Choctaw, OK - poker club issues

[candab]

I posted this in the CP forum earlier regarding Choctaw's new poker club and corresponding freeroll in October, and figured here might be a good place to post as well since I've met a couple people who get on 2p2 at Choctaw.

I went there yesterday afternoon to crank out some hours on my account to keep up with qualifying for the $100k freeroll. If you log 125 hours between now and October, you're entered into the freeroll. They started a new poker club there in order to keep track of people's hours. UNFORTUNATELY, the employees in marketing and the poker room were for the most part not educated in how to use the system very well, and it could be affecting people's hour balances.

I had forgotten my club card at home (as most, if not all, of us have been inclined to do on occasion) so I went to the club desk to get a duplicate issued. Much to my surprise, when I gave them my ID to get a new one, they pointed me to the poker room, saying they have problems getting into existing accounts. So I go down there, and they tell me to go back to the marketing desk. They try in vain to pull up my info based on my ID, my name and my phone number - not good. I even called my wife and she gave me the number on the card, but the number corresponded to ANOTHER player....WHAT?? So they call someone up from the poker room to help. The marketing desk gals tell me they've had problems with this sytem from day one and I laugh about it with them while we wait.

I talk with this kid for a while, he says he's a floor supervisor (I forgot his name, and I wouldn't give it anyway based on what happened next). Instead of trying to find a solution, he just repeatedly tells me that I really need to bring my card with me which just annoys the he11 out of me because I'm not the kind to be lectured, but I keep my poise. I ask what kind of system can't be accessed by using standard database queries, since every casino I've ever been to simply creates a duplicate card when one is lost or forgotten.

By this time I'm starting to express my concerns about people having their hours played credited to someone else. He starts to get frustrated because he obviously has no answers. He actually had the nerve to tell me that I could either go to the poker room, play poker and have a good time, or I could be escorted out by security. Again, WHAT???

ME - "You're actually threatening to have me escorted out because YOUR system isn't recognizing me and my hours?"

HIM - "Well, you're being argumentative and I really see no way we can help you, so it's really your choice."

ME (in a remarkably even tone) - "I'm not being argumentative. I'm trying to find out what is going on with your system, where my hours are, and why the ID number on my club card is corresponding to another player."

HIM - "There's really nothing else I can do for you."

ME - "I can see that. May I speak with the floor supervisor please?"

HIM - "I am the floor supervisor." (you're kidding, right?)

ME - "Ok, may I speak with *your* supervisor?

HIM - "He's in California at Pechanga." (well, isn't that convenient?)

ME - "Ok, so what you're telling me is that I can play now, not get my hours logged, and possibly lose the hours I had played prior. Don't you see anything wrong with this?" (I'm trying to give him every opportunity to get out of this mess, but I'm more than willing to speak with the GM if he's working today)

HIM - "Let me try one more thing for you (which was amazingly one thing greater than zero at this point), I'll be right back."

ME (to the marketing desk gals who witnessed the whole thing) - "Can you believe he was actually going to throw me out?"

MARKETING GAL (shaking her head) - "I don't know, that was just plain silly!"

A few minutes later, he brings over a gentleman named Larry who apparently is the poker room floor supervisor/manager (hmm, I thought he was in California?). Now, while this story has a LOT of aspects that should be THOROUGHLY questioned regarding program integrity, database management, training and IT support, here is a bright light: Larry was everything this kid was not...polite, courteous, sensitive to the needs of the customer, and more than willing to find a solution in order to keep things running smoothly.

Larry, the kid, and I walk to a quiet corner and he tells me that the system has been VERY buggy since its inception and that they've been dealing with issues similar to this for a while. I tell him pretty much the same thing I told the kid: It concerns me greatly that this new system is apparently being used as a stress test by the company that designed it (he politely disputed this notion, saying that two other casinos have it in use as well), that a $100k freeroll is essentially at stake for those who have played, and there are likely others who aren't getting proper credit as well. After discussing generalities about the system for a couple minutes, Larry took my info, we walked into the poker room, he went to work on it and had me take a seat at a table.

A few minutes passed, and Larry came back and said another gentleman would be coming in later who knows the system inside & out and would get my hours corrected and assured me that my hours played now would also be logged. He gave me a comp ticket for my troubles and I thanked him graciously for his help.

So apparently, my ID number was actually two digits OFF from what the card showed. So they found my number. Unfortunately, my prior hours weren't logged because of this glitch, so they have to reconstruct my hours based on estimates. Now, the truly scary thing about this is that NONE of this would have been noticed had I actually REMEMBERED my card. I would have simply given my card to the dealer, had it swiped in, and had ALL the hours I played credited to someone else's account.

I know there are people on this forum who play at Choctaw. I would stress that ANYONE who is trying for the freeroll PLEASE have your information verified the next time you go in, or you might be in for a shock come October.

I would once again like to thank Larry, as I didn't get a chance to when I left last night as he was on a break. As far as the first supervisor goes, I hold no hard feelings, I just hope he learns from it as I'm sure there are a lot of people who simply would have gone ballistic. I'm hoping everything was sorted out. I'll find out next time.