Land Based Casino Rewards

Hi LCB'ers!

Most land based casinos offer a players card allowing us to earn points as we play. I'd love to hear what your local casino offers in terms of rewards and how you can use your points. What are your perks as a member and what is your current level status? Any VIP's out there?

I've had a players card at just about every casino in my area but never managed to get the "Black" card or VIP status. I didn't find that there was any sort of rewards at UK casinos but in the US most casinos offer a card.

For me it's a toss up between Blue Chip Casino Hotel Spa and Harrah's Joliet.

Blue Chip is part of the B Connected network and they offer good comps on food, hotel and you frequently get emails about upcoming entertainment allowing rewards members to buy tickets before everyone else and the entertainment is actually really good.

Harrah's offers the Total Rewards program which also offers great comps on hotel, meals and you can also get free trips to other Harrah's locations. Actually, Total Rewards is the best! Free trips are the ultimate comp to me.

I have to agree with you Froggy, I have gotten a ton of free trips from Total Rewards. They are everywhere, you can't go wrong. I am just a gold member, but I had a friend who was a black card and it was ridiculous the royal treatment we received. They are hands down the best perks.

Here is my run down of all the players programs that I have seen, and this will hopefully give some an idea of what I have see from a guy who's generally a pretty low roller, and is just looking for something simple for a comp.

We'll start with the largest rewards program in the world...

TOTAL REWARDS

Pro:
*Your points, card, and status transfer from property to property
*Sometime you'll get offers in the mail amount to a free 3 day, 2 night trip to either a Vegas property or one of their other properties.  Normally air fare is included.  The only catch?  Bring your own spending money
*As long as you hit their magic thresh hold limit you’ll get coupons in the mail for free play and normally free meals to boot
*Tables games, slots, sports book, and any other types of bets earn you rewards and tier points
*Complimentary room upgrades based on status
*As long as you’re playing table games you get a free drink every so often
*Free rooms, meals, and entertainment coupons in the mail if your play qualifies you for it

Cons:
*You have to bet $5 in slots, $10 in video pokers, and god knows how they rate table games to get points and tier credits.
*Some properties comp based on level play, others will only comp with what’s in your account balance
*Sometimes even if you do have a higher level card, they don't always bend over backwards to help you when you’re down on your luck
*If they do comp you out of generosity, you can’t go up to the rewards booth to ask for it.  You have to have a person in the pit offer it to you or have a host come around and offer you a comp.
*They won’t comp you a drink when you’re playing slots unless if your Diamond or above

ISLE CARD

Pros:
*Card, points, and status transfer from property to property
*If you hit their magic thresh hold they’ll send you free play, but there is a con to this.  Please read below to find out
* Table games and slots all give you points

Cons:
*In order to use free play, you have to put in your own money first.  How it works, is that they require you to make a bet first.  Then they’ll reimburse your bets up to the amount of free play they put your in account.  So for example, if I get $10 free play, and play $0.50 bets.  I’ll get essentially 20 free spins out of machine, each time after the game has finished.  It’ll pop up saying I get free cash.  Then it’ll reimburse me for the spin that I had paid for.  Only time this doesn’t work too well, is if you bet odd amounts and sometimes you’ll get shorted on your last spin.
*They won’t tell you how much comp you have, nor issue you a comp ticket.  They can’t even tell you what you might qualify for either.  You just have to go the place you want a comp at, and present your card.  Then hope what you had ordered was within whatever you had in your comp balance.
*Not one of the most generous for slot points $5 per point or $10 per point on video poker

AMERISTAR REWARDS
Note: This is one of my 2 favorite programs out there, I will lay down why below
Pros:
*Your status transfer from property to property
*$3.50 per point for slots, $7 per point on video poker
*Your status transfers to MGM properties as well
*Takes only 100 points to gain a buffet, and they won’t take this out of your points balance
*They have a comp balance on top of your points for slots and table games
*Complimentary room upgrades when available based on tier status
*Free drinks for playing slots and table games
*Free rooms, meals, and entertainment coupons in the mail if your play qualifies you for it

Cons:
*Your points don’t transfer property to property
*They do issue comp tickets, but you have to redeem them that day, they can’t be saved for next morning or any future use

IMAGE CLUB (JUMERS Rock Island)
Note: This is the other program I love, but then again I’m VIP status so there’s a reason why I love here
Pros:
*$2.50 to get a point playing slots, $5 to get a point playing video poker
*Slots only earn points, table games only gain comps.  Yet slots and table games both have a comp balance available to the player
*Free rooms, meals, and entertainment coupons in the mail if your play qualifies you for it
*In my opinion, even before I reached VIP the most generous program I have seen to date on offering freebies, like free play, meals, and comps.
*Free room upgrades based on tier level and play

Cons:
*Only 1 casino so far, so it’s obviously a small casino operation
*No free trips yet, but I’m sure since they merged with Delaware North I can see some trips to like sport venues and stuff in the near future

Very nice information cheetahwind! It's always great when you can use one card from casino to casino. I think I went to an Ameristar Casino once but never got a player's card. Looks like they have a decent rewards program based on what you said. What's your favorite comp? For me it's actually not the free cash. It's usually not much anyway. I love the free hotel rooms and meals. You can have a little mini vacation and stay for free.

