Casinos told how to please slot fanatics

John Wilen

Monday, April 26, 1999 | 10:24 a.m.

It's easy to get free things from casinos. You just have to know how.

Conversely, as a casino, it's easy to get slot junkies to play your machines. You just have to give them free stuff.

This symbiotic relationship may seem simple enough, but few people seem to know how many freebies they could get simply by belonging to a casino's slot club. Conversely, many casinos fumble slot club fundamentals, losing business by alienating customers in ways they may not understand.

So says slot club expert Jeffrey Compton, author of the book "What Your Players Want From Your Slot Club." Compton spoke at a recent Casino Management Association seminar, where he urged casino executives to understand the basic Do's and Don'ts of slot clubs.

Most important for casinos, said Compton, is telling people how the slot club works. That may seem fundamental, but many casinos fail this basic test, said Compton.

"You don't have to tell them everything, but they like to know how to earn points," said Compton.

So-called "blind" slot clubs -- Compton's term is "don't ask, won't tell" slot clubs -- still exist but are rapidly going extinct in an era of tight competition between casinos, he said. Blind slot clubs don't tell members how many points they have accumulated until they win something.

"A lot of people want the suite," said Compton. "Tell them how to get the suite."

Blind clubs primarily benefit aggressive players, and leave the rest guessing, said Compton. But aggressive players may not be the kind your casino wants to attract, he said.

Professionalism is another key component of the successful slot club, says Compton. Again, the elements of professionalism are pretty fundamental. For starters, a casino's slot club booth should be easy to find and open 18 to 24 hours a day -- the hours people actually play.

The people in the slot club booth should be empowered, meaning they should know the club's point system and policies. Many slot club booths are manned by people who do not know the system, can't answer questions accurately and do not have the authority to give comps, said Compton.

It's important to keep in mind that for many slot players, the slot club is the casino, said Compton. As such, casinos should not dump their newly hired, poorly trained employees in the slot club booth, he said. And they should strive to keep their slot club employees longer by treating them better, he said.

Compton noted that at one slot club in town, the average length of employment is only 19 days. But that's not the employees' fault, he said, it's the fault of their managers.

"If they'd treated them nicer, they'd stay there longer and they'd know how to do their job," said Compton. "Ninety-five percent of the problems with booth staff is caused by management."

Compton also cautioned against the move toward automated booths -- or kiosks -- in which players find out how many points they've earned and what they've won by inserting their player card in a computer terminal. Machines may work most of the time, but inevitably someone will have a question or issue the computer can't handle. Automation should not replace people, it should assist them, he said.

In terms of free stuff, most slot players come to casinos for the environment and entertainment, said Compton. They want free food, rooms and shows. He said cash rebate awards are nice, but not as important to the slot player as the freebies.

"No, I don't think that casinos shouldn't give cash away," said Compton.

But slot players are likely to remember the other things -- a free buffet or hotel stay -- for a lot longer than they'll remember a $15 rebate.

"If they wanted $15 cash, they would have stayed home," said Compton.

Casinos should also look at the things they can give away that don't cost them much. A classic example is preferred parking for slot club members. Designating parking spaces for these players costs the casino a one-time fee for some paint, signs and labor. But the slot club members will remember those spots every time they start thinking about where they want to play.

The Riviera hotel-casino gives slot players who earn a certain number of points a free bingo game, a promotion that costs the casino relatively little compared to its take from slot machine play.

As proof of his "superior entertainment draws" theory, Compton points to the Rio hotel-casino. The Rio's machines may be tighter than their locals casino competitors, but the Rio has "excellent food, great service, and superior entertainment," says Compton. Because of these entertainment offerings, the Rio is always crowded, he says.

Compton is a big fan of creative casino promotions, noting that a casino that gives away a pound of gold will get a lot more attention than one that offers the equivalent in cash.

But promotions should be fully thought out so that a casino does not have to change its rules in mid-stream, said Compton. He told a story about one locals casino that offered video poker players a prize for every five four-of-a-kinds. Halfway through the promotion, the casino raised the threshold to eight four-of-a-kinds, then 10.

The lesson, said Compton, is that casinos should determine how much a promotion will cost -- and whether they can afford it -- before setting the rules.

Compton said many slot clubs do not do a good enough job of making themselves known to slot players. Too many slot club hosts spend time talking to people they know, and not enough time talking to people they don't know, he said. As a result, most casual players don't think they gamble enough to make slot club membership worthwhile, he said.

"Two or three hours of video poker will get you a free meal every week, if nothing else," said Compton. "You want to advertise to the crowd, not just those bright enough to ask, who might not be the customers you want."

And he touted "random slot club joys," such as tiered clubs, with different levels of benefits for different levels of play, double and triple point promotions, unexpected comps, logoed prizes and arrangements with third parties -- for instance giving away a discount to a dry cleaner or car wash.

But as much as slot players like the unexpected pleasures some slot clubs offer, they dislike surprises. Don't change your rules or drop popular promotions without giving notice, said Compton.

"If you've had a promotion that's run over nine months, it's no longer a promotion, it's an entitlement," said Compton.

He told a story about a downtown Las Vegas casino that offered a free game of bingo once a month for senior citizens. The casino also gave the bingo players a $10 food certificate. When the casino figured out most people were only coming for the food certificate, and were not playing bingo beyond the one free game, it cancelled the promotion.

But the casino didn't announce the cancellation in advance, said Compton. It waited for people to arrive for the monthly bingo game, then announced it would not distribute food certificates. That, he said, alienated a lot of the casino's customers.

Compton urged casinos to put promotional changes in writing, and to give players advance notice of the changes.

Slot players also hate "machine discrimination," or excluding certain machines from the slot club, rewarding video poker players at a slower rate or decreasing benefits to higher-bet slot players.

Compton said casinos should be careful not to misrepresent their promotions, for instance by overstating machine payback percentages or running misleading advertisements. Benefits should be based on theoretical win as a function of a player's coin-in, not on personal win, or worse, personal losses. Casinos do not want to get a reputation on the street as a place that rewards only losers, he said.

"Places that get that reputation have a hard time shaking that reputation," said Compton.