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TUSCANY
The all-month 20% senior discount moves to the Tuscany Gardens Italian restaurant for September.
Their Pub 365 restaurant advertises an “Executive 15-Minute Lunch Guarantee, your lunch in 15 minutes from order to table –guaranteed, Monday-Friday, 11a.m-2 p.m.”
PALMS
Major remodeling still in progress with many machines moved around and various areas walled off and/or in changed locations.
One of our favorite promotions has returned – earn 300 same-day base points on Thursdays and get a coupon for a free Terrible’s car wash. Continuing is a similar one on Tuesdays, earning 300 for a free Brenden Theater movie ticket. Check out details of both of these at the players club.
CASINO PROMOTIONS FOR VETERANS
Here are some benefits I have uncovered, but I know there are many more. You should always ask if there is a military discount before you make a room reservation at a casino hotel or buy a ticket for a show or any attraction. Many do give discounts on room rates, but eligibility may vary. Some may limit benefits to active duty; others may include veterans.
MGM
To show their gratitude for veterans, MGM Resorts has created a special “Military & Veterans Program” (MVP). The program is available to any active duty military, members of the National Guard & Reserve, retired military, prior service and spouse of eligible military personnel. MVP members. They’ve created a special MVP M life Rewards card that gives an automatic upgrade to Pearl status and the benefits that accompany that M life Rewards tier, which includes complimentary self-parking, discounts on entertainment, dining, attractions, spa treatments and rooms at all MGM properties throughout the country. This program was introduced in Vegas MGM properties a month ago, but now is active in their properties all over the country.
Station Casinos
Their loyalty program has Operation Thank You, which includes a “military edition” Boarding Pass players card. It’s offered to active duty, veterans, Reserve and National Guard employees, but not their spouses. There is a long list of discounts and deals for their Military Mondays. The program has not yet been activated at the Palms casino.
Wynn Resorts
They give a 10-percent discount on all hotel rates to active members of the military and veterans. They also offer $30-off tickets to its “Le Reve” show, but this may be limited only to personnel at Nellis Air Force base. You need to check.
Pala Casino Spa & Resort
This California Native American casino and the Pala Band of Mission Indians have partnered with the American Indian Alaska Native Veterans Memorial Committee to educate the public about the military service of Native Americans to the United States of America and to help support the funding of a national memorial to those veterans.
FINAL NOTE
Because Brad and I don’t visit or play in as many different casinos as we used to, I am not able to cover as many promotions as I have in the past. And the whole subject of promotions is getting more and more complex, with casinos, especially the Vegas local ones, doing more target marketing. Just because I get a particular mailer from a casino listing a “good” promotion that does not mean it is available to everyone. My friend or neighbor may have different promotions in their mailers. Some offers may be for locals only or only for out-of-towners. I will continue to give promotion details when I am sure of their accuracy, not necessarily grouped at the first of the month as in the past, but whenever I come across them. I will continue to zero in on those that aren’t widely advertised or publicized, particular those that are described in our mailers from local casinos, but would perhaps be a good opportunity for out-of-town visitors if they knew about them.
In the meantime I must remind you that nothing takes the place of searching on individual casino websites. Not all casinos do a super job here, but many do and the player who scouts here will often score surprising rewards!
I’m not a huge MGM Mirage fan but I give credit to them for upgrading to Pearl not just to active and retired veterans, but to anyone who served. I spent 4 years in the Air Force during the Viet Nam war and back then nothing was done for veterans. Kudos to the Las Vegas casinos that recognize veterans; out here in the real world you just don’t see businesses doing that much.
The Palms in particular has always done a horrible job of putting their promotions on their website. Also, Boyd is almost useless in this regard, as so many promos are dependent on whether you’re a local or not or whether you played last month or the color of your eyes. And Stations does a reasonable job–sometimes. What you can never divine is what a promo is actually worth, as for them, it’s usually some sort of “everybody wins” game, where you get 1,500 points for swiping. And they often don’t announce multiple point days until a few days in advance.
I keep wandering into casinos and seeing signage for promos that I knew nothing about and weren’t on their websites. So I guess the only foolproof method is to visit each casino at the beginning of the month and look around–and of course, stick your head into the slot club. Sometimes, there’s a “what’s going on” flyer available (Sam’s Town is pretty good about this). And usually, at the beginning of the month, you’ll have some reason to go to each of the casinos you frequent–free play, food, etc.
And yeah, you’d think that with email and snail mail available, the casinos would do a better job of explaining the promos that they’ve designed to, after all, get you in the door–they presumably WANT you to know about them. But casino marketing departments are staffed by insane gerbils.