Harrahs, Oh Yeah

[sonntex]

:confused: Don't understand why others have problems with Harrahs. Not the most exclusive place to stay, but.....

Was there for Millionaire Slot Tournament, Thursday, Aug. 31 - Sunday,Sept. 4. Flew AWA. Arrived at 5:30, got rental car, arrived at Harrahs at 6:30 pm. Room was ready; it was a jr. suite. Pretty nice. Went to tournament banquet. Decent food. Got breakfast/lunch comps to eat buffet at the Range (for tournament players, only). Great food. Tournament was very well organized. Didn't go to awards banquet because I knew I was too far down the list to win anything (worst I've ever done in a tournament, anywhere). We went to Rio and ate buffet there. Eat there a lot, now getting boring.

Thursday night, after slot tournament opening banquet, we went over to the Imperial for the 10:00pm Legends concert. Bought tickets several weeks in advance so were able to get great seats, leather booth at center stage. Strawberry dacquiri was too sweet. Very good show. Was not familiar with some the celebs portrayed, but we enjoyed it. The Buddy Holly was great. The Elvis was really good too.

Friday, played in the tournament,two sessions. Gambled a bit. Ate breakfast at Range buffet. :D Went to Golden Nugget to see Gordie Brown. Very good show. He had us laughing for 1-1/2 hours. His voices are not perfect, but his presentation is right on. He has the mannerisms down pat. Great band. The best Elvis we have heard eventhough he did not put out much effort to look like the King. Didn't make any difference. He was excellent. Got a standing ovation. :D

Before the show, ate at some place at the Nugget that served hamburgers, etc. Can't remember the name. We had to pay for it since we had never been to the Nugget before and had no comps built up. Food, good; service, mediocre. Played the slots a little. No luck. Mostly dollars, not many quarters, our preference.

Went back to Harrahs, hungry again. Ate at the Cafe, (new place). Not as good as the old one. Service not great. Food okay.

Saturday, ate breakfast at Range buffet again, played last session of tournament. Terrible score. Drove to Rio, ate at World Buffet, played there, no luck. Saw Show in the Sky. Went back to Harrahs. Checked out of room and left for airport. Our flight left for Dallas at 12:40 am Sunday. Flew America West in and out. Always on time. Crowded sometimes, but those early morning flights never fill up and we had a seat between us.

All in all a good trip, except we came back with less money than we took. Oh well, win some, lose some. :rolleyes:

Going back for slot tournament at end of October (Halloween) at the Rio. Hoping for better luck this time.

Dee from Texas

Hey Steve. Just edited and made paragraphs. Will that make you feel better about Harrahs?

[Steve]

Thanks for posting.

I was one of Harrah's biggest backers but IMO..they have gone downhill.

Here is something to make you laugh :p

I was a Platinum Card member until they raised the qualifications to stay a Platinum Member which I didn't meet and was demoted to a Gold Card.

I wrote them many letters until I was finally contacted by Customer Relations. ( I have continually posted my thoughts in the newsletter).

The C.R. person tells me I got demoted because I didn't play enough to keep my Platinum rating. I then asked her if I could get Casino Rates for 5 nights for my next Las Vegas visit and told her I would play long enough to earn back my Platinum Card.

Her response was "We don't give Casino Rates to Gold Card members."

what does that tell you?

Steve :eek:

[redstar]

I agree - and I never seem to win anything at Harrah's either! The only thing they got going good at that property is Carnival Court and to me, that is the best bar and most fun in the city!!

[FUN-4-US]

We've been demoted too!! From Platinum to Gold. And now I see you need 4,000 points instead of 3,000 points to ATTAIN Platinum status.

Well, first of all you get tired of constantly feeding a machine, and not getting any play time. We stopped going to Harrahs AC because of that. We did not visit there for 8 months, or so. Boy did we get a lot of mailings and offers of all kinds. It was NOT FUN THERE ANYMORE. We tried Showboat...same scenerio. We don't play when it is not fun.

We tried Harrahs LV and the Rio on our trips to Vegas. Used to LOVE playing at the RIO. That changed years ago. No return for our play. We're not high rollers but we give it a fair try and ZERO RETURN. We know about the RNG and that you can't win all the time but consistently losing at the same casinos, tells us something. That's why we were so leary about Harrahs buying out Caesar Entertainment properties. We enjoyed staying and playing at Caesars and Ballys. You could earn comps, money back and food comps more easily which is greatly appreciated.

