I called the Borgata to find out if I could get a room rate for my stay during the $3500 WPT event. I thought it was a reasonable request given I had lost $8600 in the pits during my stay for event 1. Not only did they deny me any room discounts, I was informed my account had been flagged as a "skilled player" at blackjack. The $151 in comps I had earned over the course of losing $8600 in cash is now frozen and all of my offers are void.

If this is not crazy enough the casino game department is now overriding the Poker Offers and the poker room rate posted on the WPT website that is offered with a copy of my buyin to the main event. I even offered to never play blackjack or any table games, which is no skin off my back since I am down six figures lifetime...but they still would not even honor the poker room rate. Even worse all my comps are frozen so I pay full time at cash games and get no hourly comps for my time pay.

I was wondering if anyone else has had this kind of experience? It really makes me question the Borgata's motives here. I think this is suspicious for the following reasons:

A) recently upgraded to Black Label using their match program with my Caesar's diamond card.

B) I RARELY PLAY TABLE GAMES.

*** I can't help but question the motives here. It's not unreasonable to think the borgata would rather not give away free meals and extremely discounted rooms to poker players who do not play very many casino games, when they can charge $549/nt. I feel like they found an excuse to deny me what was offered in Borgata's deal to host WPT events as well as what they advertise to bring in Caesar's players. I strongly warn poker players here for the World Poker Tour to avoid playing on the Casino Floor, else be exploited in this way. I also urge the WPT to take some kind of measures to prevent host casinos from breaching their listed offers to WPT players.

I want to mention that the Borgata Poker staff runs very good events, but the community and the WPT seriously need to reconsider holding the April championship event at a place that doesn't respect poker players or the offers for the WPT. I am not a blackjack player, if their casino staff did any research before revoking rates offered on their website and the WPT website and treating their players like crap...they would see I only visit the Borgata during a WPT event and play in all the poker tournaments. My blackjack play is very limited and erratic. Clearly, that would not be the playing pattern of someone interested in exploiting table games. And again I am perfectly willing to never play blackjack here.

The bottom line is if the casino department can override the poker room and treat visiting players very poorly, then the venue just cannot be trusted with an event like the WPT championship.

I would appreciate any support I can from the community and people who know me to change the Borgata policies and/or change the venue for the WPT championship.

There has got to be more to this story.

This exact situation happened to a tournament regular a few weeks ago at the Borgata. He was told don't bother coming to the series because his players card was flagged and taken away and that he wouldnt be able to register for tournaments without it. Did u actually register for the main event?

Yea, here is an update:
A pitboss at this dumpy boardwalk casino, "Resorts" called the borgata and told them I was a card counter and they believed him and blacklisted me.

This was partially my fault because we troll resorts on a regular basis. On one of my first trips to Atlantic city, me and my friends went to Resorts to play blackjack and craps. Within 10 minutes the pitboss determined (inaccurately) that all 4 of us were card counters. I think they do that for anyone under the age of 50 who goes in that place...
Anyways we thought it was pretty funny so any time any of us are in ac we stop by resorts and play so they can put a sign up that says $5-$50 table limits at their high stakes game, cut the shoe in half and shuffle any time we bet $50 lol, the also tell the waitresses not to serve us. I guess this guy had enough and went for revenge.

The interesting thing is I would've never found this out if the tournament director Tab hadn't gone out of his way to help me out, so I owe him many thanks. Also the first guy I had to deal with was the casino manager "Richard Henderson", he was like the worst person I've ever talked to. He basically said on the phone that he doesn't care at all about poker players and that "most of them count cards" which shows he is completely clueless since poker players just blast at blackjack..

I was merely asking to get my time pay comps for cash games and that I would never play in the pits again. He didn't care at all and said he would never re-instate me. I told him it was a breach of contract with the WPT to not honor the room rates posted on their site for players that buy into the WPT $3500 main. He said, "whatever" and hung up. I have to imagine he is a friend of the guy at resorts to blindly react to this phone call and act this disrespectfully.
With help from Tab I was able to get in touch with Joe Lupo, senior VP of operations. He was much more respectful and it seems like he should be able to get this worked out.

wow. so this guy missed all the events thinking he couldn't register with a flagged card but he could of.

No, for some reason I was able to register while others weren't. I showed up on Monday night to register Tuesday morning's event and found out the card was restricted. They had to call down for approval and it wasted time but I was registered. Someone in management is severely out of line here, almost certainly Richard Henderson. Your friend should contact an attorney, he should win this case especially if he is a professional tournament player that plays on the WPT.

A legal precedent was set in atlantic city that prevents them from stopping card counters from playing blackjack. Certainly preventing them from playing poker is even more ludicrous. Additionally preventing people who hardly even play blackjack that are reported by an unreliable source at another casino is even more preposterous. Tab actually warned me that they had been doing this to players and on the phone with Joe it seemed like they didn't know I was actually able to register tournaments, so maybe I got some help or maybe they are realizing they are digging themselves a hole here because that is a pretty unprecedented thing to do.

I agree. Has to be more to this story. Shouldn't this be moved to NVG though?

Update:
Spoke with Bob Nersisian (a top lawyer against casinos)
What borgata was doing preventing card counters or anyone suspected of card counting from registering poker tournaments is in direct violation of New Jersey state law and you have a very strong case. I wish they hadn't let me register but they did so all I have is a slander case against resorts.

This illegal policy was directly initiated by Richard Henderson because he is really dumb and now Joe Lupo has to cover his screw-ups. If you were denied entry in the tournament you should sue borgata and get that money.

Not really related to Borgata, specifically, but I have been going to casinos for nearly 20 years and I have definitely noticed changes. I don't know if its because of how corporate things have become, but they definitely don't treat their customers as well as they used to. And this is especially true when it comes to people who play low-margin games like poker and even blackjack. If you're dumping your rent money at slots, or carnival games or paying ridiculous markups at clubs, restaurants and shows, they will bend over backwards to make sure you are having a good time and will return. But if you're there to play blackjack or poker, you're lucky if they don't treat you with contempt.

This isn't true of all casino employees, of course. There are many good ones who recognize that a customer is a customer no matter what game they're playing. But increasingly, many employees, especially ones who are concerned about the bottom line, don't really care about poker and certain table games. Its a shame they are so short sighted, but increasingly, idiots are running the world, so it is no surprise.