Sometimes players worry that offers aren’t being as generous as they used to be, and think it’s because of some change in approach.
Have all Players Club rewards (freeplay and other stuff) stopped actually basing free play and rewards on points and play and start using an algorithm thereby lowering the amounts and not giving out rewards? And changing room perks? And how many use your points as your freeplay thereby lowering your level at the next month because you don’t have those points anymore?
Rachel R.
Players club rewards generally work off a formula, based on play and your theoretical loss, and what percentage the casino wants to give back in the form of offers. In that sense nothing has changed there – the formula was always in play.
However, casinos can change their formulas. Offers historically have targeted anywhere between 20 and 40 percent of your theoretical loss. That’s a broad range, so that means things can feel quite different from one casino to another, or at one point in time vs. another. The most frequent time we’ve seen an offer formula revised is after an acquisition – we’ve seen some pretty crazy reductions in particular post acquisition as a cost cutting measure.
Since the formula usually determines how much you get, a reduction in the formula will often impact everything – free play, rooms, etc. – because offers tend to be a totality of value across buckets and your individual preferences. (For example: If you live 10 minutes away, the savvier casinos will emphasize things locals prefer, whereas if you’re hours away, rooms may take more prominence in the offer.)
Casinos can often make changes based on economic conditions. If a casino’s seeing heavy traffic and full hotels, they don’t need to offer as much, and oftentimes will turn the knob to see where that breaking point will be. Similarly, when the casino is slower than they want it to be, they may turn up the offers to woo some players in.
Players with smaller offers may not feel anything, if at all, but players in larger buckets will certainly feel the pendulum swing more aggressively, since the offers are being generated off a larger amount of play, and so an increase or a reduction will be more prominent. But even smaller players will sometimes notice the more aggressive reductions.
Another factor is as slots have gotten more volatile, it’s more of a feast or famine problem – if you bring the same budget but can’t get much in bonuses, your money will run out faster – and the casino will see that as less bets made, and the offers will be impacted.
Of course, have an amazing run and the offers could be more generous, because they saw you played longer. Some casinos factor in absolute loss when it’s unusually high relative to how much your play should generate in losses, but many don’t.
One thing you don’t have to worry about is using your points. Tier credits and comp points are always tracked separately, so even if you use your comp points, your tier progress is maintained. That count will reset based on the tier year (or half year, or even quarterly, depending on the casino) based on the calendar, whereas your comp points will tend to survive until they are used or expired, depending on the program.
Each casino handles this a bit differently, so we always encourage players to check with their players desk on those questions if you’re unsure, as they can confirm those windows.
Have a question? Submit yours here!
