Live the M Life
On October 1st 2012 MGM Resorts International completely changed the rules of their slot club. Pissing off millions of fans. I'm leaving the old rules below just so you could see how much better this slot club once was. On the surface the changes seem small.
Old rules: $2.00 gets 1 point, 1 point gets 10 Tier credits. Each point is worth 1 penny in free play and 2 pennies in Express Comps to be used towards food, shows, attractions and such.
Now its $3.00 to get 1 point so you'll have to gamble 50% more to stay the same. And to add insult to ass raping that same 1 point is now only worth 1 penny in free play and 1 penny in Express comps. You read that right. You must now play 50% more and you will be rewarded with 50% LESS in Express Comps.
So it will cost another $20,000 to gamble through ON TOP of the $40,000.00 you had to gamble through the 1st time to be Platinum. Now you can see how shitty it is. Read below to see how far it was before they got all Horseshittery on their rules.
Updated 2015. They have been using a term called "Specialty Slot" for points. Certain slots take $10 of coin-in, not $3, in order to get your points. Check the machine you are playing at and make sure you are not getting ripped off.
By moving from $3.00 coin in for 1 penny point play and 1 penny express comp + 10 tier credits. Those playing "Specialty Slots" will have to run through $7.00 more, for the same as it was last year. That is more than triple the coin now needed. And compared to 2014, when it was $2.00 per point, it is now 5 times as much. Yikes!
Also your Tier Credits will fall off on October 1st every year instead of rolling which actually is the only improvement to their club.
What it lacks in a creative name it makes up for in a pretty solid players club card. I managed to go from Sapphire to Platinum in 4 trips, or roughly 12 casino visits. You earn 10 tier credits for every $3.00 you gamble on the slots, or every $10.00 on video poker or specialty games. This is the biggest scam in Las Vegas. Specialty slots. What are they?
Well you won’t get a straight answer out of anyone at MGM. From what I have gathered its almost any game with a licensed theme. Think Hangover, Betty Boop, Sex and the City etc. Most games with a major progressive ala Wheel of Fortune, Money Vault and the like. And they say any machines that they do not own like Mega Bucks. In other words, all the most popular titles get the scam rating. If you are looking to move up the food chain here, you must force yourself not to play these popular titles. But there is some hope. In their haste to peddle these poorer paying club point machines they do slip up. Ghostbusters is a specialty at most MGM owned properties but its not at Luxor. Cash Wizard is everywhere but not at New York New York. So if you put in your card and after you gamble $2.00 and still do not see a point. You know you have been had!
You earn points on a revolving calendar with them so all your points stay on your card for 1 year from which you earned them. You get your card on March 1st 2011 and those points will stay there until March 1st 2012. But be warned, if you earned them on March 31st they will drop off on March 1st the following year. Pretty sneaky right! To be safe show your card everywhere. At check in, at the gift shop. You should earn tier credits just by spending money with them. So you could move up the food chain without even gambling a penny there!
You will want to make sure that they have your correct address for offers, and give them your email! Most offers do not come snail mail so check your account online here:
The levels are as follows:
Sapphire: you get this just for signing up. Pretty much gets you nothing but a way to track your play.
Pearl. Earn 25,000 points and you land here. Pretty easy to get and now you get to cut in front of the buffet lines!
Gold. Earn 75,000 points and this is where things start to get good. You start getting bonus points which mean faster and fatter comps, you get cutsies at Buffets and some sit down restaurants. And a 10% discount in their company stores
Platinum. 200,000 points. Now you are a Rock Star. Cut in line pretty much anywhere, buffets, restaurants, taxi lines, pool cabanas and Valet. And 15% discount in their company stores.
Noir. Earn 1,000,000 points and you get pretty much whatever you want. No hookers. Once we found that out, no need for us to try and hit Noir. *** This is now invite only, too many locals were able to hit the Mil and took advantage. ** This changed to invite only in 2016.
All the benefits can be seen here.
https://www.mlife.com/booking/rewardstierbenefits
As we said above, there are a few more perks that come with Platinum and above that are not listed on their site. For example:
Bellagio: Complimentary Access to the Bellagio Gallery of Fine Art
Bellagio: Access to the Bellagio Fountains Brunch
Bellagio: Invitations to Bellagio Epicurean Events
MGM Grand: Access to Race and Sports Book Skyboxes
Mandalay Bay: Membership Privileges at the House of Blues Foundation Room
Mandalay Bay: Early entry into Mandalay Beach
Mandalay Bay: Complimentary Access to Shark Reef Aquarium
Mirage: Complimentary Access to Siegfried and Roy's Secret Garden
Update 2021, Express comps look to be earned based on theo, and are no longer given at a 1 to 1 ratio based on your points. After 5 year, that's a small change. But word is they will completely blow up the club in 2022, making it much harder to earn points, point play, express comps (maybe even harder since this change?) and certainly tier credits.
We wont know for sure, until Feb 2022
Updated 2022 MGM has completely flipped the script on their players club. Mlife is officially dead! It has since be rebranded as MGM Rewards
And with that, the program has been completely trashed. Gone is my prior above of $3.00 coin in - 1 penny in express comps and 1 penny of free play + 10 tier credits.
Now, they are giving you points based on your theoretical losses. What does that mean? It means you have no fucking idea how much you are earning now.
Theoretical losses, or theo as it is known in the game. Is how much you should lose, on average, based on the games you play. Video Poker has the lowest hold of most any machine in the casino, with perfect play. Think 97% payback in many cases. You should lose $3.00 for every $100 you play through, on average. Your Theo is $3.00 X how ever many times you cycle that $100.
On a penny slot, the theo could as high as 15%. Newer themed games can often return just 85%. In this instance, your theo is $15 per hundo X however many hundos you push through.
Those much smarter than I, have figured out that MGM is giving 8 tier credits, per every $1.00 in theo. How shitty is this? Based on the old system, for non-specialty slots machines, you would get 33 points for each $100 driven through. And those 33 points earned you 330 tier credits. The new system, if you were playing a better slot machine with a 5% hold. Your theo is $5 for every hundo, and you would get 8 tier credits for each dollar. 5 x 8 = 40 tier credits.
No, that is not a typo. Instead of 330 TC's for every $100 coin, you are getting 40 TC's on some games. Other games, that hold more, you get more points for, as you are expected to lose more. Say its a penny slot, with 10$ hold (90% payback). Your theo is then $10 per $100 coin. And that is still only 10 x 8 = 80. Still shit, but half as much shit as the better paying slots.
They are marketing these changes as a good thing. After all, I would hate to see the press release that says "MGM, we are now going to fuck you a bit harder". They are throwing in $100 dining credits when you hit Gold. And another $200 when you hit Platinum. But they are also making it up to 10 times harder to get those points (with up to 10 times the expected losses). IE, its a shit deal. And the fact that it takes so much more play for a point, means they are reducing your point play earned. Same goes with those express comps.
All images on this site are original content and taken by us, you may not use any of our images without our written approval. The Grid.