Steven Stars Insider

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 new and useful information in this edition (some of which I’m going to reference in future posts), so read on for all the goods.

Seven Stars Insider – August 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 at http://sites.google.com/site/sevenstarsinsider/ .  You will need Adobe Acrobat to view them, but this is a free program available at www.adobe.com.

Seven Stars Hotline
Since I started the Web site and this newsletter I’ve been surprised – but not really! – how many Seven Stars (and Diamond) players have contacted me with questions or problems that their local Total Rewards desk and/or host cannot (or will not) answer.  Wouldn’t it be a nice benefit if Harrah’s introduced a dedicated toll-free hotline and/or email address where Seven Stars members could turn for answers to their questions and solutions to their problems?

Harrah’s Reports Loss; Confirms Discussions Regarding New Philly Casino
Citing reduced customer spending in all of its U.S. regions and asset write-downs, Harrah’s Entertainment Inc. has reported a second-quarter net loss of $274 million, compared with a profit of $2.29 billion a year earlier, Bloomberg News reports.  Sales fell 2.2 percent to $2.22 billion, the news service said.  Harrah’s said that, for the quarter ended June 30, it recorded a $52.3 million charge related to an investment in a Foxwoods casino project in South Philadelphia.  Last month Harrah’s confirmed that “discussions have opened up again” regarding its role to take over as a 33 percent investor, in addition to developing and managing the property; however, the company said it was not at liberty “to discuss the substance” of those talks at this time.  The statement was in response to an earlier report by the Philadelphia Inquirer.  According to the Inquirer, Harrah’s holds a promissory note of $67 million for the 16-acre parcel from a group of local investors.  Harrah’s said it acquired the note when it purchased Caesars Entertainment in 2005.  “Over the years we have had numerous discussions around different deal structures involving the note and other roles,” Harrah’s said.

Las Vegas Diamond Clubs
It’s official. . .you now can take out your favorite cocktail (in a plastic cup) from the four Diamond Clubs in Las Vegas.  The policy was quietly changed about a month ago.  Up until then, only beer and bottled water were allowed out of the clubs – unless, of course, you were able to sneak one past the employee at the door.  [Some folks were known to ask the bartenders to fill an empty Perrier or water bottle with gin or vodka, or decant their clear drinks themselves.]  It’s about time.  Most other Diamond Clubs allow drinks to be taken out; plus, it seems to me that Harrah’s would prefer their customers to be out on the casino floor rather than warming a seat in the club.

Sports Bar or Diamond Club?
It’s bad enough that nearly every television in the Vegas Diamond Clubs (and practically every other club in the country) is tuned to ESPN or some other sporting event, but, according to one of the bartenders at Caesars Palace, the TV over the bar must be tuned to sports.  The “policy” came to light recently when two customers sitting at the bar asked for the channel to be switched to CNN.  [The other two sitting at the bar didn’t care which channel was on.]  Whatever happened to listening to the customer?