One Simple Thing

The only way to really beat the system at a casino is to get "comps" for as many things as possible, while gambling as little as possible. Most books you could read send this same message. All casino games are "negative expectation" games. That is, the statistics are engineering in the house's favor. The best you can do is minimize your losses and enjoy the perks.

The only way to get "comps" at the table games is to ask for them. Table games are Poker, BlackJack, and Roulette. (Yes, I know there are variations of these, like "Spanish 21" or "Carribean Stud", but those are even more negative expectation, and I never play them). These days, every casino has a "frequent flyer" card where they can swipe you into the system, keep track of how much you play, and award you "comps" based on how much you win (or really, lose).

So, there I was in Atlantic City, asking to be comped a meal. There was a pit boss there, using the compter. First they granted me the comp for breakfast at the buffet. Then it turns out there is no buffet breakfast on Sunday. So, they needed to issue me a refund/cancellation and then issue me a new comp based on the restaurant that was open.

It took 20 minutes.

It turns out that the pit boss was from a Blackjack pit, and they use a different computer system for the Poker pit. He kept trying to enter his identification to issue the refund, and it was refusing. Finally, he came up with the idea of putting his initials instead of his employee number in the field. It took, and they were able to issue me the comp.

Some key questions came up:
1) what error message was he getting, and why wasn't it giving him enough information to figure out what needed to be resolved?
2) what was the label on the field that could take his employee id or his initials, and he couldn't tell the difference?
3) Why didn't the comp system know that the buffet was closed?
4) WHY HAVE DIFFERENT COMP SYSTEMS 150 FEET APART?

Simple, simple usability issues that caused both the pit boss and I frustration and led the casino to lose money. Why? Because they know how much money they make from me when I gamble for 20 minutes. That 20 minutes standing there was lost revenue.

But, I'm just frustrated with the experience. What do you think?