Seven Stars Insider - October Edition

Here’s the latest edition of Seven Stars Insider. This is an easy read and an excellent resource for Harrah’s players. Head over to Seven Stars Insider to sign up for the newsletter. There is lots of information in this edition, so read on for all the goods.

Seven Stars Insider – October 2010

NOTE: While this newsletter was originally designed exclusively for Seven Stars members, there is useful information for anyone who has a Total Rewards® player’s card and/or plays/stays at a Harrah’s property. Please feel free to pass this on to your friends. Back issues of the Seven Stars Insider newsletter are available online.

Donny and Marie To ‘Vacation’ In Atlantic City This Summer?
The rumor mill has it that Donny and Marie Osmond may bring their popular Las Vegas show from the Flamingo to Caesars Atlantic City this summer. That may be just the ticket to help bolster the declining revenues that the city has been experiencing. It wouldn’t be the first time Harrah’s has brought its West Coast “team” members to Atlantic City. Magician Nathan Burton has performed several times, and Penn & Teller are scheduled for performances November 5 and 6 at Harrah’s.

Toll-Free Customer Service
For those of you who play in Atlantic City, here’s a useful number: (800) 542-7724. Press 1 for account information (then 4 to talk to a “real” person; then 1 for Bally’s, 2 for Caesars, 3 for Harrah’s or 4 for Showboat). Press 2 if you are having problems with receiving mail. Press 3 if you want to provide some feedback regarding an experience you had. Press 4 for a Win-Loss Statement. The “live” service is available from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Question Of The Month
I got my Seven Stars card this summer and already earned about 50,000 more tier points by the beginning of September. I went to [name of casino hotel withheld] for the Labor Day weekend and got treated like “dirt”. I requested a suite, but was told there were none available. Instead, my room had a broken lock, only a few towels, no drinking glasses, and every time I opened up the door I faced the area where the housekeeping cart was stored. And, while I got complimentary tickets for a show that weekend, my seats were in the last row! I thought my card was going to get me special treatment. Well, yes, sort of. Here’s the problem: In my opinion, Harrah’s sets you (and others) up for such high expectations that many times it just won’t happen. For example, your room situation. You may have earned 150,000 tier points in eight months, but the hotel where you stayed has table game customers (who could care less about a Seven Stars card) who probably drop so much money there throughout the year that it’s nearly impossible to get a suite on a weekend, let alone a holiday weekend. They’re basically all reserved ahead of time for those high rollers. Same with show tickets and priority seating. Unless you earned the bulk of your 150,000 points there, you’re not going to get the treatment you thought you deserved. Another example: Even someone who consistently earns 50,000 points every year with the bulk of his play at Caesars in Atlantic City is going to be treated better at Caesars (or Harrah’s, or Showboat, or Bally’s) than a Seven Stars who earned his points at Chester (or at a combination of properties). It’s the same even if you play consistently in Atlantic City, but split your play among the four Harrah’s-owned properties. You will not get treated nearly as well as someone who plays solely at one casino. You might get offers for four gifts on a given weekend, but they won’t be as nice as the one gift you may have gotten at your primary property had you just played there. In addition, you may get the same amount of free play offers, but you’ll have to run around to each casino to play them. With Seven Stars, about the only things you can count on are the “national” benefits: trip, dinner, gift, etc. And, depending on where you book your trip, don’t expect a suite or a lot of special treatment unless you’re already a rated player there and/or your host who sets up your trip has some connection at your destination. (Even that’s not a guarantee because if one of your destination’s big customers comes in, you’ll get “bumped”.) Of course, you’ll always get priority service with valet parking and use of dedicated lines, but even that has been watered down because so many lines are now “Diamond/Seven Stars”. How are you supposed to know if the people in front of you are Diamond or maybe another Seven Stars? Harrah’s puts the onus – and potential embarrassment – on you should you try to go to the head of the line, only to find out that the three people in front of you are also Seven Stars. (It happened to me once at Bally’s coffee shop.)

Straight, No Chaser
I knew I was “skating on thin ice” when I offered an opinion about the a cappella group Straight, No Chaser. Interestingly, of the e-mails I received, they were almost evenly divided among those who disagreed with me and those who agreed – and almost totally along “gender lines”. The ladies loved them; the guys were, well, a little less enthusiastic. I guess this just proves what we all knew anyway. . .you can’t please everyone. Hey, thanks for writing. . .it’s nice to know someone’s out there reading the stuff I put out.

Gary Loveman Article
There is an interesting article about Harrah’s CEO Gary Loveman online:

Nothing personal, Bally’s, but it’s ‘PERSONNEL’
Apparently spelling is not something taught at Harrah’s Entertainment Inc.’s Regional Employment and Training Center in Atlantic City. This photo, taken on Indiana Avenue, is one of several warning signs posted at the entrances to a parking lot adjacent to the Center on Pacific Avenue.

At least they spelled “trespassing” correctly.

Flamingo Pool
The GO Pool at the Flamingo in Las Vegas is still for adults only – and, guys, it will cost you, but not the ladies, to get in – but, what was once a “tops-optional” pool, is making women stay fully covered. Your only Harrah’s option in Las Vegas for a “European-style” experience is at Caesars Palace.

Harrah’s Wichita No Longer On The Table
Without citing any specific reason, Harrah’s Entertainment last month withdrew its proposal to develop and operate a state-owned casino in Mulvane, Kan., about 15 miles south of Wichita. The plan included a 100-room hotel, several restaurants, a sports bar, retail space, and nearly 15,000 square feet of entertainment and meeting space. Future plans could have included everything from a golf course and waterpark to a tennis facility, additional hotel rooms and an RV park.

Did You Know. . .
. . .I should have independently substantiated some information I erroneously published last month? What was once the site of the Showboat bowling alley is now the Mardi Gras Buffet and Mansion Café (not the House of Blues), and it was the Howard Johnson’s Regency Motor Hotel that became the Boardwalk Regency Hotel Casino (which is now Caesars Atlantic City). It was a Holiday Inn next door that became what is now Trump Plaza’s East Tower. Here’s a new “historical” fact (courtesy of the Philadelphia Inquirer): There once were child care centers in Harrah’s Resort and Trump Taj Mahal. (They may have closed when management realized the possible negative PR it could cause by making it too easy for parents to gamble while someone else watched their kids. Sounds like today’s situation at the Parx Casino outside Philadelphia where at least seven adults were found to have left children in parked cars while they went into gamble – some late into the night, many for several hours at a time, and sometimes in 90+ degree temperatures.)

‘Did you attend the Signature Event in Las Vegas last month?’
What were your impressions of the fall Signature Event in Las Vegas? How did it compare with others you’ve attended? If you didn’t attend, why? Send me an email ([email protected] ) and I’ll share your information – anonymously, of course.

Darryl D. McEwen, Publisher
Seven Stars Insider