Those casino marketers
just keep coming back

      December 24 2005:      In my first book, Casino Marketing, I wrote the following: "I love casino marketing people because they have the world's most impossible jobs. They come to work every day knowing they're only as good as yesterday's results. If the handle is terrific, the casino manager gets the credit. If the show is a hit, the entertainment director is a genius. If the new prime rib dinner takes off, the food and beverage director takes the bows. But let business go bad for a week or so--and look out. The marketing director gets blamed for it. And that's the reason I've always admired and respected casino marketers. They KNOW they're always under pressure--and they keep coming a back for more. I don't know what's the matter with us. We must be out of our minds." At any rate, we all survived another year, and here's wishing you a magnificent 2006. Thanks for visiting.

A new shoe company
goes one up on Nike

      December 12 2005:      This one's for casino promotion directors. When Nike was formed (in the late 60s as I recall) they found themselves with a problem typical for small businesses--a paucity of ad and promotion money. So they gave their shoes away to every top track and field athlete in the country. The recipients wore them, and won in them. Nike sales surged. Runners World, the magazine that helped start the running boom in the US, practically made the Nike brand by itself with its pictures of Nike-clad stars racing, jumping and vaulting to victory. Now comes Spira Footwear, a new company that's barging in with an idea that's drawing attention to itself ten times faster than Nike ever did. Spira builds a shoe with shock-absorbing springs in the sole. Whoa! Both USA Track & Field and the International Amateur Athletic Foundation have banned them as "performance enhancers." Now the company has offered a cool $1 million to any male or female runner who wins the 2006 Boston Marathon wearing Spira shoes. While a Spira winner would be DQ at Boston, $1 million is a real neat consolation prize. Clever tactic, yes?

Advertising on the net
costs like Super Bowl

      December 1 2005:      Eight or nine years ago my pal Gary Harris told me the Internet was the best marketing tool ever--especially for casinos. I was skeptical at the time because most commercial Web sites were poorly designed and hard to read, the ads were hopeless, content was stultifying and tracking was pathetic. I'm here today to tell you that Gary's prediction was not only true, but understated. Just two weeks ago the Wall Street Journal reported that more marketers than ever had shifted ad dollars from TV and print to the Internet--and many Web sites were sold out, some up to 18 months in advance. If you picked up the phone today and called Yahoo, AOL or MSN, says the Journal, you'd have to wait months to get your ad on the front page--at rates that would scare a rhino. MSN used to charge $25-50,000 for an ad on its home page; now it gets $1 million for a prime, 24-hour spot, says the WSJ. Online advertising shot up 26% in the first half of 2005, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, practically all of it on Yahoo, Google, AOL and MSN. What pushed so many advertisers onto the Internet? Any direct marketer can tell you the answer in an instant. It's improved tracking. When advertisers know what they get for their money, they'll spend. That's always the key.

top

Sports-talk radio captures
a desirable demo group

      November 21 2005:      Hey, all you casino marketing directors! Want to reach a whole wad of men ages 25-54? Primedia's Chief Marketer says you'll find them on sports-talk radio. There are more than 500 sports-talk stations in the US, says Talkers magazine, and the biggest winners are advertisers. Some more surprising points from the story by Chief Marketer's Andrew Grossman: in Philadelphia, the nation's 6th largest radio market, sports-talk has moved past contemporary hits, rock, "lite" adult contemporary and standards in format popularity..."You get a younger male audience," claims a media research company BIA Financial Network...says Bruce Gilbert of ESPN radio, "There are a lot of advertisers who want to have affiliations with teams. Those things definitely drive business with advertisers." Tom Sweeney, VP at LevLane Advertising in Philadelphia, says because of its attractive demographics, sports radio "is probably the one area in which you can have the best chance of success in a competitive area." Personally, I've cut back my sports listening and watching. Some of the hosts are ridiculous.

Who needs an ad agency?
All it takes is a new logo

      November 11 2005:      In the Oct. 25, Wall Street Journal, Gwendolyn Bounds tells the unusual story of Bob Kodner and his company, "Crack Team USA, " which Kodner's father said was named "Before society went to hell." The company (which repairs cracks in basement walls) was struggling, and one day while Kodner was stuck in traffic he came up with the idea for a new logo. He liked it so much he paid his cousin to draw it--then slapped it on the sides of busses in St. Louis. By now you're laughing and shaking your head and mumbling, "What an idiot." But wait! The logo (a cement block with a smiling face cracked down the center) drew hundreds of calls from owners wanting "Happy Crack" T-shirts and hats, Ms. Bounds writes, "and a brand was born." Today, she says, Crack Team has 10 franchises in eight states, hopes to have 25 by the end of the year, and is on track for 150 by the end of 2007. Kodner has appeared on "The Tonight Show," Fox News and ESPN, all, says Ms. Bounds, "Without hiring a single ad agency, focus group, brand consultant or PR adviser." Could this happen to your casino? Umm, probably not. But the next time you're stuck in traffic, start thinking...

Supremes and Nelson Rose;
does he have a connection?

      November 1 2005:      Pretty smart guy that Nelson Rose, professor of law at the Whittier Law School and the man who practically invented the study of gaming law. Okay, so he's an old pal; he's still tops in his field. But now he has a little something more going for him. He was a classmate of new Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts at Harvard law School in the late 70s. And when Roberts was the counsel of record for the American Gaming Association in 1999, he used some of Nelson's research in his brief to the Supreme Court that resulted in a ruling allowing casinos to advertise on radio and TV. Nelson tells the story in his latest syndicated column entitled "John Roberts, the Supreme Court, and Me." Nelson predicted in his 1986 book, "Gambling and the Law," that the Supreme Court would overturn a ban against casino ads on radio and TV because the law violated the Constitution's First Amendment. And when Roberts made his pitch, that's exactly what the Supremes did. Says Nelson, "Roberts understands that gaming is a...large and legal business. He would also be more interested in the complicated issues surrounding activities like Internet poker." Interesting, yes?

top

Adams Report a winner;
Gets me thru the day

      October 22 2005:      I saw Ken Adams at the G2E show in September, and promptly confessed. "How the hell could I ever keep up with the gaming business without you?" I asked him. Ken compiles The Adams Report five days a week for Compton-Dancer Consulting. It's one of several newsletters distributed by C-D, and I couldn't get through the day without it. How Ken puts it together I haven't a clue. He gets gaming news from every country in the world. If a dozen guys started a craps game on a blanket in Pismo Beach, he'd have it in The Adams Report the same day. The guy is uncanny. Here's an example: From his Sept. 21 roundup I discovered that a company named eFlyte is about to introduce in-flight gambling on international carriers. It's a seatback deal that you can play with the swipe of a credit card. After two years in development, eFlyte thinks the setup is ready for launch. Now where else could I get that info the same day it was released? But wait, as they say on the late night TV commercials, there's more. Every 30 days Adams does a monthly opinion piece that's just a delight to read. And top of everything he's a super guy and he is not paying me to say that. (e-reports@compdance.com)

Personalizing letters?
Auto biz scuttles it

      October 12 2005:      Remember when personalized sales letters first appeared? It was decades ago, of course, and most direct marketers thought the technology was sent straight from heaven. Wow! Imagine being able to sprinkle a customer's name all through a letter. What a weapon! And because every mailer knew that the technology was bound to make customers and prospects feel special, they jumped on it. Trouble was, the early systems often capitalized the names, or used the wrong font, or dropped them into pre-set space that (for short names) left the name floating. All that was corrected in time and the process now is seamless. But in the automotive business, personalization usage has just about fallen off the charts. From a personalization high of 44.6% in 2003, it dropped to 26.1 by June, 2005. The stats come from the archives of Inside Direct Mail, a wonderful newsletter that reports the automotive business is "Moving away from plastering mailings with prospect and customer names." Instead, says the newsletter, auto mailings favor more tailored content. Bravo! Dropping in names always struck me as phony-looking. Tailoring a message to a prospect or customer is using the database to your advantage. Check out the newsletter at www.insidedirectmail.com. It's a gem.

Ad agencies tremble at
the Makeover Maven

      October 1 2005:      Thomas L. Collins, who calls himself The Makeover Maven, must look like an avenging angel to the young "creatives" who work in general advertising these days. I've talked to a few of them; none ever heard of him until he began to skewer them every month with his column in Direct Magazine. But as a partner in the famous direct marketing agency Rapp & Collins, Tom once walked with David Ogilvy and the other giants of Direct Marketing, and (with Stan Rapp) co-authored four excellent books. Now Tom is just having fun freelancing--and demoralizing general ad agencies. In his Makeover Maven column he takes terrible print ads (they're all around us) and remakes them into powerful sales pieces using direct marketing methods. It's really not a fair fight because Tom always made ads that sold things. Most of today's general ads make no attempt to sell anything except the brand, and most don't succeed in doing even that. In the August Direct, Tom remade an Ace Hardware ad that depicted a young woman in an Ace shirt standing among a set of huge tools, with the headline, "Advice is the best tool" and not a single line of copy. (Your first reaction to the Ace ad is "Huh?") Tom's makeover used 212 words and sold the benefits of Ace's excellent Web site. Why do you suppose this never occurred to Ace's agency?

top

Mainstream companies
discover the database;
casinos say "yawn"

      September 23 2005:      Chief Marketer, one of the best of the direct marketing newsletters, quotes a new Forrester Research study of 124 companies that shows customer databases playing an increasing strategic role. Of course (yawn) we've known this in the casino business since the early 80s. It's only now, apparently, that companies outside the casino business are "looking into customer databases to drive insight and strategy," to quote a Forrester executive. This emphasis on the "database" and not on the individuals within it, is a danger signal. It means the companies that replied to Forrester's survey are more concerned with learning "about" their customers than "from" their customers. They regard the database as nothing more than a mixture of easily manipulated segments. But prospects or customers inside segments don't respond in lockstep unless they're romanced. So sending them ads and fancy artwork disguised as direct mail will get some--but not the cream. To get the cream you need word pictures, benefits, back-fence conversation and a personal touch. Sadly, casino mail looks more and more like the domain of art directors, with space for personal notes and letters squeezed tighter and tighter. And the writers seem to be in love with exclamation points, worn-out adjectives and clichés such as "valued player." Too bad.

