Is Harrah's Rincon trying to worm out of paying out their $1,000,000 contest?
Harrah's Rincon is a medium-sized casino in northern San Diego County. It is techincally an Indian casino, but is "managed" by Caesar's, and is their only property in the state of California.
It is not well-run.
Over the past year, I've had various customer service incidents there, including being hideously shorted during a massage (and a lame attempt to cover it up), as well as a more recent incident where they gave away my reserved room (and again tried to cover up what really happened). Even more recently, I spent a week trying to get an erroneous $81 credit card charge reversed, including a cringe-worthy battle with a hotel operator (the only one on duty) who refused to transfer me to the front desk to discuss it.
In September 2013, the spa manager was fired and replaced. In October 2013, the hotel manager was fired, and a new manager was brought in to correct their horrendous customer service record, but little has improved. Most of the incidents described above took place in November and December.
However, the casino itself seemed to be okay. It was nothing special, but I never had any problem in the casino portion of the property.
They did, however, have a promotion which I didn't quite understand.
In early 2013, they were promoting that they would be giving away....
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l91ISfcuzDw
... on December 31.
It would be a drawing. It was said that all Total Rewards members who had played at any point in 2013, as well as any Total Rewards members who signed up at Rincon (whether they played or not) would be eligible to win a million bucks. There would definitely be one (and only one) winner.
Basically, everyone eligible would automatically get 1 free entry, and you would earn more entries with play. I know a guy on another forum who plays there a lot (medium and high limit video poker), and he got 435,000 entries.
You did not have to be present to win, said the early promotional material.
But that didn't end up being quite true.
The Rincon quietly changed the rules regarding eligibility. Indeed, you didn't have to be present for the December 31 drawing, but you did have to show up to the property during a short qualifying period (I think like December 24-31), and swipe your card. So no matter how many entries you earned, you were not eligible for the million bucks unless you showed up during that period and swiped your card.
This pissed me off somewhat, because I played there a lot, and I could not make it during those dates.
The drawing took place on December 31.
What happened from that point is unclear.
Nobody present remembers the announcement as to who won. It was only stated that they were "doing the drawing", and someone went to a computer in the back to make it happen. It was then announced that the winner was not present (how did they know this?), and that the person would be contacted.
Indeed, on the Harrah's Rincon Facebook page, they do not name a winner, but instead announced that there is a winner, and they are attempting to contact them.
They will not explain why they will not name this person. Clearly if they are trying to reach them, naming the person in a public forum (such as Facebook) would enable that to happen much more easily. Hell, I would track the person down myself if necessary!
Someone claims they approached Total Rewards and asked for the name of the winner. They were supposedly shown a "really long name, both first and last", and tried to take a picture of it, before a supervisor freaked out and told the employee never to show anyone that name again. Another person was told that the winner was "female and a Diamond member", but would not name them.
Some are reporting that Harrah's told them there would be another drawing after 10 days if the person failed to claim their prize. Someone else reported that Harrah's would keep the prize and not award it to anyone if it was not claimed within 10 days!
There is a strange information blackout about the situation. It's as if Harrah's WANTS the person not to claim it. Or perhaps they intentionally rigged the contest so a difficult-to-reach person would win? (For example, maybe it was rigged so a person with a bad address/phone number on file would be the winner.)
Conspiracy theories abound, and everyone is getting really pissed off.
The question is.... if they are really going to re-draw after January 10th if the person doesn't come forward, why not just make it easier and name the winner, counting on the public to get that person notified in some way?
Looks really shady to me. To be honest, I didn't think the Rincon was doing enough casino business to justify such a huge contest. Keep in mind that the large Vegas properties like Caesar's don't have contests of this magnitude.
