Tag: Comps
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Don't Get Lost In The Multipliers
We don't gamble for comps, but it's nice to know what is available to us. Some day, we may earn enough points to get that awesome satin jacket from Luxor. If casinos continue to offer point multipliers -- like the email pictured above from Boyd Gaming -- we might just get that jacket.
Players club points are a funny thing. The casinos want to draw players in with their offers, but they don't want to offer too many points to just anyone. When you live outside of Vegas, you'll receive more room offers and free play to draw you in. Once you're in town, you may end up at a casino for one of the random point multiplier days. The locals casinos (Boyd, Station, etc.) offer different kinds of point multipliers just about every day while the national casinos are will have specific offers tailored to the individual player. For example, Caesars Entertainment will send out point multipliers only good for a specific player on a specific day at a specific casino.
Facebook / myVEGAS / Loyalty Rewards / Comps / → All Tags
myVEGAS Rewards Are The Real Deal
You may have wondered why we haven't mentioned much on the myVEGAS Facebook game before now. You might have even thought we didn't know, or forgot about it. Well, let it be known we have been fanatically playing secretly testing the game for the past few months and are happy to report back with results!
Many gamblers spend hours upon hours and tons of money to buy earn diamond, pearl, elite or whatever top notch players club status is available at your casino(s) of choice. This status gives us all kinds of freebies and comps not available to the average Joe. Leaving many non-gamblers, or even the casual one, wondering if there is anyway for them to get comps. We can now say there is! myVEGAS is a virtual game by MGM Resorts game that's played through Facebook and users can win real Vegas rewards!
The game is free to play, all you need is a Facebook account, an MLife number (you can get one here) and some spare time. Game play is focused around gathering "playable" slot chips from virtual Strip casinos and using those to play a variety of games which in turn spit out "Loyalty Points" which you can use to buy rewards. Again, all of this costing nothing to the player.
Players Clubs / Comps / Gambling / → All Tags
Ranking The Casino Games That Earn The Most Players Club Rewards
We don't gamble for comps, but it's nice to know how they work. Watching others receive better comps for less play led us to do a little snooping on how comps and players club points are calculated. Every casino has different policies, but they all rate the games in pretty much the same manner. It almost makes sense.
With total bankroll being the same, machines come before tables when racking up those players club points. Why? Because you can cycle through money quicker. You may have less money at risk with any hand dealt in video poker or spin on a slot machine, but in the time it may take for one roll at the craps table, you may have 10 spins on a slot or hands dealt in video poker. Similarly, you may have three games played on a machine for each hand of blackjack. That $20 put into the video poker machine may turn into $25 played before there's a point established on the craps table.
Comps / Players Clubs / Blackjack / Gambling / → All Tags
How To Get Rated Playing Blackjack
We all want free stuff at the casino. Just sitting at a blackjack table, you'll be able to get a free drink and maybe even a free smoke. Since machines are the most accurate at tracking play, you may even earn enough players club points to get a free sandwich. These perks, along with discounted hotel rooms, are the little things that keep the low to medium rollers happy.
In Vegas, if you're playing blackjack for less than $25 a hand, don't expect much more than a free drink or smoke. Most Vegas Strip casinos will not rate your play unless you are playing green ($25) chips. Some pit bosses will tell you this when you place your first bet with red ($5) chips and some won't. The pit bosses that don't say anything are assuming you don't know or don't care and would rather not take the chance of belittling your play.
Comps / Tips / Sales Tax / Red Rock Casino / → All Tags
When It Comes To Comps, The Sales Tax Is Comp'd Too
When using comps to purchase a cup of coffee the other day we remembered something about comp purchases. There is no sales tax charged when using comps for purchasing a meal, or anything else. This saves 8.1% if you're using the comps to purchase anything from the gift shop to a nice meal. It only added up to a few cents with the cup of coffee, but those pennies add up when you're buying overpriced jewelry at the gift shop or enjoying some fine dining at a restaurant.
This sales tax "discount" is also available even if you're not covering the entire bill with your comps. At Red Rock Casino, we have to take a specific amount of comps from their kiosk to use at the restaurant. We underestimated the cost of a cup of coffee and saw the tax removed from our bill.
Diamond Lounges / High Rollers / Total Rewards / Caesars Entertainment / Gambling / Comps / → All Tags
What We Noticed After Drinking Around The Strip's Diamond Lounges
As you may know, this writer took a little vacation last week. I went to vacation in Las Vegas. Go figure. Since it seems as if this will be the last year I have Total Rewards Diamond status (I just don't gamble as much at Caesars Entertainment properties as I used to), I decided to use comps for a few nights of free* hotel rooms, dining vouchers and drinks.
As usual when staying at a Caesars Entertainment property there was a lot of time spent imbibing at the various Diamond Lounges. Between three properties over three nights, I didn't notice anyone else under 40 years old in any of the Diamond Lounges. Not a problem, just an observation.
