Casino Player Magazine

[daddy2yea]

Hey, does anybody subscribe to Casino Player Magazine, and if so do you get your issues on time. The reason I'm asking is cause all of my issues in the last year have been late by one to two months past the issue date.  As of right now I still haven't received my December issue. I called back in the summer and was told that they were having problems with their printer and was getting a new printer and the magazine would be back on track.  I've call again last week and the lady told me the same story again.  When I told here I was told the same thing in the summertime she got an attitude and said there was nothing she could do. Anyway let me know if any of you have had the same problem. Thanks  Mike

[CommTech]

I subscribe to "Strictly Slots" Magazine by the same publisher as Casino Player Magazine. I just received my NOVEMBER 2009 issue about a Week ago! So congratulations on your December issue. You are more up to date than I am!
I called the Magazine subscription Department Last Spring about the Late issues. (The late issues have been going on for at least a year). They told me back in March of 09 that they have been running a bit behind schedule, but are working on catching up. Clearly that was not a priority for them. I even wrote to them via Email with my complaints. Most of the Casino promotions are expired by the time I receive the magazine. I'm sure the Casinos who pay big bucks to advertise in these magazine could not be very happy about that. My Subscription is due to expire in Feb. of 2010.  So even though it's Feb. of 2010 now, I still have 3 issues remaining. So I should probably expect my last issue (February 2010) sometime at the End of June.
What a joke. I really don't believe that this company is going to be in business much longer.
I have already noticed a reduction in ads. I will be lucky to get my final issues before they go under!
Hopefully your subscription is not far from finishing.  I would not renew if I were you.

It's sad. Because I don't know of any other Casino based magazines out there.

[reho33]

I Thought that they went out of business years ago. I used to get the mag in 1999 when it was put out by CJPG (Casino Jorunal Publishing Group). Didn't know they were still around.

[StatFreak]

For any of you who still have several issues remaining on your subscription and who are dissatisfied, remember that you can always cancel and receive a refund of the undelivered issues. A magazine subscription is a service paid for in advance and unmailed issues are an accounts payable for the company. The right to a refund is not something that they have to bestow upon you through some customer service policy; you have a legal right to demand it.

Of course, requesting a refund and actually getting it from a company that's behaving as you have described are two different things.

[daddy2yea]

Commtech, you hit the hit the head on the nail. Its Sucks to go to Atlantic City then a month later read about a cool casino promotion or event that I didn't know about because my magazine was late. Just like you November was the last issue I got,  and my Subscription expires in February also.   I will not renew.
StatFreak, They do offer a Money Back guarantee, but only on undelivered issues, and they deduct an administrative fee of $5.50 from whats left. So in mine & Commtech case we have 3 issues left (Dec, Jan, Feb) The subscription for one year is $24. So we would have an account balance of $6 minus the $5.50 BS fee (administrative fee) We would get a check for 50 cents. Its not worth wasting my time on the phone for 50 cents. Anyway Thanks for the replies guys
 Mike

[Jim]

I just received the December/ January  combined in one issue.(thats how the printing appeared on the front cover) And I agree with you, the ads and promotions are a month out of date. the only thing I really liked, was to see the hold percentages of the local casinos. The casinos used their survey in a lot of promotions, e.g. best slot payouts, best resturants,etc. etc. I tried to be penny wise and ordered a three year subscription(reduce the cost of each issue) so maybe if they go out of business my pound foolish will mount up with all the fifty cents per issue????

JIM

[Brianzz]

I found this on another forum. Evidently a reply to a complaint about untimely delivery of Strictly Slots.

It is very true that we were having major difficulties with our printer and, ultimately went to another printer. The problem is this: in this economy no one wants to extend any credit to anyone else. And small business (which, we are) can't get credit from banks.

The printers want the money to print our magazines upfront. It used to be that they would give us 90 day credit. But WE still extend 90 days to our advertiser (who make up the bulk of our revenue). So what ends up happening is we have to pay for printing in advance of a magazine hitting the stands and our readers, and before we receive the revenue from that issue.