As the story goes, our play at Caesars, Bally's, and Wild Wild West, all Atlantic City properties have not been as good to us on our last 3 or 4 visits. We would go down about once a month. What is good is we can use our AC comps from Caesars AC Connection Card in Vegas and we used it for several of our meals at Caesars Palace Cafe Lago, Bally's Big Kitchen Buffet, tickets to see Jubilee at Bally's, and have comp money left. Harrahs Total Rewards program was very stingy compared to Caesars Connection Card. If that changes drastically, well they may be the largest, but certainly not the ONLY place in town. We're walking....for good.

Maybe they are going for High Rollers exclusively at Harrahs. They bought the IP now. They may be the largest gaming company in the world, however if they dwell on aquisitions and building, and forget about the thousands of people who chose their casinos to have fun, relax and get some playtime, and win something, sometime, they may lose many "faithful followers". What's the saying, "The higher you are the harder you fall"??

[sonntex]

Thanks from all of you for the input on Harrahs. I noticed some of the same things you guys are saying but had not seen anything that really affected me. I like playing at other casinos, but hubby always wants to put his money in at Harrahs, so we have built up quite a bit with them. Hope we don't lose it because they make it harder to keep what we have. We have over $800 in comp points right now that we can use on food, shows, etc. We have always been treated well by them, but we haven't been winning there lately. So maybe we better stop being stupid and change. :confused:

[wildpitcher]

Harrah's does have a very nice poker room. Non-smoking and friendly staff. I haven't done much else at Harrah's LV, though.

Dave

[beach3993]

I know you may not be real happy with Harrah's especially since they raised points to 4,000 for Plantinum but I think they also gave more benefits to the Platinum players and combined some of the benefits with the Diamond Players so need to look very carefully at your benefits. I do agree that the Slots are very tight at both RIO and Harrah's - even myself this time did not do well at either place (and only 4 mo ago I hit big at both RIO and Harrahs) - maybe because they need our money to buy everything up who knows. I ended up hitting at both Wynn and Casino Royale which I thought was really funny. But I still feel that Harrah's gives incredible comps and benefits compared to what I have seen on other slot programs they are way ahead of everyone. Now with them owning Ceasars and Imperial Palace I am sure their will be a lot of changes. As for AC I hear a lot about how bad the slots are there including other properties. Unfortuately I think AC as a whole needs to do something about their slots. But don't give up the ship yet - I think Harrah's will still come out first in every area - Let me tell ya read my report on my Birthday Bash at the RIO - it was just incredible - don't give them up yet!!!

[suecasey]

Steve, I know you're unhappy with Harrahs. However, I have to ask -- now that they've bought IP -- which I know you like -- do you think you'll be a bit nicer to them in print? I'm not being sarcastic ... I'm just wondering how the purchase will affect you. :)

[Steve]

Steve, I know you're unhappy with Harrahs. However, I have to ask -- now that they've bought IP -- which I know you like -- do you think you'll be a bit nicer to them in print? I'm not being sarcastic ... I'm just wondering how the purchase will affect you. :)

I'll just continue to call it as I see it. We will just have to wait and see what develops at the I.P. From what I am told, Harrah's won't be able to do to much until 2006. I just don't see Harrah's doing anything possitive with a property they are planning to implode in two years or so.

Just to go on record, I do not dislike Harrah's in fact the casino and the people are awesome. It's a great place to stay (if they let you) and play. :) Corporate Harrah's just continues to amaze me with the things they do and the decisions they have made. :confused:

Steve

[sonntex]

Like I have said elsewhere, Whatever floats our boat. But their slots do seem to have gotten tight. Sept. 2004 we won a bunch there, about $7,000. Since then we are just feeding machines. It makes you wonder, eventhough I know they don't (or least not supposed to), if when a winner puts in their card the machine automatically notes it and goes into loser mode. Heh, heh, just kidding.

The Harrahs comps work for us. Our problem, they keep giving us so much free stuff that we don't use up our points. Gonna have to start staying and eating at their properties and playing some where else. If only I can convince hubby.

Oh, just an aside. We are going out Christmas and he booked a room at Rio and I booked one at Paris. I'm gonna roam the strip. :D

[FUN-4-US]

We will, maybe give Harrahs/RIO another try. We do enjoy the RIO atmosphere and the Buffet. The only thing the Total Rewards Platinum card got us was to be taken into the buffet without waiting in the long line, and being seated in the special quiet Platinum/Diamond area at the RIO Buffet. The food is great. The employees there were so nice from the food servers to the casino staff and hotel staff. We loved it there.

As stated, we've been demoted to Gold status. Since last year, we can't get enough play on any of Harrahs' properties slots to "earn" food comps or get any playtime on the machines, thus cannot earn comps. After a certain amount of $$Bills go into their machines and we get no return, we call it quits. And as I said before we give it a fair share, whether it's a quarter, 50 cent, $1 and even tried some $5 machines, visit after visit and ZERO Return, It's not fun anymore. :( Plain and simple. We will stay and play where we win.

