How to squeeze more money out of your customers

Dennis Conrad

August 6, 2024 7:47 AM

Dennis Conrad

Frequent readers of my column know that I’ve long been an advocate of giving more value to casino customers, not less. I just feel that is a better long-term business strategy.

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The feedback I’ve gotten from my rantings, I mean opinions, over the years has generally fallen into three categories:

You’re dead wrong, Dennis.
You may be right, Dennis, but my casino would never do that.
Right on, Dennis, you’re preaching to the choir! (Not too many of these responses).

So after decades of feeling like a lone wolf howling the “value cry” in the wilderness, I’ve made a big decision.

I don’t think I can fight this any longer, so I’ve decided to add a significant new part to my consulting offerings to casinos: how to squeeze more money from your customers.

Boy, will this will be a hot ticket!

And as my loyal readers, you get in this column (free of charge!) my best consulting tips on how to make more money by better squeezing your customers. Enjoy these sure-fire revenue rainmakers!

1. If you have a hotel, immediately increase your resort fees (or start them if you don’t have them). I’m thinking there’s a $50 to $100 upside here. Imagine $100-a-day increase in resort fees X 500 rooms X 365 days a year. Pure profit! Or here’s another tactic with a huge marketing angle. Say your hotel rooms cost $100 currently. Well, make them free! Of course, jack up the resort fee to $200 (keep that part in the small print). You know casino customers love free!

2. Disassemble your hotel-room features and amenities. Hey, airlines have been doing this for decades! You could have your hotel guests pay $20 for each pillow, $50 for a blanket ($100 in the winter). Give ’em a deal on soap for only $10 a bar; the $20 deluxe bar gets you a (small) free shampoo and conditioner! Early check-in and late check-out a deal at $25 an hour!

3. Reduce your restaurant’s capacity by 80%. This one’s a little counterintuitive. You cut your restaurant capacity by 80%, but you charge $100 for a guaranteed reservation. I know, I know. What about all those restaurant guests now having to wait in line? Simple! You conduct a lottery for the remaining available restaurant tables. Only $50 a ticket and waive the ticket cost for restaurant guests who give you two hours of dollar slot play while they wait. Brilliant!

4. Increase ATM fees. Heck, some casinos in Las Vegas are getting 10 bucks a transaction for casino customers to access their own money! I think the upside here may be as much as $100 a transaction. One caution: Try to have the ATM transaction fee not be higher than the amount the customer is requesting from their bank or credit card account. A little bit of a bad PR look for the casino.

5. Have casino cashiers charge to make change. Some casinos are already doing this by charging customers 10% to turn their buckets of coins into paper money. That’s chump change compared to the opportunity to charge for turning large-currency bills into smaller bills. Want to turn a C-note into 100 one-dollar bills? That’ll be $10, please. And it’s so tedious to turn that same C-note into two $20s, two $10s, four $5s, and 20 $1s. Well, that has to be a $20 “convenience” charge. Instant revenue.

6. Have redemption kiosks redeem slot tickets of only hundred-dollar amounts (with only $100 bills dispensed). Customers can donate the odd amounts to charity. Many casinos have stopped dispensing coins from their redemption kiosks (and already have the charity component). But think of the savings by not having to stock those kiosks with pesky ones, fives, tens, and twenties! The charity donations will go through the roof. Imagine, a $189 cashout could have an $89 donation to the Food Bank! Not revenue, I know, but what amazing PR capital for the casino!

7. Pay even money on blackjacks. Heck, when the blackjack payout in many casinos went from 3-2 to 6-5, the game never missed a beat. The players never even noticed. I’m thinking even-money blackjack payouts are a no-brainer. They could even progress to 1-2! Huge revenue impact!

8. Add more zeroes on the roulette game. Think most roulette players care if the roulette wheel has one, two, or even three zeroes on it? Think again. Most players actually like those pretty green 0, 00, and 000 numbers in the frets already. They feel lucky. I’m thinking you could get up to 10 zeroes on a game if you could figure out how to squeeze all those zeroes into the pocket pads on the roulette wheel.

9. Tighten the slots. Most casinos are already doing this, as some academics have “proven” that a slot player can’t tell a tight slot from a loose slot in the short term. But casinos have been missing the boat here by nibbling off only a percent or two from the slot hold percentage. You could get the average theoretical hold percentage down to 70% or 80% (where jurisdictions allow, of course; you wouldn’t want to get in trouble with the regulators). That would be astronomical revenue increases!

10. Charge admission fees into the casino. This used to be a common practice. Now, not so much. I say bring the admission fee back! Yield that asset you spent millions of dollars to build! Okay, maybe a $20 admission fee for a ratty old casino, but certainly a couple hundred for a cool megaresort! Don’t you think they’ll gladly pay?

I’m hoping my new consulting offering does really well. I’m thinking they’ll be lining up to have me show them how to really squeeze their casino customers.

DISCLAIMER! The author of this column is required to disclose that the advice mentioned herein is not to be construed as formal consulting advice and contains only his personal opinions. The author also warns that if a casino company follows all of the aforementioned suggestions, there is the possibility of huge revenue increases for a short period of time, followed by an even bigger possibility of being out of business within a year.