How Players at my Local Card Room ruined a good thing. (1 Viewer)

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The card room at my local casino has a tourney every Friday. This is a great tourney considering the buyin. $25 for T5000, blinds start at 25/50, 50/100, 75/150, 100/200, 150/300, 200/400 but no 300/600, then 400/800, 500/1000. 20 min levels. Not bad for $25 with no admin fee. That's right 100% of the money went back into the player prize pool. It's a great way to get people who wouldn't normally visit to maybe drop some more money on slots or Blackjack.

I hadn't played it in a while so I went down to buy in on Tuesday since it's always sold out by Friday and it was the only day I'd be around the casino before Friday. Since there's no admin fee you can't sign up over the phone to reserve your seat by credit card. The result is that you have to sign up in person.

When I arrived and asked to sign up, they said "$30 please". "$30?" I questioned. "Yes, it's now $25 plus a $5 admin fee. Players were complaining that they couldn't sign up over the phone so we added the admin fee."

"Holy flying fak!" I thought to myself. Who are these geniuses that thought they'd solve the problem of not being able to sign up by phone with a 20% admin fee. Now everyone suffers so some lazy mofo can sign up by telephone. To be fair, there could be some people with mobility issues that would seriously benefit from this, but I felt it ruined a good thing.

I suppose it's not ruined, it's just not the amazing value it was. I felt that they could charge people $5 if they wanted to sign up by phone and people who sign up in person wouldn't pay. I just assume the people that actually complained about this were lazy idiots who just think the casino should bow to their every whim. I feel it went like "WTF, I can't sign up over the phone?" "That's right, otherwise we'd have to charge an admin fee" "....(I'll sound stupid if I change my position, even if he has a good reason)...So, charge the damn fee! ...(please don't)".

end rant.
 
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Why not just add a phone booking fee?

Ahh well, any chance to squeeze a bit of money, especially if they crunched the numbers and the players wernt buying enough drinks/food.
 
Probably a better situation because there will be runners who sign up and pay over the phone and never show up, increasing the prize pool. I get that it's a 20% fee, but in reality, it's five bucks. You said the tournament is great, there is much more incentive for the casino to keep running the tournament if they actually make money from doing it.
 
In my local casino you reserve your spot with a cc over the phone but if you don't show, you aren't charged.

But yeah, people are dumb.
 
well, often the stupidity of the players in a card room is rivaled only by the stupidity of management. here, unfortunately, they combined their powers of numbskullery.
 
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Am I the only one who is on the "complainers" side on this one? If you go past/near a casino in the course of your daily/weekly life and travels, you are in the very, very small minority. Many players around this area might like to play in this tournament on Fridays, but as it was had no opportunity to do so if they could not get to the casino at some point during the week to sign up, which even if possible would likely not be worth it to a lot of them. So the only people playing were casino regulars anyway, which pretty much defeats the purpose of offering a no-juice tournament to get people in the door. Win for the occasional players, win for the casino. but some regs are $5 poorer and not happy about it. Oh well...
 
well, often the stupidity of the players in a card room is rivaled only by the stupidity of management. here, unfortunately, they combined their powers of numbskullery.

Could only think of this...
 

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Snooze ya lose .. I get it on both sides of the argument .... Either way interesting story thanks for sharing
 
Maybe not so many people were visiting to play the slots or Blackjack or buy a meal. Maybe it was a money-loser for the casino, so by charging a $5 fee, at least they cover more of the costs.

Maybe - not to be mean about it, but maybe - they figure that the people who are willing to pay $5 for a tournament are the people more likely to play a little blackjack, or spring for dinner, while the people who are driven off by the $5 fee are those who probably wouldn't have spent any money, anyway.
 
It reminds me of the Caesars properties. At one time (not too long ago) they were the only hotels on the strip that did not charge a "resort fee", a $20-$30 per night upcharge that is not shown in the advertised rates. Hotels that did this allowed you to make free local calls, use the workout facilities, and gave you internet access. Caesars properties (called Harrah's properties back then, incase I slip) charged you if you wanted to use these things. I thought "fine, I have a cell phone, I certainly don't need to use a treadmill in vegas, and my phone plan gives me internet access (though it was notably slower back then).

Now they charge fees. Why would a chain that spent millions on advertising "No Resort Fees" turn around and scrap it all? They said it was because people demanded it. Now I know they weren't demanding to be charged an extra 20%-50% - but you know there were a LOT of dumb-asses saying "I can get free internet access if I stay at ______, you screws charge us $15 bucks a day!" After a while it's just easier for the hotel to stop fighting the current and enjoy the ride down stream. Why does every casino charge an admin fee? Why does every Vegas hotel charge a resort fee? Because there is an overwhelming number of dumbasses out there. They have you seriously outnumbered.
 

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