The skeletal Mr. Six
dances up a storm,
but can't sell tickets

      September 12 2005:      Ad people love to create goofy characters to represent brands. Witness "Michelin Man," "The Aflac Duck," the woman who screamed "Where's the beef?" "The Pillsbury Doughboy," "Tony the Tiger" and "The World's Fastest Talking Man," a character I once created to advertise the Sahara Las Vegas back in the Del Webb days (sorry about that). Now comes "Mr. Six." He's the bald, skeletal, octogenarian (some say he's a girl in disguise) who breaks into frenzied dance for Six Flags, which spent 72.l million last year advertising its 28 parks in the US. The company calls him "Our ambassador of fun." Well. he's all that--and his favorable ratings are above the 55% average for all prime-time ads in 2005, the company tells the Wall Street Journal. But the question with all such characters is likability. The Journal quotes Donny Deutsch, the boss of Interpublic Group's Deutsch agency as saying that many teenagers find Mr. Six "nerdy and goofy" and some families with kids regard him as "weird" and "creepy." But Doner., the agency that created him, says his energy is "infectious." Still others say he'll be around for a long time. Personally, I love the guy--but not enough to go to a Six Flags park.

Goulet's keen mind
turns a focus group
into casino revenue

      September 1 2005:      I met Glenn Goulet in the early 90s when he invited me to be a panel member at a G-Tech conference in Palm Springs. Glenn was a G-Tech executive specializing in research, and dearly wanted to leap headlong into the casino business. It was easy to see that with his drive and intelligence it was only a matter of time. Later he become involved with Multimedia Games, and more recently started his own gaming research business named "Gaming Strategies + Insights." Here's a sample of his brilliant thinking: Earlier this year he set up a series of six focus groups for a casino. He drew the participants from the casino's database, using his own set of qualifying factors. The sessions took three days and went off perfectly. When the casino tracked the play of the focus group members they found their play had generated far more revenue than it cost to do the actual focus group research. And the insights the casino gleaned from the six sessions were extremely helpful. Glenn politely asked if I would recommend him if I heard of a casino looking for research. In my 40-plus years in the casino business I've often been asked if I would provide recommendations. I seldom do. But in Glenn's case I say, "He's the best. Hire him."

top

Barona Valley a big winner;
takes home six "Romeros"

      August 23 2005:      The first Romeros, the casino marketing awards named after (ahem) your faithful reporter, drew 68 submissions and were presented at Casino Marketing, the 2005 National Conference, in Las Vegas, last month. And while major Nevada and New Jersey casinos won Romeros as expected, the stunner was southern California based Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino, which won six (one Diamond, 4 Golds and one Silver) plus 8 Honorable Mentions. Gasp! Other winners in the competition that included six categories were Lake of the Torches (1 Diamond, 1 Gold, 1 Silver); Circus Circus Reno (1 Diamond); Horseshoe Hammond (1 Diamond); Trump Marina (1 Diamond); Trump Taj Mahal (1 Silver); Cliff Castle Casino (1 Diamond, 1 Gold); Isle of Capri Bettendorf (1 Silver); Victories Casino (1 Gold); San Felipe Casino (1 Silver); Northlands Park (1 Silver), and Niagara Fallsview Casino Resort (1 Diamond). Casinos competed in two divisions (large and small) and in six categories: Direct Mail, Casino Floor Promotion, VIP Promotion, Public Relations, E-Mail Campaign and Web Site Promotion. Niagara Fallsview, competing in the large casino Public Relations category, opened its new wedding chapel with a vow renewal ceremony that attracted hundreds of married couples and made news throughout Canada and the eastern US--just an example of the excellent work submitted. Will I see you at the Conference in 2006?

He wanted to bet $777,000;
Jack Binion said, "Sure!"

      August 12 2005:      Jack Binion, winner of the Lifetime Achievement Award at Casino Marketing, the 2005 National Conference, last month at the Rio in Las Vegas, knew how to run a casino. He learned from the best--his father Benny, who came to Las Vegas in 1946 with his family, a suitcase full of dough and his own idea about running a gambling joint. Benny opened the Horseshoe in 1951--bought the old El Dorado Hotel and converted it. "The size of your limit," Benny told his patrons, "is the size of your first bet." The word got around--if you wanted to bet big money Benny would handle it. So when a guy strolled in with a satchel jammed with one million in cash and wanted to bet it all on the pass line, there was no hesitation. Benny won the dough and laughed when people called him a marketing genius. In 1970, Benny began the World Championship of Poker--a fair promotion, wouldn't you say? By 1983, it was time for Benny's son Jack to face the same "big bet" situation that made his father famous. "This guy called me," said Jack, "and said he wanted to bet $777,000. So I said sure, come on in, but I didn't hear from him for weeks. Then one day he showed up with the money, and beat us." But the guy wasn't through. He came back later with $500,000 and won that bet, too. He came back a third time with a million but caught a seven on the come out roll. I was thinking of all those things, and how Jack expanded the Horseshoe name into a nationwide powerhouse, as he stood on stage to accept his award. The man is one of a kind--and maybe the last of a breed. Congratulations, my friend.

Casino marketing conference
rolls a winner in Las Vegas

      August 1 2005:      It had everything. Brilliant speakers, the first annual Romero awards for casino marketers, 17 top casino-related companies on display, and a wonderful choice (Jack Binion) to receive the second Lifetime Achievement Award. Of course, I'm talking about about Casino Marketing, the 2005 National Conference, at the Rio in Las Vegas last month. Raving Consulting (Dennis Conrad) and Ascend Media Gaming Group (Andy Holtman) put together a show for, by and of casino marketers. Attendance topped last year's inaugural event by 15% as marketers from domestic and foreign casinos, small and large, were treated to one super panel after another. Hermann Pamminger of Casinos Austria, Ron Riopka of the Manitoba Lotteries Corporation, Ed Rogich, VP of Marketing for IGT, Anthony Sanfilippo, president of Harrah's Central Division, Arnie Wexler, former executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gaming, Troy Simpson of Barona Valley Ranch Resort and Casino, and Karen Fisher of Konami Gaming were among the panelists. Amy Henry ("The Apprentice") and Jim Rogers, president and CEO of KOA and a former Harrah's executive, were keynote speakers. And then there was Jack Binion, the consummate gaming pro, accepting his well-deserved award. Too much to cover in one shot. I'll start with a piece on Jack in the next News & Opinions update on Aug. 12.

top

Personalization use high;
personally, we hate it

      July 12 2005:      Remember when personalization techniques came in years ago and you could drop prospect or customer names into mass-produced sales letters? Pretty crude stuff in the beginning. The names never lined up properly. Some were crooked, and there was always an obvious space on each end. I remember a couple I received with the wrong font. But variable data technology has improved, says Tracy Gill, managing editor of Inside Direct Mail. Use of personalization has climbed steadily to 35% in 2004, and Hallmark Loyalty, for example, claims it improves response. But before you rush out and start to use it for your casino lists, here's the downside. Even boosters such as Hallmark say the pieces have to be "absolutely error-proof, error-free...personalization done poorly has a negative effect on customer relations." Now here's my take, and it gets worse: I still don't like it, even if it's done perfectly. Just take a moment to think about the way you write personal letters to your friends. Do you drop their names in every few paragraphs? Of course not. That's not the way friends write friends. Personalization may look good and more corporations may be using it, but corporate mail, as a whole, is the worst stuff ever written.

Blogs better than research?
Some advertisers say "Yes!"

      July 12 2005:      It's been a bad month for traditional TV advertising. Now consumer research is about to take a hit. Casino marketers please take note, but keep it to yourself and by all means don't tell your research people. Seems that some marketers feel the "offhand comments" of bloggers are invaluable--or so says the Wall Street Journal. The paper points to "blog watching" that helped Umbria Communication of Boulder, CO, identify demographic groups online based on their speech patterns and discussion topics. US Cellular Corporation turned this into a winning promotion. I am not making this up. The Journal then quotes a Chicago PR guy as saying "We look at the blogosphere as a focus group with 15 million people going on 24/7." Says the Journal, "Purveyors of the new methodology and their clients say blog-watching can be cheaper, faster and less biased than...focus groups and surveys." Final add: In the June 20 edition of DM News, Renee Blodgett, president of Blodgett Communications, San Francisco, tells her readers that corporate blogs can "...augment e-mail newsletters in a more engaging way and bypass spam issues and filters that traditional e-mail delivery mechanisms face." Then she adds, "Too many organizations still fear blogs."

