Both Caesars Rewards and MGM Rewards (formerly Mlife) can offer ample benefits to players who are invested in their system. But to those less familiar, you may be missing out on the key information that can help you maximize your tier earnings potential, and the ability to reach perks that you qualify for under these tiers.
So let’s look at each program in turn, and how tier bonuses can work to your advantage (as well as recent changes that may impact those bonuses now).
Caesars Rewards: Play More in a Day, Bonus More Tier Credits in a Day
The basic concept behind the Caesars Rewards program is you earn tier credits based on your gambling pace. Slots earn you a tier credit for every $5, Video Poker every $10, and table games based on bet size, time on table and the house advantage of the game you’re playing (Roulette will earn you points faster than Blackjack, for instance).
What many players don’t realize is that based on how many tier credits you earn in a gaming day, you can qualify for a tier credit bonus. (A gaming day is most often defined as 6 a.m.-5:59 a.m., but some properties differ somewhat so it’s always good to check). The tier credit bonuses can help you get closer to your next tier faster.
Tier Bonus Levels
The tier bonuses breakdown as follows:
- Earn 500 tier credits in a gaming day, earn a 125 tier credit bonus
- Earn 1,000 tier credits in a gaming day, earn a 1,000 tier credit bonus
- Earn 2,500 tier credits in a gaming day, earn a 5,000 tier credit bonus
- Earn 5,000 tier credits in a gaming day, earn a 10,000 tier credit bonus
Those last two matter in part because the 2,500 + 5,000 credit bonus is good for earning Platinum in one gaming day if you’re starting from scratch. That’s $12,500 in coin-in (slots, double that video poker) to achieve this, and presuming you’re playing slots with a 90% return to player/payback percentage, that’s a theoretical cost (average expected loss) of $1,250. The final tier bonus would get you to Diamond in a single gaming day, with a theoretical cost of $2,500.
Of course, your mileage may vary – I did the 2,500 ($25,000 in coin-in) + 5,000 once and won $1,000 playing video poker. (I also did it on a Rewards Credit multiplier day, earning $125 worth of rewards credits as an extra bonus.) You just have to be willing to put that amount of betting in 24 hours through a machine, which isn’t easy without betting bigger.
Strategy to Maximize Your Earnings
If you are going on a longer trip and plan on staying at a Caesars property, knowing these tier bonuses can mean some strategic decision-making. If you hit a level and know the next level isn’t achievable, you may find it a good idea to stop.
Caesars tabulates all your coin-in across a trip and divides by the number of days (including check-out day) to determine your Average Daily Theoretical loss calculation, or ADT. So if you put more weight into one day over another, that’s OK, and in turn you can maximize your tier bonus earnings.
Keep in mind they run other promotions that can get you some additional tier bonuses, such as Quest for Rewards, and you could earn tier credits from spending on other things like food or hotels, but hands down the biggest bonuses will come from the gaming day earnings.
MGM Rewards: Slot Dollars is Your Reward
UPDATED 2/1/22: Mlife has now become MGM Rewards, and with that change a lot has changed. It’s no longer clear if you earn more tier credits in Las Vegas gambling versus a regional property. They have reduced the non-gambling spend earnings to four tier credits per dollar, and that’s across the board – in Vegas or not. You also now earn comp dollars at a 1 percent rebate, but that doesn’t make up for the heavily increased difficulty.
As of this update, there was a 2x tier credit multiplier running in Vegas through April 30, 2022. So all else being equal, there’s at least that.
You do get a bonus for tiering up, in earnings of slot dollars. You used to get comp dollar bonuses too, but those, too, were revoked in the 2022 update. So now you get:
- Pearl level gets you get a 10% bonus earning slot dollars.
- Gold level gets you a 20% bonus earning slot dollars.
- Platinum level gets you a 30% bonus earning slot dollars.
- Noir (invite only) level gets you a 40% bonus earning slot dollars.
Fortunately, these earnings multipliers are nationwide.
Have you taken advantage of tier bonuses with either Caesars Rewards or MGM Rewards? Share in the comments!
