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Station Partners with Barona Valley Ranch

LAS VEGAS -- Las Vegas locals casino giant Station Casinos has entered a marketing partnership with a major San Diego-area tribal casino

Station's Sunset Station property and the Barona Valley Ranch Resort & Casino have a deal in place to swap 50 top players, with each property awarding their best players an all-expenses-paid trip to the other resort.

Sunset Station's top Boarding Pass slot club members will be entered in a Sunday contest, with the winning 50 entrants and their guests taking an April trip to visit the Barona's $260 million casino and golf resort.

Barona's top players will travel to Sunset Station in June, Station Casinos spokeswoman Lesley Pittman said.

The deal is significant, Pittman said, as the first Las Vegas casino and a California tribal casino to agree to a marketing partnership.

"We think the people who come here from Barona may come back to Sunset when they return to Las Vegas," Pittman said of the deal. "It's an exchange, our 50 best for their 50 best, but we think we'll do very well."

Barona consultant and Comp City author Max Rubin said Sunset Station probably will get the best of the deal in terms of how much each property's players will gamble at the other's casino.

"Our players are pretty strong," Rubin said. "But the trade-off is that we increase our visibility. We're very confident in our product."

Barona's Troy Simpson, executive director of casino marketing, said the partnership maximizes the resort's exposure.

"We've changed from being a locals property to a destination property," Simpson said.

For the big gamblers who qualify for the all expenses paid trips, they'll be staying on "RFB" status, he said, for free room, food and beverage.

Sunset Station visitors could eat, for example, at its upscale Sonoma Cellar restaurant, where a dinner for two could easily top $100 without wine.

Barona guests could play at its top-ranked golf course, an amenity Pittman said would appeal to the Sunset players.

Simpson explained why casinos would send their best players to another property.

"We're both eyeballing each other's local market, but we're not competing, we're complementing," he said, noting that Barona will get access to a group of gamblers from Las Vegas.

Las Vegas locals gamblers bet more money, more frequently than gamblers in any other metropolitan area, a fact Simpson said Barona bosses know well.

"I think Las Vegas players will enjoy Barona," Simpson said. "It gets very hot in Las Vegas, and the temperatures in San Diego will be very appealing."

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