Total Rewards Strategy Update

It seems that every day there is some change or development with Caesars Entertainment that might or will affect Total Rewards. And with each development or change some of us might be reconsidering our strategy about playing at Caesars properties and maintaining our Total Rewards standings or tier levels.

In just the last week we've had two new developments:

1. Caesars said in a filing for investors and shareholders that lawsuits over its corporate structure could damage the overall company. This might force the rest of Caesars to file for bankruptcy; right now one unit of Caesars (though a big one including Caesars Palace) has filed for bankruptcy. If the rest of Caesars is forced into bankruptcy that could seriously effect Total Rewards.

2. Rincon Casino in San Diego which is owned by an Indian tribe in California but is managed by Caesars and is included in the Total Rewards program has downgraded more of its popular video poker machines, and has been cutting offers, making it more difficult for Southern California players to earn points towards Total Rewards status.

In about ten days the new fiscal year for Total Rewards will begin and we should find out specifically what the new "rules" will be for Total Rewards as well what bonus offers will be made available. Which brings us to:

3. Total Rewards over the past few months has been limiting some of the more popular bonuses and recently more of the popular bonuses have been done away with.

So given the latest developments, what does your crystal ball say about your participation in Total Rewards?

Will you play at all in the next few days to maintain your tier status if you are lacking points for renewal for 2015-2016?

Have you already started playing more at other casinos with other reward programs because your mind is already made up?

Is there a "must have" that Caesars Total Rewards must continue effective April 1 to keep you?

I am sticking with CET until they really drop all the benefits. In about 10 minutes I will leave for a three hour drive to Cherokee where they have a suite, $1200 free play, spa, food, Rodney somebody (country comedian) tickets, etc. waiting. As long as they keep this up I will stick with them.

Carolina you've told us about your offers at Cherokee. To me they appear to be huge and very generous. You've also told us that you don't play at high levels. So what's the secret? $1200 free play is a lot.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by carolinajacket

I am sticking with CET until they really drop all the benefits. In about 10 minutes I will leave for a three hour drive to Cherokee where they have a suite, $1200 free play, spa, food, Rodney somebody (country comedian) tickets, etc. waiting. As long as they keep this up I will stick with them.

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The entity currently in bankruptcy is Caesars Entertainment Operating Co (CEOC) which owns Ceasars Palace, Ceasars Atlantic City, Harrah's Reno, ect. The Eastern Band of the Cherokee Indians own Harrah's Cherokee and only pays CET to manage the place. Therefore, I believe that that Harrah's Cherokee is essentially immune from the woes (and debt) of CEOC. So I am not surprised that Carolinajacket's comp offers at Cherokee remain attractive.

By contrast, my offers from Caesars Palace in Vegas have dropped from $900 to $300 for freeplay/Visa Cards. My casino play did not drop off. This occurred shortly after the BK filing. Coincidence? I think not.

Rincon is owed by Indians so it is not affected by the BK. The cut in Video Poker payouts is probably a property decision based on what it could get away with. But my comps have not decreased there.

FAB

I think Rincon is cutting payouts because of the cost of their expansion which included the convention center and the new hotel tower.

And I know from talking to managers at the casino that the Tribe is concerned about its revenue. I remember several years ago when several $400,000 royals were hit on the $100 VP machines (leading to their removal) that casino managers could not convince the Tribal leaders that this was just "variance" and they would make back the money over time.

Did you know that each week Caesars writes out checks to Tribal members as if they were paychecks?

Rincon offers Caesars benefits thru Total Rewards and right now the bankruptcy does not impact Total Rewards because Total Rewards is not in the unit that has the Chapter 11. If I recall, at the very first bankruptcy court session it was decided not to impact things such as casino comps and Total Rewards because it was a necessary part of the way the casino business is conducted.

However, if the rest of the Caesars businesses are put into Chapter 11 then I would say "all bets are off" concerning the sanctity of Total Rewards. Total Rewards is as "safe" as the rest of the remainder of Caesars that is not in bankruptcy. That's how I look at it.

Not happy about total reward pay-tables in local (rincon) and Vegas.
Thinking about the Station Casinos. Any comments or suggestions on where to play and where to eat? I hear the buffet at the red rock is great for the price.

My son now swears that Red Rock is the best resort for rooms, points, promos and video poker. He has stayed there twice with heavy play and already has the second highest level in their rewars program.

