My "home" casinos (Seminole Hard Rock Hollywood + other branches) have seriously devalued their comp system over the past couple years. . . .
. . . .Why would CET not get cheap, or cheaper?
There's a few differences here though. The Ft Lauderdale and the Seminoles have a more captive audience. People don't travel to Ft. Lauderdale to go to casinos. The Seminoles fleece the people that go there because "they can".
HET already cut the shit out of their program a few years ago. There's not much more they can cut. They already only offer .1% in comps on video poker and if you redeem for free play it's .05% unless you're diamond or 7*. The only way HET can actually devalue the points is to raise prices in their restaurants, which are already quite high as it is. Could they go higher? Sure. In some markets (Atlantic City) they raised how much coin in it takes to earn those points. It takes $50 in action to get that point on any machine with 9/6 jacks on it. That lowers the comp return to .02%
The other problem with HET devaluing points is they are a national brand with over 40 properties. If you eff your players in Joliet or Tunica, then you eff them at 38 other properties and you run the risk of losing a national customer. The Seminoles don't run that risk. If you're local and want to gamble, you're pretty much stuck going to the Hard Rock. If you eff them locally, you only lose the local action.
As far as a bankruptcy goes and them wiping out everyone's points, it won't happen. The idea of bankruptcy is to restructure and continue to run a business so you get back on your feet. If they piss off 10 million Total Rewards customers by doing that, then there's no sense in restructuring. You might as well close the doors because either way you wont' have any customers left.
