When the bosses at ufabet Digest hit me up for a fearless 2002 forecast about all things poker in America, little did I know that I was about to hit the jackpot—figuratively, if not literally.
Customer Service the Top Priority for Every Poker Room
Virtually every poker room executive from sea to shining sea—meaning mostly in Southern California, the Nevada desert, the one-time backwaters of Mississippi and the hot spots on the East Coast—whom I interviewed for this forecast said that customer service, safety, security and satisfaction are their highest priorities. But different rooms march to the beat of different drummers.
From the giants of the industry within a few square miles around Los Angeles to the solidly managed tables on my map of poker’s heartlands around the country, and in casinos around the world, cardrooms are fighting hard for their market share and harder to expand it.
Happy Days Are Here Again for California Jackpots
Jackpot promotions have boosted poker room business before, and it looks like they will be back in full swing again.
California leads the way as the poker capital of the world and the Commerce Casino is a leader in California. In the fall, the Commerce Casino approached the California State Department of Justice, Division of Gaming Control, in an effort to obtain approval of a “new game,” a player-funded jackpot. Also known as a “bad beat” jackpot, it refers to a cash prize for a huge hand that gets beaten by a stronger one. The proposal included a provision that allows the cardroom to take an administrative fee to run it, by a rake off the top of the prize pool.
How We Got from Here to There to Here Again
Back in the early ’80s, the player-funded jackpots were all the rage in California. They continued unchallenged under state law for several years until California authorities punctured their balloon. In 1995, the state of California was successful in its litigation to banish this favorite diversion from the killer aspects of the game, but inventive casinos responded by offering management-funded promotions that were designed to replicate the feel of the big prize jackpot. The switch turned down the legal heat but cardrooms remained under a cloud that could burst at any time.
Politics and Poker Make Strange Bedfellows
Across the country these past few months, the gaming industry has felt the pinch of a recession, and the events of 9/11 have put further pressures on businesses. So it’s no wonder that the world’s biggest poker room would take stock of its marketing scheme, especially given the recent opening of its cavernous high-limit section—a beautifully appointed room that has been built collaboratively in the luxurious new Crowne Plaza Hotel.
Jackpots Come Out of the Clouds
Jim Barbro, the politically astute general manager of the Commerce, together with Casino Manager Tim Gusten, took a look at the popular jackpot promotions and decided to bring a proposal for a “new game” to the California Department of Justice (DOJ), Division of Gaming—a player-funded jackpot. The goal was simple: lift jackpot prizes to the lofty heights of the golden ’80s and reverse an expensive marketing effort into an expense-free marketing tool. After weeks of polite but persistent negotiations, the Commerce got a deal.
While the submission applied exclusively to the Commerce, its approval by the state attorney general’s office will necessarily result in the state giving similar consideration to the competition. The individualized applications (complete with individually associated fees) will undoubtedly produce a windfall for the state as well as the cardrooms that are approved. The player-funded jackpot is expected to be a marketing bonanza for the Commerce and the cat’s meow for its lower-limit players in the year 2002.
A high-level official in the Department of Justice confirms informally that the Commerce jackpot offering of 2002 will likely look similar to the one of days of old, with a couple of strings attached. This time around, the casino must offer customers a no-purchase-necessary option—a fancy way of saying that the customer must have a chance to win a jackpot-paying hand at a “free-play” table—at least for a certain number of minutes or hours per day. The Commerce’s leadership should pave the way for jackpots as a standard aspect of California cardroom operations.
Bicycle Casino Hits on the Jackpot and a $1,000,000 Tournament
The venerable Bicycle Casino (the “Bike”), operated by Haig Kelegian, confirms that it, too, will make the application for the right to offer jackpots. Kalegian, the Bike’s very experienced managing general partner, also serves as president of the California Gaming Association. Kalegian talked to me while on a hop between the Bicycle and his Ocean’s Eleven Casino. Kalegian says there will be applications for jackpots all over the state, but he emphasizes that the Bike will also offer “other innovative promotions” throughout the year. He explained that he is headed down a unique path beyond his successful annual Legends of Poker Tournament, which he is confident will exceed its prior records in 2002.
According to Rick Cloward, manager of poker operations, “Next year the Bike will give away a whopping $1,000,000 through its freeroll tournaments, which include quarterly freerolls with prize pools ranging from $5,000 to $50,000, depending upon your game(s) of choice, and year-end freerolls for those who qualify from $20,000 to $100,000.” Cloward tells Poker Digest that this promotion will reward the players at all tables, which include pai gow, baccarat and California blackjack, as well as the various forms of poker, for their patronage.
East Coast Jackpot Deliberations are Slow
The jackpot is not a cure-all to the blues of any poker room, but the Atlantic City Tropicana Casino’s newly appointed Poker Room Manager Scott Griffin learned fast that jackpots have plenty of fans.
Several weeks ago, Griffin traveled across the country to get his bearings in the poker world before he entered the room he now calls his own. The former table games executive listened up to his California brethren and other seasoned managers closer to home in an effort to reinvigorate the tastefully appointed but less-than-crowded poker room he had just been hired to run.
To Griffin’s credit, he has been on the prowl in the poker room daily and is getting to know customers and staff. He elicits and throws out ideas and suggestions that faithful players are happy to respond to—partly because they are enamored of Griffin’s suggestion box for players as well as personnel. The box is conspicuously available and has already gotten plenty of play.
A jackpot is purportedly high on his list of new gaming elements to explore. The Tropicana’s legal department is reportedly looking at jackpot regulations around the country with an eye toward bringing a proposal to the New Jersey Casino Control Commission. A lawyer with close ties to the Commission explains, “They [NJCCC] will have to be convinced of its merits, and will put it out for 90 days of comment if they are positively disposed.”
If Griffin is lucky, the Commission will look at the regulations in Mississippi and the Golden State and give New Jersey’s Tropicana the green light.
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