Players Accuse Revel of Not Honoring $100,000 Loss Rebate Promotion
Revel announced a loss rebate of up to $100,000 to its players during the month of July. Qualifying players would receive their losses refunded in the form of free slot play over the following 20 weeks starting in August. This is one of the most lucrative brick and mortar casino promotions in history. Unfortunately for some players, Revel has decided to exclude them from the promotion.
The loss rebate was announced on June 20th. Many savvy players discussed the best games to play to take advantage of the opportunity. These players are referred to as advantage players in the casino industry.
The best action, according to advantage players, was to play $25 video poker machines offered in Revel’s high limit area with 9-6 Double Double Bonus. The 9 refers to a 9-1 payout on a full house, while the 6 refers to a 6-1 payout on a flush. The 9-6 Double Double Bonus game has a house advantage of 1.02% when perfect play is used and five coins are wagered per hand. A player must wager $125 per hand to receive the maximum payout on a $25 denomination machine.
Revel pulled its $25 video poker machines from the casino floor immediately before the July loss rebate promotion started. Players were forced to play $5 machines, which require a $25 max bet for maximum payouts. Some players chose higher denomination slot machines or other video poker machines with lower maximum bets and payouts.
Players raced to Revel’s casino floor on July 1st to take advantage of the promotion. Some of these gamblers learned that they were excluded from the promotion only after they had suffered thousands or even tens thousands of dollars in losses. These players were suspended from the Revel player’s club during the promotional period. Players banned from Revel’s loss rebate promotion started to appear on the Wizard of Vegas forum, which is owned by Michael Shackleford, better known in the gambling community as the Wizard of Odds.
Some players were told that Revel kept a list of gamblers that did not qualify for the promotion due to being known advantage players. Other players were given no explanation at all. Regardless of the reason, players that were backed off were allowed to play and lose before being notified that they did not qualify for the promotion.
One poster stated that a handful of gamblers were using Ultimate X machines to take their shot at the loss rebate. This multi-hand game allows a player to wager five extra coins per hand to activate a bonus feature where multipliers are given to winning hands. It has been alleged that some players were pulling their player’s card when a multiplier of 4x or more was to be paid on all of the hands on the following deal. This would inflate losses because any hand with a 4x multiplier spread across all hands has an expected positive outcome for the player, which would not be recorded properly if a player’s card was not inserted in the machine before the hand was dealt.
Players Only Banned from Loss Rebate and Not Entire Casino
It is important to note that all of the players that have publicly commented on their banning from the loss rebate are not permanently banned from playing at Revel. These players are still allowed to play without a player’s club card in July and many were told that they would be allowed to rejoin the player’s club in August. Comps from play excluded from the loss rebate will also be honored in August, according to these same player reports. Excluded players use this to make their point that they were not cheating. Players that are caught cheating are typically added to the New Jersey blacklist of players that are banned from all Atlantic City casinos.
A case involving blackjack counting might back up this defense as well. If Uston vs Resorts International applies to this situation, the New Jersey Supreme Court has already ruled that Atlantic City casinos are not legally allowed to back off advantage players.
Revel Falls Silent
Some players are not receiving any explanation at all for their removal from the promotion. One of these players that questioned his banning from the loss rebate was given the contact information for a prominent gaming lawyer that represents Revel.
USPoker contacted Revel’s media relations department on July 3rd. The first contact had no comment and referred USPoker to a different contact within the company on July 5th. That contact did not respond to our inquiry about why many players are complaining about getting banned or backed off of this promotion without explanation.
Revel Loss Rebate Warning
A number of players that accepted the terms of the Revel loss rebate promotion are being told by management that they did not qualify for it only after losing thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars. Revel has not yet publicly commented as to why this is happening, even after multiple media requests. While some players may have violated the terms, players should use extreme caution until Revel clarifies why so many players are accusing it of failing to honor the $100,000 loss rebate promotion.