Printable View
Here's an interesting article I came across involving Revel Resorts. I've been there a few times in the past few months and each time it's a ghost town for the most part. Not suprised at all by their financial troubles, especially with their philosophy. They want to treat it more as a getaway for people, rather than a more traditional casino with comps and promotions for its players. Thoughts? http://www.nj.com/news/index.ssf/201...resort_13.html
Been there 2x. Never gambled. The poker room is pretty out of the way.Quote:
Originally Posted by DaGreek23
They did seem to steal some of the bigger named music acts from Borgata though.
Dogshit location...It's even further down the Boardwalk from where the Taj is and that isn't exactly the best place to be walking around in at nite...
Really interesting design too...That whole 2-3 story escalator ride up from the lobby isn't in Casino Design 101...
I remember one time getting on that escalator in front of ballys, took forever and it made me hate the casino before even entering it.
I did play with doug lee in the "poker room" yes he is as much of a douchebag as you can imagine.
That's how it started out, but they changed things up mid-stream and implemented a tiered comp system -- pissed a lot of the original patrons off in doing so, actually. (those who signed up before the comps became available). But if you signed up for a card at the right time, they started you off at "Tier 3" if you showed them a Borgata Black card or Harrah's Silver, Trump Chairman, whatever.... Tier 3 got you TONS of free rooms, $150 or $75 in free slot play just about each month, free parking, as well as certain comped meals. It seems those promotions have dried up, and their poker room never got going... out-of-the-way location, no games. The Revel facility itself is nice.... Hopefully when they go bankrupt, someone else will purchase it at a bargain price and make it into an A.C. staple for gambling, poker, entertainment, as well as the "resort" aspect.Quote:
Originally Posted by DaGreek23
It never ceases to amaze me that a casino can go bankrupt.
:thisQuote:
Originally Posted by Walter Sobchak
Completely sloppy management allows this to happen, especially if the casino has a hotel and restaurants attached to it.
Also, I was just in AC in October. The parking situation really amazes me there. They want to ding you for up to $20 for parking at most places, if you don't have a player's club card. Even if you do have a card, it usually costs $5-$10 unless you're a high level player or staying at the hotel.
I realize that a lot of people just want to use the hotels for free parking when visiting the boardwalk, but this is still a big mistake. The Vegas strip realized this many years ago and made all of their garages free, while downtown Vegas charged. That was one of many smart business decisions which changed the "center" of Vegas from downtown to the strip.
Amazingly, downtown Vegas STILL charges for parking. You can get it validated, but those validations tend to last only 4-6 hours. One of my friends actually left his poker game downtown and went home because 6 hours had passed and he didn't want to pay for parking.
You never, never, never want to make gamblers feel inconvenienced or annoyed with coming to your property.
This includes:
- Charging for parking
- A parking lot that is difficult or dangerous, regardless of whether you charge for it or not
- A long walk from the parking lot to the casino (or a long walk inside the property to get to the casino)
- Confusing layout of the property
- Rude/arrogant staff
- Terrible or nonexistent food selections
Since almost all gamblers will lose, you need to make them look forward to the experience of coming to your casino, and remove any of the annoying non-gambling factors that will tilt them.
That's why it amazes me the prices the hotels down there charge for a room...During the summer on the weekends the Borgata rooms are like $300-400/night...And even the rooms at the Trop can go for that much...
I'd much rather charge people $100-150 for a room let them have that extra money to drop in the casino because that could create a cascade of losing at the tables...But I guess AC just wants to get their hands on whatever they can...
It's no wonder the Philly casinos are fucking cornholing them...
Sadly free parking in AC just isn't viable. There are way too many locals that would abuse the shit out of it. Pretty much the same reason Downtown Vegas is still charging I'd gather.
The Revel continues to make bone-headed moves, this time regarding one of its promotions:
http://www.uspoker.com/blog/players-...romotion/4647/
By the way, the structure of the slot dollar promotion was b.s. anyway -- there have been tons of billboards and other ads claiming things to the effect of "All July Slot Losses Refunded", and "You Can't Lose" -- meanwhile the promotion only applies to people who have more than $100 in slot losses for the month, and all of the "refunds" are given as slot dollars, 5% each week for 20 weeks starting on August 5th. (collect it that week or lose that 5% entirely)
(and according to the above link, come to find out that apparently the promotion is not available to everyone)