Finding Freeplay at the Downtown Grand

Day 3 - Wednesday - part 5

Happy with my quadstravaganza, I wandered down Fremont, thinking I'd take some pictures. But there were actually no pictures I really wanted to take. I'm so done with the bare-assed and saggy titted tip beggars on Fremont. So I took no pictures, but I did burn out a few retinal cells gazing on these people that have been plucked from Walmart where they had a shopping cart stacked full of on-sale Pepsi and cartons of Ding Dongs and maybe a box of Red Man chewing tobacco, had their nipples covered with My Little Pony stickers, had a dental floss thong shoved between their ass cheeks, and been stuck out on Fremont street to get tips from people who are taking pictures of them because they are 'laughing at' not 'laughing with'.

Yup, I'm done with it.

My destination was the Downtown Grand where I had a mission, which was to see why I never got mailers or offers. I have heard amazing stories of other folks getting tons of free play from them but I never get any communication at all. I aimed to fix that.

First stop, though, the bar.

I lost twenty bucks but got an ice-cold Lucky Heineken, served by an angel in black denim and black t-shirt. An angel who brought me cold beer.

"Thanks for the beer, Black Angel," I said, dropping a couple of bucks into the tip glass.

Changed machines (because drill test holes!!!) and slid the glass over with me.

Groaned a little because I only had a $100 and promised to myself I would cash out after $20 of play if the test hole came up dry.

Well guess what, about $10 in, didn't I hold a single lone Ace and get four of 'em? (No kicker though.)

Another shot of the Aces. Because you can never get enough Aces.

I know what you are thinking. THOSE ACES ARE SEQUENTIAL!!! WHY WEREN'T YOU PLAYING DOUBLE BONUS POKER PLUS???

I played for a while longer and cashed out my ticket, and headed to the players club booth and had a talk with Maple Glazed Mary. The convo went like this.

"I don't get any offers. Can you fix it?"

"I'm not sure I can."

"Can I talk to a host then? Or someone who can look in the system?"

"There's a host on duty. You can call them."

She hands me his card.

"Is he here, this host?"

"Yes. But not here."

"But is he here... like in this building somewhere? Somewhere where you could call him and he could come here?"

"You can call him."

"Ok, no, you call him."

She dials. She hands the phone to me. It goes to voicemail.

"It's voicemail. Look, can you get someone here who can look into this? I don't get offers. I think something's wrong with my address."

"OK, maybe that guy next to me can help, he runs the systems here."

Hallelujah.

I decided to cut her some slack. She was probably new. Some people haven't figured out yet that you should not just throw the phone handset at customers trying to get some help from a host.

I kind of chuckled about it, actually.

That's when I got introduced to Tom, who was known as Tommy the Digit. Tom listened to my story, got on a computer terminal and found the problem. Yes there was something wrong with my address, and when that happens, the system stops mailing.

I'd actually had freeplay offers all along and hadn't got notified of them. That's why when I stayed at the Grand I got $50 freeplay as a 'nice surprise'.

Tom worked diligently to fix the freeplay situation. He figured out what tier I should be in and what I should get.

"OK, I put $5 on your card so you don't have to put any money in. Your first bet should trigger the freeplay download."

We went to a machine and I put my card in and loaded the $5 freeplay. Played a hand. Nothing happened.

Tom had warned me that he might have to go to the computers 'upstairs' because he couldn't access everything from the players club booth. Fair enough. Off he went. I was already impressed with his diligence.

I decided to play a little and see if the freeplay came in. So I put a $20 bill in the machine.

Oh look.

More money for me. This was more like it!

I played a bit more and cashed out another ticket for more profit.

Tom came back and told me to try it again. I put some dough in the machine's hungry maw and played a hand - and sure enough, I was awarded freeplay, to the tune of $100!!!!!

Holy crap! Was I ever glad I decided to pursue this!

I thanked Tom up, down, left, and right. It was really superior customer service from the Grand - and I would have an interesting comparison to make at the Four Queens later in the week on a similar issue.

I let Tom know I had a blog that was read by millions of devout degenerates gamblers and I would be mentioning the lengths that the Downtown Grand went to to make this right. They have had their ups and downs with me as frequent readers know, but this was above and beyond and much appreciated.

Well done, Downtown Grand!

Because I loved the Grand so very much this day, I continued to play my freeplay.

All in all I ended up with tickets for $360 or something, $300 of which was profit. I cashed them out just as Tom walked by.

He gave me a wink. "Taking the money?"

"You bet. Thanks again, Tommy the Digit!"

Good guy, that Tom. And because of that, I would be back.