The VIP Legacy High Roller Chronicles

Chapter 10 – Chicago & New Jersey: Keep It Simple, Make It Personal

August 19–31, 2005
Chicago · New Jersey · Atlantic City

Quick links: Series hub · Chapter 9 — Canada 2005 · Chapter 11 — Texas 2005 · Past VIP events · Meet Jörn

By August 2005, the roadshows were teaching us something that no CRM report could properly explain.

Players did not necessarily want more promotions, more complicated loyalty programmes or more emails.

They wanted things to be simple.

And, particularly for VIP customers, they wanted to be recognised.

During this road trip through Chicago, New Jersey and Atlantic City, I spent time with customers in their homes, over coffee and dinner, on the golf course and inside some of Atlantic City's casinos.

The feedback was remarkably consistent.

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Six Hours in Atlantic City

One of the highlights was spending around six hours with a very experienced Atlantic City player.

In that short period, we visited five casinos. He participated in a slots tournament, a blackjack tournament and a $50,000 lucky draw.

He knew the Atlantic City casino environment extremely well and introduced me to other high rollers as well as senior casino executives.

It was fascinating because I could watch how a genuine land-based VIP interacted with casinos.

He didn't want complicated promotions.

His advice was essentially:

Keep it simple.

He felt some of our promotions required too much explanation. There were too many logins, too many instructions and too much information to read.

One comment summed it up perfectly:

Players don't have time to read everything.

Twenty-one years later, I'm not convinced the online industry has completely solved that problem.

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Loyalty Shouldn't Require an Instruction Manual

Our Players Club was another recurring subject.

Customers understood the principle, but some felt they received too few points compared with competing casinos.

More importantly, redeeming those points was too complicated.

A player could move from playing in the casino to logging into another area, checking points and then following several more steps to redeem them.

Every additional step created friction.

The lesson was straightforward:

If a loyalty programme is difficult to understand, it isn't creating loyalty. It's creating work.

The same applied to promotional opt-ins and wagering requirements.

Players complained that wagering conditions seemed to change and that they were not always sure whether they had completed them before attempting to cash out.

Complexity creates uncertainty.

And uncertainty eventually damages trust.

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Recognition Kept Coming Up

The second major lesson was recognition.

Customers loved receiving gifts.

Interestingly, the value of the gift wasn't always the important part.

It was the fact that somebody had thought about them.

A birthday gift.

A small surprise.

A bottle of something they enjoyed.

A personalised package after a significant win.

The message was:

"We know who you are."

Several customers also preferred receiving some complimentary play rather than another complicated matched deposit offer.

Again, this wasn't necessarily about receiving more value.

It was about the psychology of recognition.

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We Were Getting Big Wins Wrong

One meeting exposed something we were doing particularly badly.

A customer had previously won a substantial progressive jackpot.

That should have been one of the greatest moments of his relationship with the casino.

Instead, he felt our response was cold.

From his perspective, we seemed more interested in obtaining an interview and permission to publicise his win than actually celebrating it with him.

That feedback was completely justified.

We needed to reverse the process.

First, congratulate the customer.

Celebrate the moment.

Send something personal, perhaps champagne and a handwritten note.

Follow up and make sure everything surrounding the win and payment is handled properly.

Only then ask about publicity.

The customer should never feel that their big moment has suddenly become the marketing department's opportunity.

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Sometimes the Player Just Wants to Talk

Another conversation taught me something equally important.

One customer occasionally called the VIP department because she was feeling lonely or down and simply wanted somebody to talk to.

But the host would immediately offer her a comp.

She wasn't calling for money.

She was calling for human interaction.

That really stuck with me.

Our systems had trained us to interpret customer contact commercially:

Player contacts VIP → offer incentive → encourage activity.

But that wasn't what this customer needed.

Sometimes good VIP service means recognising that the correct response isn't another bonus.

Viewed through today's responsible gambling standards, this lesson is even more important. A host needs to recognise vulnerability and know when commercial activity should stop rather than treating every conversation as an opportunity to generate play.

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Technology Was Creating Friction Everywhere

Remember, this was 2005.

Some customers were still downloading casino software using telephone lines.

New games could take forever to download.

One player asked a perfectly reasonable question: if he played across several casinos, why did he have to download similar updates separately for every casino?

Others complained about the casino freezing during startup.

Customers weren't interested in the technical explanation.

