By Robert Sweeney
History is known to repeat itself, those who ignore history do so at their own risk.
I kept thinking about history this week as my daughter Sharon Sweeney, and myself – publishers of the Colorado Gambler – were delivering newspapers to Colorado Springs and Cripple Creek.
During the past months we’ve been riding shotgun with our delivery people fine tuning our metro Denver distribution system. We have many, many locations across the area that keep a team of delivery people working most of the week running various routes. We’re adding new delivery stops constantly and checking to see where we distribute the most Gambler newspapers. We have grocery stores that move more than 600 papers weekly. The reception at every potential new stop was tremendous, all happy to let us leave papers for the tourists and gamblers to pick up.
There is a false impression about the Gambler that we only distribute up in Black Hawk and Central City. Yes, you may be reading the complimentary copy of the Gambler right now that you picked up somewhere in a Colorado gaming community. We love that you read this newspaper and we have thousands of readers every week. We’re shooting for hundreds of thousands with our new website, www.coloradogambler.com. Since the Gambler is a primarily free newspaper provided with casino advertising, we don’t worry about people paying for a subscription because we want the readership and want to get people to the casino towns. We do, however, have quite a few paid subscribers in Colorado and the United States to loyal readers that want to ensure receiving it every week in their home.
We sacrifice subscription income for advertising income made possible by you reading this newspaper and supporting your favorite casino’s promotions and using the coupons printed in this paper. Take advantage of the ads like the Bronco Billy’s restaurant coupon in Cripple Creek that had people grabbing papers out of our hands as we made deliveries that week.
Visiting with casinos up in Central City last week, we walked into the lobby of Fortune Valley and literally everyone in the hotel lobby was seated in comfy chairs reading the Colorado Gambler. We see people reading the newspaper everywhere, sitting out in front of casinos looking at the ads and searching for coupons.
We strive to encourage our advertisers to promote “a call to action” with their advertising promotions such as giving away a Mustang, or a Harley Davidson motorcycle, or a wonderful buffet that targets customers to come to their casino. The Tuesday buffet at The Lodge is over the top as a special place to enjoy a great bargain buffet. You get shrimp, carved beef, salads and a fabulous spread for less than $10, and the quality of the food ranks with the best Denver hotels.
We find it imperative to promote the casinos on a weekly basis with current up to date information and a fresh read.
On Tuesday, Sharon and I volunteered to run the southern route and we left Denver early that morning. It was 9 p.m. when we pulled back into Denver after making dozens and dozens of stops across Colorado Springs, Manitou Springs, Cripple Creek and even historic Victor. Wow what a day. I knew we had hit all the stops when it was 6:30 p.m. and Sharon was grabbing the last bundle of papers to leave at a Cripple Creek motel. Thousands of bikers coming into town for the Salute to American Veteran’s rally and Festival in Cripple Creek. You should see the gold plated Harley in the window on display at The Brass Ass Casino worth $250,000 on Main Street in Cripple Creek.
We stopped at the Wildwood to say hello to Linda DeMars, marketing director, and Kevin Werner, general manager. We took a peek at the great looking salad bar at the new Ruby Tuesday restaurant which we meant to get back too. We got held up in Victor at the post office and Claim Jumper, the local general store at 5 p.m. putting our newspapers in the outdoor Gambler box. The couple inside wanted a few more Bronco Billy’s 50 percent off coupons to use at Baja Billy’s. By the way Bronco Billy’s offers free spicy, Italian, and honey barbecue wings and beer on Tuesdays from 2 – 10 p.m. It was 3 p.m. when we discovered this great perk to customers. We hadn’t eaten so we were happy to sample the delicious wings. The Vietnam Wall is coming to Victor and there was a store wall of almost faded war Veterans from that community. It needs to be repainted to make sure that those veterans are remembered. We’ll help buy the paint if someone from Cripple Creek or Victor will contact us.
Everywhere we would go we were welcomed with open arms; it made our hard work of doing this newspaper for 20 years feel rewarded. The various museums know all about the Gambler and some of the staff members actually provide us many of the historical features that we have published for the past 20 years, including contributing writers Jan Mackell and Melissa Trenary, who were hard at work at the Cripple Creek Museum. We’re going to do some books one of these days with the thousands of great historical features we’ve published
Carrying those bundles of papers into a casino is a task, but the load is lightened with the great looking bartender smile, who said, “I was hoping we’d get some Gamblers this week, people have been asking for them.”
Last report we added another half-dozen stops in Idaho Springs, and 25 metro-Denver King Soopers stores located from 6th Avenue West to C-470, Denver, Arvada and a high concentration in Jefferson County. Check out our website at www.ColoradoGambler.com for all the locations.
I did play four hands of blackjack at The Wildwood Casino in Cripple Creek and won $100. That’s a fact and Sharon is my witness. That earned me two points on my new Miner’s Club Card, so join today and receive all the great perks it offers.
Next trip to Cripple Creek I am going to enjoy the great looking salad bar at Ruby Tuesday at the Wildwood Casino or possibly the steak and lobster special on Tuesdays.