Unfortunately this week he's at a Caesars hotel because it takes three months or longer for the offers to start coming from Red Rock.

I was a member of the Stations (Red Rock) rewards program for awhile.

It sucked.

I achieved the highest level (Chairman), and it was nearly worthless.

Base benefits sucked big time (doesn't even come CLOSE to comparing to Seven Stars), and even the freeplay I got was nothing special.

I wasn't overcomped, either. I didn't even stay at the property for a single night.

The only good thing was that you could redeem your comp points directly for cash, at full value. That part was nice. I wish CET would let you do that, instead of both forcing you to get it as freeplay AND degrading its value if you exchange it for that.

Dan,
Get real.
Did you even read my post?
I'm planning 1 trip to Vegas Not a lifetime (a year or two then rinse and repeat for the next 2 years) of leaching off a rewards program trying to get over comped.
I stated I was not happy with the Pay-tables at total reward casinos. I did not say that I wanted to spend money on bad pay-tables so I could later leach off seven star total rewards program from a bankrupt company that may not even be there for me to leach of the rewards.
I want to play hours of video poker, have fun, eat well, and make a little or lose a little depending on lady variance (Lady luck as some would call it)
Alan's comment was very useful and Alan obviously read my initial post.
Anyway I am open to suggestions if someone has a better place to play and/or eat for this one trip that a very disappointed with total rewards Diamond card holder can go to play and have fun
I may also play some low limit (limit or no limit) live poker while I'm there.
Red rock has full pay deuces wild 100.76%
Total Rewards has garbage % paytables the best being full pay jacks or better 99.54% at $25 a spin with reduced reward credits.

ke6cdh raises a very important point that everyone should keep in mind: comps, whether in the present or in the future, may not be your first concern. And if comps and future plans for casino trips are not a priority for you then the actual out of pocket costs and not comp programs should get your attention.

There are people who can make plans for the year or longer that includes comps from casinos, and then there are people who are looking for the best experience for one or two casino visits during a year or over two years. What works for one type of player may not be appropriate or work for another type of player.

I would seriously caution any player who wants to invest in a comp program with any casino company to consider what their "bottom line" is when adding up the cost of play to receive comps vs. the actual cost of playing without any concern for comps and paying "real money" for their other entertainment.

Some folks might find that it's cheaper to pay cash for their hotel, meals and other casino-related entertainment with a limited amount of casino play -- or no casino play at all. And some folks might find the comps earned for their play might actually drop their overall out of pocket expenses even when the cost of casino play is included.

The important thing is to be honest. Ask yourself how much did you win or lose at gaming and how much did the comps pay towards your hotel, shows, meals, and other casino-resort entertainment?

Ke6cdh, the full pay deuces wild (100.76) are on single line 25 cents and you must put $12.00 thru
To get one point. They do have Double Double Bonus (100.17) up to a $1.00 (same $12.00 = 1point). But they
do have full pay Bonus Poker (99.17) and Super Double Bonus Poker (99.6) up to the $1.00 levels
in which yes get 1 point for $3.00 of play. I've always enjoyed the Steakhouse at Fiesta Henderson.
So if Redrock's Steakhouse is anything like Fiesta Henderson, you should be happy.
Jim

Red Rock is a beautiful property with great, modern rooms. The buffet is modestly priced (as are all Stations' buffets) and is a good value. The race/sports book is quite nice, although Stations' numbers are usually very vanilla. And there is very good video poker at 25-cent levels.

One negative for Red Rock is that you're marooned out there away from everything, although there is a fine pizza place in the strip mall type area a block east of Red Rock that has been rated as among the best in the country. Stations' comp points accumulate slowly, especially on those FPDW games, and aren't worth much. Plus they expire if you don't give them any action -- don't know if it's every six months or every year. I know because I lost a couple of dinners worth of points recently. Not sure about mailers -- in the past, other properties were generous with room comps. Not so much now, and from what I'm told, not at Red Rock.