TV spending takes a hit;
advertisers list "doubts"

      July 1 2005:      All that television advertising you're paying for--do you know what it's doing for your casino or for your company? No, really. Is it selling anything? What's that? You don't know for sure? Then why the hell are you spending such a fortune on it? I can imagine dialogue of that sort rattling through the halls of Proctor & Gamble, the 800-pound gorilla of consumer goods and marketing that recently announced a severe cutback in TV expenditures for next season. The story made page one of the Wall Street Journal. "The move," said the Journal, "is the latest sign of rapid changes in how companies reach consumers and how TV networks and cable channels draw revenue...in recent years many companies have expressed doubts about the effectiveness of traditional TV advertising." Do you know why companies are expressing "doubts?" It's because they have no idea what their TV advertising is doing for them? Nothing they do is trackable. Nothing is measurable. Nothing is accountable. They just throw the stuff out there and hope. Sure, some of the commercials are memorable, and that's the problem. It's not the advertising that should be memorable; it's the promises the advertising makes that should be memorable. Will they ever learn? Not a chance.

top

Casino marketing awards
draw a record 68 entries

      June 24 2005:      By the time you read this the judging of entries for "Casino Marketing, the 2005 National Conference" will have been completed. The Conference itself is July 17-19 at the Rio in Las Vegas. An astounding 68 entries poured in, which is remarkable for a first-time event. Categories were Direct Mail, Floor Promotion, VIP Promotion, PR Campaign, Web Site Marketing and E-Mail Marketing. Although the awards (The Romeros) are named after me, I won't be judging--which is just as well. The entries I've looked through were excellent as a group and the requirements (which I did help establish) were tough. Justifying promotions based on concept, execution, revenue generated, measurable results, competitive advantage gained and enhanced relationships are barriers no casino marketing combatants have ever faced. I asked four old friends to judge and they accepted. They are Jim Seagrave, VP Marketing for the Stardust; Jackie Brett, Director of Advertising & Public Relations, Imperil Palace; Ira David Sternberg, VP Communications & Community Relations, Las Vegas Hilton, and Ron Bell, Executive Director of Marketing & Advertising, Coast Casinos. All are from Las Vegas. Check out the 2005 Conference at www.casinomarketing2005.com. Hope to see you there.

The depressing story
of a star gone wrong

      June 13 2005:      In 1970, Monty Hundley was a handsome, smooth talking guy in his late 20s, and a rising star in the Del E. Webb corporation. He was well-liked, a good businessman, and born to leadership. I knew him just well enough to know I liked him and trusted him. Webb owned the Sahara and Mint in Las Vegas, and the Sahara Tahoe at Lake Tahoe in those days, and when the GM job came open at Sahara-Tahoe, it went to Monty. The staff loved him and the executives thought the guy was straight from heaven. He ran the place with flair and was good at it despite his youth. He brought in Elvis, the Ali/Foster fight, golf tournaments, even the Playboy plane for junkets. One afternoon when he was buzzing his Harley through town the cops pulled him over and asked him where he worked. "The Sahara-Tahoe," Monty said. When they asked what he did there he said, "I'm the general manager." The cops took one look at this fresh kid in a leather jacket and to their eternal embarrassment and his eternal amusement said, "Get in the car." I lost track of Monty for a while but he surfaced years later as one of the owners of Days Inn. Last week a mutual friend sent me a press release from the United States Attorney, Southern District of New York. Monty is in deep trouble, and has been sentenced on a charge of bank fraud and tax evasion. Hard to believe, but hang in, Monty. You'll be back.

Your faithful reporter
speaks on "creativity"

      June 1 2005:      G.A. Wright Marketing, Inc., is one of Denver's leading ad agencies, and never one to stand still. Some years ago in a subtle shift of priorities they began to focus on the casino business. Now they bill themselves as, "A leading direct marketing specialist for the gaming industry." Smart guys, these Wrights. Now they've put together a three-day meeting they call "G.A. Wright's New Innovative Marketing Conference and Gala," with some distinguished speakers including (ahem) your faithful reporter. Our mission is to share with you the newest concepts that have been proven to drive business and build loyalty. But they let me do what I wanted to so I named my talk, "Creativity--what the bleep is it" and I'm delivering this gem on Tuesday, June 14, at G.A. Wright's new Communication C enter in Denver. The slot club guru Jeffrey Compton (of Compton-Dancer Consulting) is also on the bill on June. 14. Some 24 speakers will gush wisdom and niceties over the three days. The thing winds up with music and cocktails on June 16. Hey, these guys are serious. For details, visit www.gawright.com/2005 . You can download all the details including the conference brochure. Or phone 303-393-4530 and speak to a human being.

top

Heat on big TV advertisers
forces them to pay per view

      May 23 2005:      This is really sad. Soon the big television advertisers will be paying consumers as much as $100 (plus coupons and prizes, says the Wall Street Journal) to watch TV commercials and let the advertisers know if they're working. The story quotes a "Director of consumer and customer insights" as saying "Any new approach is worth checking out." Such naiveté in the highest ranks of marketing is astonishing. But perhaps it's predictable with more and more heat being applied to advertising directors by their own companies to prove that all that TV money is producing something--anything. Here's a hint to the 30 or so national and local advertisers taking part in the test: you'll never find out beans by paying people to watch. But a good start would be to get rid of the ridiculous TV ad format of 25 seconds of silly nonsense followed by a brief flash of the advertiser logo. Then go watch some of the late night TV commercials that actually sell things. Okay, so it will never happen. The creative mystique of the big ad agencies is just too powerful. All of them (and their clients) are sold on memorable advertising. But it's not the advertising that should be memorable; it's the promises the advertising makes that should be memorable. That's why direct marketing, with its emphasis on benefits and responses direct to the advertiser, is the superior discipline.

Casino advertising ban fell
when Rose got on the case

      May 12 2005:      In the old days Before Nelson Rose (BNR) casinos not only were forbidden to advertise, but in Puerto Rico, one was fined for having the word "Casino" in its letterhead. The same casino was fined again when its name appeared in a newspaper caption. Did they sue? Yep, and a Puerto Rican court ruled that gambling was a legal business and could advertise. But the US Supreme Court overturned that one by ruling that some forms of gambling could advertise--but not casinos. It happened in the early 80s and made attorney I. Nelson Rose furious. "It's like saying that because we have the death penalty we can also torture people," said Rose. I met Nelson in 1985 when he was preaching the overthrow of casino advertising bans on broadcasting. But casino marketers were a disheartened lot. It just didn't seem possible in those days. With Nelson's urging, it finally happened in the late 90s when the Supremes ruled that if a state approved casinos, they could run broadcast ads in that state. The Justice Department sealed it shortly afterward by announcing they were not going to go after broadcasters again. The bars went down. Nelson predicted it in his first book, "Gambling and the Law, " published in 1986. Now he's out with a followup book named "Internet Gaming Law." For a look at the future of gaming, order it for your library today from his Web site, www.gamblingandthelaw.com. (P.S. You can also order my two books, "Casino Marketing" and "Secrets of Casino Marketing," by scrolling to the bottom of this page.)

First of the "Romeros"
to be awarded in July

      May 1 2005:      Every casino in existence does special promotions, and if you're a marketing executive in this business you've probably dreamed up dozens of them. But unlike advertising, there have been no awards for successful promotions--until now. But in "Casino Marketing: The 2005 Conference" at the Rio (Las Vegas) July 17-19, the best "promos" of the past year will be honored with a new award named (sit down for this one) The Romeros. Yes, my friend, your faithful reporter's years of sweating blood on the firing line have been rewarded. I asked for cash, but they told me they were already over budget--which typically happens in a casino promotion. But nicer guys than Dennis Conrad (Raving Consulting) and Charles Anderer (Ascend Media) you will never meet--so I said okay. Their respective companies so-sponsor the Conference. I promptly tapped four old friends to judge the entries. They asked for cash but...well, we were over budget. So we settled on their names appearing in this space (thanks, gang). And here we go--all are from Las Vegas: Jim Seagrave, VP Marketing, Stardust Hotel & Casino; Jackie Brett, Director of Advertising & Public Relations, Imperial Palace Hotel & Casino; Ron Bell, Executive Director of Marketing and Advertising for Coast Casinos, and Ira David Sternberg, VP Communications &Community Relations, Las Vegas Hilton. Last year the Conference honored me with its first Lifetime Achievement Award. This year they have named another old friend--Jack Binion. Bravo, Jack! P.S. Check out the 2005 Conference at www.casinomarketing2005.com.

top

Spam blockers--phooey!
They cost us business

      April 21 2005:      Lately some of my clients have called to ask, "Did you get my e-mail?" About half the time I say, "No. What was the subject line?" I'm on AOL, and they've been very aggressive about blocking spam--but all they're doing is bringing back the fax. A spam blocker is the LAST thing I'd ever want on my computer. I'm not one of those guys who moan and groan about the spam I get. It takes no longer than a minute (by actual count) to get rid of unwanted messages I find when I open up my e-mail. So what's to complain? A spam filter might get rid of most of them, too, but it could easily include some "keepers" in with the trash. A recent study by Return Path showed that 22% of all permission-based e-mail was blocked by ISPs. Direct Newsline says the most blocking and filtering happened at RoadRunner (36%), Mail.com (34%) and Comcast (31%). That would drive me nuts--and cost me business.