They simply wanted it to work.

There were also inconsistencies in payment notifications. Some customers received cash-in messages; sometimes they didn't.

Once again:

Consistency creates confidence.

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Players Were Giving Us Product Ideas

These roadshows were also becoming an extraordinary source of product development.

Customers wanted penny and nickel slots.

Others wanted higher maximum bets.

Players asked for different poker games.

Someone suggested an Atlantic City car draw.

Another showed me a promotional kiosk inside a land-based casino and suggested incorporating something similar into our online communication system.

There was even an interesting charity idea.

Instead of the casino simply choosing charities, customers could nominate their favourite causes. A charity could then be selected and the donation made on behalf of the player.

These ideas weren't coming from consultants sitting in meeting rooms.

They came directly from customers.

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The Spouse Was Often Another Customer

Another interesting observation emerged repeatedly.

Many spouses of our customers were playing at competing casinos.

That represented an opportunity we weren't necessarily seeing.

The primary customer might prefer higher denomination slots and larger promotions, while their partner wanted penny or nickel games and a completely different experience.

Same household.

Completely different player.

Again, segmentation based purely on financial value wouldn't tell us the whole story.

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Not Every VIP Wants a Trip

One customer was regularly offered travel opportunities because she was considered an important player.

There was only one problem.

She hated travelling.

Personal circumstances meant that travelling held no appeal for her.

Yet we continued offering travel.

This is the perfect example of the weakness in generic VIP treatment.

From the casino's perspective:

VIP = luxury travel opportunity.

From the customer's perspective:

Please stop offering me something I don't want.

Personalisation doesn't mean giving somebody more.

It means knowing what matters to that individual.

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The Relationship Was Again the Differentiator

One of the most experienced Atlantic City customers told me something that echoed what I had heard on previous roadshows.

If it weren't for his relationship with his VIP contact, he probably wouldn't still be playing with us.

That is incredibly powerful feedback.

The casino had the games.

Competitors had games.

We had bonuses.

Competitors had bonuses.

We had loyalty rewards.

Competitors had loyalty rewards.

But a genuine human relationship was much harder for a competitor to reproduce.

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Then the Emails Arrived

After the meetings, customers started emailing.

One couple thanked us for the gifts but said:

"The company was the best."

Another couple described dinner, drinks and golf and said that players receiving invitations to meet casino representatives should accept them because the experience was genuine.

Another customer invited me to visit their home whenever I returned to the United States.

Another offered a home-cooked meal next time I was in the area.

Another joked that the next cognac would be on him.

These weren't responses to a cashback campaign.

They weren't reacting to an automated CRM journey.

They were responding to human interaction.

That was exactly what the roadshows were designed to achieve.

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Two Lessons From August 2005

When I look back at my notes from this trip, two words dominate everything.

Keep It Simple

Make promotions understandable.

Reduce unnecessary steps.

Explain wagering clearly.

Make loyalty rewards easy to redeem.

Don't send customers endless information they don't have time to read.

Make payments and communications consistent.

Remove friction.

Recognition

Know who your customers are.

Celebrate their wins before asking what the win can do for your marketing.

Remember birthdays and preferences.

Send thoughtful gifts.

Understand when somebody wants an incentive and when they simply want to talk.

And don't assume every VIP wants the same thing.

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Twenty-One Years Later

Technology has transformed online gaming since that road trip.

We now have sophisticated CRM platforms, behavioural analytics, automated journeys, real-time personalisation and AI.

Yet I wonder whether we sometimes use all that technology to make something relatively simple unnecessarily complicated.

A player in 2005 was effectively telling us:

Don't bombard me.

Don't make me jump through hoops.

Know who I am.

Listen when I have a problem.

Recognise my loyalty.

Treat me like a person.

Twenty-one years later, those might still be some of the best pieces of VIP advice I've ever received.

Technology has changed enormously. Human beings haven't.

Jörn-Peter Thiessen
Founder, VIP Legacy Club
Over 30 years in the casino industry

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About the High Roller Chronicles: This series shares real stories and lessons from my decades working in the casino industry. Client surnames have been removed to respect privacy. Some personal details have been omitted or simplified, while the original dates, locations and restaurant names have been retained.

Responsible Gambling: Gambling should always remain entertainment. Set limits, play within your means and never feel pressured to increase your spending to maintain a VIP relationship.