I wish I knew more about the promotion I’m writing about today, but I’ll share what I have surmised.

For the past several months, some Caesars Rewards properties have offered Next Day Bounceback (NDB). At these properties, if you play at least a minimum amount during a casino day (often 6 a.m. to 5:59 a.m. — but it varies), you get a certain amount of free play added to your account at approximately noon. The exact time can vary from casino to casino.

The percentage return can vary as well. I’ve seen it from 0.1% to 0.75%, depending on the casino. Some “expert” players get a lesser amount. At many of these casinos, the percentage amount returned is less today than it was six months ago.

Sometimes these casinos offer a multiplier to their NDB. At least one of the casinos offers a multiple NDB reward once a week (or sometimes once every other week). It’s at least 2x, and usually 2x, but sometimes more. You don’t learn if you received a 2x, 3x, or other multiplier until after the promotion is over. Another casino awards a 20x NDB multiplier weekly for two hours — but video poker is excluded from this promotion. There are daily limits for the amount of NDB you can earn — but this is only relevant for the biggest of high rollers. Well over 99% of all players won’t come close to earning the limit.

Usually, the casino won’t tell you what the percentage return is on the NDB promotion, so you have to figure it out yourself. Or ask a knowledgeable friend. 

To figure it out, you need to know how much money you received, and how much coin-in you played to earn that money. For example, let’s assume you played 500 Tier Credits (TCs) at video poker and received $20 in NDB. What percentage is that?

On most video poker machines at these properties, it requires $10 coin-in to earn one TC, so 500 TCs mean you played $5,000 through the machine. Your percentage return is $20 / $5,000 = 0.004 = 0.4%. 

At some of these casinos, it takes $20 or $25 to earn a TC on the loosest video poker machines. In these cases, 500 TCs mean you played $10,000 or $12,500, respectively. The percentage return becomes 0.2% or 0.16%, respectively.

Slot players at these casinos typically earn one TC for $5 coin-in, so if you’re a slot player, the return, in this case, is 0.8%.

The percentage you’ve received before does not have to be the percentage you’re going to receive today. While the percentage rate could go up, I suppose, I’ve only seen it stay the same or go down. 

While NDB becomes available at noon, it needs to be downloaded into your bank within a certain number of days (which varies by casino) and once it’s in your bank it’s good for 72 hours (or some other period of time). The Caesars Rewards booth at the particular casino you’re interested in will likely tell you these lengths of time.

At one out-of-town casino I frequent, NDB used to be good for 90 days after earning it, but now it is only good for 30 days. If I have to leave for my flight home before noon on my last day, this might mean I don’t play on the next-to-last day. That’ll be the day for sightseeing. If I leave for my flight after noon, I probably won’t play between 6 a.m. and when I leave because if I did, I would forfeit any NDB I earned. If I were a local, I wouldn’t worry about this because I know I’ll be back before my NDB expires.

On the last day of my stay, it could be that a promotion is in effect that dwarfs whatever I could earn from NDB, so I’ll keep playing after 6 a.m. even though I know that I won’t be able to collect the NDB (assuming I’m not planning on returning to this casino within the requisite time period.)

The expiration period for multiple NDB days does not have to be the same as the regular 1x NDB days. In fact, it usually isn’t.

For most players, they’ll learn to stay until after noon on their last day in order to collect their extra money. This means they might stay longer than they used to. For most players, NDB means they’ll lose less money because of this “rebate,” although many will simply play more and it’ll all come out about the same.

These casinos have multiple promotions and NDB is just one of them. Often, you’ll have multiplier days for TCs or Reward Credits (RCs), which are different. Sometimes if you play a certain number of TCs you get extra benefits. Sometimes you earn benefits that are hard to quantify (such as 100x drawing tickets). These casinos have monthly mailers and for big-enough players, they’ll receive a certain amount of free play based on how much they played.

As best I can, I try to add up the value of the benefits with the return of the video poker machine I’m playing. Sometimes I can get it pretty precise. Sometimes it’s sort of a scientific wild-assed guess based on the best information I have. 

When I play slots, it’s hard to get the precise percentage return. I might know that it’s positive-equity to play a certain machine when the mini meter is above 22 or the minor meter is above 30, but if I find a machine when these numbers are at 21 and 29, I assume I have the advantage but I’m unsure how much. While both numbers are slightly below being positive in and of themselves, the combination is surely a good one to play.

Also. when I play slots, I usually only play when one-or-more meters is above a certain level. When it’s no longer that high, I move on and try to find another game in a positive state. On each machine I check, it could be there are 50 different amounts to check, ranging perhaps from 50 cents to 50 dollars. Any of these could be positive and I won’t know before I go check which one(s) will be that way. In video poker, on the other hand, I’m usually playing one particular machine and I know going in what denomination I’ll be playing and the return on the game.

I don’t know how much longer NDB will last. The fact that the return rates have been decreasing leads me to conclude that they will be down to zero in the relatively near future — at least at some of these properties— but I could be wrong. 

When the new tax law kicks in on January, if enough players quit or cut back, these casinos might increase NDB in order to lure players back. For me this won’t work, but it might for some other players.