Why I changed jobs:
Strictly a money deal

      April 12 2005:      I had to smile when I read Erin's White's column in the Wall Street Journal. It was entitled, "Saviest job hunters research the cultures of potential employers." Whisked me back to 1960, when I left the Las Vegas Review-Journal and took a job in the casino business. Hell, I didn't research the Sahara's "culture" at all. I went for the money, which was pretty good for the time. Before I left, the owner of the Review-Journal called me in and said, "John, we'd hate to lose you. May I ask what the Sahara has offered you?" I told him $750 a month. The owner rose and stuck out his hand. "Nobody on our paper makes $750 a month," he said. "Good luck in your new career." I knew the Sahara had to have a better "culture" than that, but I was only was half right. My immediate boss, Herb McDonald, was terrific. He'd give me a project and say, "Do it your own way." You had to love him. Upper management was grumpy and suspicious. But it was fun and I liked it. After 45 years, I still do.

Wynn plays pied piper,
but it's not a revelation

      April 1 2005:      A recent story in the Las Vegas Sun newspaper revealed that more than half of the 9,000 employees hired at the new Wynn Las Vegas resort had worked for Wynn in the past. That's not exactly a revelation. It happens every time he opens a new joint. Steve never has to worry about help because everyone in the town is wised up. They know the guy is a winner, and that the tips are terrific. What makes him a winner? He spends wisely. When he opened up his store in Atlantic City (The Golden Nugget) in the 80s, he sucked the business away from Resorts International to the other end of town with one shrewd move after another. One of those moves was to form the first slot club in the industry. Bet you didn't know that was Wynn's idea. Then, in 1982, he gave a hundred or so of his Atlantic City employees brand new cars. The tab was $4 million. When a pal of mine in the swimming pool business told me what he spent on the his water show ("O") and dancing waters at the Bellagio in Las Vegas, I couldn't believe it. Now he's selling Ferraris at Wynn Las Vegas. Like I said--a winner

top

Where will gambling be
in another 14 years?

      March 21 2005:      Imagine a gambling hall where all the slots were single coin games, the biggest play you could make was 50 cents, and the top jackpots were only a few hundred dollars. Imagine that all the Blackjack tables dealt single, hand-held decks. And imagine that most of the hotel guests paid rack rates, and that you could see a superstar show in the main room for the price of a single bottle of beer. That was the state of the industry when I entered it in 1960. Looking back, you wonder how such casinos ever made a dime. And to tell you the truth, even the largest in Nevada didn't make more than a few million. But then, a million in 1960 was real money--not the six hundred thousand or so that it's worth now. I did a report for the Del Webb corporate office about 1974 that compared room rates and comps in 1960 to current figures. It showed that in 1960, two thirds of the Sahara's room business was full rate, and that one third consisted of comps and special rates. By 1974 the figures had flip-flopped, and two thirds were comps and special rates. What happened? Competition, pure and simple. The Strip had only a handful of big joints in 1960. In the next 14 years it doubled. When I saw a recent figure that the country's 411 Indian casinos had topped Nevada in total revenues, $21 billion to $19.59 billion, I wondered just how big we'll be in another 14 years.

Online gaming at $10 billion:
Poker driving a record take

      March 11 2005:      Target Marketing magazine online has revealed the results of a Pew Internet study that claims 63 percent of the adults in the country (about 128 million age 18 or older) use the Net. For ages 12-17, the usage figure is 81 percent. On any given day about 70 million of us are logged on. Is it any wonder, then, that online gambling is predicted by NewsMax.com to increase by 40 percent over 2004 and become a $10 billion business this year? Reason for the surge? Poker. USA Today says the game will attract a million players a month in 2005, and the take is expected to double to more than $2 billion. CasinoCity.com says there are 266 Web sites at which players compete. In June, 2003, there were just 53 sites. NewsMax quotes Alex Czajkowski of Sportsbook.com as saying, "The fear factor is largely going away. The bigger, more reputable casinos are not going to rip you off, and more people are betting." There have been sporadic attempts to kill/inhibit/squash (you choose) Internet gaming. But all the big operators are based outside the US and can't be touched by our laws. And there is no national legislation that regulates Internet gaming. The thing is like a runaway train, roaring down the tracks, unstoppable.

The no-smoking casino:
An idea gaining ground

      March 1 2005:      I walked into the Las Vegas Tropicana one day in the mid 80s and was confronted by the first casino no-smoking BJ game I'd ever seen. That baby was packed. At least a dozen players were standing around waiting for a seat to open up. As I recall, the table was right at the head of that long, slender row of games that stretched back under the beautiful stained glass ceiling. Not ten feet away, players at the other games were smoking--so I guess the lone no-smoking table was more symbolic than anything else. I don't have to tell you what has happened since then. The no-smoking crowd (of which I'm one) grew from a handful of malcontents to a powerful movement backed by the government and every doctor in the country. Casinos have given ground at a leisurely pace, but that's changing, too. In Montana the state Supremes ruled that a state law prohibiting local governments from imposing smoking bans has no force. Lincoln, Nebraska, passed a no-smoking law for casinos. Manitoba casinos have been smoke-free since October, 2004. Saskatchewan's ban started Jan. 1, 2005. More to come, as we used to say in the newspaper business.

top

The allure of e-mail wanes,
but rich people still love it

      February 18 2005:      Casino marketers jumped on e-mail when it became a force but many of them tell me they've backed off a bit and are falling back on direct mail. And no wonder. Primedia's Chief Marketer reports that ExactTarget, an Indianapolis developer of e-mail marketing solutions, says that "people shouldn't be batch-blasted on a monthly or weekly schedule." An ExactTarget spokesman called such tactics "a relic of print marketing campaigns." ET says the "from" line is becoming the most important factor in the success of an e-mail campaign...on a positive note, the new DM i-Marketing News reports that rich people use the Internet more. A study of 29,000 consumers by Packaged Facts, the publishing division of MarketResearch.com, found that 32% said the Internet was their primary information source. But the percentage rose to 42% of "mass affluent" consumers and 50% of "highly affluent" individuals. Sounds like fertile ground for casino marketers who test...meanwhile, Silverpop's Bill Nussey says 51% of business users cite e-mail as the most effective communication method. Almost two-thirds say they prefer it for making arrangements and setting appointments as opposed to telephone or personal communication.

This is embarrassing

      February 8 2005:      I mean, here were all those Super Bowl television spots (some at $2.4 million a pop) and you had to read the newspapers to find out who the sponsors were--or in some cases, what the product was. Same old, same old. Okay. Now to our bet. I told you last month I'd quiz you to see if you knew the sponsors behind some of those bizarre commercials. So here goes. I'll describe the spot; you guess the sponsor AND product. Answers at the end: (1) A bunch of men and women encased in bubbles walk around town without a care in the world (2) A convenience store clerk mistakes a customer for a robber and maces him while an elderly lady spears him with her cane (3) A well-endowed young thing testifying before a committee of oldsters breaks a strap that holds up her top (4) Gladys Knight gets involved in a rugby game and winds up skidding on her stomach (5) Japanese tourists and assorted young people break out in herky-jerky dancing (6) Two cows in a snowy field chat over a farmer's fence while a third bovine strolls away. I'll be surprised as hell if you get ANY of these. Answers (1) 02 Optics, soft contact lenses (2) Ameriquest Mortgage (3) GoDaddy.com (4) MBNA (5) Olympus cameras (6) California Cheese. Tha-tha-tha-that's all. folks.

Better to bite your tongue
before you say "junk mail"

      February 1 2005:      Do you ever hear it called Junk TV? How about Junk Reporting, or Junk Outdoor? Nope, only the direct mail business is saddled with the disparaging word"Junk," an invention of the newspaper business that caught on. But if you're a casino marketer, bite your tongue before you ever call it junk. As it is for most large companies, direct mail is the lifeblood of the casino business. Yes, unwanted mail often arrives at your home or business and you're free to toss it--a casual effort that infuriates those with too much time on their hands. Enter someone named Andrew Blackman, whose blurb in the weekend Wall Street Journal is headlined, "How I beat junk mail." Mr. Blackjack, no doubt agitated at credit card companies, called all the credit bureaus and demanded they block his name. Then he called the Direct Marketing Association, said he was leery about giving personal information to :"A group with a name like that." and got his name on the do-not-mail list. Of course, he listed all the numbers and Web sites that others with the Blackman Syndrome can call. He has a right to speak out if he wishes--and too often an opportunistic Congress listens; the danger is that those of us who know the true value of direct mail often stay silent. Or worse, we agree with Blackman and others purveyors of the privacy racket. As casino marketers, we mail only to those who willingly give us their names and addresses. In some European countries, even that would be against the law. Be aware. (Check out the Quote of the Month" on this page.)

top

Get ready for our Super Bowl
'Guess the Advertiser' Quiz

      January 24 2005:      Herewith from The Prophet Romero, seer extraordinaire, comes the Super Bowl score you've been waiting for: Advertisers 18, Audience 0. Yes, my friends, it's almost time for our annual "Guess the Advertiser" Super Bowl Quiz, and this year I am giving you a running start. But even though you will be TRYING to remember who advertised what, you will be shut out again. You will remember the ads, but not the sponsors. And it won't even be close. Once again the Super Bowl ads will be the most memorable of the season. So what's wrong with memorable advertising, you ask? It's the promises the product makes that should be memorable, not the advertising. Do you remember these ads from Super Bowl 2003? (1) A former pro linebacker knocks down guys who loaf on the job (2) A smart baboon gets catapulted into a lake. Or how about this gem from 2004, in which men and women dash through the streets of New York carrying surfboards? All were memorable, but do you remember the promises? Of course not. The first was for Reebok, the second for Sierra Mist.The third was for the Wall Street Journal. Like I said, 18-0.

