Boot Hill Casino, an evaluation of

I am sad to report that Boot Hill Casino has a number of problems:

The Casino appears to operate as four different businesses; originally, it was six. In Vegas, the Casinos are true multifunction places that support each other. Sadly, this is not the case at the Boot Hill Casino.

The Casino operates the games but keeps the money for itself.

The restaurant originally did breakfast. In fact, they had a breakfast club and when you had a breakfast, they checked off your card. Have eight meals and you get a breakfast for free. They no longer serve breakfast and my last breakfast card merely takes up space in my wallet.

They seem to have gone to buffet vice off the menu for lunch. They put in a hot dog stand at the entrance but it was shut down last night. This suggests the hot dog stand did not appeal to the hungry or the gamblers and so they have “cut their losses” and have stopped supporting it. This is a pity.

Anthony Bourdain wrote that restaurants need managers with “nervous feet”. That is, a manager who is watching his floor and is going around asking customers how they like the dining experience, who see problems with the waitresses/waiters and the food before the customers can bitch.

It is better for the irate customers to tell the manager about problems than for the pissed off customers to tell their friends. They don’t have such a restaurant manager and folks like me must bitch, verbally and in blogs.

They originally had a bar and a Saloon. The bar used to have a fine selection of tap beers and now it is “lite” or “light”beers. (Do you remember when this was a country of Real Beer Drinkers?) They have a very limited selection of bottle beers. (Why don’t they carry Michelob Lager and why do they always assume that you want that watered down piss beer, “Michelob Ultra”, when you ask for a “Mic” or “Michelob Lager”?)

They had a Salon, which served LandShark on tap and other fine real beers. It was supposed to be open last night but was not. Several months ago, the Salon bar tender was serving the runners as much as the other bar was.

Maybe the bar and Saloon were not doing enough business so they laid off the Saloon keeper (bar tender) and cut the available product line. Maybe they dropped the available selection and that resulted in reduced demand?

They used to have a gift shop. This was shut down and that room turned into a room of high stakes slot machines. They didn’t get many customers at the gift show probably because the prices were too high!

There is a display of souvenirs in the snack bar. The prices seem much more reasonable.
An aside: the Casino was going to have vans going from the Casino around town. I live just off one major road and 30 feet from a semi-major road. If they drove down these streets, I would be willing to drink at the casino.

If I knew I didn’t need to drive home, I will be willing to drink at the Casino (I am normally the designated driver). If I drank at the Casino, I would be willing to gamble more as I get a “what the hell” attitude after several drinks. Then, I could be in trouble.

Thus, the Casino protects me from me and loses money. This strikes me as a win (for me) lose (for them) situation. I like it…

They need a complaint desk for all aspects of the Casino. If you go to the Players Desk, you just get to talk about gaming. They don’t talk about drinking or food. Nor will these "complaint people" direct you to the correct restaurant or bar mangers...

An update on 7 September 2012 that isn't real good news.