Harrah's Expanding Casino Rewards Program, Despite Comp Problems
Harrah's Entertainment is so happy with the results of its Total Rewards program, which tracks patrons gambling losses and wagers, that it is expanding the process to record more data about individual players.
The new Rewards will log restaurant preferences, shopping choices, shows visited, and drinking selections. The idea is that Harrah's will better fit their promotions to their customers by using the added information.
Harrah's has said over eighty percent of its gambling and casino business is put into the Rewards computers using player membership cards. Such massed information has led to major business decisions; for instance, Harrah's CEO Gary Loveman claims that records had indicated the hotel not owned by Harrah's most visited by Harrah's players was Caesar's Palace.
So Harrah's bought Caesar's, and is undergoing changes to make Caesar's the identifying brand over Harrah's.
The Rewards system might work a little too well, though, causing unintended side effects. In the last year, the Rewards program has been receiving information as to not only how much a player gambles, but how much he lost.
Representatives of the Rio Casino confirmed to Online Casino Advisory that comps were now figured mostly as a small percentage of losses, and winners were not as likely to find rooms and meals to be taken off the bill.
Sherman Bradley, OCA gambling analyst, says, "Gamblers loved Las Vegas because they would get great treatment for playing, not necessarily losing. By comping patrons, the house was betting their losses would make the cost insignificant, a bet the house always won in the long run with the house edge in odds.
"The house has removed the gamble, but by doing so they became merely another cashback plan like credit cards run. True gamblers prefer the idea they might beat the odds and win money while having the hotel put them up. A small kickback on losses is not nearly the attraction."
