| Problem Promotions | |
Part 1: Foxwoods Fiasco
|
Foxwoods Casino in Connecticut opened nine years ago. They grew from a little tiny casino into the largest casino in the world. In celebration of their anniversary, Foxwoods decided to hold a special Ninth Anniversary drawing. They were going to give away $99,000 in prizes to nine lucky people in a special drawing
Top Prize = $50,000
2nd Prize = $10,000
3rd Prize = $9,000
4th -9th Prize = $5,000
They decided to make this celebration last for a two month period. Members of the player's club were sent tickets for each day in January and February. Any time you visited the casino you could drop your ticket dated for that day only into a drum. Each day Foxwoods drew 99 names from the drum and sent letters to the lucky entrants telling them they were eligible for the special drawing to be held on Sunday March 18th.
I received my letter informing me that my name was drawn one of the days and I had to bring my letter to the Fox Theatre on Sunday March 18th between the hours of 10am and 11:45 and exchange it for my official entry. The drawing was to take place at noon that day. All winners must be present.
I did some quick calculations and figured that if they had drawn 99 names for the 59 days in January and February, there would be 5,841 people vying for one of the nine prizes. Even accounting for a few no shows I figured the odds were not that great but since I had tickets for a concert in the area I would stop by and take my chances. I was a little perplexed that the drawing was supposed to take place in the Fox Theatre, which only holds about 1,500 people. I wondered where they would put all the people. I'm sure that very thought crossed the minds of some of the casino executives on the day of the drawing. I don't think anyone anticipated what was to transpire that day.
Foxwoods actually has three casino areas joined by a large has a huge concourse that is lined with shops. I would guess it is over a quarter mile long. I arrived at 11am figuring I would bypass the initial early crowd that would be there exactly at 10am. Was I ever wrong. First of all it seems most of the 5,841 people showed up and each one brought a spouse of friend along with them. The line was four wide snakeing from one end of the concourse to the other and doubling around in places.
I got in line and moved about twenty feet in a half an hour. I don't know what the problem was but the gentlemen ahead of me walked down to the front and reported back that some of the people in front had been there since before 10am. The line was not moving. At 11:45 when the entries were supposed to be in, I still was nowhere near the entrance to the theatre area and there were more people behind me than ahead of me. Word spread that the drawing would be delayed until 2pm. This was interesting since there was supposed to be a show taking place in the theatre at 2pm. Finally around 12:45 it was announced that they were collecting the letters and the winner would be notified by mail. The line moved faster and I handed in my letter at 1 p.m. and headed for the exit.
There were several thousand irate people who were not happy with the lack of organization. One fellow I spoke to had driven five hours from Maine to attend the drawing. Instead he spent over three hours standing in line along with thousands of others. This was not good for the casino either because although the achieved in getting all these people in the door, none of them could play because they were standing in line.
Foxwoods has a whole year to plan for their big Tenth anniversary, I hope they plan to hold a different promotion for that celebration.
As I was getting ready to post this article I received a letter from Foxwoods that apologized for any inconvenience.
Until next time,
remember:
"Luck comes and goes...Knowledge stays forever."
Back to page 1 > Profitable for Players