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I’ve got a grievance to air about online casinos and the way they do their marketing. Specifically, I’m sick of the way they’ll call anything a “promotion” these days. It reminds of my one of my first jobs.
I worked at a Chicago street food chain called Portillo’s in high school. Their food is delicious, and overindulging in my time there as a lad has done nothing to quash my appetite for a Chicago-style hot dog. I have about a thousand hilarious stories from my time behind the counter there, but for today we’ll stick to the one that’s relevant to my beef with the gambling industry.
The menu board at my Portillo’s location had a large yellow section labelled “FEATURE: Maxwell St. Polish and Large Fry.” No extra context, just those words splattered on the board. Occasionally, a customer would come in and say, “I’ll take the Maxwell feature,” and I would ring up a Maxwell St. Polish and a large fry at their normal price. The customer would look confused, ask why they didn’t get “the discount,” and be taken aback when I told them there was no discount.
“It’s not a deal,” I’d say. “It’s just a feature.” Don’t blame me. I was parroting the response my manager gave me when I asked him what I should say the first time this happened.
I’ve worked in the service industry enough to know the old adage doesn’t always ring true. The customer is not always right. In the case of the Maxwell-Fry feature, though, they had a point in my opinion. Why was Portillo’s advertising something as a special “feature,” when it was, in fact, just two popular menu items at their regular price?
What is a promotion, anyway?
All of this leads me to my point, which I now address directly to online casino operator: It’s not a promotion if you aren’t giving me anything.
I don’t want to sign into an online casino and see the gambling equivalent of a Maxwell St. Polish “feature.” Almost every online gaming site is an offender. Click any “Promotions” page and you’ll see it. Sure, there are a few special deals: bet $50 for $5 in bonus money, deposit $100 to get $20 worth of credits, or play a specific game to earn entries into a sweepstakes. These are promotions, tried-and-true opportunities for a player like me to glean something (or at least the chance at something).
I’ll tell you what’s not a promotion. slots of all time.
If there isn’t a clear-cut prize involved, I don’t want it muddying up my promotions page. It only makes me mad, and it makes you, the operator, look like you’re grasping for anything to fill out a sparse promotional slate. The solution for you is simple: offer more promotions. I don’t care if it’s something tiny or even if it’s hard to claim. When you’re wondering if something should go on your promotions page, ask one simple question: Does it give players a bonus? Like I said above, even a sweepstakes entry counts here.
A plea for an honest Promotions page
We run the risk of a semantics rabbit hole here, so let’s get a few things out of the way. I understand that “promotion” as a word can mean many different things. Say you put your shiniest new slot on the promotions page. Your argument could be that, yes, you’re “promoting” it. But tell me, what player signs onto a casino, clicks “Promotions,” and makes those mental leaps? When we see “promotions,” we’re understanding it as a colloquialism, a stand-in for special deals that can get us free stuff.
And, you know what, I would rather see a near-empty promotions page with only two actual deals than one with a dozen random plugs for miscellaneous pages of your website. Keep it simple, and don’t fluff things up by mislabeling them. What I’m saying is simple: if I want the Maxwell St. Polish and large fry at their normal price, I’ll just order them.
