Gene: I have a serious question for you.... what is YOUR definition of the club? My definition is; every member within it. I tried to organize a "posse" at the recent Tropicana 4th of July chip issued in A.C. I'll not give all the details here as it is very lenghtly, but all my new issues subscribers know about it as I sent them all a two page newsletter outlining the problems encountered. However, when I asked for all those disgruntled chippers to accompany me to the Casino Control Commission Booth on the casino floor who were present at the time of issue.... only about 8-10 followed me. After about 10 minutes of waiting for the inspector to arrive following his page.... there were four or five chippers left. Five minutes later there was Bob Mera, Brenda and me; while some of the others ran off to beg other players to purchase ten chips each for them and to recruit strangers and bums from the Boardwalk to purchase additional chips for them. So much for "involvement". The CCC Inspector did file an incident report and I followed up with a personal letter to Tropicana President Pam Popielarski and another letter to Mr. Kenneth Doss, Legal Analyst, Division of Compliance at the Casino Control Commission. I've received a reply from Mr. Doss yesterday which states; "Please be aware that we are collecting additional information relevant to your complaint, and as soon as the informal investigation process is complete, you will be informed of the findings by mail. Typically, a final response to a patron complaint is received by this office within 30 days of the date of this initial letter."

Gene, I don't possess a magic wand. I would like to see all of our "problems" go away. Some problems we are going to have to get used to and live with. I think it would be more effective if a few hundred of our couple thousand members would "get invoved" and deluge some of these properties who are taking advantage of us... and let the various gaming boards around the country know how individuals feel about some of their practices, or regulations. No one can tell a business owner how to conduct his business (i.e. casinos). If there is no prohibition to a certain policy such as introduced recently at The Lodge, there is nothing I can do about it by myself as "the club". Obviously, we've seen that voluntary boycotts don't work.. as someone else has suggested.... so we wave our collective hands and dismiss it as, "Archie, get the club involved".