For this answer, we turned to our expert in maximizing slot club value no matter how many trips to Las Vegas you take: Jean Scott.
First of all, your partner needs to be your spouse, since most casinos won't open a joint account for any other kind of partner. In fact, some players clubs nowadays don't even offer joint accounts. Why not? I really don't know! But I've often speculated that it's either a result of the equality-for-women movement, or that casinos don't want to get mixed up in messy divorces, or some combination of the two.
Whether a players club allows joint accounts or not, I always recommend that couples sign up for separate accounts. In fact, many clubs that do open joint accounts for husbands and wives automatically sign them up as joint members in one account if both appear at the club desk together. That's why I recommend that they join individually at separate times. There's a very good reason for this advice: A couple can double the number of casino mail offers they receive.
However, you say you're more interested in present slot club benefits than future ones. In that case, you might want to focus on one of your two accounts, with both of you playing on cards from the one account, in order to accumulate enough points for meals and other benefits on the slot club menu that you'd like to earn on this trip. If your total play is light, dividing your play by two accounts may not give you enough points on either card to get what you want. For example, you might earn one buffet on each card, but neither card would have enough points for the meal you really want in a fancier restaurant or to pay for your room.
Can you both play on one member's card? As a rule, yes. Unless you're participating in a casino marathon or another promotion where the rules specify that you can't play on another person's card, casinos usually don't make an issue of partners playing on the same card, especially if their last names and/or addresses are the same.
There's usually no way to combine the points of two accounts at the slot club in order to get higher comps. However, if your combined play is heavy enough that you're using the host system in the casino, a host can usually look at both accounts and total the play in order to give higher-level comps.
You say you aren't a regular visitor to Vegas? With separate accounts, you could each get such good offers in the mail when you're back at home - for rooms, or food, or even bounce-back cash - that you might decide to become more frequent visitors to my favorite city!
Jean is author of best-seller The Frugal Gambler, among other titles.
