Does anyone know what the general requirements are to use comp balance for RFBI (ie, to be able to comp off tips). At what level should I be playing before I even bother to ask my host?

Hard comp incidentals are hard comp incidentals. It will vary heavily by property, just like airfare.

I mean for a large stip property like, say, Bellagio, Aria, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay.

I'm looking for a ballpark here, nothing exact. I just want to know if I'm in the ballpark. I don't want to bother bringing it up with my host if that answer is that I need to play at 10x my current level.

+1 on the tipping comment. Do the math assuming a 1% house edge on Craps and a 30% comp rate, and you need to get a $10 increase in rating for every $1.80 in hourly tips. If you make a single $5 bet "for the boys" per hour, then that needs to increase your rating by $25 to pay off. I'm assuming 60 rolls per hour here. Net-net, tip if you want to, but don't think that it will increase your rating enough to pay for itself.

As far as the Player's card, I can think of a great reason for sharing. Let's say that you live next to XYZ casino (not part of a national chain) and you head to that casino with a visiting relative. If you want to bump up your tier status quicker, you give your relative your card. They aren't planning to come back to that casino ever, so they have no chance for tier status on their own. Be aware that this is against the rules of some casinos, and this logic doesn't apply as much to Vegas casinos.

Other than the odds bet (which doesn't count for odds bets almost anywhere), no bet on the table is as low as a 1% edge. Pass/DP are in the 1.4% ballpark, and the numbers are all higher (with the exception of buying the 4/10 at a place that charges $1 commission on wins only, on a $25 bet). Anything other than Pass/Come/DP/DC, odds, buying the 4/10, and placing the 6/8 are well over 2% (placing the 5/9 is 4%!)

I highly doubt that there is a single casino out there that uses the exact HE% for the specific combination of bets made by each individual player at the table. Rather, they use an assumed overall HE% that blends the HE%'s of the typical combination of player bets.

Casino's handle odds bets in one of two ways. Either they ignore odds bets in the rating amount, or they include odds bets but also lower the assumed HE%. Obviously, if you never actually make an odds bet, then you are much better off playing in casino's that follow the former approach. My 1% HE figure was a blanket average, and included the effect of 0% odds bets since some casinos use that approach. If you know the assumed HE% that a specific casino is using, then by all means you should use that percentage in your calculations.

Note that it is the casino's assumed HE% that matters for comp calculations, not the actual HE% that you are playing against for your specific combination of bets.

My point was simply that 1% is way too low since every single bet is well above 1%. Odds don't count because they are not counted towards your average bet at almost any casino.

Bolding mine. I have heard that this varies by casino, but I do not have certainty. What I do know is that IF a casino counts odds in the rated amount, then they also drop the assumed HE% accordingly, so it is basically a wash.

This has gotten a bit off topic. My point was that when you do the math, each $1 tipped needs to result in a fairly substantial rated amount increase in order to pay off from a purely mathematical perspective. If you know the HE% that your favorite casino is using for each game, then by all means use that percentage in your calculations, but net-net you are really going to be hard pressed to get a floor person to increase your rating amount enough to make this a wash.

Now, most people also get some personal satisfaction / happiness from giving a tip, and that should be factored in as well. Just don't justify it on the basis that the tip will pay off through a higher rated amount / higher comps.

As an aside, if I ever do find a dealer who is willing to do clearly "unauthorized" things in exchange for a tip, my personal approach is to get away from that person as quickly as possible, and definitely to never, ever tip them. Nevada laws are extremely tough when it comes to collusion. Inflated ratings are probably innocent enough, but if you come across a dealer who occasionally "forgets" to take a losing bet from a big tipper, or who seems to get very careless with their handling of the hole card in blackjack and exposes it to the big tipping player, etc., then you are entering some very dangerous ground.

Technically it "varies by casino", because there are a few casinos that do count them, but almost all don't. I believe the only one on the strip is Cosmo. I am not sure if they lower the theo % to make up for that or not.

I understand this. Me point it that it can be substantial.

It's not like there is an agreement between the player and the floor. Almost every floorperson used to be a dealer, and some of them still are (dual-rate) and they are going to treat tippers better than non-tippers. That's just how it works.

