Sometimes casinos do take note of player complaints.
I’ve been a little hard on casinos lately, especially critical of some of the policies of local ones in Vegas. However, today I want to give out a note of praise to Boyd Gaming, who reversed the change they had put in place March 1 restricting their Young at Heart (YAH) promotion to locals only for their four non-downtown properties. I guess the outcry, especially on the Internet forums and blogs, was loud and fierce enough to reach the powers that be!
Here are the latest updated rules for The Orleans, Gold Coast, Suncoast, and Sam’s Town that will make a lot of out-of-towners happy again.
I am not as familiar with the YAH program at the three downtown casinos because I don’t play at any of them, and I’m not sure if any of their rules have changed. You need to check this updated rule sheet for Main Street Station, California and Fremont. Their programs are for locals only, but this may have always been the case.
Thank you for both the Listserv e-mail noting the change of YAH to locals-only and for the update regarding the policy reversal. By disseminating the initial information, it helped many gain early knowledge of the new policy and I expect prompted numerous objections. While we may never know why the policy was recently reversed, I would hope that it had something to do with the customer reactions. I know I value the YAH promotion and try to include a Wednesday as part of my visits to the Gold Coast. As an out-of-towner, losing this benefit would cause me to at least consider various other casino options for my four or five trips each year to Las Vegas. As an aside, I enjoyed meeting you on my Gold Coast visit earlier this year.
Thank you so much for the update Jean. My wife just turned 50 and we will be staying at The Orleans next week for spring break (we are teachers). She was excited about trying out the YAH program for the very first time.
We have been staying at the Gold Coast since Monday the 27th of February and have visited with both the Gm and our slot host about this but the blogs must be read by the powers to be and they deserve some real accolades for making such a quick decision.
Good for Boyd casinos for taking care of those of us that fly or drive to their casinos spend money on rooms, food, booze and gambling. Jean, thanks you for hosting this blog to allow us to communicate with more than just a few managers.
Thanks for the update. I was staying at the Orleans on March 1 and when i swiped my card at the kiosk was surprised to see no promotions. I expressed my displeasure to management but did not expect to see such a quick reversal of policy. I guess I was not alone. Thanks for all you do for us VP players.
I doubt that the outcries had anything to do with the decision. Vegas casinos have been cutting back on everything for years, despite complaints. That’s because play continues to increase. They have concluded in the past that those of us who try to save a little money just aren’t all that important to them. Therefore, their recanting of the policy had an internal rather than an external impetus.
Jean,
As always the our updates are greatly appreciated. Especially as an out of towner. Thanks!
I left a message awhile back wondering if you might be able to shed light on why we didn’t get an offer from SouthPoint after having signed up and played there.
You did not respond as I assume you would have no clue. Interestingly enough we got an offer the other day! We hadn’t played there in six months! The mysteries of casino thinking!!!
Never before have we NOT gotten an offer from a casino after signing up.
Thanks Jean.
I was happily surprised to see the change back for the YAH promotion.
Read the link to the rule change and did notice that the exclusion for “advantage players” is still as written. I don’t have any delusions about that ever going away.
Luckydog
I am not a local but visit Vegas monthly. I responded to LVA’s most recent poll re favorite casinos by blasting Boyd Gaming for restricting the YAH promo to locals. Looks like speaking up does work after all.
Dear Jean, I firmly believe your column chastising Boyd Gaming for eliminating their YAH Promotion for out of towners was a major factor in their partial turn-around. However, I am very disappointed to read your statement: “I am not as familiar with the YAH program at the three downtown casinos because I don’t play at any of them, and I’m not sure if any of their rules have changed.” It almost sounds to me like you are abandoning those out of towners like my wife, myself and our daughters who prefer to stay in the Fremont and do our video poker playing downtown. Please don’t throw us in the briar patch.
Thanks for the info. I am sure that your story about this weighed heavily in their decision to reverse their prior decision. I had already decided that we would by-pass the Gold Coast property although we are staying at the Rio for our next trip.