Yikes. This was a slippery fish to grasp.
The whole players card scene has been in a constant state of flux the last few years, with casinos opening, closing, buying each other up, changing their names, and basically keeping still for no more than five minutes at a time.
When buyouts and mergers occur, sometimes the players clubs combine completely, effective immediately. Other times, as was the case with Harrah's, it takes a long time; the Imperial Palace, for example, was finally integrated into the Total Rewards system only recently, although it was purchased in spring 2005.
Boyd Gaming currently has three different independent players cards in operation among its various properties in Las Vegas, while Circus Circus has yet to be brought into the MGM Mirage fold.
You can currently use your A.C.E Rewards card at the Stratosphere, and your Stratosphere card at Arizona Charlie's, but you can't use a Station Casinos Boarding Pass at the Fiestas, or at Wild Wild West, for example, even though they're owned by the Station group. The list goes on -- click this link to get the full (if somewhat confusing) picture.
Bearing all this in mind, it's no surprise that it took us some time to get to the bottom of this quagmire and we're still not 100% certain that what we finalized a couple of weeks ago still holds true today. But in truth we just can't face calling another players club (especially when they don't always know if they're coming or going themselves).
To the best of our understanding, you'd currently need to sign up for 49 different clubs in order to have a valid players card for every major (and the more notable minor) casinos in the Las Vegas and Henderson areas. If you factor in all the local video poker bars, most of which also have a players club (some independent, some part of a chain), you could probably double that figure and still not have every base covered.