It's just like if you go to a bar where you are known for tipping well, you are likely to get more generous pours. You don't meet with the bartender beforehand and agree to give him an extra $3 for an extra ounce of booze. It's just that the bartender knows that you are tipping $5 and most other people are tipping $2, so he likes you and pours a little (sometimes a lot) more generously. For that matter, if you tip the cocktail waitress at the casino $5 when everyone else is tipping $1, I guarantee you that she will come by a lot more often to see if you need anything. If you're going to be playing somewhere for a long time, and want good, fast, service, give her $5 when you order your first drink (not when she brings it to you).

One offer code per ... ?
 

I had three rooms booked for an early January stay and one room booked for a late January stay.

Today the offers came out for January -- at least mine did -- and I wanted to take advantage of (a) the lower room rate and (b) the resort credit.

In an ideal world, I would have just re-booked these on-line and canceled the old ones on-line. The Mlife website being what it is, I can barely and rarely find existing reservations, much less cancel them. (Any tips here?)

So I called in to re-book. Always an adventure, calling into Mlife ....

I gave the CSA the four reservation numbers, my Mlife number, and the offer code. He said that only one of the reservations could get the resort credit. I said -- thinking he was referring to the early January three-room reservation set that, okay, them's must be the rules -- "fine," but surely all of the rooms could be re-booked at the lower room rate under the offer code. After a long siege on hold, the CSA came back to confirm that I could get the better room rate offered under the offer code, but only one resort credit among the four bookings.

Say what? The fourth booking was for a stay 3-4 weeks after the first one. Does this mean we can only use the offer code one time per quarter? We went around and around on this and he held firm.

If it's true, it's true, and that's life ... er, Mlife. If it's not, someone please tell me how to cancel out that fourth reservation on line so I can get the credit on the second stay, without so much time on the phone!

TIA

Most offers have fine print saying that you can only use them multiple times subject to your play during the previous times using them.

In other words, you can show up once and use your offer without playing, but they will not let you get away with it a 2nd time. On the other hand, if you play at your normal level (that got you the offer in the first place) you should have no problems using it multiple times.

If you plan on playing, I'd just leave things with only the first offer having resort credit. After your stay (when you are done playing, before you check out) talk to a host (the on-call host is fine) and ask if he can apply the same offer to your next stay.

Basically, they are not going to let someone give them a little bit of play, get an offer, and then keep coming back over and over again with free/cheap rooms and free food and drinks without playing. If they allowed this it would be too easy to abuse (and, trust me, many people would abuse it). There are professionals who make a living off of offers like this (mostly ones that include freeeplay)

Any high level MLIFE players willing to provide a discount on a room Jan 1-4? Willing to pass on some of the savings.

Thanks!

I know that some people do this frequently (sell discounted rooms) but doesn't this just destroy your ATT, which is the primary measure that m-life uses for things like offers and tournament invites?

And how exactly would we do that? It's not as if you can check in as me and then maintain my casino rating while you're there...

If you book a room and don't play, then yes it will hit your ADT. That said, whenever I go to Vegas, I generally have at least 2 comped rooms simply because a fair amount of places require me to book a room in order to get the freeplay or other goodies they are offering (GN is a prime example). I'll usually get a room on the strip, one at a Stations property and one downtown. Then again, my play is enough to keep the rooms and some FP flowing, even when spread around like this. I always feel bad that some rooms are going unused, but at least it's less work for the housekeeping staff :).

Personally, I would not be a huge fan of selling any extra rooms, simply because my name would still be on the room, and I would also get my name linked to the room buyer / occupant (no way I am not at least adding their name to the room). Bad things could happen to me if they did something stupid like trash the room, or if they turned out to be some kind of AP, or cheater, or just general scum bag.

I have given extra rooms away for free to friends and relatives, however....

He/she may not be able to check in under your name, but they can help to maintain your rating pretty easily if they are a slot player. They just need one of your players cards.

Bad idea....which becomes even worse idea if the person hits a jackpot on the slot machine with the other players card in machine....

