I sent this email to Morongo Marketing on 11/7 following my experience there on 11/5. I never received a response.

To Morongo Management,

I have been a long time casual visitor to your Casino for about 10 years, usually about four weekends and two weeks each year, when I visit Palm Springs. I play a lot of poker, and some blackjack, my wife plays the quarter slots. Ater my experience in your poker room Saturday, I will need a very strong reason to ever return. The problems I encountered that day had to do with unbelievably poor cardroom management.

On Saturday, I called the poker room at 8 a.m. to ask about the tournament for the day, and was told it began at 11 a.m. The gentleman who I spoke with said that they did not take reservations, but said if I was in line by 10 a.m. I would get a seat. I arrived at 10 a.m., and got shut out. I mentioned what I was told to the manager ( she was a woman, I don't know her name), who told me I needed to arrive at 9:30 am. She then questioned when I called, and when I told her, the assistant next to her admitted he had taken my call and told me this by saying, "Well, usually it's 10 a.m." The manager said "I'll talk to the person." No apology was offered, even though I had driven about 45 minutes to play in this tournament.

During this time, there were about 50-80 people milling about wanting to play, and some of the lists were 25 names long. There were eight empty tables, but obviously not enough dealers. Instead of announcing this, cardroom staff kept herding people into a small area in front of the signup desk to keep people away from the playing tables. Even though your staff is aware that announcements could not be heard on the casino floor, and even though your facility had hand-out pagers, this fact was not made known to those waiting.

I finally got into a 4-8 kill game after two hours. As you know, your facility's rule is cash does not play. But because there was only one chip runner on the floor for about 20 tables, this resulted in constant delays as the dealer either had to provide chips out of the tray or wait up to 10 minutes for the chip runner to arrive. There was a gentleman at my table who called loudly for chips (not rudely, but the dealer wouldn't speak loudly enough to catch the chip runner's attention). The second time he did this, he was told by the manager that he would be tossed out if he did it again. The player, who was making the game profitable because he wasn't very good, then announced he wasn't putting up with the treatment, and was leaving for San Manuel Casino.

What made this extremely frustrating was the fact that there was nobody to complain to. None of this was the dealers' fault, and the manager's excuse was "we didn't know we'd be this busy." In my view her attitude was stating "If you don't like it, leave."

I cannot believe the dramatic difference in how poor customer service in your casino has become. Granted, my experience at the old building was prior to the poker boom, but back then, your floor people and managers were polite, remembered me even if I was only there for the week, and handled the floor and lists competently. I have never experienced anything close to how badly your poker room was run on November 5, and I have been playing in a variety of cardrooms throughout Southern Californa for the past 15 years.

You can view this information however you like. If I do not receive feedback from your organization about why this occurred and what will be done to correct this situation, I will limit all future play in the Coachella Valley area to Agua Caliente and Fantasy Springs. I am an active member of the 2+2 Poker Forums, and have shared my experience of November 5 on these forums. Please be assured that I will share your response (or lack thereof) on these forums as well.

Sincerely,