Who needs a ticket to paradise?
GAMING: Free concerts provide boost to casino, community.
BY PAUL LANE
Night & Day
Give the folks who run casinos credit. They sure know how to make a dollar.
First they put all those flashing lights and sirens on the slot machines, making it feel more like you’re playing “Tetris” than pouring away your mortgage money.
Then they seduced gamblers with those “free drinks” — which come some 20 minutes and $40 later (when you could have walked to the bar in three minutes and spent $4).
If that wasn’t enough, someone got the brilliant idea to host free concerts outside casinos. People jump up faster than a recruit on the first day of boot camp when they hear the word “free,” and casinos take full advantage.
This writer saw this phenomenon in action after the free Eddie Money/Loverboy concert a few weeks ago at Seneca Niagara Casino. There simply for dinner, I found a line some 60 people long waiting to get into the buffet, all sporting the farmer’s tan suggesting an afternoon spent outdoors.
Sporting Cheshire grins, the concert-goers basked in the glory of the show they just left, smiling ear to ear as they forked over $20 bill after $20 bill to a cashier or slot machine.
An estimated 5,000 Western New Yorkers came out to that July 9 show. The casino’s higher-ups just KNOW that a good number of them will stay around to gamble and/or eat. Even if just one-quarter of the concert-goers stayed to dine and/or gamble, spending an average $40 to do so (probably a low estimate), that’s $200,000 in the Senecas’ pockets.
Now, I love “Shakin’ ” as much as the next guy, but I seriously doubt there’s enough demand for Eddie Money’s time to warrant a paycheck of even one-fourth of that. Even if Money and Loverboy each got a quarter of that take, that’s $100,000 in gross revenue for the casino.
That’s the best “free” concert anyone could hope to throw.
And it completely makes sense on both ends. The casino draws a big crowd on a Sunday, a day which might otherwise prove to be a slow one, and Joe Not-A-Big-Gambler gets something to do for a day.
And then there are the peripheral winners. Not everyone will gamble, so some will check out other restaurants in the downtown area, check out some of the sights at the falls and stop into the souvenir stands.
Say what you want about casino gaming, these concerts help every local business win — albeit some more than others.
The Senecas are set to bring more good vibrations this summer, as The Beach Boys will perform next month. Thousands of fans — and potential gamblers — have attended similar Beach Boys shows in 2004 and 2005, and a similarly packed crowd is expected this time.
This is not to say that the Senecas’ sole purpose is profit. But no matter the intention, they have to be happy with the result. |
World Casino Directory 
Gambling Forums 
