 days of no response. There has to be more to this. I guess we will find out on January 11th.

[Alan Mendelson]

I never really gave my accurate totals during the course of the year. I played a lot. And yes, I probably earned 435K regular tier points at Rincon.

there is another question that NO ONE has approached yet: HOW is the winning name selected?

I asked. It's a computer that selects the name, is what I was told. They go to a computer terminal, press a button, and the winner is selected.

[Dan Druff]

Whole thing is shady as hell.

If there isn't an easily identifiable winner when this whole thing is over (either from this or the supposed redraw), it's pretty safe to say that intentional steps were taken to avoid ever paying out this million.

Where is Dr. Evil when you need him most?

[Alan Mendelson]

Whole thing is shady as hell.

I wouldn't call it shady, but I would say it is not very transparent. There were several "problems" including:

1. that you had to show up at the casino to "validate" your entries
2. that the winner didn't have to be present (which isn't bad) but the entries still had to be validated
3. that the winner's name isn't publicized to help that person claim their prize (what if the casino has the wrong phone number and email address?)

[Alan Mendelson]

From the Rincon Facebook page:

We did announce the winner at the drawing and have contacted our winner. We'll be officially announcing our winner this week. Stay tuned for more!

[Perdition]

Latest update:

Harrah's Rincon Casino & Resort-The winner of the million dollars has been contacted, she will be picking up her prize money on Wednesday! We will be posting her picture shortly after the presentation, so stay tuned.

[Dan Druff]

So it looks like Rincon wasn't being shady -- they were just handling things poorly, as usual.

Only the Rincon could find a way to give away a million bucks and still manage to look bad in the process.

[Alan Mendelson]

So it looks like Rincon wasn't being shady -- they were just handling things poorly, as usual.

Only the Rincon could find a way to give away a million bucks and still manage to look bad in the process.

I would say that is a pretty good appraisal of the whole thing. Instead of being upfront and transparent, and announcing the winner's name in social media as well as the news media (which a smart marketing manager would have done) they because secretive. Why the heck would you want to be secretive when you had something this positive and literally worth a million dollars of publicity to the casino?

Unfortunately, they probably think they did it the right way and believe they followed the proper method that they decided on months back, and they will probably be slapping themselves on their backs with attaboys until the next million dollar drawing in June.

This is how companies dig their own graves. They keep doing what they think is right but fail to listen to what their customers are asking. It wasn't just us here on this forum that questioned this drawing... it was lots of people and on their own facebook page too.

PR score for Rincon: 20 out of 100. That's a Fail in my book.

[Alan Mendelson]

Interesting comment over on the Wizard of Vegas forum: someone who was at the casino for the drawing says that there were no preparations to greet the winner -- no balloons, or photographer or anything special to greet the winner of the million dollars.

I find that to be unusual... almost as if they knew the million dollar winner would not be there.

Well, we are supposed to find out who the winner is this week, with a presentation.