What Stays in Vegas by Adam Tanner Page A

name, Franklin, and beckons him in an ominous voice. His obsession eventually drives him mad. 3 Today Franklin might receive a direct solicitation for his business by mail, email, or smart phone. A host might also call him up to see how he is doing.
    Some critics say all this clever marketing exploits those with a particular weakness for gambling, especially those who suffer from gambling addiction. Loveman responds that while gambling addiction is a real issue, 98 percent of his clients can dispassionately decide whether to take advantage of a marketing promotion. These clients can rationally decide to buy or not in the same way they might review a new offer for books or products from Amazon.com .
    â€œFor the 2 percent of the people who are addicted, there is no evidence to suggest being good marketers is really the issue. The addiction has to do with lots of other issues, and there are mental health circumstances,” Loveman says. “It’s not whether or not the guy who runs the casino is especially capable or incapable of offering them things that they care about.” 4
    Catching Whales
    By tracking a gambler’s last visit, a casino has information that can help lure him back in the future. Such logic motivates many companies far from Las Vegas to collect our personal data. Whether it is a local restaurant, airline, or online retailer, businesses want to know as much about us as possible, hoping to gain an edge in marketing. Some firms are more successful than others in using customer information, and that’s why many have studied Caesars for insights.
    Caesars give customers a choice to share their data, and patrons like Daniel Kostel do so willingly and enthusiastically. A salesman at an asset management firm in Los Angeles, Kostel visits Las Vegas about once a month. The bachelor loves blackjack and typically wagers $100 a hand. On a good night, he wins a few thousand dollars. If things go less fortuitously, he heads out the door that much poorer. He is not a huge gambler—what the industry dubs a “whale”—but he spends a lot more than a retiree cautiously playing penny slot machines. For years, Kostel alternated between casinos along the Strip, making him what the industry labels “promiscuous.” One night he dropped by Caesars Palace at the Strip’s fifty-yard line.
    People still rave about the glamour of Caesars Palace in its heyday. Former Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman can wax lyrical about the old Caesars Palace: “They had a restaurant called the Bacchanal where you sat in this beautiful ornate room with Filipina waitresses who would give you a back rub and peel grapes and toss them down your gullet. I mean, that was pretty neat.”
    Hollywood has long portrayed Caesars Palace as a den of excitement and adventure. Robert Redford, dressed in a purple cowboy suit dotted with flashing lights, slowly rides a horse across the casino floor to the bemusement of patrons in The Electric Horseman, then proceeds down Las Vegas Boulevard. Dustin Hoffman and Tom Cruise win so much money at blackjack in Rain Man that management becomes alarmed. George Clooney and Catherine Zeta-Jones flirt over a meal there in Intolerable Cruelty. Mobster Tony Soprano, played by James Gandolfini, stays at Caesars Palace after the death of his nephewChristopher Moltisanti. In the first and third Hangover comedies, the guys drink on the roof, recover from a wild party in their suite, play blackjack, and engage in other high jinks there. 5 And in an example of life imitating art, some of the movies and series filmed at Caesars Palace, such as The Hangover and The Sopranos, eventually become themes for slot machines.
    In terms of history, no Las Vegas casino can outshine Caesars Palace. But in a city changing as rapidly as Las Vegas, the hotel casino is no longer the unrivaled belle of the ball. Trendsetters have migrated to more luxurious rivals. The crowd at some of these newer, more