A:
We spoke with the players clubs at both casinos, just to make sure, but no, the physical card doesn't expire, only the points on it. How long those last varies from club to club: At the Palms, it's one year since you last used it and it's the same at Bill's, which is still not part of Caesars' Total Rewards Club. If it was, your points would expire six months after you last used or earned any.
As far as those expiration dates are concerned, Bill's told us that they relate to your Diamond-Tier status, which demands that you earn 11,000 points or more in the calendar year to entitle you to additional rewards and privileges, including at the seven casinos in Las Vegas in the Total Rewards program. Is the expiration date Dec. 31? We ask, as we don't have a Diamond card there and had real difficulty getting through to a Bill's Players Club representative (we kept being directed to Total Rewards, and then often to a recording, which told us they were too busy to answer), so we're not 100 percent convinced about the response we got. Drop us a line if the expiration date on your Bill's card is anything other than the end of the year, and we'll go check this out in person.
As to the Palms, we had more luck. Here, we were told that technically your physical card doesn't expire, in that your account stays active no matter what and only the points expire if you don't use them, but that the style of the card is changed on an annual basis (different color, etc.) Even if your card is past its "expiration" date, i.e., a new design has been issued, it should still work in the machines, but as soon as you need a new one for any reason, you'll be issued with the new style.
Update 29 October 2012
Video poker guru and casino-promotions expert Bob Dancer just wrote in with the following useful information:
"At the Palms, many of the cashiers will not issue you any discount with an out-of-date card. You need a current one.
"There is at least one good use for an out-of-date card at the Palms buffet. The Palms encourages you to have your picture on your card, but it's optional. Some players have pictures on some of their cards and no picture on others -- for a variety of reasons (including the picture-making machine was broken the day you picked up your card.) If you have such a picture on your card, you do not need your ID to use your card in some cases (buffet, free gifts, PEW prizes, etc.) but you do at others (cashier, winning the weekly drawing, etc.) If your current card does not have your picture on it but you have an "expired" card with a picture with the same name and account number, they will let you use the expired card as ID so you can get the appropriate discount with the current card. Got that?"
Aha! A friend of ours who is au fait with the minutiae of both clubs and their rules wrote in to confirm, clarify, and expand on some points in today's answer:
"Bill's card is different from the TR card. They are owned be same company but have a separate card. All Caesars Ent. cards have a status-expiration date of end of March. At that point, they update your status based on your previous CALENDAR year play. It gives you a 3-month grace period on your old status, Jan-March.
"Palms issues you a different card when your status changes. Old cards still work in machines and at POP outlets. The only time I've found that it matters to have an up-to-date status card at Palms is at the buffet: They go off of what your status on the card says, so if you bring an old card up there you can still pay with points but the computer doesn't apply the discount (25% for All-Star, 50% for MVP, and 75% for HallofFamer) the clerk does, so it matters that you have the right card with you or you won't get your proper discount.
"At all places, the expiration date applies to the status and not the card. The card does not expire."
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