Earlier this year, I visited and stayed at three casinos that are in various states of transition after transfers to new ownership. Cosmopolitan changed hands this summer, Tropicana changed hands in early fall, and now Hard Rock has acquired the Mirage.
Interestingly, each casino has taken a different direction, at least to date, on how they’ve handled their casino comp programs. It just goes to show you there’s no guarantee how these things will go down. Let’s review the status of each property, as it stands in December 2022 as this is written.
Tropicana: New (Temporary) Loyalty Program
I visited Tropicana right after the acquisition, and the property had already rolled out a new loyalty program. However, despite new owner Bally unifying their properties under a national brand and players card program (Bally Rewards), the card that took the place of mychoice was not the Bally program.
Instead, they launched one that has cards that looks like their Bally Rewards Cards, but has a five tier structure which functionally matches the former mychoice program that was issued there.
My guess is Bally still wants to figure out what they’re doing with the property, and so instead of converting it to Bally Rewards quickly, it will take its time. Bally mentions the tier year runs through December 31, 2023, so my guess is if they convert to Bally Rewards down the line, it’ll be at least 2024 before they do, although who knows – they could always change their mind.
Cosmopolitan: Sticking With What Works
Many players have been anxious to see Cosmopolitan join the MGM Rewards program, but they don’t seem to be in any particular hurry. An FAQ that went up after the merger has been lightly updated to note more properties can be charged back to the Cosmopolitan folios, but otherwise no major changes have been noted there.
In the meantime, the existing Identity program, which was a standalone program before the acquisition, has remained on its own, with Cosmopolitan players getting their offers from the Identity program. Eventually MGM Rewards will become the loyalty program for the Cosmopolitan, but it’s expected that will still be some months down the road. My earlier estimate of a launch for the new year in 2023 proved to be optimistic.
Hard Rock: Quick Cutover to Unity
The Hard Rock, like Bally, has been rolling out its own national players card program, Unity, and the new Mirage website is already encouraging players to re-register with Unity.
While the Hard Rock is not making any immediate renovation moves (like Bally, they will be using some time ahead to get a finalized plan together), it’s much more clear the direction Hard Rock is moving, and we know for sure the property is being transformed into a Hard Rock, so it makes sense they’re going to move more aggressively to get the Unity program in place sooner and begin to unify tiers and offers system-wide.
This means players in other markets like Atlantic City and Florida will have access to a Las Vegas property, a helpful thing, and earn tier credits regardless of location towards the same program.
