By now most of us know about, and generally use, players cards to take advantage of, and be eligible for, offers that casinos extend to players who use them.
What not all players know about is the concept of a gaming day. Recently while pursuing some casino forums we saw a fresh wave of players complaining about issues that came up as an aspect of how promotions work, particularly when tied to the gaming day.
So let’s take a look at this concept and how it impacts us as players.
Defining a Gaming Day
While most of us are familiar with a day being 12 am to 12 am local time, casinos often set a different range for a gaming day (which can sometimes be referred to as a marketing day). For instance, Caesars players in Las Vegas are sometimes surprised to learn the gaming day is 6 am to 5:59 am.
This means that if your play during a certain window is based on play during a certain window of time, when a promotion lists dates and says it follows the gaming or marketing day, the gaming day hours is when you qualify.
Let’s say a promotion takes place on December 1. You show up to the casino November 30, and start playing right at midnight. The play at that time wouldn’t qualify because the gaming day doesn’t start until 6 am.
Their main reason for doing this is that it’s not unusual for players to stay up late, play after going out for dining, drinks, or entertainment, and that it better reflects what sort of day many players adopt.
Promotions and the Gaming Day
So, that means when you have things like Caesars Daily Tier Credit Bonus, you’ll want to confirm what play is counted together. In Las Vegas, if you’re playing at 2am, that still counts towards the previous day.
But this can also depend on the promotional terms. When MGM first launched their daily tier credit accelerator, they didn’t use a midnight to midnight schedule. But at some point a few months in, they opted to update it to reflect a standard calendar day.
While probably less confusing overall, it does mean for people who like to play late at night, your play may be spread across two days, instead of pooling into one – and that could impact whether you reached the accelerator target or not.
It’s All About Timing
Each casino’s players card system is configured in specific ways. How they’re configured can make a difference as well. For instance, sticking with Caesars in Las Vegas as our example, your play is credited to your account at the time you remove your players card. If the gaming day ends at 6, and you pull your card at 6:03, that entire session is credited to the new day, because of when you removed your card, not when you gambled.
Other players card systems will record it based on when the session started. We don’t often find scenarios where a session is broken down based on time, but imagine that such a scenario could exist.
As such, this is one of those questions that may be worth a trip to the players club desk, especially if you plan on playing right on the edge of the promotional window.
Check the Marketing on Promotions
Even though the gaming day exists, and many casinos align their promotions with them, as we noted with MGM’s Daily Tier Accelerator, sometimes the specific rules will override the gaming day default, so be sure to check the fine print if you plan on playing overnight, for instance.
This is a good step in general because it also may confirm if you need to activate a promotion before qualifying for it, or if there’s any exclusions you should know about that could impact your earning of bonuses.
And of course for things like tier credit or comp dollar multipliers, it can let you know when to expect them on your account – in some cases, you may not get them before you leave the property, so you might not want to count on those extra comp dollars for that trip.
The Gaming Day Can Vary
Finally, don’t presume that just because you played at one casino within a company’s ownership that every casino they own works the same way. We’ve used Caesars as an example here, so sticking with that not every one of their markets has the same gaming day. And on occasion these gaming days can also change.
The best way to confirm this is to ask the players card desk if they know what the start and end day is for marketing promotions like tier multipliers or bonuses (based on what that casino offers). Generally speaking they should be able to confirm that for you in the absence of flyers or other materials that confirm the timing already.