My friend and I met many nice people. Most of them were retired and taking anywhere from a week to a month using their comps at various Total Rewards casinos as part of their annual vacations. Most of us can only hope our retirement is spent traveling to various casinos.
However, the lack of younger high rollers in the Diamond Lounges made us understand why it seems as if many casino marketing departments seem to have been neglecting the gamblers or, at least, lessened the offers. There just aren't many young high rolling gamblers left to market to. If there are many, they weren't partaking in free drinks or snacks like their older counterparts or this gambler.
This isn't just a Caesars observation, I've seen similar people in the high roller lounges across The Strip. The scene is similar anywhere from the Cosmo to Wynn.
Players Clubs / Total Rewards / Comps / Shows / Free Vegas / → All Tags
Caesars Clarifies Total Rewards' Comp Show Ticket Policy
Taken away back in April, free show tickets have returned for certain tiers of Total Rewards. But, where once everything was understood, now confusion reigns.
Last week, our East Coast Gambler reported on how comp tickets were back (kinda). Several websites noted that while the perk had returned in June, availability was limited to just Seven Stars members. After our post, though, several fans reached out to us to let us know that Diamond members could get free tickets again, too. We reached out to Caesars Entertainment to clear things up and here is their official response:
Total Rewards / Caesars Entertainment / Comps / Players Clubs / → All Tags
Free Total Rewards Tickets Are Back… Kinda
Earlier this year, there was a rash of casino players clubs cutbacks. It's a trend that no gambler likes to see. In April, Caesars Entertainment took away the pair of free show tickets that they allotted to their two top tiers of Total Rewards players, Diamond and Seven Stars.
These weren't free tickets to their mid-to-top tier shows like Celine Dion or Absinthe. These were free tickets to a handful of their low-tiered shows like the Mac King and Legends in Concert that rarely, if ever, sell out.
Well, Caesars was listening to the gripes about their removal of these free tickets and have partially restored them. According to the Seven Stars Insider newsletter, Caesars has reinstated the "Total Rewards benefit of two free tickets each month for selected Las Vegas casino shows – but only for Seven Stars cardholders, not for Diamonds anymore."
The Cosmopolitan / Twitter / Gambling / Comps / Vegas Observations / Identity / Players Clubs / → All Tags
The Cosmo Doesn't Get Gamblers
What do we do when we come across something we don't like? We complain about it.
Sometimes we'll tell a friend, but sometimes we'll tweet it so everyone sees our complaint and, maybe, does something about it. We're not much to get in the middle of Twitter conversations, but a discussion last week between The Cosmopolitan and an unhappy gambler caught our eye.
Customer service via Twitter is a difficult thing to manage. Complaints are rarely resolved and we don't know how this ended, but what we do see is how it ended on Twitter. The final (public?) tweet shows us how Cosmopolitan's staff is disconnected from gamblers:
Smoking / Cigars / Cigarettes / Comps / → All Tags
Smoke 'Em If The Casino's Got 'Em
Even though we spend a lot of time at the tables, we're still relatively new to casino gambling. When we're at the tables, we're usually focused on gambling, drinking and carousing so some things slip past us. We're not experts and we're still learning things. We recently learned something new about casinos that we've never seen in person. It's a practical, old school perk and we figured we'd pass it on.
Gambling / Strategy / Slot Machines / Players Clubs / Comps / → All Tags
It's Better To Play More All at Once, Than Over Time
We all want comps, but we don't all get comps. The reason may be how and where we spend our money. See, casinos want your money all at once and often in one place. We try not to get too caught up in the math behind comps, but we want to know how to get them - even if we don't always follow the "rules" to maximize.
Basic comps are easy enough to track and are based on points accumulated by playing at any time. If we play slots for an hour or so, we may earn enough points to get a free sandwich. Sweet! However, the cool special offers we receive are often given based on a different, more sketchy, formula called Average Daily Theoretical (ADT). Here's a basic definition from vpFREE:
Comps / MGM Resorts International / M Life / Caesars Entertainment / Player Clubs / Total Rewards / Ameristar / → All Tags
With Ameristar, Get Vegas When Not In Vegas
Caesars Entertainment has long had a hold on the non-Vegas casino market that feeds into Las Vegas. When back east, this chatterer decided that his normal place to play would be at Total Rewards properties in Atlantic City, in part, because those points could be used for annual trips to Las Vegas. Play wasn't exclusive to these properties but, as discussed, we play more where we stay so our comp points were fairly focused towards Total Rewards.
A couple of months ago, MGM Resorts announced that they were expanding Mlife to include Ameristar properties. Ameristar casinos are not in Las Vegas so this works out to be quite a benefit for our friends across the country. Here's the list of locations where you'll currently find Ameristar locations:
