While locals discounts are still aplenty, if you know where to look for them, they're certainly harder to find these days than they were during the Great Recession, when certain major casino operators and other promoters suddenly discovered the virtues of the customers sitting right under their noses. For instance, Cirque du Soleil aggressively marketed a variety of "george" (i.e., very generous) show discounts to Nevada residents. Station Casinos’ first big move emerging from bankruptcy was to launch a high-profile "We Love Locals" wave of advertising, to raise the company’s profile and associate Station in people’s minds with something other than Chapter 11.
But times change and, as the economy has improved, there has been a contraction in locals-only goodies. As Station Casinos Vice President of Corporate Communications Lori Nelson says, "A long time ago when we first launched ‘We Love Locals’ we did a micro-site with a ‘groupon-like’ feature that had special offers. Overall locals get a discount at our spas on a variety of specialty treatments and most locals use their Boarding Pass card for discounts at our buffets, but tourists may also have that deal."
There are still some vestiges of the bargain-Vegas mentality, however, especially at some of the newer venues that are still struggling to find their feet. Finding a way to lure locals to the Strip is a tough nut to crack, but one ongoing effort is The LINQ promenade’s Tuesday Block Party, where, if you’ve got a valid Nevada form of I.D., you’re eligible for a range of discounts, generally in the 10-15 percent-off range, at various of the complex's retail and food-and-beverage offerings, plus 50 percent off the High Roller observation wheel.
By the same token, one of the most extensive locals-loyalty programs (and, boy, could they use the business) is found at SLS Las Vegas. Unfortunately, both the Locals-only discounts page and The CODE players club info pages are out-of-date (some of the venues referenced, including the buffet and LiFE nightclub, closed months ago), so we’d advise checking in advance rather than assuming that all the offers advertised are still valid. However, if they are, they would include preferential room reservations, free play, spa deals, happy hour drink specials, and Sunday dining discounts.
Caesars Entertainment maintains a Web page for locals-targeted offers, including discounts on buffets, restaurants, shows, drinks, spa services, and more, although not all are exclusive to Nevada residents. The higher your ranking is in the Total Rewards system, the more generous the discounts become, and signing up for every players club that you encounter is a general rule of thumb all savvy locals come to know, be it at your local bar or a major Strip resort chain, with any regular gaming action (or even non-gaming expenditure these days at the major hotels) reaping dividends in the form of weekly or monthly free-play, bonuses on your birthday, and so on. Obviously, this applies to out-of-towners, too, but we locals are better placed to take advantage of many of the timely offers.
Both Caesars and MGM Resorts International provide the option of texting a promotional code to the company in order to receive updated offers on your mobile device. With no disrespect to Caesars, MGM's locals-only site, is a real treasure trove, with a far broader and more-Nevada specific range of discounts at your fingertips, so definitely check it out. By contrast, Las Vegas Sands and Wynn Resorts have nothing for locals on their websites.
It’s hit or miss with Boyd Gaming. As Boyd’s Samantha Roper tells us, "We have some ongoing locals’ offers that are property-specific and advertised at the property in-person, but not necessarily on our websites."
The entry of Penn National Gaming into the Las Vegas market has brought another locals-oriented player into the fold. Penn’s M Resort offers an "especially for locals" 30 percent discount on hotel rooms. M’s Leslie Peterson says they "sometimes" throw a promotion targeted at Nevada residents, but nothing regular. At Penn’s newest acquisition, the Tropicana, your local-ness will qualify you for a 20 percent rebate on slot losses. The property also has a special Trop Plus Locals category of players card. It qualifies you for locals-only covered parking, restaurant discounts, half-off drinks at casino bars, and markdowns on show tickets -- even a "locals casino" host, which is a seemingly unprecedented amenity.
Even grind joints like Casino Royale roll out the welcome mat to locals. If you’re a Nevadan, you get 10 percent off your meal ticket at White Castle, for example. This brings us to another very useful resource in the LVA family, namely "Queen of Comps" Jean Scott's Frugal Vegas blog, wherein she posts a round-up at the beginning of each month (she just posted October's) of the best casino promotions, particularly at "locals" casinos. Often these include local-only offers plus, as a senior herself, Jean is always on the lookout for promos and discounts for the 50+ demographic.
For some other tools that are more comprehensive than company-specific, the Las Vegas How-To Guide has some handy tips, likewise Vegas4Locals.com, which offers eight categories of coupon. According to the site, "The vast majority of the coupons do not require you to be a Las Vegas local to redeem them, but the few that do clearly state it." It even includes a discount offer to join discount group FillASeat.com, if shows are your thing.
And by joining ShowTickets4Locals – actually a vacation project started some years back by Strip hypnotist Gerry McCambridge with his son, and which now boasts 20,175 area members – you qualify for locals-only discounts and outright free tickets. As the site explains, "Our website allows show producers to quickly promote their last minute ‘locals only’ discounts to thousands of locals without having to rent billboards or pay for magazine ads to promote the offer." True, many of the shows on offer are second- and third-tier productions, but A-listers like Donny & Marie and Penn & Teller have been among the shows comped or discounted in the past (just don't mention that you scored a freebie in earshot of the tourist ahead of you in line who payed full whack for their tickets, or you're likely to be asked to leave!)
As far as some of Las Vegas' other entertainment offerings are concerned, strip club expert Arnold Snyder, who edits our adult sister site ToplessVegasOnline.com, provides comprehensive and up-to-date advice regarding those topless clubs that offer free admission and cheap (even free) beer to locals. He also provides an extensive explanation of how non-locals can qualify for Nevada-resident status.
There’s no one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to finding casino-based values in Las Vegas, so we’d encourage you to do a little comparison shopping. For instance, the sharp-eyed visitor to Aria's website last month would have found a locals-only $49 prix-fixe dinner at Bardot Brasserie. It required jumping through a few hoops: The deal was only good between 6 p.m. and 7:30 p.m., had to be booked through Open Table, and required a promotional code (BARDOTLV) in the "Special Request" field, but short-term locals-only offers like this are not infrequent -- Groupon has a whole section of deals that require resident I.D. to claim. Our best advice is to sign up for any discount program you come across, if you can handle the resultant influx to your email "in" box, plus follow your preferred venues and activities on Twitter and Facebook, whereby you'll also hear of timely deals and exclusive discounts.
Of course, some of the best advice we can offer, self-serving as it may sound, is to sign up for our own Member Rewards program -- for $37/year you'll receive a monthly newsletter packed with information about happy hours, gambling promos, and discounts in general plus, of course, our exclusive coupon-packed Member Rewards Book, which no-one is better placed to take full advantage of than a Las Vegas local, who has a full year to use all the included deals. Sign up -- for free! -- for our parallel of LVA Gold program of online discounts, which include lots of dining offers and spa discounts as well as deals on hotel rooms, shows, and other activities more geared toward visitors.
