I agree with everything above but I'd add that a really good progressive will make a lesser game playable (+50% on a 9/5 I think). Plus some casinos give less credit to coin in when playing a full pay machine, and depending on the denomination.

Just as an example, ordinarily in Caesars, tier credits are 1 per $5 coin in on slots and $10 coin in on VP. As I recall from a trip to Bally's AC a month ago, the 9/6 machines were $50 for 25 cent 9/6 machines and $20 for $1 machines.

I put in some play at Cosmo (first time ever), and I have to say that the offers seem pretty generous so far. They are worth far more than the play that I've put in. I'm curious to see if this scales up or if they are just being overly generous because I'm a new player and they are trying to get my regular business.

If they do scale up they will probably be successful in getting my regular business (or, at least, a good portion of it) -- the games are good, the hotel is very nice, and the scenery is great.

I played $25 BJ for an hour once and started getting an offer for two free weeknights. I finally took them up on their offer a couple years later. After that trip, my offer now is get a free buffet if you pay for two nights.

In other words, don't get your hopes up too much that the generous offers will continue.

How much did you play during those two free weeknights?

Not a ton, played slots with my girlfriend for a couple hours. I have 1151 points, so it must have been about $1700 through the machines. I think I lost around $400. Certainly a higher theo than the one hour at $25 BJ, but I never expected the offers to continue at this level of play.

The problem is that they had no idea how much you typically gamble after your initial play there. All they knew is that you played at $25 a hand. They may have thought, "hey if we get this guy to stay at our place, maybe he is the kind of degenerate gambler who will play for 12 hours straight". So they send you a free room offer to find out. When you stayed at their place for 2 days and put $1,700 through a slot, you showed them that you are not a crazy degenerate and therefore they didn't like you all that much. To them you were a tease.

Now the way to play this is to go to a new place, get a card, and play at very high levels for a very short period of time. Instead of 2 hours at $25 a hand, play 30 minutes at $100 a hand. It's the same theoretical loss, but you are showing that new place that you are a black chip bettor who is probably staying (and playing) somewhere else, but who randomly happened upon their casino somehow. They will send you an enticing offer to win over your potential business. This only works once as after you stay there and don't play all that much they will know you are in fact just a tease, but at least you get the one nice trip. And there are a heck of a lot of casinos in this country.

You received your 2 free night offer a couple of years ago when Identity was still trying to attract new members. I just joined Identity and earned 1200 points in one day. Received 2 buffet passes that I didn't even get a chance to use before I left LV, and of course the passes expired 2 days after they were issued.

Cosmo is under new management now and I suspect they will be tightening up their comps as are most of the other Gaming Loyalty programs in LV.

Maybe Cosmo might tighten up once they get their share of loyal players. I wouldn't worry about MGM tightening up on comps though, they're doing pretty well financially. Supposedly, 70% of their revenue is from non-gaming, which is quite amzing.

You can't tighten up something you were never loose with. IME mgm is the worst when it comes to comps and it isn't even close. I switched over from mgm to TR years ago and with the same level of play I get free rooms and casino play...no more of mgm 's bs discounted room rates and resort credits. Now switching over to Identity cause the hotel itself is the illest.

CET is generally better for low-rollers than MGM, but MGM does have some low-end casinos too. You have to match the hotel that you stay at to your level of play. Obviously if you show up to gamble with a couple of thousand dollars at a place like Aria you can't expect much. But you will get treated well at places like Luxor and Excalibur.

The thing about CET is that almost all their casinos would be classified as "low-end". Caesar's Palace would be an exception, and, possibly, so would the Cromwell (I haven't been there yet). But places like Paris and Bally's and Flamingo are low-end by strip standards, so it doesn't take much play to get comped there.

For high-end play, MGM properties have better games and comp you very well. It is true that their offers do not include a lot of freeplay, but the tournaments are worth a lot.

Cosmo is an expensive, high-end hotel. You are not going to get comped well for low levels of play. They might give you a good initial offer to see how much you play when you are staying there, but once that is done with you are not getting free rooms if you do not play a lot. In other words, their rooms are very expensive, and so the hotel sells them to casino marketing at a high price, and the marketing department only comps you at a certain percentage of your play -- so you have to play a lot to get free rooms. If your play does not get you free rooms at MGM properties, it is not going to get you free rooms at Cosmo.

I actually have an easier time getting comped rooms from Cosmo than mLife.

At which hotels? MLife hotels are not all created equal.

They will give free rooms for Luxor, Excalibur, NYNY, and Monte Carlo for almost no play on most weekends. These offers will not come from hotel marketing, but from MLife directly. The amount of play to get those is much less than that required to get free rooms at Cosmo.

On the other hand, if you are trying to get rooms from Aria, that's a lot more difficult. Bellagio, Mandalay Bay, and MGM Grand are also difficult, although maybe not to the extent of Aria. I'm not sure what your level of play is, but, if it's enough to get a host, you should ask for a host and talk to them.

A lot of it is also dependent on when you are trying to get the rooms. A random non-busy Tuesday night is obviously a lot easier to get than New Year's Eve or the day before the Super Bowl.

Check out the room rates for the May 2 weekend (since they announced the Mayweather / Pacquaio fight). My relatively low-rolling friend scored a "2 free night" Mlife deal at Monte Carlo right after the fight was announced, before they blacked out the dates. The booking site showed his "m-life savings" as $1060 or something (he paid the resort credit but got $0 as the rate)

I know every MGM property is different. I only have an issue getting comped rooms at Bellagio and Aria, but lately I've been getting free room offers from Bellagio. Don't have an issue getting a room during the weekend of that Pacquiao fight except at the MGM.

In that case, I don't understand your statement that you have more trouble getting comped rooms at M-life than Cosmo. It sounds like you get rooms everywhere.

I do find that Cosmo is much more generous with freeplay than M-life, but I think that's intentional on their part. They are well aware that people sign up for multiple offers at multiple hotels and collect the freeplay, and they don't want that. So they give very little (or no) freeplay and very generous tournament entries instead. You get the same (or more) value but you have to actually be there, in the casino.

Cosmo is a very nice hotel (I like it there a lot) and there are gorgeous women everywhere (which I also like a lot) but my main issue with it is that it's only one hotel. The nice thing about M-life is that, when I'm in Vegas, I have a large selection of restaurants, nightclubs, pools and bars to go to, and I can charge it all to my room and get comped. I might go to places at 3 or 4 different hotels in a single trip. If I'm at Cosmo I'm stuck paying ot of pocket if I want to go anywhere else. Sticking to one hotel might be fine for a trip or two but it gets old if you go 10x per year.

Also, I don't think that Cosmo is THAT generous. I went from Sterling, blew past Gold, and all the way to Platinum in a single trip and my offer actually went down from my initial offer. So, sure, I can get free rooms, but I can get that anywhere.

I'm complaining more about not getting comped rooms at Aria and Bellagio. :p Noticed Aria has been harder with comped rooms compared to Bellagio though.

I agree about Cosmo. I'm a big fan of their hotel rooms, restaurants, and the eye candy over there. Not a fan of their gaming floor since it's pretty small when you consider the # of slots they have. I usually get bored with their slot selection after a day and wander off to a MGM property.