☰
I know the ink isn’t dry yet, but with your decades of experience in the gaming industry, do you have any thoughts on VICI closing the MGM deal and now owning Caesars Palace, Harrah's, Venetian & Palazzo? Any thoughts how that will effect the players clubs with them not being linked to Bally’s, Flamingo, NOBU, Paris, Planet Hollywood, Rio, Linq, and Cromwell.? What happens to my Platinum status? Will I lose status at Caesars and Harrah's or keep it there and lose it at all the others?
VICI, a real estate investment trust, is now the landlord for most of MGM Resorts hotel-casinos: Mandalay Bay, Luxor, Excalibur, MGM Grand, New York-New York, and Park MGM.
VICI has nothing to do with the operations of the properties; the only change with VICI's ownership of the land and buildings is that MGM Resorts now pays rent to VICI every month, instead of to MGM Growth Properties.
VICI was spun off from Caesars Entertainment to own and manage much of Caesars' real estate holdings. Likewise, MGM Growth Properties was spun off from MGM Resorts International. VICI didn't buy anything from MRI; MGM Growth Properties, which it bought out, was a completely separate entity.
Thus, guests staying in MGM Resorts' hotel rooms, gambling in the casinos (and accruing points and tier credits in the players club), eating at the restaurants, making purchases at the shops, etc. will see little to no difference in any of that.
We answered this question in more detail in a previous QoD.
By the way, now that MGM has officially taken over operations at the Cosmopolitan, the situation there is similar, at least for the time being. The players clubs will remain separate, with no changes to earning rates, point balances, tier status, or benefits at Cosmo. Any changes to Cosmo's Identity system will be "communicated in the coming months" (we expect it will eventually be merged into MGM Rewards). Same with parking: The Cosmo's parking system will remain separate from the rest of MGM's until they're combined. The only upcoming change that might be noticeable is that the Caesars sports book will be taken over by BetMGM in time for football season.