Since I posted my first review of Wynn Slots almost a year ago, the game’s been through a series of pretty drastic changes, with the introduction of VIP levels, gem earnings limits, the launch of buffets, and the increasing restriction of free room nights.
With the latest update released last week, they have put a final nail in the coffin of truly free rooms, making it impossible to reach the VIP level needed to get rooms without spending money. Oh, and they raised the VIP level you must reach altogether.
Like many of the changes, they were done without any pre-announcement, and with many players in the middle of a VIP cycle, players were not given much likelihood of accomplishing what they hoped to without spending a lot more money, even if they were on their way to accomplishing a higher VIP level, for instance.
This has sent many players in the ecosystem to slam them on various forums, including the one we’ve recommended here, the Wynn Slots Tips and Tricks group on Facebook. So what’s it all about? Let’s go through the latest changes.
Rooms Available Only at VIP 3 and Up
One of the biggest changes that appears to be permanent is that rooms can no longer be booked at the VIP 2 level, as they have been for the past five months or so, but instead requires VIP 3. Oddly, VIP 3 still gets a 15% discount on the listed room price, but VIP 2 can’t book at all.
Like before, if you were eligible when you booked, you can still check in, but you cannot cancel and rebook, or book another visit after the previous reservation is completed, unless you’re VIP 3 or higher.
For those players who had been working to achieve VIP 2, they could just go for VIP 3, right? Well…
VIP Earnings for Completing Tasks Nosedives in Value
The ability to earn VIP tokens outside of purchases dropped dramatically. The changes:
- All VIP levels appear to be earning at the same level. That means even if you’re at a higher VIP level, you still earn what a VIP 0 player earns.
- You earn 1 VIP point for opening a gold chest or spinning the daily wheel. these are drastically reduced from the previous iterations.
- You earn 2 VIP points for a Gold scratcher event, and 8 VIP points for a Platinum scratcher event. This gives slightly more for VIP 0 players on the Platinum scratcher event, but otherwise everyone is penalized.
If you want to get to VIP 3, you’ll probably have to spend in the neighborhood of $180-200 to get it for a 90-day cycle. It was quite possible to achieve it for a much lower spend before, and maintain it for even less.
Is it a Mistake? Probably Not
Some players attempted to speak with a voice of reason, and I’ll admit I was in the camp of “they might’ve released a buggy version and a fix will be coming soon.” But as players wrote in complaining about the changes and what appeared to be a problem, they were getting emails back that suggested otherwise. They wrote in part:
“Our app is free to play slot games and the rewards we offer are an additional bonus. Any changes we make to VIP Levels or VIP Points are to make the game more exciting and rewarding for our valuable players.”
Wynn Slots customer service email
I think they missed the part of the release about making the game more exciting and rewarding. I think they just made the freebies largely unattainable. It may be possible to maintain VIP 1 for a nominal amount of money and get the buffets, and there is certainly the argument to be made that $200 is a low investment to get four nights at the Wynn.
However, there are many of us who get comps from casinos, and that can mean free rooms with waived resort fees. We also happen to be among the ones Wynn may find valuable, as we may put some solid gambling time in. After all, that’s how we earned the comps to begin with. It reduces the incentive for players like us to go.
Meanwhile, there’s a tier of people who will chase the best deal (and, having advocated some of those same tricks here, I can’t fault them). They’re trying to do Vegas on a budget and $50/night at the Wynn will do the trick. But will they spend as much on property? Who is the app developer trying to help recruit?
This to me looks like a surefire way to depress demand for rooms and the app itself, which might be good for the app developer – they could’ve started growing too fast for their own good. But in the process they’re certainly chasing away a lot of players who are in the Vegas ecosystem who might’ve been valuable for Wynn the property.
It’s a shame there doesn’t feel like there’s a strong concerted strategy here to get this right. Each of these major changes seems like an attempt that fails, and something makes me feel like this won’t work either.
For now, I simply warn players who found the earlier posts I wrote that the state of affairs has changed. You can still get a deep discounted room at a very luxurious property like the Wynn, one which will soon be going through an enhancement cycle that will lead to refreshed rooms, according to previous press announcements.
But if you’re looking for complimentary rooms, it appears that ship has sailed, at least for now.
Wish I had read your article before spending months collecting Gems! Then spent real money to get to VIP level 1 as it is impossible to get there without buying. Read an article that said you accumulate VIP points faster at higher VIP levels – obviously no longer true so basically you have to spend $139. to get to level 2 and then $278 to get to level 3 minus a few dollars if you accumulated let’s say 2,000 gems you could save $2.00 and 2,000 gems is playing constantly and assuming you have points to play and didn’t have to buy any. All this to say IMPOSSIBLE is quite true!! Hope more people read your article before embarking on a futile attempt to get free rooms at the Wynn.
About the only thing this is now good for is about $20 for a buffet for 2. You now can only book 2 nights at level 3 and you talking about $180 to get to Level 3. So $90 a night for the room which is still a bit of a discount but Meh.
It can depend – some people take multiple trips to Vegas – if you pay the $200 at the beginning of a 90-day cycle, you maintain your status for the rest of that cycle and the next cycle – about six months in all. If you take multiple trips, you can bring that rate down pretty quickly. So it just has to be weighed like any other offer, but it certainly is less obvious or fantastic compared to the way it was before all the changes.