I'm not sure what the secret is, but for some reason they have become seriously generous. Had over a thousand this last weekend and they are giving me another 950 for next Sunday/Monday. Hard to turn down.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by fly2rei

Ke6cdh, the full pay deuces wild (100.76) are on single line 25 cents and you must put $12.00 thru
To get one point. They do have Double Double Bonus (100.17) up to a $1.00 (same $12.00 = 1point). But they
do have full pay Bonus Poker (99.17) and Super Double Bonus Poker (99.6) up to the $1.00 levels
in which yes get 1 point for $3.00 of play. I've always enjoyed the Steakhouse at Fiesta Henderson.
So if Redrock's Steakhouse is anything like Fiesta Henderson, you should be happy.
Jim

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If I was playing for points, I would probably play the triple deuces wild at station casinos 99.92 percent and 1 points for $3.00 just interested in having a fun trip and playing for hours with a gambling budget of $400 for video poker

My Crystal ball has shown me that there's really no reason to dump a lot of money into VP, or any other game for that matter at CET properties any more. I'm mid level Diamond and used to chase the tier credits and even considered going for the Seven Stars experience this year despite less than optimal pay tables at most properties. It was during my last visit last month to Planet Hollywood, that I just gave up. All the bar machines were downgraded to 7/5 for DDB, JOB was 6/5, no matter what denom you played. Floor games that were previously 9/5 were cut to 8/5 across all denominations. That was all I needed to see. I went straight across the street and played at Bellagio, and Cosmo, both who have better pay tables. See ya Caesars!

I also talked to a few former seven stars VP players who were passing through PH and getting in some Tier credits on their way back to the MGM where they were now staying and now more loyal to (now they are currently diamond with CET). Once they saw the paytables, they laughed, then got up to leave, informing me that MLIFE has been much better for them, fairer paytables and you can actually win at their properties. Imagine that. This seems to be a repeating theme I hear (and witness) at CET properties; Not enough winning. As someone who's played a lot of hands of VP in various casinos, I think there's something to it.

While a glut of rigged machines at CET properties might not be provable at this point the downgrade of the paytables is simply a massively greedy and insulting 'fuck you' to their loyal players, like me, who now find ourselves wandering more and more to other properties and playing, and losing, less and less at Caesars casinos. I find that I get pretty much the same shitty comps no matter how much I play. Free rooms are always easy to get, especially if you are willing to forgo Caesars. With little play you can use the rooms to go visit a hotter mistresses across the street who has better breath, bigger tits, and lacks the yeast infection that Caesars seems to have developed. That's my plan.

The station casinos were bought out by m-life but they still seem to have their own rewards cards and rewards program. If you play myvegas online in Facebook you can earn rewards for all the m-life casinos including the station casinos. I plan on spending some myvegas free rewards.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BAGGINS

My Crystal ball has shown me that there's really no reason to dump a lot of money into VP, or any other game for that matter at CET properties any more. I'm mid level Diamond and used to chase the tier credits and even considered going for the Seven Stars experience this year despite less than optimal pay tables at most properties. It was during my last visit last month to Planet Hollywood, that I just gave up. All the bar machines were downgraded to 7/5 for DDB, JOB was 6/5, no matter what denom you played. Floor games that were previously 9/5 were cut to 8/5 across all denominations. That was all I needed to see. I went straight across the street and played at Bellagio, and Cosmo, both who have better pay tables. See ya Caesars!

I also talked to a few former seven stars VP players who were passing through PH and getting in some Tier credits on their way back to the MGM where they were now staying and now more loyal to (now they are currently diamond with CET). Once they saw the paytables, they laughed, then got up to leave, informing me that MLIFE has been much better for them, fairer paytables and you can actually win at their properties. Imagine that. This seems to be a repeating theme I hear (and witness) at CET properties; Not enough winning. As someone who's played a lot of hands of VP in various casinos, I think there's something to it.

While a glut of rigged machines at CET properties might not be provable at this point the downgrade of the paytables is simply a massively greedy and insulting 'fuck you' to their loyal players, like me, who now find ourselves wandering more and more to other properties and playing, and losing, less and less at Caesars casinos. I find that I get pretty much the same shitty comps no matter how much I play. Free rooms are always easy to get, especially if you are willing to forgo Caesars. With little play you can use the rooms to go visit a hotter mistresses across the street who has better breath, bigger tits, and lacks the yeast infection that Caesars seems to have developed. That's my plan.

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I doubt the CET machines are rigged, but it's hard to argue with most of the other stuff you wrote above.

I keep hearing/reading about people getting frustrated with CET's paytables and treatment of regular players.

The base benefits of Total Rewards are still far better than every other program, including MLife -- especially at the highest level. But there's no doubt that the other companies are making their players happier in other ways, and CET is going to suffer for it.