Here are some details I have gathered – from my own experiences, from conversations with other players, or from Internet sources.
- The current list of Diamond and Seven Star free and discounted show benefits can be found here.
- The “automatic” guaranteed comped room benefit for Seven Stars was discontinued last year because of wide-spread abuse. People would earn the high-tier status early in the year and then not play any when they got comped rooms the rest of the year. However, 7 Stars who play regularly at their usual levels are generally not having any problem with a host giving them comped rooms.
- Read the rules carefully for any offer, especially the fine print. Here are the rules for the Atlantis, Paradise vacation offer:
Offer is valid 1/16/19 to 10/31/19. Blackout dates: 3/8/19-3/23/19, 4/15/19-4/27/19 & 7/1/19-7/5/19. Complimentary offers are based on your previous level of casino play. If you redeem this complimentary offer, you are expected to play to the same level of casino play or greater. If you do not play or show reduced casino play, you may be charged for some or all of your upfront complimentaries including rooms, food & beverage, limos, etc.
Voucher holder is responsible for hotel resort fee and maid gratuities, approximately $65-$75 per night.
At least they mention play requirements, albeit without specific numbers. You should check with a host to learn about your personal “level of play.” You always have to be careful about any “pre-comped” cruises or vacations. Some don’t mention play requirements, but many players have been blindsided by big bills at the end of the trip because “they didn’t play enough.”
- I read a report of one CZR property charging high fees for cashing a check or withdrawing money electronically, even for high-tier players who in the past had this done free as one of their benefits. One needs to verify every casino benefit, especially at the beginning of the year. Cuts are coming in all area!
- You will find that the alternate benefits have been changed greatly if you can not use your Seven Star retreat benefit. Brad and I found we would be unable to travel out of town before my retreat benefit expired this month. We found out too late that if we had stayed in a Las Vegas CZR property in December we would have been given $900 in free play as an alternative – a short-term special for a slow period, I guess. New rules (which change frequently I was told), beginning this January, will simply give us 50,000 in Reward Credits, put on my account, and doesn’t require a hotel stay. Since we don’t need any comps, the final alternate benefit for us will be $250 in free play.
If you find yourself in this situation, you need to talk to a host and see what he/she can offer you. There might be good short-term offers, and there may be different options at different properties.
I also heard – but can’t verify – that the program which gave you free play instead of airfare if you wanted to drive to your destination casino or stay locally is no longer available. And I’m not sure if there is a property-wide policy about using the retreat benefit at a local or your “home” casino. Again, you need to get specific and up-to-date information from a host.
- A personal note: After many many years of both of us being Seven Stars, Brad and I are in the process of dropping out of CZR. Brad is no longer Seven Stars as of January 1. I am Seven Star for 2019 but will not play for that level after that. It had gradually become a marginal play for several years, but we found good value using the comp system to the max, letting us host wonderful vacations and providing unending meals and entertainment for family and friends. However, health issues are now limiting our casino and travel activity. Combine that with the unending downhill march of benefit cuts and sadly we have to scratch off another name on our personal list of “Good Casinos.”
my level of play would be physically impossible while there…. My play is all through online poker and not possible outside NV or DE or NJ.
Thank you for the great info. It confirmed my decision last year to leave CZR. With their shrinking benefits it makes no sense to play to Diamond or higher.
Just another thing that Silverton has started, besides $4 on VP for a point. Senior Monday win up to $100 slot play is not guaranteed slot play. This week my wife and I each WON a scoop of gelato ON-line or at the players club is there anything in writing about this change.
I don’t see how anyone could accept that kind of open-ended liability. If you played $1 less coin-in than last time, they could bill you post facto for the entire package. And even it they don’t, you still have to pay the resort fee–what kind of “comp” do you call that? It’s like the famous Oriental honor, “the order of chastity of the second class.”
I also agree completely with Kevin’s analysis; and, like him, I don’t go to Caesars. In fact, I wrote off the entire strip–and downtown–long ago. These days it’s Boyd off-strip, also rapidly deteriorating, Southpoint, Laughlin, and the Phoenix area casinos. By this time next year Desert Diamond West should have its expanded casino open, complete with poker room, and less than ten miles from our front door.