With our Caesars Connection Card, when you insert it into any slot machine it welcomes you by name, tells you how much available cashback you have, how much future cash $$ you are earning currently, and how many comp $$ (for food/shows etc. you have accummulated. That's actual dollars, not points.

I also won a $7,500 jackpot at Caesars AC in May, '04. Also at Bally's a $1,250 jackpot in August, '04, both Caesars Entertainment proerties at that time. Also some smaller jackpots like several $400 - $800 jackpots until several months ago. We also accummulated between us about $800 in food/show comps. At least we were acquiring food/show comps on our play, because the machines were paying out small regular hits to keep you going. That was months ago, and then Harrahs took over.

We can honestly say the machines got tighter at the Caesar properties since Harrahs took over. I agree with Steve. Harrahs management is building an enormous empire and treating themselves and their shareholders well.
But what about us low rollers, faithful followers who used to come to their properties regularly, win or lose because it was fun and exciting at least to get play time and hopefully win something, not every time, but occasionally a nice hit, to keep us coming back.

Maybe we're on the wrong side of the coin. If one side of the scale is heavier and reaping more benefits than the other, maybe instead of feeding their slot machines we should be buying shares in Harrahs, become Harrahs sharholders, and we can "win more that way". Looks like there are only winning tickets in, none coming out. Just a thought! :(

What machines are winning at the RIO? The ones we used to play and play are no longer there. Other ones we tried didn't give us anything. We always play full coin, so we it's not like we didn't try, and try again.

[sonntex]

There is a 3 coin $1 machine at the Rio on the aisle as you come in from the buffet. It's a triple diamond/double diamond that pays pretty good most days. Hubby has won $2800, $1400, I won $2800, $1400 and also won $1000 on a multidenominational triple star machine right across the aisle behind it. All in one night. It seems to be a popular block of machines of the locals. (But one night I put about $700 in the triple/double and didn't win a blamed thing.) On the Masquerade side there are several triple diamond quarter machines that pay well on any given night.

[sawsman]

Check out Harrah's Visa Credit Card. Apps available @ the Reward Center. Gives you bonus points, plus, if you use it once a month or so, you can avoid the risk of losing built up comps. Otherwise, they expire every 6 months. :eek:

[Vegas Vic]

Harrah's is doing what many corporations have done over the years....squeezing out just as many profit dollars out of the mix as humanly possible.

If you remember your Monopoly game, the more property someone owns, the higher the "rent" you get to pay.....

[FUN-4-US]

WOW! What a great night you and your husband had! How long ago was that? We also had some winning nights at the RIO, years ago. We played, the Triple Bonanza and $1 Blazing 7's and used to have a ball. On the last several Vegas trips the Triple Bonanza slots are not there anymore and the Blazing 7's jackpots take too many $$$ to get, even get the 200 and 300 coin hits on them. We know that feeling of putting hundreds of dollars into a slot we won on previously, and not get anything. Very frustrating. Not fun if you can't get some play time and at least earn some comps. We said, this is crazy or WE ARE. So we stopped playing there, because this has repeated itself over and over at the RIO and at Harrahs for us.

We will visit the RIO and enjoy their Carnival Buffet, as I see the $5 coupon is back on line. And we will stay for the Masquarade in the Sky show, which is always upbeat. Thanks for the tip on the machines near the Buffet. Will check them out and see what's happening there.

We also were invited to the Spookeasy Slot Tournament serveral years ago. The employees there really go all out the the players. The themed meals and decorations were fantastic. We didn't win anything in the tournament, but had fun and enjoyed the dinner/dancing at the awards banquet.

On our last couple Vegas trips we stayed at the Monte Carlo and the Orleans. Did have fun on the Monte Carlo Riches slots, winning two $1,000 jackpots and a couple $400 jackpots. At the Suncoast we won smaller amounts on almost everything we played. $1 Wheel of Fortune, quarter Wheel of Fortune, quarter 5XPay, Triple,Double Diamond. We didnt win nearly as much as you guys, but we walked out of the Suncoast with more than we went in with and had a lot of fun on $80. We're going back in October with Travelers Checks we brought home with us from our last trip in May. Hope we can "do it again" in October.

Have a great trip in December and continued good luck to you and your hubby and all Forum Members.

[sonntex]

Thanks for the info on the Spookeasy Slot Tournament. Sounds like a lot of fun. One thing about Harrah's properties, they know how to put on a slot tournament.

We won on the Triple, Double Diamond $1 machine at the Rio in Sept, 2004, Christmas, 2004 and again in June, 2005. Lost that $700 in February, 2005. Hope it's hot again when we go back in Oct. and Dec. When it's hot, it's hot.