Since Rivers Casino opened up a couple years ago i have built up to the VIP Rush Rewards Black level Card.

There are some great benefits and i have been offered a free Cruise for 7 days, Free Slot play almost every day of the week, 4 free buffets a month and exclusive Slot Tournaments. They also have the Ten Lounge that is reserved for VIP's offering free food for lunch and dinner. The ATM in the lounge doesn't charge a fee which is really nice.

They recently changed the Comp Point system that used to be good to use towards meals only but have changed it to include even more Free Slot Play that can be redeemed anytime at the machine.

I like Caesars Group  Rewards card too especially for the discount and free rooms all over the country. It is really nice in Vegas because you have priority seating for restaurants , shows and even when waiting in the long lines for a cab.

The Diamond Lounge at Caesars is awesome! Free cocktails and lots of great food and appetizers.

Lips

Rivers is awesome! The Rush Rewards program seemed too good to be true when I was getting free cash. I was no high roller but I was getting like $10 free offered to me every other day or so. You always get something too for signing up. I got a free buffet but now the offer has changed to a scratch card which could give you free slot play, meal comps or $10k in cash. Not a bad deal.

I've actually enjoyed the free normal rooms, but once I got the ultimate upgrade.  I was at Jumers for the weekend, well I had booked a regular room.  Well because of my status and they were overbooked.  The upgraded me to a suite.  The normal rooms like spectacular, the suite, on the other hand was out of this world.  It had a dining room, bar setup, 2 bed rooms, a social room.  It was amazing, that was the ultimate comp for me.
So that's what had won me over at Jumers, was the fact that the upgraded room was beyond what I had expected.  Found out normally that room goes for $500/night.  So it was a real treat getting that room for 2 nights.
Then I enjoy the comp to the steakhouse.
Yes I really do enjoy Ameristar as well for this same feature.  Never have seen a suite, suite, but I have seen a Junior Suite.  If the junior suite looks as nice as it does.  I could only imagine what a full suite looks like.
Plus there buffet is just stellar, heck I don't even need the upgraded experience.  The steak house alone is probably nice, but why waste a comp.  When the buffet has gotten a AAA 5 diamond rating consistently for the last 12 years.

I rarely play at the land baseds...I get points up to 5 or 10 bucks and redeem lol

Wow cheetahwind that sounds like a great time! I've got to get myself over to an Ameristar. Do they have giveaways too? I know some of things I've received have been pretty handy. Wine glass, hand vac and some other things.

I have gotten lots of freebies from Jumers, like I had a bar set (wine opening, 4 beer glasses, 4 wine glasses (2 short, 2 tall), and a neat bottle opener.
Then at Ameristar I found there experience to be a unique one of a kind experience.
It would seem as if Ameristar has offered free gifts off and on over the years, but also they allow you to test games on them.  Like for example, they had guaranteed play video poker and slots.  Where you buy in for like $20.00.  Then you guaranteed 50 games of poker at max bet, or 50 spins of the slot at $1.25 bets for $20 or for max bet at $50.00.  Then assuming that your balance is positive at the end of it all you get to keep your winnings.
Now how this concept worked was your first hand or spin didn't count towards your balance, it was a "free spin".  After that your balance was deducted for the spin, and then added to if you won on that spin.  So there were times that you ended out in the hole, but you never owed for that "negative" balance because you had already paid for your spins before it.  It would just apologize you didn't have any luck, and the game would reset to $0.00.  Otherwise if after your hands or spins that you had actually won minus all of the value of the spins or hands that you had played.  Then you got to keep the winnings.
I personally thought it was a nice feature for those who walk in a budget, and sometimes barely get any play for there money.  That way your at least going to get 50 hands or spins out of the game before you bust or win.
That was one of there gifts one month, then they also offered up gift cards, little trinkets like fanny packs, dish ware, flatware and stuff like that.
I could go and on about either places giveaways, but I do find that occasions let you try out new slots at Ameristar to be the one of the most unique ones.
Anywho the Rivers casino sounds interesting, sometime if I find one, I'll to stop in and check it out.