Atlantic City's tough ad rules
are easy compared to Russia's

      January 12 2005:      I had to laugh. The Russian parliament, says the Adams Report from Compton-Dancer, has passed a bill restricting the advertising of casinos and gambling. It reminds me of the original advertising rules laid down by the Casino Control Commission when gambling came to Atlantic City. Some have been rescinded, but the famous "Bet with your head, not over it" line still is required on advertising material distributed on property. In 1980, when my partners and I had a consulting contract with Resorts International, we put together a brochure for a Blackjack tournament. I sent the line to the copywriter who was unaware of the dictates of the Commission. When the brochure came back he had changed it to read, "Bet with your head, not above it," which, of course, is proper English. With a straight face I showed it to the Commission rep for approval. There was a moment of silence as she read it. Then she erupted. "You can't print this!" she shouted, but I held up my hand. "Just kidding," I said. The Russian casinos face much worse. Casino advertising is prohibited on TV

Super Bowl parties get nixed;
Pull-tabs build a new stadium

      January 1 2005:      The National Football League is quick to bludgeon Las Vegas casinos who have announced Super Bowl parties, warning that the game on big screen will not be tolerated. But the NFL is selective, especially when it comes to new stadiums. The $500 million, retractable-roof stadium that will be built for the Indianapolis Colts will be financed mainly by $400 million from pull-tab machines. The team and the league will supply the other $100 million. Of course, the league has no official connection with gambling in Indiana. Just thought I'd bring it to your attention.. Equally off-beat is Reggie Jackson's contention that Las Vegas is ready for major league baseball. Said Jackson, "I think you have a better chance of being America's team than any place else." Reggie, you were one terrific hitter. Let's just leave it at that. And finally, what ever happened to the bid from online poker site "Empire Poker," to put up $50 million to finance the Expos move to Washington? My congratulations to the Empire marketing people. Way to get the site some ink.

top

Cash bird & the Aflac duck;
Nice try, now take a seat

      December 24 2004:      When I read about the muzzling of the Aflac duck, it reminded me of a similar ad campaign that one of my pals did for the old Super Sahara Celebration, the first casino floor promotion on the Las Vegas Strip. The Aflac duck zoomed Aflac's brand awareness from 12% to 90%, says the Wall Street Journal--but still left viewers wondering, "What can you do for me?" I faced a similar situation in the mid-70. So my friend Vern Baker did a radio spot for the Super Sahara Celebration featuring a bird that screamed, "Cash! Cash! Cash!" The promotion's awareness climbed, too. The only problem was that people hated that damn bird (Vern and I did, too). After a while we pulled it. I heard comments for months, but not about the promotion. People still remembered that freaky bird. See, that's the problem with brand advertising. It can raise awareness but what good is it if people don't know what you're selling? In the case of the Aflac duck, 60% of the respondents in a survey said they didn't know what Aflac insurance was. Hey, duck! Have a nice life. P.S. The voice of the Aflac duck is comedian Gilbert Gottfried. P.P.S. Merry Christmas, everyone!

A bad year for advertising;
Even outdoor got nailed

      December 12 2004:      Not a good year for the advertising business. It started with Janet Jackson's now-famous breast flash in the Super Bowl halftime show. Then the Hard Rock in L:as Vegas got fined for a racy outdoor board.(Darn! I never got to see it.). And as 2004 limped to a close, the US Postal Inspectors ran a series of ads warning of telemarketing fraud and suggesting that everyone register for the national no-call list. The American Teleservices Association people were not amused. Now it turns out that the national no-call list is hurting newspapers as well. A survey of dailies reported by DM News showed declining circulation numbers at many major newspapers, which rely on telemarketing for new subscriptions and renewals. Still another survey showed that magazines might be on the road to extinction (70 percent of them have fallen in newsstand sales over the past 25 years says Dan Capell, editor of Capell's Circulation Report). So what's left? Just the powerhouse of our time, my friends. The Internet. Time for casinos to get serious about its potential.

A classic handicapping vignette
by the Gold Sheet's Mort Olshan

      December 1 2004:      Mort Olshan, founder and publisher of The Gold Sheet, the famous bible of handicapping team sporting events, has been gone more than a year now. He was the kind of friend you never forget--and I'm continually reminded of this strong man who loved football handicapping with a passion unmatched by his peers. Here's a classic vignette he wrote in 1971: "The sky was filled with turbulence...fraught with threatening sounds...the leaden clouds above portended the commotion to come...rain pelted down in rhythmic beat...snuggled close to my ear was a trusty transistor belching with each ear-splitting flash of lightning...the reverberation of thunder echoed through the huge Coliseum...down on the rain-soaked playing turf Stanford (a Gold Sheet favorite picked to win) had taken the opening kickoff...they drove relentlessly thru USC's defense to score the game's first touchdown...rain now cascaded down on the umbrella-covered but hopelessly inundated crowd...the sounds erupting from the billows above grew ever boisterous...turning to the lovely blonde cuddled closely at my side, my bride of 20 years, I softly spoke...God! It's good to be alive and ahead by seven.

top

Best time to send e-mail?
Uh, Monday thru Friday?

      November 23 2004:      Catching up with the latest marketing jazz...The word from an e-marketing company named eROI is that e-mail messages are more likely to be read on Monday, with Friday showing some increase as well. Three months ago, says eROI, it was Tuesday. This is a company with too much time on its hands...Associated Press reports that casino-quality chips and gaming tables equipped with drink-holders and chip-holders are among the "must have" items during the early Christmas shopping season. Teenagers, according to a Wal-Mart spokeswoman, just love them. (Oh, kids. That's just terrific.) Still another Wal-Mart spokeswoman said a deck of cards may be the top stocking-stuffer this year...What's-happening-to-this-country Department: Andrew Zoli, writing in American Demographics, advises readers to "Head on over to your local Target, where you'll find aisles overflowing with elegant, whimsical, and iconic products in virtually every category. Design is king, and designers have made us all curators of our own boutique lifestyles." Run for your life. The art directores have taken over.

Visiting Global Gaming Expo:
Next year I'll have a strategy

      November 12 2004:      I hit the Global Gaming Expo in Las Vegas again this year (my 20th straight year at the Big Show) and I got lost about two seconds into the exhibition hall. I mean, this is embarrassing. I'm supposed to be this big expert and I had to enlist my pal Larry Close as a guide. The man has an instinct. When I wanted to find Beth Deighan's CasinoCareers booth, he went right to it. After a few minutes I asked him to find Griffin Investigations. He gave me a superior smile and said, "Don't move an inch." Griffin was backed up against CasinoCareers. I begged him not to leave my side. After four hours of this sort of thing my brain was whirling. More than 700 exhibitors were set up and there were 26,000 attendees milling around trying to find them. Some 26 countries were represented, and the panels and workshops topped 140. I'm convinced you need a strategy to see the show. That and a map. Walking the isles as Larry and I did is fun, but frustrating. Next year I'll make a list and put on blinders. Meanwhile, congratulations to Frank Fahrenkopf and the American Gaming Association. It's one hell of a show.

At last! Science develops a way
to measure brand advertising

      November 1 2004:      If you've read my books or my marketing columns in IGWB or Slot Manager magazines, you know I'm not a fan of branding. I've always admitted it's part of the advertising mix, but with me, anything you can't measure for effectiveness is suspect. But now, amazingly, there may be a way in the future to measure the effectiveness of branding--provided you can make all the targets take a brain scan. The process is called "Neuromarketing." Recently, according to Sandra Blakeslee of the New York Times, neuroscientists monitored the brain scans of 67 people who were given a blind taste test of Coke and Pepsi. The subjects were evenly split until they were told what they were drinking. At that point, activity in a different area of the brain "linked to brand loyalty" overrode their preferences. Three out of four then said they preferred Coke. A consumer group called the test "Orwellian," and said that such studies were dangerous. So maybe the branding devotees among us still have a while to wait.

top

Five new casino owners,
and the oldest is just 15

      October 22 2004:      This quote from the Atlantic City Press stopped me cold. "The new owners of Fitzgerald's Casino & Hotel in Reno, Nevada, will be five children, ages six months to 15 years old." And it's true. They're the grandchildren of Wolf Lichten, who heads a group that bought the bankrupt Fitz for $9.9 million. Lichten is a savvy casino guy from Atlantic City who simply wanted to make sure his extended family was taken care of. "I guess this will be my legacy," said Lichten. Of course, the kids won't run the casino (darn!). Lichten and his son will. According to the story, the Reno Fitz itself was not in financial distress; it was just part of the bankrupt company. Lichten said he and his son will emphasize a family atmosphere and personal customer service. They plan to spend a lot of time on the casino floor, mixing with customers. "We won't have any voice mail," said David Lichten. "We'll take all calls, 24 hours a day, for our customers."Sounds like a lot of lost sleep to me--but fun. And can you imagine the 15-year-old grandson telling his school friends he owns a Nevada casino? That kid will be a big man on campus for sure.

