I Think I Love Trump Plaza

I looked at my "Center Stage" monthly offer booklet from Trump Plaza today and they may have convinced me not to bother making a run at the Harrah's Diamond Card for next year. Of course, there's a lot of "year" left, as I've only made one trip to Atlantic City thus far this year, but the Plaza has a huge leg up on their competitors now, as they've actually offered me free rooms for "ANY DAY OF THE WEEK" next month. I circled that when I read it, because I wanted to make sure I actually read that phrase right. Of course, this could have been a misprint (I even checked that that booklet was actually addressed to me - it was), so I checked the web site right away and I've already booked three different dates that Harrah's was ready to charge me over $150 night (or more) for. This makes me want to run out and buy a toupee, just so I can let it flap recklessly in the spring breeze.

The room offers were enough to make Trump Plaza worthy of praise, and I find their newly redesigned web site much easier to navigate than what they offered in the past, but that wasn't the only thing that pleased me about the April offers I received. Here are some highlights:

• April 1 - May 10, Complimentary Overnight Stay ANY DAY, Valid Two Times Per Week
• $30 Bonus Cash (I had been receiving $5 offers, though mine used to be for $20 about 2 years ago) on 4/8, 4/12, 4/16, 4/19, 4/24, and 4/28 (this includes two Saturdays)
• I've been put back on the "Gift" list, after an absence of several months, and there seem to be 2-3 gift days every week
• $100 Comp Dollars with 3X or 4X Multiplier on additional points earned on 4/10
• $50 Macy's or Dick's Sporting Goods Gift Card on 4/14
• $50 Cash on 4/15
• $50 Cash on 4/20 (A Sunday) and 4/30

So, did the Plaza up the ante with anyone else for the month to come? Or, did my neglect in playing there very often pay off with The Donald trying to woo me back?

Harrah's Raising Diamond Requirements?

There's some buzz around Internet message boards suggesting that Harrah's will or already has raised it's requirements for "Diamond" status from 10,000 "Tier Credits" to 11,000 to attain this status during 2008. For those of you new to the world of Tier Credits, that equates to $110,000 "coin-in" for video poker or $55,000 run through the machines playing slots (and some mysterious amout of table game play). This would be up from $100,000 and $50,000 during the 2007 calendar year (and every other year in recent memory).

A small cost of living increase makes some sense, but this seems oddly non-drastic. Perhaps living in a state where we don't just increase tolls by a small margin, but introduce a plan for their exponential growth taking affect immediately after the next gubernatorial election has jaded me, but why isn't Harrah's using this as an excuse to legitimately thin the Diamond herd? There are already long lines at their lounges and I know that no casino company really likes giving out free food and booze in a location where folks can't gamble at all. Heck, the lounges don't even have obnoxious keno boards like I see in the Las Vegas coffee shops.

So, why the tiny increase? Everyone I know who just barely exceeding that 10,000 point threshhold last year could easily give Harrah's another $10,000 in play, but these folks would probably do so on games averaging around 99% return, so is Harrahs' just charging them an extra $100 for their Diamond privileges in 2008? That might cover increased costs they are incurring in recent years as more people earn this status, but won't that mean they will need to increase the requirements again in a short time? Maybe that's the plan, to introduce annual tier credit requirement increases to qualify for Diamond until they find the choke point where they start driving people away instead of "developing" them into slightly bigger players each year.

It's always hard to figure what Harrah's is up to, but they are very good at what they do, and it's up to the rest of us to guess what their words and actions really mean.