Welcome to CAP, Pokershepherd!
Well, you bring up a whole lot of well thought out points.
The moral of the story is that you are working on player loyalty, and that is a very good thing in today’s environment.
Coming from a poker background should help you a lot.
Think about this: A player that brings you enough comission for you to be able to buy him an ipod – is he really going to be that impressed by it? What does that player need and want most?
IMO this is the line of thinking to follow here.