I’ve had a love/hate (mostly hate) relationship with Caesars over the years. Early on, in the mid-’90s and early 2000s, there was enough value to get Diamond status. Over the years, however, the value of Diamond has diminished greatly.
Last year, I made Diamond Elite (75,000 tier points). Normally, it would be $750,000 coin-in on some bad video poker machines to achieve that status. Even if you could find a 99% game that was $10 per point, it was still an expected loss of $7,500. Probably not worth it.
Tier multiplier days changed that. They run frequently at various properties and are between 4x and 10x, with a cap. If you play a good VP machine (99%) and even $20 per point and play only on 10x bonus days, your coin-in now becomes $150,000 and a 1% loss would be $1,500. What do you get for that?
- $600 airfare reimbursement. Not as good as $600 cash, but it’s a nice perk. Let’s put the value at $400.
- Four drinks a day with a $25 max per day. It’s hard to put a value on this, since it depends on frequency of travel and how much you value a drink. Let’s call it $15 per drink and 12 per year. That’s $180
- $75 a month sports bet on Caesars app. You have to run $100 in bets through first. Let’s put that cost at $5 with a pretty big variance. And the $75 free bet is worth about $34. $34 – $5 = $29 per month, times 12 is $348 a year.
- Celebration dinner ($100 max). Let’s put this at $70.
- Lounge access (where available). Since this is property dependent, I’ll just call this one nice perk with no cash value.
- Redeem Reward credits for free play at 1-1 at online casino and sports book. Maybe $50.
- Free cruise for two. I’ll put a value of $500 on this. Lots of conditions, port charges, etc.
So adding up the value, you’re getting about $1,548 in value for your $1,500 loss. Add in the value of the free rooms and various other offers and it’s a positive play.
This makes a lot of sense if you travel a lot and your travel destination includes Caesars properties. There will also be some additional mailed offers from your primary casino.
To make this work, you have to play mostly on 10x points days and find a decent VP machine to play. That’s the most difficult part.
You may also be able to use the Caesars Diamond Elite for some tier matching at other casinos.
Here the link to Caesars Tier benefits.
It’s worth at least exploring the option. Also, if you earn status, you get it for the current year and the next year. So there’s the potential to double up on some of these benefits. I haven’t fully explored that option yet.
Also see my Las Vegas Savings Tips page for more ideas.