Spin City: Hollywood Park Casino Puts a New Spin on Poker Jackpots

The pleas from players were all the same: "When are you going to bring them back?" "Everyone else has them. Why don't you?" "I'm going to play somewhere else if you don't bring them back!" The references being made were to the absence of jackpots at Hollywood Park Casino. Over the years, all of the other Los Angeles-area casinos had eventually brought back the popular poker promotion, but Hollywood Park was the lone holdout.

This July, however, the casino listened to players and announced the return of jackpots. In early August, Bertram Smith broke a six-year silence with the clack, clack, clack of a giant wheel landing on $3,000. Betram's aces full of jacks had been beaten by four aces in a $2-$4 hold'em game. Jackpots were back at Hollywood Park Casino.

But something was noticeably different about these jackpots.

Deciding that the act of getting a jackpot hand was not enough, Phyllis Caro, director of poker operations, and her staff came up with a new twist to an old favorite. The typical jackpot format was just ho-hum. What the casino needed was something different and special. "If we were going to bring jackpots back, we were going to do it with style!" said Caro.

That special "something" was a Las Vegas-style prize wheel. The wheel was added as an integral part of the promotion to add even more excitement and drama to it. Spin to Win Jackpots was born, giving players the opportunity to control their own destinies by spinning for their jackpot prizes. The wheel consists mainly of $1,000, $2,000, $3,000, and $4,000 prize amounts, with a few $5,000 and $500 prizes thrown in for good measure. The top prize on the prize wheel was set at $10,000.

An interesting side note is that the casino brought jackpots back without raising collections. Jackpots are simply a bonus to players.

But jackpots aren't the only way players control their own destinies at Hollywood Park Casino. For years now, the casino's management philosophy has been to put players in control. Shying away from random-style drawings that pay big prizes to small handfuls of players, the casino has opted for a more democratic system by giving every player an equal opportunity to cash in.

The clearest example of this is Hollywood Park Casino's Players Club program, now in its third year of existence. The first computerized casino comp program in a California casino, the HPC Players Club allows players to earn credit for each hour of live play and to use credits earned to make purchases inside the casino. A player simply fills out a free application form, has a photo taken, and proceeds back to his seat, card in hand, to collect credit while he plays.

Membership in the club has empowered players to comp themselves based on the amount and level of their play. With their comps, players can purchase whatever they choose, whenever they choose. From a bite to eat or a quick massage to a logo jacket, players can decide for themselves. It is no longer the precious few "VIPs" who get the goodies. All $1-$2 to $9-$18 limit players may participate in this program. The casino estimates that players will cash in $2 million in comp credit this year alone.

In addition to earning credit for free casino comps, members receive exclusive offers for free tickets to casino events, such as monthly live boxing, or special freeroll tournaments that are open to Players Club members only. In August, members were invited to four $2,000 limit hold'em freerolls.

With a state-of-the-art Players Club program and jackpots now firmly in place, Hollywood Park Casino management believes that it now offers a gaming experience that is unmatched anywhere in Los Angeles. Certainly, when you add the casino's year-round live and simulcast thoroughbred racing/wagering to the pot, there's no other place quite like it.

Caro believes that the casino now seems "complete" with the addition of jackpots. "Jackpots were such an integral part of the poker community here in Los Angeles, and now they're back at Hollywood Park."

Caro also noted that the Vegas-style wheel pumps new life into a decades-old promotion. "The mere presence of the big Jackpot Wheel created energy and excitement on the casino floor," she said. "On a recent Monday, we had a jackpot hit for $3,000, and just 20 minutes later, another one went for $2,000. Everyone's eyes were glued to the wheel to see how much the players would win. The atmosphere is fun and exciting! That's the kind of experience I want to provide for our players, and I think we've done that."

Hollywood Park's new jackpot format has arrived just in time, as players currently are descending upon Hollywood Park Casino for the fifth annual National Championship of Poker, Sept. 19-30. Also on the horizon are the Crazy 8 IV and the Tom McEvoy Poker Spectacular tournaments in October and November.

The casino invites players to relive poker jackpots at Hollywood Park and to check out all of the other amenities available to players. You could be the next lucky person to spin the wheel for $10,000!