Oh my gosh the guaranteed games sounds really cool. I've never heard of anything like that. I always appreciate the giveaways but I think I'd pass on the fanny pack!

I like Ameristar and remember it was my mom's birthday and they made a huge deal out of it and it was really cute. The benefits sound fantastic and those are the type of casinos that are worth going back to. There is one that is in Indiana and not to faraway and have been there a handful of times but not enough to build up a good VIP status. Sounds like something to consider!

Lips

I get all sorts of good stuff from the land-based casinos!  Usually 4 hotels/month (no, I don't stay everytime haha most of the time I reserve it and let a friend use it) several buffet vouchers, vouchers for any restaurant on their property, usually around $150-$200/month in free slot play....

My trick?  Every time I go, I print out 2 cards and give them to all of my family and friends to use when they go, and in return they use my rooms when I don't!  It's a win-win situation!!!!  I love our land-based casinos around here!

That's a smart trick jodi. I'll have to try it because my points would jump up in no time.

Another good trick to get to black card status in no time flat?  Find one of those video roulette machines, and bet $50 on red and $50 on black every spin.  You only have a 1 in 38 chance of losing your money (0/00) and your points add up in no time flat.  If you do happen to lose, your comps for the next year pay for that 100 times over!

Awesome tricks! I always wondered how so many people had the black card so quickly. Rivers Casino had just opened and they seemed to be more black cards than anything else.

That is an awesome trick with the video roulette Jodi! I have to do that

Someone asked whether or not Ameristar has giveaways and they do.  Free pies (nice, like $30 ones from their bakery) around Christmas and things like that....

Another way you can rack points is the video craps, but I don't know how to play craps (I think it's maybe the push and the pull?) but it works out the same odds (if not better) than the roulette does.  My boss let me onto that little trick haha he rocks he is a poker player as well, and we were bitching about the lack of comps for table games one day at work...

You can also get away with it at the table games if they don't have the video version, it is just 'frowned upon' by management....

If you all are ever in the STL area if I have an extra room I'm more than happy to lend it to ya for the evening!!!!  Just let me know! 

I might just take you up on that offer Jodi! Your tips were awesome, thanks for sharing them. 

Here's the only downfall to you using someone else's card.  I had a friend who would use his grandpa's black diamond card at a local city ran casino.  Well long story short, he happened to win a jackpot.  Well the computer said the kid was his grandpa.  Unfortunately his grandpa was actually playing with the same card across the casino.  Eventually once all of the checks and balances were done.  They did pay my friend his jackpot, but banned him and his grandpa from participating in the casino rewards program.  Mainly because the card was only meant to be used by one person not 2 people.
Yet if this is the case, then why didn't the players card system catch this in the first place.  Unless if the players card system allows you to use you card on multiple slot machines as long as your playing the same 3 next to each other.  Then you can earn points that way.
Either way if you do decide to share cards and rack up points and stuff that way.  Make sure your playing next to each for in the case a jackpot or the system does catch you.  Otherwise I hope there a little nicer to you at the casino.  Versus what happened to my friend and his grandpa.

Ooooh that's a tempting offer Jodi

I have often wondered about sharing your card with someone else. I have a couple cards in my purse mainly because i tend to leave them in machines but have given out to use too. Wow i am really shocked they banned over that especially if the grandpa was a black card member. That was quite a valuable player to give up.

Lips

Well he could still play, there reasoning was abusing the comping system.  I'm going to guess it's probably written somewhere in the rules none of us read.  Other than how to get out cashback and comps part.
Kind of sounds like some people and online casinos eh?

I have a Diamond rewards card for Harrah's and didn't learn until a couple of years ago I could use it at all properties. I booked a flight to stay at Rio  in Vegas and the operator asked for my rewards number and told her I don't have one only to Harrah's. What a fool I was lol. They own so many casinos in the country the discounts everywhere are a plus.

I am considering a road trip this summer to travel through a few states and stay at casinos owned by harrah's to get good deals and comp rooms. It is a good way to travel see the country and save money on rooms.

Gotta love Harrah's, they are everywhere. They offer some pretty sweet comps too, I have gone to Vegas more times than I can count on their dime, well I guess it is deserved with all the money I've spent. 

I never thought of seeing the country by Harrah's hopping. It's actually a great idea liquorman!

I never been to Cali and finally planned a trip there searching a harrahs for a discount rate hotel to stay. I got three nights free and two more at a discount rate. I felt guilty not gambling a whole lot instead checking out the city but in the end they get my money one way or the other.

It is an awesome way to travel even if you don't do much gambling. My problem would be staying out of the casino long enough to sight see the city and defeat the whole purpose of going