This leads to a cash crunch.

Add to that the fact that, again, because of the economy, many advertisers don't have the same budget for advertising that they used to, so they've cut back.

We have cut our costs to very bare bones. The publisher/CEO of our company hasn't been paid in MONTHS so that him employees CAN get paid and the magazines can get printed.

It's simply economics. Believe me, the very last thing we want is to upset our readers and lose them as well! But we can only do so much...

We are frantically trying to come up with new ways to raise more revenue. We are even looking to reorganize or debts. We are trying to get back on a proper printing schedule as quickly as possible. It isn't good for ANY of us--readers included--to be behind. And, in fact, we're going to probably have to push the October issue to November (in other words, combine the issues) i order to be able to pay for the printing so we can be out for G2E, the biggest trade show in the industry. Hopefully THIS will allow us to get Strictly Slots out on time in the future.

I am even trying to work on a program with other small business to exchange ads for their distribution of our magazines to their clients. (Essentially, they will pay the costs of a certain number of magazines they will distribute in exchange for an advertisement.) If this works, we will be exposed to new potential subscribers, which will hopefully gain us more subscriptions (& money!) and higher circulation will appeal to new full-paying ads. All means more money so we can pay the printers and get the magazines into your hands.

I'm telling you -- and you ARE the only reader I've explained all of this to -- so that you truly see what we're up against. Another solution would be to tell all of our subscribers that we're gonna need to charge you another $12 for your subscription (or go a sneakier route and start charging a $12 "processing" fee). We are trying VERY hard not to pass any additional costs on to YOU! I don't think our readers would appreciate or even be willing to pay more.

I'd LOVE to ask my government where OUR bailout is... but I don't think we qualify...

I do hope you hang in there with us... We really DO value our readers so much. It's just so damn hard out there right now. I'm sure you're feeling the financial pressures too... But I do believe things will turn around for us soon. I hope we can count on you to still be with us when it does...

All my best,

Melissa Fine
Editor
Casino Player, Strictly Slots Magazines

So what I'm wondering is why don't they just switch out to an online format. Charge people $2 a month or whatever to read the magazine, surely they can get it online faster than they can print and mail it.

[stayouttadabunker]

Here's a suggestion...can they be a part of NLG?

[Buzz]

Bunker  I kind of think we have a fair amount of members that will be to cheap to pay the $2.00 a month. If you don't believe that, look at how many non contributing members we have !! jmo

[daddy2yea]

I just got my December/January issue and you would think it would big a bigger than normal issue being they combined two months into  one issue, but
noooooooooo its only 66 pages.  the November issue was 76 pages , and the October issue was 82 pages.  So anyway I'm looking through the magazine and I see that HEART is going to be at the Las Vegas Hilton, January 28 & 30...............oh wait a minute  that date has already past. Hey Look Lewis Black is going be at the Borgata February 5 & 6 Boy I'm excited ..........Oh crap that date has also passed   humm I wonder what else I've missed.  I will not renew my subscription unless they extend my subscription , and the magazine starts coming on time.   Mike

[Neonkiss]

So it's like a newspaper.
It tells you what happen the other day.

[jay]

Well if you want to hit them where it hurts........

You could contact the publisists for Heart and let them know just how well their advertising dollars are doing for them.......or perhaps the Hilton Chain.

The $$ you pay for your subscription is just a way of imperically measuring how many people their adds actually reach. This is then used to sell more advertising.

They really don't care about you, or the content. They are concerned about advertisement revenue.

[Op-Bell]

They really don't care about you, or the content. They are concerned about advertisement revenue.

That's right - the subscribers aren't customers, they're actually product that the publisher sells to their real customers, the advertisers.

Dead tree publishing is so 20th Century. The business model is gone now we can get everything we need online. It's over.