There are plenty of good reasons a casino keeps doing something. It drives revenue. Players respond to it. It strengthens loyalty. It creates another trip.
And then there’s the reason that should make any casino leader nervous: We’ve always done it that way.
The challenge is knowing the difference.
Michael Michaud, Chief Marketing Officer for Navajo Nation Gaming Enterprise; Scott Eldredge, General Manager of Golden Acorn Casino & Travel Center; and Johana McNulty, Senior Director of Marketing Strategy and Loyalty for Agua Caliente Casinos, approach that challenge from different chairs. But their perspectives share a common thread: Casino leaders have to continually question what they’re doing, why they’re doing it, and whether it’s still producing the result they think it is.
Popular Doesn’t Always Mean Profitable
Eldredge describes himself as a “reformed marketer,” having moved from marketing into the GM and operations side of the business. That change in perspective has made casino math even more important to him.
Marketing teams are naturally drawn to the creative side of the job — promotions, events and experiences that generate excitement. But before falling in love with an idea, Eldredge believes leaders have to understand the reinvestment and expected return behind it.
Michaud takes that thinking further into the mechanics of promotions and loyalty. Point reinvestment, free play, bonus entries, and other benefits all carry value, and that value can multiply quickly when programs overlap. His approach is to know the math well enough to understand exactly what happens when one lever gets pulled.
McNulty looks at the numbers through another lens: player behavior. There is no single magic metric that tells the entire story. What matters is understanding which behaviors the numbers reveal and using that information to shape loyalty and reinvestment strategy.
The point isn’t to turn every marketer into an accountant. It’s to know enough to ask whether the exciting idea is also a profitable one.
Your Coin-In Might Be Standing in Line
Eldredge learned that lesson early in his career.
As a young marketer, he remembers being excited by the long lines one of his promotions generated. An operations director saw something different. He took Eldredge onto the casino floor and pointed to the people waiting.
“There’s all our coin in. It’s standing in line for your promotion.”
That lesson stuck. Traffic isn’t automatically success if valuable players are waiting in line instead of playing.
McNulty approaches the same issue by calling operations a marketer’s “crystal ball.” She encourages marketers to spend time at the players club, cage, slot floor and other operational areas to understand what team members are encountering every day.
“Do not ever ignore it as a marketer,” she says.
Because the promotion that looks flawless in a spreadsheet can feel very different when a guest arrives.
Michaud is equally wary of confusing a packed casino with a successful casino. Driving a thousand players into the building at once may create energy, but it can also create poor service and prevent the casino’s best players from finding the games they want.
His solution is often incremental: use dayparts, move promotions into softer periods, and look for smaller opportunities to generate additional revenue rather than simply trying to fill the building.
Beware the Tuesday Slot Tournament
One of the easiest traps in casino marketing is also one of the most comfortable: a program works, so you keep doing it.
Eldredge believes programs and pricing need to be reevaluated continually. The weekly slot tournament may once have driven an additional visit. Eventually, though, players may simply expect it every Tuesday.
“We’ve always done it” is easy. It also may mean the program has stopped generating incremental behavior.
That doesn’t necessarily mean killing something players enjoy. Eldredge suggests repackaging it, moving it, changing the name or putting a different twist on it. The goal is to keep asking whether the program is creating more trips, more time on device, or another measurable behavior — rather than occupying a permanent square on the marketing calendar.
Give Players Something They Actually Want
The same scrutiny belongs in the loyalty program.
McNulty sees loyalty as the framework for understanding overall player reinvestment. What are players receiving at each level? Are lower tiers receiving too much or too little? Are the benefits for higher tiers meaningful enough to create differentiation?
Eldredge sees another shift: players increasingly expect choices and experiences. Even smaller casinos without extensive resort amenities can look outside their walls for partnerships that expand what they can offer.
Michaud recently took the idea of choice literally. In a new tier program across his properties, eligible players can select among benefits including shopping, free play, Starlink membership, or a cruise.
He also looks outside gaming for inspiration.
“There’s no more original ideas,” Michaud says. “You have to look outside of the industry.”
More important than being original is making sure the benefit has value to the person receiving it.
Technology Isn’t the Strategy
No modern executive conversation gets very far without AI entering the room. But the most useful question may not be whether a casino is using AI. It’s what problem the technology is supposed to solve.
For Michaud, one of the opportunities is moving beyond treating players with the same ADT as though they are the same people. Their games, frequency, betting patterns, and preferences may be completely different. He is using AI to learn player behavior, communicate with guests and move toward increasingly individualized offers.
Eldredge sees predictive modeling and automation as particularly valuable because they can help properties make decisions faster — including smaller properties that may not have the resources to invest in every new technology.
McNulty’s advice is straightforward: stay open to change, research what is available and build the case for what makes sense for your operation.
“If you’re not doing that, things will pass you by.”
Technology can make decisions faster, predictions better, and personalization more sophisticated. It still can’t answer the most basic leadership question for you:
Why are we doing this?
The real danger isn’t one bad promotion, an imperfect loyalty benefit, or even choosing the wrong metric. It’s allowing yesterday’s decisions to quietly become today’s defaults.
Casino leaders have more data, technology and ways to reach players than ever before. That makes continually questioning what works — and what no longer does — even more important.
Sometimes the smartest thing a leader can do is look at a successful program and ask one more time: Is it still successful?
