• by Bill McCloskey , July 12, 2006

For this installment of "Swimming in Data," I took a look at the subject lines of 2,235 unique e-mail messages sent in June in the casino market sector. The idea was to examine the words and phrases in the subject lines for this sector, in order to see which ones may or may not be working based on frequency of use. Here are the results:

We will start with a top-10 list. Below are the top ten most frequently used subject lines for the month of June. (The names of the casinos have been left blank):

1. $100 Free at (casino)
2. $15 free plus 100 pct Match Bonus at (casino)
3. $200 Welcome Bonus at (casino)
4. 100 free spins to win with
5. 100 free spins when you join today
6. 25 bucks on us to get you started
7. 300 percent bonus from (casino)
8. 60 bucks on the house
9. Claim a hundred free spins today
10. The first Texas Hold'em Bonus Poker ever featured online

The interesting thing about this top-10 list is that a number (100, 15, 300, etc) begins each subject line in 80 percent of the time.

Let's take a close look at "numbers" when it comes to casino subject lines:

7.8 percent of the e-mails used the number 200: "Keep 200 dollars of winnings without having to gamble" "Enjoy 200 Percent Slots Bonus"

15 percent (or nearly twice as many) used the number 100: "100 Dollars F R E E" "Enjoy 100 Bingo Cards and 100 Spins, No Purchase Required" "Bonuses on us - 100 dollars every month"

Only 1.3 percent used the number 300: "Table a 300 dollar bonus"

5.3 percent used the number 25: "25 dollars free from us when you play today" "25 bucks on the house plus a 100 dollar bonus"

The Dollar Sign ($) itself was used in 8.3 percent of the subject lines: "Best bonuses - $567 free when you play today"

The word "Free" was used in 18.7 percent of the e-mails. "Free blackjack no deposit required" "Get FREE money to play!"

The name "Las Vegas" was used in only 0.5 percent of the cases, but the shortened form, "Vegas," was used in 25.9 percent of the e-mails, over 1 times in 4.

Other key words include "Bonus" (as in "Wow: a 1000 percent Bonus!") used 16 percent of the time; "bucks" ("claim 25 bucks on us today") 15.7 percent of the time;"jackpot" ("Win massive jackpots with zero deposits") 5.2 percent; "Dollars" ("100 Dollars F R E E") 10.5 percent; "casino" ("Free or money-19 New casino games-$100 Free!") 6.9 percent; "On Us" ("60 bucks on us when you join today") 8.8 percent; "On the House" ("First Hour on the house") 6.7 percent; "claim" ("claim 25 bucks on us today") 9.8 percent; "No Deposit" ("No Deposit Weekend for 4th of July") 4.8 percent; and "Spin" ("Spin & Win") 9.9 percent.

Interestingly, the word "lose" was only used one time: "You Can't Lose at Your Favorite Games." Apparently it is not a good idea to use the word "lose" in any context.

The names of games are less represented: Bingo (0.7 percent), Blackjack (0.5 percent), Poker (2.4 percent), and Texas Hold'em (1 percent).

Hopefully this data will help you make your next e-mail drop less of a gamble.