Hate to tell you this, but if you are checking into multiple hotels simultaneously to collect freeplay, you're an AP. Welcome to the dark side :)

Maybe I was a bit too opaque. I never claimed that I wasn't an AP. I meant that you need to be careful about having your name linked in the casino's knowledge base to someone else who is an AP :).

It depends on the casino. Some casino's explicitly allow multiple people to play on the same card, at some places, it is technically against the rules but rarely enforced unless they have other reasons to not like you. At a few, it is considered a really, really, bad offense, which at the absolute worst will result in the players club account being cancelled along with any comps. No risk that a casino in the US could legally deny the payment of a jackpot simply because someone else's players card was in the machine at the time.

Most likely you will get a warning even from places that really do have a problem with this. That is on the off chance that the other player hits a taxable jackpot. If that's a major concern, play .25 VP or anything else where the max payoff is less than $1,200.

I am taking my first "free" cruise through mLife/Royal Caribbean in June. I am Platinum and was offered the 3 night cruise (I decided to take the one out of Port Canaveral). @gooselee, what was your experience like? Did you use the benefits of the extra special dinner, VIP lounge, free drinks, etc? I'd love to know! Thanks!
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http://singleflyer.com

It was a fine weekend trip, but again not one that I would have chosen if paying with my own money.

Not sure what VIP lounge were supposed to get. Some RC ports will have a small area at check in for RC Gold members (which is basically what your experience will be), but at Canaveral it's literally a table with some coffee and pastries on it. Far better to just board and go to the buffet on the ship.

The best way to understand the partnership is that MGM is essentially giving you a hosted player status and comped trip via RCCLs own "Casino Royale" program for their onboard gamblers. Everything is handled via the RCCL casino program (you may have even notice this when you called to book the trip).

On your first night there will be a Casino Host Meet & Greet or something like that in the daily schedule. Usually around 4:30 before the casino is actually open. You may or may not get a separate note about it in your cabin. Go to it and find the host...it's not really an event so much as a particular time the host will be hanging out there if anyone asks. Both (three? Can't remember) times we went on the Enchantment, Shirley was out host and she was great. Seemed to recognize everyone throughout the trip.

The host will tell you what night/time/restaurant you are booked for the specialty dinner. You can ask for another time if you want, but realize they are going to prioritize the non-comped guest reservations. Still, worth asking. Note that the casino covers the dinner fee only. Wine and drinks are still on your tab. Host will also give you a pile of drink chits that you can redeem at the Casino Bar throughout the trip, and put a Casino Royale sticker on your cruise card which allows you to buy chips at the table, charged to your cabin, without paying the 2% fee.

That's pretty much it. Expect a very standard short cruise. Relaxing, but not lifechanging or anything. If you stop in Nassau and want an excursion, I'd recommend the sea lion encounter. If stopping in CocoCay, pre-book a clamshell on the quiet side of the island to get away from the crowds and bar lines.

So, has this benefit been officially extended, then? Everything that I've seen says that the cruise has to be booked and taken by the end of March 2015.

What's the current benefit (if any) for Wet Republic for a person with Mlife Gold?

You might be able to skip the line? Are they Light Group? For Light Group venues, the policy says:

As an M life Gold member and above you may now experience exclusive VIP Line Pass Access and complimentary entry to The Light Group's Nightclubs, Pools, and Lounges.

If you have a host, you are much better off asking if they can hook you up with some line passes. They are free for them so they don't care, and you don't need to worry about whether the person working at wet republic knows the policy. My friend does this when he wants to go to Hakkasan and I'm not there (he is low-end platinum) the host is happy to do it.

I believe Wet Republic is under Hakkasan. Not sure about Golds/Plats, but I know that NOIRS can get in by just flashing their card.

I'm not sure what you mean by "under" Hakkasan. WR has been around a lot longer than Hakkasan. I'm not sure who owns Hakkasan either.

I meant to say Hakkasan Group owns Wet Republic. They recently bought out Light Group too. Basically, Hakkasan Group owns a large majority of the nightclubs in Vegas, except those at Wynn/Encore, Venetian/Palazzo, Cosmo, and Cromwell (a few others too)..