"Copywriter" is a nickname
to keep the price down

      October 12 2004:      The advertising business calls them "copywriters." I call them "writers." My guess is that the servile term"copywriter" was designed by Madison Avenue to keep low paid slaves in cubicles, heads down, writing ads for which the agency bosses could take credit. Personally, I hate it when people call me a "copywriter." I also hate it when I read lines in the Wall Street Journal like "Research shows that today's marketing-savvy consumers are put off by preachy ads that dryly recite claims and slogans." Nobody needs "research" to tell them that. It goes without saying. No writer with even half a brain would write dry, preachy copy filled with claims and slogans because it wouldn't sell beans. But the line, by implication, makes it seem as if all "copywriters" are unimaginative dummies. It's particularly galling to those of us who are direct marketers. In our discipline, you sell--or else. And your main weapons are words. But in advertising these days you read about "cutting edge" techniques including street theater, improvisation, guerrilla marketing and viral marketing as if they could replace words. That's pure Bolshoi. Words still rule--in print, on TV and radio, and in Email and Web sites. Ask any writer.

Gaming's worldwide push
soon to engulf Singapore

      October 1 2004:      Casino gambling has succeeded virtually everywhere it's been tried in the world. It has shed the old stigmas and forged ahead for three reasons. (1) Its massive tax revenues prop up governments (2) It employs one hell of a lot of people, and (3) it brings in the tourists. You can add a fourth if you like: it usually destroys the illegal, underground rackets and converts part of that lost revenue into taxes. So now even Singapore is wising up. "For decades," writes Barry Wain in the Wall Street Journal, "conservative Singapore has rejected proposals to open a casino in the city-state, denying its gambling-devoted, predominantly Chinese population the opportunity to place a legal bet." With an estimated $720 million a year flowing out of Singapore into casinos in Malaysia and to cruise ships that sail out of Singapore on overnight gambling voyages, the country's prime minister says it's time to "reconsider...because the situation has changed." The government has invited "proposals," writes Wain, and the usual suspects, including MGM Mirage, Las Vegas Sands, Caesars and Harrah's are lining up. In Casino Marketing, my first book, I wrote that the gaming industry was "sprinting hard to take over America." I missed by six continents.

top

Video games rivaling ad media:
Will casinos follow Jeep's lead?

      September 20 2004:      How long will it be until there's a video game about Las Vegas or Atlantic City--or about a particular casino? Probably not very. The Wall Street Journal reports that DaimlerChrysler commissioned a video game about the Jeep Wrangler zooming up steep inclines and dashing across rivers, offered it free online and was stunned when 250,000 downloaded it. A Jeep executive, according to the paper, said that video games are so effective as advertising that "it's shocking." Jeep says it sold hundreds of vehicles to people who played the game, and nearly 40% said they were interested in buying one. The US Army has a game out. So does NASCAR and Tom Clancy ("Tom Clancy's Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow"). Males 18 to 35 and watching TV less and playing video games more, says a Chrysler executive. The Journal says that "advergames" usually cost less than $250,000 and that Chrysler has already produced 23 of them with amazing success. Okay all you casino marketers, who's first?

Can the Justice Department
keep online gaming at bay?

      September 10 2004:      David Carruthers, a Brit who recently took his online gambling company public, is betting that the US will eventually be forced to drop its online gaming prohibition, writes Julia Angwin in the Wall Street Journal. And he's not the only one. Most Internet gaming executives feel the same way, says Angwin. The Justice Department successfully prosecuted an American who was running an operation in Antigua, and New York Attorney Eliot Spitzer nailed Citibank for processing credit card payments. Then the Justice Department told the National Association of Broadcasters that accepting ads from online gaming companies was illegal. The ads promptly disappeared from radio, Google, Yahoo and numerous others. But the actions devastated Antigua and Barbuda, which had 3,000 people working in more than 112 online casinos. Now only 500 work in 31 such operations. Antigua and Barbuda have challenged the US at the World Trade Organization, and last March a WTO court sided with the island nations, says Angwin. Australia has already decided not to ban Internet gambling. Will the US back down, too? Maybe not completely, but regulation will ease.

Governor Bill Owens takes a stand
against Indian gaming in Colorado

      September 1 2004:      The Senate Indian Affairs Committee meets Sept. 8, to hear, among other items on the agenda, a plea from the governor of Colorado to keep the Cheyenne-Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma from building a $150 million dollar casino outside Denver. Governor Bill Owens has made it clear that he not only opposes such a plan, but will actively fight it. The tribes, claiming homeland rights, have filed a 22-million-acre land claim with the Department of the Interior that would give them most of northwestern Colorado (including Denver) if upheld. They would, however, trade the claim for 500 acres near the Denver International Airport--about 35-40 minutes from the center of the city. Owens says he is confident the tribal claim would be defeated in the courts, and is dead against the Denver casino location. Colorado has 40 casinos, two of them Indian. Venture capitalist Steve Hillard, the key financial backer for the tribes, also will appear before the committee. Hillard claims the proposed casino would contribute a billion in revenue for the state over 10 years. Other Colorado casino owners say the amount is far overstated, and the Denver Post has editorialized against the tribes, saying there is no need for more casinos in the state. Stay tuned.

top

What day and what time is best
for sending e-mail campaigns?

      August 12 2004:      E-mail plays an increasingly larger role in casino marketing. Problem is, we really don't know much about it. But little by little we're learning thanks to the various companies who analyze the stuff. Every time you pick up a tip you gain a slight edge--and here's one of those tips. The daily marketing newsletter Direct Newsline has revealed a new study by ReturnPath that shows the best day of the week to send permission-based e-mails is Monday.The deliverability success rate is higher on Monday than on any other day of the week. Best time to send your Monday e-mail is between 6 a.m. and 10 a.m., The worst time to send is on Saturdays and Sundays between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. (eastern), when, according to ReturnPath, delivery rates fall 10%. The study also notes that "time of day" is more important than "day of choice." ReturnPath analyzed 16,000 campaigns and 3.3 million messages between January and April to arrive at their conclusions. The next big hurdle? We still have to learn how to "talk" to customers via e-mail. It's sure not in huge blocks of text. The mind rebels.

Phone company withdraws support
when celeb poker players act naughty

      August 12 2004:      Ordinarily I don't pay much attention to the advertising mishaps of companies outside the casino industry. But I had to laugh when Cingular Wireless withdrew its advertising support from the "Celebrity Poker Showdown" last month. Cingular had been one of the top sponsors, according to the Wall Street Journal, and also funded the $250,000 prize pot. But on the July 8 show, banter among the celebrity players apparently crossed that invisible corporate line between improper and indecent. The Journal said, "Cingular says it reviewed several episodes of Celebrity Poker Showdown and determined that some of the language used and the depictions of excessive alcohol use are not appropriate content in the context of our guidelines." Well, what did they expect--angels at the poker table? My guess is that they got some nasty letters and caved. But why did they back such a raunchy bunch in the first place? Habit, maybe. According to the Journal, TNS Media/Intelligence CMR reports that Cingular has advertised in the past on questionable television shows and movies. Can you hear me now? Oops. Wrong phone company.

Fewer and fewer Americans read,
but they sure like to be romanced

      August 1 2004:      Do casino customers actually read all the mail we send them? It depends. George Will wrote recently about "The Vanishing Art of Reading," and the statistics he quoted were not pretty. Said Will, "Only 56.9 percent of Americans said they read a book of any sort in the past year...only 46.7 percent of adults read any literature for pleasure." The average is far lower for young people. But casino customers are a different breed. Most are older, wealthier, and more fun-loving. And when they open a letter from a casino they want to know two things--what's the deal, and what's in it for me? But they like to be romanced, too, and letters that speak to them about benefits and promises are read much more closely than ads disguised as letters (my opinion). The bottom line for casino direct mail is this: if the letter is about the customer and what you'll do for him, readership is likely to be high. The ads that pose as letters get read, too, but most sound like they were written by carnival barkers. They miss the human element that creates a relationship and builds loyalty.

top

As California's slots expand,
who comes out the winner?

      July 23 2004:      Random thoughts about the casino business: Now that The Governator has signed new deals with five California tribes to let them operate (in the words of the Sacramento Bee) "a limitless number off slot machines," who wins? Some pundits say IGT will benefit the most--and that's probably true. But with California gaming now beginning to resemble the Incredible Hulk, the company may lose sales in Las Vegas as the competition dries up weaker casinos. Sure hope not...Can you believe the merger of MGM Mirage and Mandalay Resort Group will give the unified company more than 2.1 million square feet of convention and meeting space? According to the Las Vegas Sun, Deutsche Bank analyst Marc Falcone estimates the new company will have 32% of the Las Vegas convention market (thanks to the Adams Daily Report)....Meanwhile, I read rumors that Steve Wynn is about to introduce a new type of slot machine. You can never, ever, underestimate this guy's ingenuity...Your faithful reporter will be awarded the Casino Marketing Lifetime Achievement Award on July 26 in Las Vegas. I'm honored, but there are dozens more marketers in our business just as qualified, or more so. Thank you, Raving Consulting and Ascend Media.

Keeping players on hold
may cost you a customer

      July 13 2004:      Casino host departments take note. Do you keep players waiting on the line for lengthy periods? As you know, the minutes pass like hours while you're sitting there listening to elevator music or vapid commercials. Personally, I'm outta there after a couple of minutes. But a recent study of the way customers respond to negative experiences indicates that 75% of consumers would linger for five minutes before hanging up. The study, by Amdocs of St. Louis, also found that just two negative experiences of any kind would prompt a customer to quit the offending company and go down the street. Amdocs conducted its survey in the banking, cable, retail and telecommunications fields, querying 1,000 persons. It found that another 75% would tell family and friends about negative experiences. The bottom line, says Amdocs, is that consumers may hold the entire company responsible for the actions of one or two employees. So casinos, you're warned. Unless you get to the caller fast, you could lose him. And as we all know, replacing disgruntled customers is VERY expensive. (Thanks to Primedia's Chief Marketer newsletter.)

