The promotions just keep getting stranger and stranger over there at Boyd. Here's the one they are currently running this month at Sam's Town in Shreveport, LA for Ruby players. SAPPHIRE IN TRAINING December-All Month Long Calling all Ruby cardholders! Participate in our Sapphire in Training program, and let us help you get to Sapphire FASTER! Sunday: 2X Tier Credits Monday & Tuesday: Earn 25 Tier Credits and get a FREE gift. Wednesday & Thursday: Earn 15 Tier Credits and get a FREE buffet. Friday & Saturday: Earn 500 Tier Credits and get $25 in B Connected Points Plus, earn 10 Tier Credits ANY day of the week and get a FREE Sapphire in Training T-Shirt.
Plus, earn 10 Tier Credits ANY day of the week and get a FREE Sapphire in Training T-Shirt. Worst T-Shirt, ever. Gotta figure the new club is hurting business.
Funny to think there is a marketing person actually get paid a salary who thinks that shirt would be a draw. The buffet offer if you play slots is the only decent one. If I ever drop to Ruby I will never play there if I don't receive points.
Wow! So I play over 40,000 hands of $.25 full pay JOB and get $25 in free play. If I played the full 48 hours without stopping I would still be over 15,000 hands short. Sounds like a great promotion.
I actually thought this was a joke, until I googled "Sapphire in Training T-Shirt". Sure enough... https://www.samstownshreveport.com/whats-new/promotions/sapphire-in-training I have lost all respect for this company. I'm actually tempted to no-play them on my upcoming comp stay because I feel bad for supporting them.
Or, are they copying Caesars Total Rewards with their Diamond-level promotions? Make the entry level useless, and make the higher tier (and its rewards) attainable enough that a player makes extra trips to a Boyd property to get there. The T-shirt is a little weird, but the Sapphire in Training isn't much different than some of the badges promos or "meet your goal" bonuses that Caesars offers. If Boyd runs out regular programs like this across their properties, there will be a lot more ways to get to Sapphire other than 472 hours of dollar VP... and that's a good thing, right?
Its not meant for you then. I know this board is only full of 99% or better VP players who haven't paid for a meal, hotel room or jacket since Bugsy was killed, but way many more players play slots than perfect, full-pay VP. And despite the double slot coin-in per point that the updated program requires, if that increase is offset by regular promotions, then the only customers really hurt are the ones play games in which the house (basically) has no edge... in other words, the players that haven't actually paid into the comp pool. As I think about this (to reiterate my post above) if Boyd continues to run promos aimed at pulling Ruby guests into Sapphire... I'd come around to thinking that changing the program was a great business idea. Again, that hedges on Boyd running regular tier credit promotions.
But CET (or any other company to my knowledge) hasn't been scummy enough to forbid base level members from earning spendable comps. And lol at them helping you getting Sapphire faster. The only tier multiplier is on Sundays!
Boyd now fears that new Ruby members will eventually say "Fuck this...." after the new members realize they have to bend over for a while before they are allowed to earn any kind of comps. Boyd gaming seems to be backpedaling on their new stupid program.
If I am running a slot program to reward people playing my 90% payback slots, then 10% house edge on VP sounds about right. If you're playing a 99.75% game, that is 40 times less money the casino gets per bet, so it should be 40 times higher to get the same spiffs. Y'alls are thinking like a player, not a company that is about to buy the Stations Casinos in a market that CET and MGM set the standards. Like resort fees; MGM kicked down the door, everyone else walked through. The BConnected changes are another open door.
I haven't seen any paytable for VP that's below 90%. 91.42% (max bet) Deuces at Bally's LV is the worst I've seen. Most casinos offer nationwide offer 94.18% and higher for all games. Also, VP players will begin to run away from basic VP at paytables too poor. VP is built on players playing on volume. But I do agree with you that places like Boyd and Stations have overcomped VP players AND undercomped slot players for years. Slot players should get comped at least triple vs VP players based on coin-in. But I don't think Boyd's complete 180 on VP players was very wise either.
It was a hard correction, no doubt. Again, remains to be seen if that might soften as the program rolls further down the road.
I did the e-mail survey after my latest stay downtown and for the first time went into great detail about my dissatisfaction with employees NOT being advised of the details of the program and the program itself. I blamed the amateur roll out by corporate vs employee indifference as I felt their training was lacking for the changes. USUALLY they respond when you say the room was lacking or something was out of sorts during your stay. I will see if “someone” reads that can also respond intelligently. At least it could be a new set of ears / eyes. But I don’t expect much.
I could maybe see your point if their new loyalty system was sophisticated enough to determine the house edge as applied to the individual player on skill/decision based games, taking into account their mistakes. The Nevada gaming board doesn't break VP out from slots, but look at another decision based game with a similar house edge, blackjack. Clark County casinos held 13.46% on blackjack for the 12 month period ending October 31. They held 10.76% on penny slots (the highest slot hold apart from Megabucks).
O.M.F.G. This can't possibly be real???!!! Who the hell runs their marketing department? 5 year olds? I wouldn't even wear that around the house. If I was caught wearing it in public - I couldn't blame anyone if I was beaten to a pulp. Gag!