Oh, I didn't realize that they owned light group too.

I've generally had very good experiences with light-group-owned establishments. They are reasonably priced (by LV Strip standards) and I've always had a great time. Hakkasan and WR, on the other hand, are extremely overpriced IMO. Maybe it's supposed to be a better product, but I just don't see it.

Wet Republic traditionally has let Gold and Platinum skip the outside part of the line but not the inside part (sorry this only makes sense if you have been there but you are skipping half of the wait) and has given free access to card holder +1 (not sure for noir - maybe they can skip the whole line but obviously wouldn't be treated worse). One time I recall that a text to a host was necessary because of a special event, but no troubles any other time.

I wouldn't expect much if anything if it's busy (such as if even a moderately-well-known DJ is playing). I have mentioned previously in this thread that the nightclub benefit of mLife was largely a farce - as an mLife plat, I have been denied benefits at even second-tier nightclubs.

It is always better to deal with the nightclub directly by contacting the nightclub hosts. For the most hassle-free entry, best is to pre-purchase GA and get there before the ticket says to get there.


The Hakkasan brand long predates Wet Republic, just FYI.

Yes, I know. There is one just a few blocks from me in SF :) And I know that they have a few more locations too. But, isn't the Vegas one the only nightclub? The in SF is purely a restaurant (or so I've been told; I've never actually been there)

RE: Getting denied benefits, I know that a lot of times when they agree to these deals, it takes a long time to trickle down to the people actually working there, so some of the employees may not know. Also, the people working the door probably don't care; they have goals to meet and if you aren't helping they might feed you some BS to get rid of you.

If you have a host, a quick call or text to your host should help. If you know where you are going in advance, just ask your host beforehand if they can put you on the guest list.

My issue isn't with the nightclubs - it's that MGM/mLife should not be advertising/publishing a benefit that they know isn't being honored. As this and other threads show, it creates false expectations among mLife elites and stinks for those elites who plan around these false expectations.

I have posted in this thread and on this forum that when the nightclub benefit was published during the mLife rollout, I figured that it wouldn't be honored. I went out of my way to test that at multiple properties (which was more difficult than I anticipated, as I'm a nightclub regular); nevertheless, my belief was confirmed. mLife is more than 4 years old and many of these denials of benefits occurred well after the rollout, and if you interact at all with nightclub hosts you know as well as I do that they know about the stated mLife benefit - they just don't want the bother. But again - even then, I don't at all blame the nightclubs, only MGM/mLife for offering something they know is a farce.

As far as advice for getting in clubs, I'll repeat what I said in my last post: Don't bother with casino hosts or guest list, work with the nightclub hosts directly. And for the most hassle-free entry, pre-purchase GA tix and get there before the ticket says to get there.

I can't agree with this. Once, some of my friends wanted to see Calvin Harris at Hakkasan while we were all there on a long weekend. I texted my host, and she said that we could just pay at the door and room-charge it. I replied that that was fine, but the line for GA would be really long and I didn't want to wait. So, she put us on a list and gave me the name of a person to talk to at the door (one of the nighclub hosts, I guess -- I did not know her). We got there, went to the front, and I told the first person that I saw that my casino host told me to ask for <name of nighclub host>. The nightclub host asked my name, asked who my casino host was, and took us in through the entrance that they usually use for people who reserve tables. The whole thing took 5 min, and 3 of those minutes were waiting for the nightclub host to come over. They didn't even charge us for entry (I was expecting to have to do a room charge for admission, but they didn't ask, so I didn't bring it up. I think that this was a mistake on their part).

These are the sort of things that hosts can do for you. It's definitely worth asking IMO. What you are suggesting is a good idea if you don't have a host.

How can you disagree when your post supports my point? It worked out because your casino host happened to have a good relationship with a nightclub host, no different than a beneficial introduction to a nightclub host any other way. Of course it doesn't hurt to ask, but it could have also turned out differently had your casino host not had a good relationship with the nightclub host.

BTW, pre-purchasing GA tix and arriving before the stated time essentially means no waiting in line; your host gave you very bad advice by telling you to pay at the door. Getting presales in is one aspect Vegas nightclubs are very good about, especially compared to other cities. The only people standing outside a club waiting are the ones wanting freebies, much like in the guest list line.