Casino tribute to Reagan
brings back JFK memories

      July 1 2004:      Watching President Reagan's funeral and the voluntary Las Vegas casino blackout took me back 41 years to President Kennedy's death. Do you remember where you were when Kennedy was shot and killed? I do, and vividly. I was inside the Las Vegas Convention Center directing a Sahara promotion named Miss Rodeo America. The air seemed to go out of the rotunda when we heard. I drove back to the Sahara in a daze, and as I walked through the convention area on my way to my office I came across a cocktail party filled with laughing, talking businessmen. I wanted to shout, "For God's sake, don't you people know that Kennedy is dead?" I remember two more things about the following days. One was the incessant drumming as his casket rolled through Washington. The other was a dark and empty Sahara casino in tribute. I actually thought President Reagan was a far better man but his death didn't hit me as hard. Maybe it was because Kennedy was so young and his ending so violent.

top

King barred in New Jersey
but he's still one of a kind

      June 24 2004:      When I read in The Adams Report that boxing promoter Don King had been barred from doing business with New Jersey casinos it brought back memories of a night in 1963 when he and I went out on the town together. King had been in Las Vegas trying to sell someone a fight, and my GM at the Sahara suggested I take him out and check out the deal. Our first stop was dinner at Circus Circus, where he said, "Order anything. I'm comped here." We hit a couple of other places that night and the routine was the same. We couldn't pick up a check. Exactly why that was I never discovered, but it made me uncomfortable and I was one happy man when the evening wound down. I heard a lot of Don King stories that night and every one of them had me laughing so hard I almost went under the table. Now I see he's even banned from applying for a new Jersey license until April, 2005. Prediction: he'll eventually get the license because the man is a survivor. He's one of a kind. And while he's not the sort of guy I'd pal around with, he's a very funny man--and that hair!

Las Vegas convention business
grew from a modest beginning

      June 13 2004:      Believe it or not, I worked in Las Vegas BEFORE there was a convention center. Now the city has been the top convention destination in the nation for 10 straight years. Some of the people who pushed so hard for the center are no longer with us, and one of the departed ones was Herb McDonald, who brought me into the gaming business in 1960. Herb was around when the old Silver Slipper ballroom was the largest space in town--and naturally, he ran it. When he moved to the Sahara, he was the force behind (at that time) the city's largest hotel-casino convention space. As I recall, the Sahara's first hall was about 6,000 square feet. When the winter months used to kill most of the Las Vegas convention business, Herb invented his own conventions--including the world Airline Christmas Party, the National Bellman's Convention, the national Ham Radio Operators Convention and countless others. When the Sahara enlarged its convention space, Herb brought in Sig Front, a master salesman who headed Sahara convention sales from the 60s into the 80s. Soon all the big Strip properties built convention space and hired their own Sig Fronts. I also remember the days when a horse race track and stables occupied the space where the convention center now stands. Thanks, Herb. You'd be damned proud of the center now.

The Governator threatens
to unleash Indian casinos

      June 1 2004:      Imagine you own a small to mid-size Las Vegas casino and after a struggle, the joint is finally starting to make a little money. Then you pick up the paper and read that California plans to add a hundred new casinos within five years. Okay, so the hundred is just a guess. But The Governator, says Copley news Service, "has offered unlimited slot machines for a price." Copley says that his decisions "could unleash Indian gambling and open the door to Nevada-style casinos almost anywhere in California." The Gov also says he's not averse to off-reservation casinos if communities want them. Translation: facing a $35 billion California deficit, you gotta do what you gotta do. Meanwhile, Las Vegas is raking it in. The latest stats (for March) show the Strip casinos won $465.4 million. You can bet nobody in Las Vegas wants to see Schwarzenegger make California any more competition than it already is.

top

Did you ever send an e-mail
only to find it never arrived?

      May 24 2004:      A funny thing happened to me last week. Three of the e-mails I sent to clients never got there. Either their own spam blockers or their Internet Service Provider had taken a look at the subject line and trashed the message. Hey! My subject lines to friends and clients have always been a bit irreverent, but this is business. I told them to get me on their opt-in lists fast. Then I discovered my situation was much more common than I realized. Primedia's online Chief Marketer says a recent study of e-mail performance by management company Return Path reports that ISPs failed to deliver 18.7% of opt-in e-mails in the last six months of 2003. Says the Return Path study, "NetZero topped the list with the highest percentage of nondelivery at 37.7% of permission-based e-mail, followed by SBC Global/Yahoo! at 26.7% and Mac with 26.2%. Earthlink was reported to have the highest success rate, with only 7% of legitimate e-mails blocked." Like you, I log on every morning and find a couple of pages of spam. It takes me about 30 seconds to delete it. So in addition to corporate and ISP spam blockers, more than a few legit messages could be lost this way. I'll pay more attention to what I toss from now on.

Howard Stern seen at the Borgata,
And consumers like spam after all

      May 13 2004:      Disa and Data: the amazing Thunder Valley Casino near Sacramento, CA, continues to roll up revenues. In the fourth quarter of last year the take was approximately $68.8 million, reports Steve Wiegand of the Sacramento Bee (from The Adams Report)...Kris Oser of Direct Newsline reports that 19% of Americans bought a product or service through commercial e-mail in the 12 months prior to November, 2003. The conclusion is that consumers may gripe about spam but it doesn't deter them from buying what it offers. In a study by the DMA, consumers averaged 6.5 purchases, and 1.9 of those were through unsolicited e-mail...Joe Weinert of the Atlantic City Press takes a jab at Forbes, which named the Borgata one of the ten best casinos in the world. Forbes justifies it by reporting celebrities such as Howard Stern and David Schwimmer have been seen there (from The Adams Report)...Under "Magic Marketing Minutes," Ray Jutkins quotes one of the most interesting guarantees he's ever seen was on the back of a rubbish truck. It went like this:, says Jutkins: "Satisfaction guaranteed or double your garbage back." Jutkins adds,"His attitude is that I'm going to take care of my customers. He had a sense of humor about it and probably a very large and satisfied customer base."

Advertisers now seek quantified results:
Direct marketing seen as best answer

      May 1 2004:      Quietly, with little fanfare outside the advertising business, the way marketing budgets are spent has been changing--in almost every industry. Clients now demand results. Can you imagine that? The nerve of those people. Under the headline "Linking Agency Fees to Ad Success," Erin White of the Wall Street Journal writes about an upstart consultant (David Wethey, a Brit) who has gained favor with clients with this bold statement: "Ad agencies should get either a percentage of the client's sales or a percentage of the client's marketing budget. If sales increase, so does the agency's compensation...payment is based on what its work achieved." In the recent Direct Marketing Association Net Marketing Conference, reports Direct Newsline, marketers were warned they had better be prepared to show their own companies what they got for their ad dollars. All marketing, the conference was told, is rapidly shifting toward direct marketing, where results are measured. Just one question from your faithful reporter: why has it taken so long?

top

Big swing to direct marketing
comes with new challenges

      April 23 2004:      Notes of interest to casino marketers: Good news and bad news from the Direct Marketing Association's Net.marketing conference. The good news is that companies are increasingly swinging to direct marketing. The bad news is that the same companies are forcing their marketing people to quantify results. Bottom line is that the broad definition of "marketing" will become more like direct marketing than traditional awareness advertising...Is spam killing the use of e-mail as a marketing tool? Apparently not. According to the Direct Marketing Association, 39 million consumers made an average of 6.5 e-mail purchases in the 12 months prior to Nov., 2003. Those surveyed spent an average of $126 on their most recent purchase. Total take through e-mail, $32.5 billion...And finally, the U.S. Postal Service is in worse trouble than we thought. Treasury Secretary John Snow said it's incorrect to say the Postal Service was "nearly breaking even." In the 1972-2003 period the USPS had losses "in excess of $101 billion," said Snow. More rate hikes coming, you can bet on that. (Thanks to Direct Newsline for the info).

Could Inglewood's 20,000 slots
pose a problem for Las Vegas?

      April 13 2004:      Inglewood versus Las Vegas? Gedouttahere. All they have in Inglewood are card rooms and a horse track. But after the November election, things could change. Dan Morain, writing for the Los Angeles Times, says that card rooms and racetracks are pushing an initiative for the November election that may transform Inglewood into a slot machine powerhouse. As quoted by Ken Adams in The Adams Report, an online newsletter devoted to gaming, "Los Angeles and Orange County combined would have roughly 20,000 slot machines" if the measure passes. And if it does you can bet the state will have to let in other big players. California is going broke unless it comes up a solution to the budget mess it's in, and can you imagine how much tax revenue that 20,000 slots would bring in? Adams (again quoting Morain) says, "Companies that own card rooms and racetracks are deploying paid petition circulators to gather the 600,000 valid signatures of registered voters that are needed to put the initiative on the ballot."Can you imagine a casino on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills where even the ties cost $500 each? Could happen. P.S. The Adams Report is complied for Compton Dancer Consulting by Ken Adams in Reno. You can reach him at kenadams@softcom.net.

