I stopped by the place Monday around 11am for the first time since the Grand Re-Opening festivities - where the machines were locked down until after I left. I didn't expect to see many people inside, and there were even less.
My wife doesn't play any games but we both signed up for slot cards because they give you a bottle of wine for joining. Then if you play to 500 points you get a whole $10 in free-play. So I did that on both cards and ended up $40 on the plus side overall. Not a big deal but I wanted to show her what a nice place this was, which was the real purpose for going.
There's now some 5-level 25c/50c/$1/$2/$5 games with 7/5BP & 8/5SDBP among other games on them, but those are the only ones I'll play. I asked a suit how they expected to get a good local crowd in this time around when there's nothing special about the paytables, and which is an absolute must to get people to drive out that far just to play vp when there's so many other options as good as or better than what they have there. The answer? "We have a good product that'll sell itself". I told him I liked the place, I'd be back to play, but I want to get in as many trips as possible because I don't see this "product" lasting 6 months without something very special taking place. When asked what that might be, I said to sprinkle some 25c FPDW machines around, put 9/7TDB in, get some fast-moving progressives going, have gas card giveaways because it fits the drive most people would have to get there & back, and start advertising multiple point days because the slot club isn't that bad. He took note and we departed.
