SEARCH NEWS:

 

Palms Changed Contest to Please Customers

LAS VEGAS--Angry Palms football contest entrants complained when the same people seemed to win Monday Night Football party cash giveaways week after week, and Palms executives changed the rules before last night's game in order to end the complaints.

The Palms gives away $5,000 in 10 separate $500 prizes every Monday night, with prizes restricted to gamblers entered in the property's $400,000 Pigskin Payoff.

The contest rules awarded every football contest entrant who attended the party five entries in the weekly Monday drawings, but the rules also awarded entrants who play the slots extra picks based on their slot play.

Many of the winners during the first four weeks were big slot bettors, Palms bosses said, as the rules awarded an additional contest entry for every $50 played on most machines.

Some winning slot players garnered hundreds of additional entries each week by playing tens of thousands of dollars through the machines.

Of the 40 $500 prizes given away the first few weeks, 17 were won by entrants who won two or more times. All of the duplicate winners earned substantial numbers of extra entries with their slot play, with each playing at least $7,500 per day through the machines.

One entrant won all four weeks, three entrants won three times and two won twice.

Slot play wasn't required to win, as at least 10 winners earned no extra entries by playing slots.

At the Sept. 30 Monday Night Football party some members of a group of about 175 fans began shouting when people who had previously won were tabbed as winners again.

"When those repeat winners were announced all hell broke loose," said contest entrant Michael Ruh, who attended all of the Palms Monday Night parties. "You think you have a fair chance, but the same people won week after week."

After players complained to Palms management, property executives decided to discontinue giving extra entries for slot play.

"We are always concerned when our customers have comments, and we listen closely," said Sheri Long, Palms marketing director. "When it's within our power to fix something, we try to do it."

Palms marketing director Sheri Long said the Monday night parties have drawn less than 200 fans each week.

The Gaming Control Board is looking at the contest, enforcement division chief Keith Copher said.

"We haven't had a formal complaint, but we hear there was some controversy," he said.

Casino industry experts said the Palms contest was a standard industry practice.

"I'm sure it was an honest contest," said Anthony Curtis, a gambling expert and publisher of the Las Vegas Advisor consumer newsletter. "The football bettors just didn't understand the rules and didn't understand their chances were diluted by the extra entries earned by the slot players."

University of Nevada, Las Vegas professor and casino industry expert Bill Thompson applauded the Palms' quick decision to eliminate the extra entries for slot play.

"(Palms owner George) Maloof's concerned about customer service," Thompson said. "And I pat him on the back for responding so quickly to customer concerns."

< Gaming News