Sooner or later, Las Vegas casino managers will have to deal with the massive customer ill will that they themselves generated. Or maybe the present ones figure they’ll be retired by then.
From Jean: “…our personal list of “Good Casinos.” Ok I’d like to ask Jean and Kevin Lewis what is this personal list of “Good Casinos” you now play Vp at? Just wondering as we make fewer and fewer trips to LV these days because of the lousy machine pay schedules and minuscule comps that comes with them. We really don’t have the time, energy or willingness to go searching any longer. I do check vpFree2 prior to leaving for a trip but it would be nice to know what casinos the “experts” consider playable right now. Thanks, Terry and Teri Haile, Post Falls, Id
For the last dozen years or so, CZR properties were one of two (Palms) major places we would play VP. Each of us had been Diamond. With the diminishing perks and the HORRIBLE pay tables on most machines, I believe we are only going to get one of us to Platinum just for the free parking.
Max, here is the link to the 2018 rules – https://www.caesars.com/content/cet-global/total-rewards-com/sevenstars/rules-2018.html. Probably the 2019 rules will not be on the Website until after Feb. 1, since that is the beginning of the new benefit year. Probably same situation for Bahama details. One never really knows for sure about “previous level of play.” Check with a host who might give you some general guidance.
You’re unwittingly adopting some of their language. Players were “abusing” the system by “earning” comps and then using those comps and not playing any more after that? How is that “abuse”? You earn the comps, you spend them. What happens down the road is a separate issue. If you continued to play on Visit 2, which was comped because of your play during Visit 1, then shouldn’t you earn comps for a future Visit 3? And even if you didn’t play during Visit 2, well, hadn’t you already earned those comps during Visit 1?
I agree that a lot of CSR’s language is about “contingent” comps, where you, from your initial play, have earned merely the POSSIBILITY of future comps IF you play at the same level when you redeem those comps. That isn’t the way Vegas (and, by extension, casinos elsewhere) used to work! You would get comped rooms on the premise that you would continue to gamble there–but you didn’t get un-comped (decomposed?) if you didn’t. Now, those rooms are offered on the PRESUMPTION that you will and MUST continue to gamble there. Quite a difference!!
I never set foot in CET/CSR properties anyway because of their tight VP and general overpricing, but I wonder how many players–like yourself–are getting tired of the constant tightening of the screws and are deciding to go elsewhere. OR–God FORFEND–are now spending their leisure and vacation time at places OTHER THAN CASINOS (kill the blasphemer!).
Great article. We are thinking of using our earned Diamond status in 2019 and not pushing too much play in CZ casinos (just getting to 25000 points to have unlimited access to Diamond lounges) and esploring alternatives in other properties in our back yard, So. Cal., as to cut back on long travels. My wife got to 56000 points in 2018 and noticed improved offers and better level accomodations when in Vega. Her host called frequently to use the free air flights to Reno or Tahoe. We did fly from Burbank and stayed in Harrahs Tahoe twice in 2018 with an “executive king room” upgrade. We were considering the Bahamas trip, but would be too expensive to do without comped airfare, food & drinks and then the bad playing conditions. Personally I just look to enjoy free top name shows in Vegas and play as good VP as I can find. I use your advise and always do a recon of machines before starting a session no matter where I go. Thak you for the great tips and hard work you do to keep us all updated. Best regards.
John & Liliana
Sad. But as you often say, you have affairs with casinos, you don’t marry one.
Jean,
Where are you getting the 2019 rules/benefits for Caesars? I can’t seem to find anything but a not-too-specific FAQ section for 2019.
As for the Atlantis trip, to what “previous level of casino play” are they referring–at my home casino, when I’ve traveled to other properties, or when I’ve visited Atlantis in the past?
What is retreat benefit?
Thanks for the info, Jean
Jean,
Where are you getting the rules for the 2019 Atlantis, Bahamas Seven Stars benefit? I can’t seem to find anything specific on 2019 rules/benefits (other than a somewhat general FAQ). I appreciate the tremendous amount of information you’ve provided us over the years.