Caesars Entertainment Toys With Selling Loyalty Club Tiers

By Scott Roeben, on March 15 2023
3 min read 28 comments
Las Vegas Las Vegas Casinos

Before casinos institute new policies or offerings, they often survey their customers to get a feel for receptivity.

These surveys can provide insights into projects or initiatives on the horizon, although, some never see the light of day.

Recently, Caesars Entertainment asked Caesars Rewards members to rank their response to this statement: “If an enhanced tier were available from Caesars Rewards that offered meaningful additional rewards/benefits, I would be willing to pay a reasonable fee to be a member of this tier.”

Confirmed: AI isn’t averse to cleavage.

This survey question is intriguing for a few reasons.

While we are not a loyalty club expert, we have never heard of club members having the option to outright buy their way to a tier.

Typically, loyalty clubs increase tier levels, and the associated perks, though gambling. Sometimes through shopping, but mostly gambling.

Loyalty clubs benefits are like little refunds for play and, well, loyalty.

The ongoing complaint from players recently is loyalty club benefits are being taken away.

For example, Caesars Entertainment got rid of its Laurel Lounges (formerly Diamond Lounges, for Diamond tier players and up) in Las Vegas, and Boyd recently dumped its “cash for points” program.

Back when Caesars Rewards was Total Rewards, we worked at Caesars and got to be a Diamond for a day. We really only used it to cut in front of everyone at the cashier cage. Don’t hate the player, hate the game.

The list of changes to loyalty clubs is long, and not the good kind, because casinos are making a hell-ton of gaming revenue at the moment, without even really trying. Nevada casinos have made more than $1 billion a month for the last 22 months. Yes, revenue age is expressed like the age of babies, in months. Mostly because it sounds more impressive than “almost a couple of years.”

Nobody really knows why, but it appears to be a longer-than-expected case of pent-up demand following the shitshow that was the COVID pandemic.

Basically, people flocked back to Las Vegas, so casinos don’t have to incentivize them as much to do so. No, “incentivize” isn’t a real word, but if people use it enough, they add such words to dictionaries. See also “irregardless.”

Anyway, directly paying to achieve a tier is a clever business strategy.

After all, people pay money for credits in social casinos and apps, despite the fact they can’t win money by gambling with them. (Online gambling is illegal in the U.S. due to the Wire Act. Give it a minute, though.)

Some tier perks are pretty great. At an upper tier at Station Casinos, for example, when you achieve the tier, you get a cruise. Another popular loyalty club’s top tier gives players an opportunity to get a foot rub from Shakira. Just checking to make sure you’re still paying attention.

The other reason the Caesars survey question piques our curiosity is this part: “If an enhanced tier were available from Caesars Rewards that offered meaningful additional rewards/benefits…”

Which makes it sound like a special tier could be created just for people willing to pay for it.

That part of the question also seems to imply the existing tiers don’t currently offer “meaningful additional rewards/benefits,” but it’s doubtful that was intended.

Caesars Entertainment has been an industry leader in the casino loyalty club realm, and it appears they may launch another practice which, if successful, could be copied by other casino companies.

Big thanks to @NormiePuppet on Twitter for sending this tip our way.

The survey also asked customers to rank this statement: “If Caesars Rewards went away, I would stop doing business with Caesars Entertainment.” It’s a rhetorical question. Caesars Rewards is the reason Caesars Entertainment still exists. They problem is they rely heavily on going back to the same well, even though that pool of customers is aging and, not to make it awkward, dying off. That’s for another time.

We’ll be watching to see if Caesars Entertainment or another casino company tries these “premium,” for-a-fee tiers.

We’d be curious to see what “meaningful additional benefits” look like, as good players already get free drinks, free food, free play, hotel rooms and other goodies. (In locals casinos, they often get Tupperware, gravy boats and barbeque utensils.)

We don’t tend to chase tiers, but we do concentrate our play to make the most of free play and dining credits.

If your favorite casino offered a special tier for a fee, would you go for it? What added benefits would entice you? Let us know in the comments.