Deaths of O'Callaghan, DiRocco
conjure up some fond memories

      April 1 2004:      The recent death of former Nevada Governor Mike O'Callaghan followed by the passing of Chuck DiRocco hit me hard. Mike was a rough and tumble politician from Henderson, NV, when I first met him. He was the kind of guy you like before he says a word, and he was a sports nut, too. He told me he loved to read my column when I was sports editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and every time I saw him after that he always asked me a question about baseball or football. He kept doing it, even when I left the newspaper business and got into the casino business. The last time I saw him (years ago) was at a UNLV football game. We chatted a minute and then he had to leave for Carson City. The Highway Patrol used to drive him around the state when he was governor and he never sat in the back seat--always up front where he could talk sports with the driver. My kind of governor. When I first met Chuck he had started a little sports publication named Sports Form and was having a tough time getting ads. But some way he kept the thing afloat and it's still around as Gaming Today. Then he got into the televising of horse races for sports books and made a success of that, too. I always admired his tenacity and drive. Mike and Chuck--two of the good guys.

top

Blackjack on TV was a flop,
poker now draws millions

      March,26 2004:      The World Poker Tour, I read on the Business Wire, is a whopping success. Boy, I sure would have lost that bet. My partners and I staged the World Championship of Blackjack (the first casino tournament ever) at the Sahara Las Vegas in 1979, and it was a miserable dog. Even John Brodie as MC couldn't rescue it. I really felt sorry for John, who kept struggling to make it interesting. But the players were all serious and formal (in tuxes) and it just wasn't compelling. The poker tour is different. The offbeat personalities of the players sell it. You put silent guys in tuxes on the tour and it would kill it. Can you believe that the Travel Channel World Poker Tour Battle of Champions hit an overnight rating of 3.0? No way. Then I realized it was on NBC. Wow! Quite an improvement over Brodie and the gang of 25 years ago. Say, do you think NBC would try another BJ tournament? Naw, I guess not.

Casino business is far ahead
in direct marketing expertise

      March,13 2004:      Who do online consumers trust with personal information? A survey by Accenture, a management consulting firm, shows they're most likely to trust their employers, banks, and HMO/health insurance providers. Online retailers and supermarkets, says Primedia's Direct Newsline, were rated lowest in trustworthiness. But wait! The study also found that if you offer rewards such as cash or bonus points, 69 percent say sure, they'll offer personal information. Every time I read this kind of thing I think just how far ahead the casino business is in database marketing, and how much we've taught retailers, online and storefront alike. This was brought home to me recently when the Denver Post did a breathless piece announcing that restaurants have discovered the value of customer databases. One restaurant manager said, "We're building a relationship." What a concept. I discovered the rewards of one-on-one when I did my first mailing for the old Del Webb's Sahara, Las Vegas, in the 60's. The acceptances flooded back. I've been a database guy ever since.

Users blocking spammers,
but newsletters go through

      March, 1 2004:       Are you using e-mail messages to invite your prospects to special events and floor promotions? That may not be your best use of the Internet. Because spam keeps overwhelming us in spite of all the various state and federal laws, e-mail users have been blocking more and more of it. A study by Jakob Nielsen and Amy Stover of Nielsen Norman Group of Fremont, CA, found that well-designed newsletters with good content were much better at penetrating spam filters than the usual second-rate junk we find when we open up the mailbox every morning. The study found that users subscribe to e-mail newsletters for three main reasons. They find the content informative, convenient, and timely--in that order. If you like the idea for your casino be aware that self-serving copy about the show and the buffet (for example) will get your newsletter back on the kill list. The the idea is to produce newsletters with real news, not puff. (Thanks to Hallie Mummert, editor of Target Marketing & Inside Direct Mail, for the info.)

top

Gaming destinations worry
about latest terror alerts

     February 23, 2004:       First we hear about guys from the Energy Department's "dirty" bomb teams snooping around Las Vegas during the holidays with their high tech detection equipment stashed in golf bags and briefcases. Then we learn the FBI required all LV hotel operators to hand over guests lists (they contained about 270,000 persons) and demanded that all airlines reveal their arriving passenger manifests. Now we learn that airline passengers will be given color codes (reds can't board, yellows get an extra pat-down) and that the IRS will scrutinize all taxpayers who use free electronic filing. The Las Vegas operators I talked to are worried, as they should be. My airline contacts are not happy, either. And if a recent flight I took from Denver to Las Vegas is any indication, I understand why. The plane was half full; I've flown United out of Denver for six years and for six years the Las Vegas flight has been booked solid. Las Vegas and all the other gambling destinations took a big hit from 9-11, but travel gradually returned. The latest scare could last far longer.

Just what is "creative"
and what is nonsense

     February 13, 2004:       One of the worst eras in advertising is drawing to a close," the Wall Street Journal proclaimed last month. The newspaper predicted a comeback for the ad business in 2004. "Marketers," said the Journal, "are lean and mean and demanding more creativity." And that line explains, in part, how advertising fell into such disrepair. Nobody ever defines "creativity," including the clients who seek it so avidly. They just want it. The result is often clever but irrelevant nonsense. So exactly what is creativity? If you define it as advertising that makes sales go up, and can prove it, you are wise indeed. Most big advertisers, including casinos, have no idea how much their advertising increased revenue, or if it increased revenue at all. But they're delighted if their ads are "creative." They go for nutty, far-out stuff that is meaningless to most people. If you're charged with spending the casino's ad budget to make slot revenue go up, forget "creativity." You're better off worshiping at the altar of accountable advertising that can be tracked for effectiveness.

New Colorado Indian casino?
The governor's against it

     February 1, 2004:       Black Hawk, Colorado, has has become a mini-Las Vegas, with the state's largest casinos improving their facilities and numbers every year. But Black Hawk is located high in the Rockies. You have to drive an hour or two to get there from Denver, and sometimes it's tricky in the winter. So when the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes of Oklahoma announced a proposal to build a large Indian casino just outside Denver, the alarm bells rang. Governor Bill Owens came out against it, and the Denver Post ran an editorial headlined, "Don't let gambling expand." Even Senator Ben (Nighthorse) Campbell, a native American, thought it was a bad idea. The Indians backed off, then suggested they may build their casino in Central City, which is contiguous to Black Hawk. The tribes say they'll give up their claim on 27 million acres of Colorado in exchange for land in Central City. Black Hawk casino owners voiced concern, said the Denver Post, that the Indian casino would face the same restrictions placed on all Colorado casinos ($5 bet limit on the tables and a 2 a.m. closing time). One of the state's Indian casinos is open 24 hours. The Casino Owners Association also wants the Indians to pay the same tax rate faced by existing Colorado casinos.The governor may have the last word: by law, he can ban gaming on Indian reservations.

top

The "customer for life."
Is it myth or reality?

     January 24, 2004:       Is there such a thing as a "customer for life" in the casino business? Probably not. Even if you reach a potential customer while he's young and succeed in getting him into your joint regularly, he's going to move on. It's a part of growing up, says Eric Felton in the Wall Street Journal. He quotes ad exec Al Ries commenting on marketing research that's 40 years out of date: "It's a...fallacy to think you can build a customer for life...as people grow they change brands." To illustrate the point, Ries points to a young college student who buys a Chevrolet Cavalier. But that hardly means GM has a lock on him. "When a guy gets promoted," says Ries, "he doesn't get a more expensive Chevvy. He buys a BMW."Felton adds, "As people get older they go out of their way to reject brands they once embraced...it's hard to believe that outmoded assumptions and outright superstition are causing companies to waste billions of advertising dollars." Bottom line: "Blindly chasing the young," says Felton, "is a marketing mistake as costly as it is inexplicable."

Those old TV commercials
are making a comeback

     January 12, 2004:      Years ago, when I was the marketing director for Del Webb's Sahara on the Las Vegas Strip, we turned out some pretty fair TV commercials for the Sahara Safari vacation package. In one of them, a gorgeous model in a Bikini stalks through palm fronds (on Safari, get it?) as a voice-over talks about the benefits of the package. As the copy builds to a climax, she places a daisy in her mouth and snaps off the petals with one sexy bite. Though unlikely, you might see that commercial on TV again, advertising something else--like used cars. Kevin Schaff of Denver, described as a "young entrepreneur" by the Denver Post, has built a successful business recycling old commercials. "Schaff's company," says the Post, "gives small companies access to top creative talent without the hefty price tag." Ad agencies that sell their old TV spots to Schaff, says the Post, "Insist their names never be used...because their original clients paid dearly for the original work." Now I've heard everything.

Do ads generate revenue?
Colorado says, "Prove it!"

     January 1, 2004:      Casino marketers beware--this could catch on. In Colorado recently, lawmakers told the state's economic development director they wanted "proof" that the extra $9 million they gave him to boost tourism actually helped the state. Lawmakers, says the Rocky Mountain News, weren't sure they were getting "bang for the buck." Said one legislator, "We want some real evidence. And the sooner we get that data, the better." Bob Lee, the ED Director, said "Our studies only measure those visitors who saw the advertising." This a classic problem when you rely strictly on general advertising, which is seldom held accountable. Can you imagine your GM confronting you with a similar question? General agencies, as Lee said, don't keep score the way direct marketers do. In direct, ads and mail can be measured to the penny for their ability to sell, get leads or both. Direct marketers, when asked for "proof" of effectiveness (usually from GMs with accounting backgrounds) always have it. General ad agencies, even the best ones, depend on awareness and recall, so they're on weak ground when asked to prove how much revenue their ads generated.

top

top