Fixing Casino Mistakes

If you play in a casino and use your slot card, your name – plus a considerable amount of your personal information – is in a massive database.   Because of the immense size of these files, your individual account does not receive on-going checks for accuracy.   Although you may think that a computer keeps track of your account – and computers don’t make mistakes, remember that computers only gather information that initially was contributed by a human being.   And humans do make mistakes.

I am motivated to talk about this subject because I myself have been dealing with “fixing casino errors” as well as hearing some horror stories from others in the same pickle.  Errors the casinos make almost always cost you money.  Catching them and getting them fixed will put money in your pocket – or let you add to your bankroll so you can play longer.  So it is important to learn how to catch the errors and how to go about fixing them.

One of the most common errors I find is not getting the right number of players club points.  This happens most frequently when playing on multiple-point days.  A good idea is to write down your starting point balance and then stop playing after a few hands and check that you are indeed getting the correct number of points.  Then check your balance again at the end of your play.  If you don’t think you are getting the points you should have earned, go immediately to the players club desk.  Don’t wait until a later time.  Your best chance to get things corrected is right after you discover the mistake.

You may discover another serious error on your account when you stop getting mailings from a casino where you regularly play or the mailings never start from one where you just began playing.  In that later case, you do need to be patient.  Casino marketing departments often work with a period of time several months behind the present.  If you started playing in January, offers looking at January play may not be sent out until March or even April.  But as an established player getting regular offers, you have every right to be worried if these stop.  These days this may mean that the casino doesn’t want your business any more.  They may have, right or wrong, tagged you as an advantage player.  Or, you may have hit too many big jackpots and you are being “punished” for a good-luck streak.

However, when that casino mail lifeline is cut, you do need to check it out immediately.  It is perhaps one of the most important links you have in a casino.  Don’t immediately assume the casino has deliberately no-mailed you.  The US Mail system is not 100% reliable.   First thing, call the casino and check that they have your correct – and complete – address.  We live in a large condo complex and even if the street address is correct, it may not be delivered if the unit number is not included.  Often the unit number has been cut off because the street address is too long for the casino’s computer program so we always put it on a separate line.

Whenever you find a mistake, like not getting mail or any other issue, there are several ways you can try to get it fixed.  Usually the first one is checking at the players club desk.  Perhaps just any clerk can help you but you can ask for the supervisor if you don’t find that first person is knowledgeable about the issue.  If you don’t get your problem solved here, the next step would be to talk to a host.  It is great if you already have a relationship with a host in that casino.  Over the last thirty years Brad and I have had literally thousands of dollars restored from the past or earned in the future because a host has been able to “fix” casino errors for us.  And don’t think you are “too little” to talk to a host even if you have never used the host system in that casino.  Have a humble non-demanding attitude – don’t scream and holler and make a scene – and you will find most hosts will listen to your problem.  And in many cases, they will make a good effort to solve it.  In my book More Frugal Gambling I give umpteen examples of how a host can help you, whether you a high or low roller, in the  “Do You Need a Host?” chapter.

There are higher executive levels where you can go and, depending on how big the problem is, you may need to go there.  For example, if it is being no-mailed for being a skilled player, usually no one on the lower levels can fix this.  Most players who have tried to go to executives with more authority have not been successful in getting this label removed.  But I would not discourage anyone from trying.  It usually doesn’t hurt, and once in a while it does work.  I went to a slot manager one time and told him his predecessor had black-flagged my account because he had heard that someone on the Internet reported something I said about “cheating” the casino.  When I explained this was a falsehood, the manager said the former one was “old school” and didn’t understand that everything on the Internet was not the “truth.”  And so the flag was taken off my account and I started getting mail.    Getting no-mailed might be reversed in cases like this; getting 86’d (actually barring entrance to the casino) would almost always need a lawsuit!

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3 Responses to Fixing Casino Mistakes

  1. Rich says:

    How does one go about documenting the exact number of hands played? I wouldn’t be able to retain the number of hands while thinking about strategy. What’s the secret?

  2. Kevin Lewis says:

    Complaining to the gaming commission, however good the chances of success might be, will almost certainly get your account flagged, and from then on, you will be on the chopping block. Casinos like customers who just keep their mouths shut and lose money.

    When the casino botches something, I’ve learned NEVER to complain directly to a boothling. They will pitch ANY lie at you just to get you away from the counter, and–amazingly, to me–there are never any negative consequences to them from doing so. They will just tell you blithely, with a bland smile on their face (or a faux apologetic look) that we’re sorry, triple points days don’t apply if your first name begins with “B” or it’s between 2:09 and 6:44 PM. Or that your free play has to be used on machines in some other casino. Or that the buffet coupon isn’t valid, because you had to sign a waiver saying that you would eat only the celery and the breadsticks.

    The key to getting ANY customer service problem resolved is threefold: 1) Find someone in authority who basically stands around all day and picks his/her nose (casino host!); 2) Construct a way that taking care of your complaint will be far easier than not doing so; 3) However much it galls you to do so, adopt the role of the obsequious, fawning supplicant (this works particularly well when the person you’re dealing with is male).

    Also, never forget that not only the people who work in casinos but also those who run them are, with shockingly few exceptions, very, very, very stupid.

  3. Someone on the vpFREE forum added this suggestion:
    As a further course of action, I’ve complained to the Gaming
    Commission a few times about not getting what points I had earned,
    they’ve always ruled in my favor, and I’ve always gotten the lost
    points. Keeping good records might have made the difference.

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