Below are several quotes from David Zamarin, vice president for corporate marketing for Penn National Gaming from a recent Associated Press story.
“A casino tries to provide an environment you don’t encounter every day. It’s a little bit magical and a little bit fantasy,” Zamarin told AP Writer Carl Manning.
“Helping attract people is what those in the casino trade call the “Wow Factor” — something unique that’s only at that location, something that creates an aura of excitement. That is part of the theme. There is nothing else around here like this; that is part of that fantasy thing. Any new casino is going to try to get as much of that as they can for the budget.”
Bill Friedman, a Las Vegas casino consultant, added the following comments in the same story.
“Once inside, there’s a lot of eye candy. But the idea is to keep the focus on the slots and table games. The machines and the tables are the points of sale and you have to slam that in their face,” Friedman said.
“Anything that is thematic that doesn’t draw you back to the machines is a negative. Getting people inside is one thing. Getting them to come back is another. That’s where creating luxury for the masses takes over.”
Finally, David Schwartz, coordinator of the Gaming Studies Research Center at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas added this gem.
“In the end, the quality of customer service is what will make the difference. The theme will attract people initially, but they’ll get bored of it,” Schwartz said. “Part of the attraction is treating everybody like they are special.”
Three different people from the gaming industry …
Three different opinions …
And one glaring overlooked factor …
What is the key to continue to bring people back into a casino?
As long as they keep on winning.
Dalton Defenders Days
Last Saturday, I watched four men carrying guns walk through downtown Coffeyville.
Two of the men entered the Condon National Bank, the other two entered the First National Bank.
None of them made it out of Coffeyville alive.
When I was growing up in Coffeyville, the annual Dalton Defenders Days festival was an event I attended on a regular basis, especially growing up only a few blocks from the historic downtown and watching the reenactment of the bank robbery attempt time, time and time again.
Perhaps the last time I watched was in middle school, by that time, the story and history of the event had become entrenched in my memory.
After taking in the reenactment for the first time in almost 20 years last weekend, I found a reenactment that had added a few features and new twists from the old fashioned shoot’em up bang-bang reenactment that had been Dalton Defenders Days.
Now, the event starts off with a basic safety lesson on the weapons (shotguns, rifles and pistols) of the era and the use of the blanks in the reenactment.
After that, a narrator set the scene for that fateful telling the story in third-person through the eyes of a child who had wandered innocently into Coffeyville on Oct. 5, 1892.
From there, dozens of extras playing the part of townspeople mill around as the day was described. Although several of the townspeople had recognized a couple of the Dalton boys, it wasn’t until an innocent bystander realized the Condon was being robbed before alerting the other citizens of Coffeyville who proceeded to arm themselves inside the nearby Isham Hardware Store (still standing) and defend the town.
When the gunfire broke out, the citizens of Coffeyville traded shots with the Daltons coming out of the Condon National Bank. It wasn’t until the Daltons tried to make an unsuccessful break from the First National Bank that the citizen defenders realized they were caught between two lines of fire.
After 10 minutes of exchanging fire, it was over.
In all, four Coffeyville defenders were killed in the attempted robbery, and four members of the Dalton Gang were shot dead. A fifth member survived being shot.
Another new feature came near the end of the reenactment, where characters playing the roles of the family members of the citizens who lost their lives gave a brief story about those who had perished and provided an educational conclusion.
Although it had been a long time since taking in my last Dalton Defenders Day festival, with the improvements made to the reenactment, I don’t plan to wait another 18 years for the next visit.