No, I don't think so.

If I had just contacted the nightclub host beforehand (who did not know me) there is no way in hell that I would have been treated that well. They would have basically said, get a table, or wait in line with everyone else. They have no reason to treat me any better than anyone else coming to the club. On the other hand, my host DOES have a reason to see that I am treated better than the average club-goer, due to my play. By leaving my casino host out of the equation, I am losing whatever I might get as a result of that play.

I think you are missing my point. Because my host called ahead, I did not have to stand in line. I did not have to show up early. I didn't even have to pay (although, as I said, I think that was an error on their part). We just showed up at our leisure and walked right in.

The reason that there is no line when you show up early is because no one wants to show up early. I'm no different. By going through my host, I don't have to, and I still don't have to wait in line.

The problem with pre-purchasing tickets is that you can't usually charge them to your room (they are usually done through a third-party ticket seller) which means that you probably aren't getting them comped (although some hosts might reimburse you if you give them receipts). Anything I charge to my room is going to be comped (within reason, of course). So I don't want to pay out of pocket unless if it's absolutely necessary. I am usually showing up for a trip with much more resort credit than I end up using (unless I'm throwing a party there, in which case I will use it all + some of my banked express comps) so paying for things out of pocket doesn't make much sense.

The one time I did have to pre-purchase tickets for something, again, I went through my casino host. They wrote a hard comp (this was for thousands of dollars), took the resort credit off my upcoming stay, and deducted the balance from my express comps.

I do have a Light Group host that I work with as well, and that works fine for reserving tables / cabanas if they don't require pre-payment (when I get there, they just take a room number and ID instead of a credit card) but if they do require pre-payment, it requires going through the casino host as well.

:confused: Why on earth not? The only difference is the order in which events happen. Even contacting the casino host first, you still had to give your casino hosts' name to get an in with the club host, and that was my point.

The reason to contact the nightclub host directly is to get some level of assurance about reality rather than depend on a casino host to try to get something he can't possibly guarantee. It is not to say that the nightclub host will be able to help better or that some other information/connection isn't required to have an in.


Nope, it's just that as per usual you're being needlessly argumentative. I clearly stated that my advice was from the standpoint of reliable ways to get in the club (hence my word choice - "hassle-free", "assurance", etc.). As you admit, you're approaching from getting things comped, so of course you aim to do things differently. Heck, there is an entire forum on a 1mil+ hits/mo message board basically dedicated to how to get into Vegas nightclubs for free, but that's not what I was discussing.

returning to slot play in MLIFE ques.
 

I quit playing in MLIFE a few years ago; I went for 7* in CET. Beginning with 4/1/15 (noted in another thread), the perks are diminishing.:p
Once I cross 150,000 TC and re-qualify for 7*, I was planning to do the rest of my gambling with MLIFE. Their qualifying year begins 10/1/15; wouldn't waiting until then be the best time to resume play?

It would seem to depend entirely upon what the object/your goal is. Do you have a specific MLife tier you wish to attain? If so, then the second part of the question would be what level and what frequency do you play?

As you observed, MLife tier qualifying year begins October 1st. I re-upped for Platinum for 2016 (10-1-15 thru 9-30-16) by early January of 2015 (3+ months). There are probably others that are "Noir forever" (if there even is such a thing), while it might take others 11+ months to attain Gold or whatever.

As others have opined, simply "playing for status" (in ANY program) is statistically and financially a bad idea and a poor proposition. In my case, "status" is just something that happens by virtue of the frequency and level at which I play. That is to say status level (any level) is something that just "happens", not something I'm directly focused on attaining in and of itself.

YMMV

I did get to Platinum level in Mlife before I quit.
I'm close to requalifying for 7* in CET--but getting beyond 150,000 TC doesn't get me enough extras; at 250,000 TC a few more nice things happen.:)
[Borgata in AC had a link with Mlife, which was severed...there are rumors it may be restored--that would be even more of an impetus to switch to Mlife.]
[CET may have to be dismantled--so having another system to play in could be useful to me.]