The Law of 250

Dear Mark,
I agree with you about judging casinos in your column "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." I would like to add the Soaring Eagle Casino of Mt. Pleasant, MI to your ugly list. Besides employees being extremely rude, they charge for drinks while you're playing slots and their machines are the tightest I've ever played. If they don't change their ways soon, they're going to lose a lot of customers when the new casinos in Detroit are built. You need to let your readers know how bad it is. In the future I'm going elsewhere to do my gaming. Rick J. Wixom, MI

Dear Mark,
What really annoys me about Casino Niagara are the high minimums on the blackjack tables. If you are lucky you may find a few $5 tables, but the majority are either $10 or $25 minimums. I know that you preach always betting within your limits, but let's face it, for this area, it is ridiculous.
To me, it is blatant robbery of people who like to do some recreational gaming. I don't know many individuals who can afford $25 a pop at blackjack. Joe M. Buffalo, NY

Dear Mark,
Just writing to inform you that little has changed since you blasted Casino Windsor in your column, "The Good, the Bad and the Ugly." Just try getting on a low-limit blackjack table on the weekends. Don't they get it? Robert L. Toledo, OH

No, they don't GET IT. The above three samplings of carpetbaggers at work proves that when a self-contained casino complex has zippo competition, you the customer are the victim of a holdup. Sure, casino operators come to town drunk with virtue on how they boost employment rolls and stimulate the economy — an argument I'll debate with them inebriated or sober — but what they really have is an exclusive license to print money.

The three letters also prove casino management has no conception of Girard's Law of 250. Girard is Joe Girard, who has twelve times been named "The World's Greatest Salesman" by the Guinness Book of World Records. The Law of 250 is Girard's belief that everyone knows 250 people in his or her life important enough to invite to a wedding or who will show up at their funeral. Mistreat one, and 250 will eventually know about it. He also believes that customers are the most important asset in the world to someone involved in sales. And casinos are selling, selling gambling.

The mentioned casinos should soul search and question if our three letter writers have already told 250 people. Can they afford to have clientele leave sore and unsatisfied? Can they afford to jeopardize the patronage of any customer, even the low roller? Worst case scenario: Disgruntled patrons might tell me, and I'll take those pillaging casinos to task in the dozens of newspapers that this column appears in across the country.

The bottom line: It's only through established competition that payouts on all games become more liberal. It's your choice: Continue getting mugged, or "just say no" to gambling in these joints.

Dear Mark,
I recently saw a video poker game that drew cards from five different decks. The top jackpot at the time was $223,500. Do you know anything about this game? Janice J.

Called Five Deck Frenzy, this game has earned a following among video poker enthusiasts who enjoy the super jackpot produced by the game's use of five independent decks of cards. With random card delivery, the game also provides more winning combinations than standard video poker. Marketed jointly between Shuffle Master and IGT, it uses IGT's MegaJackpot format, a wide-area progressive system that offers a progressive jackpot starting at $200,000. The top hand possible in the game: five aces of spades.
Though casinos can offer video poker jackpots starting at $200,000, the probability of hitting five aces of spades is 14,896,150 to 1. Hit five bullets in another suit and the jackpot drops down to $2,500.
Also note, Janice, you can't dash out and buy a new Ferrari if you achieve gaming immortality. IGT primary jackpots are paid in annual installments.