I was at Harrahs on Friday and Sunday. Computers were running 2 hours late,
so if you played for 1 hour and wanted a comp based on those accumulated comps
you probably couldn't get one. Hosts possibly could write descretionary
comp for missing period but I got 2 different responses regarding that. I had a
coupon for $50 extra for 100 in Rewards Credits. The slot club did stamp my
coupon okay, even though they couldn't see my play because computer was running
slow. This situation is hopefully temporary.
I was also told for coupon purposes they are counting only Basic Points, not
Bonus, but you could make an argument that total points should be used because
the coupons only say "Reward Credits".
I played a short amount on $1 Triple Play 9/6 on Friday and got 67 Basic and
47 Bonus points. Ugh. BUT WAIT.
Then on Sunday played several different times on same 5 Play Dueces Wild $1
machine (bad pay schedule I know, but I was mostly holding my own and wanted to
check out points quickly).
I got different results.
2 points Basic/ 2 points Bonus on $25 played through
100 points Basic/ 120 Reward Bonus on $1000 played through.
Then 1252 Basic/ 4257 Bonus on probaby $12,520 played through.
You'll note a trend here, as you played more and more, you get way more bonus
points through per dollar played. Apparently you are being rewarded as you
played more and more.
It is possible Bonus credits are somewhat random as well.
Basic rewards are definitely accumulating more than twice as fast as old
system. Obviously playing a whole bunch will get you more Bonus than playing a
little. Playing $12,252 produced a total of over 6400 total points or comps
worth about $64 plus cashback.
However event hough you may end up with theoretically more comps under the
new system than the old by over a factor of 2 if you play a lot, on the basis of
X amount of play = Y amount of comps, in actual fact you may be ending up
with a lot less. This is because under the old system, not only did X amount of
play = Y in comps, you also could get extra comps under the "bonus comps"
program as posted in the players club.
For example under old system if you played 800 points in 1 day you got 1
night free room with RFB plus 2 free tickets to Clint Holmes, Skin Tight, etc.,
plus $30 in 'Bonus Comp" which could be issued as a separate comp. If you
didn't stay overnight you got 2 free tix plus $30 food bonus, plus regular X amount
of food comps (let's say that was another $30 in food).
Under new system you will need to pay for all comps including room with your
points. Let's say you now get 1600 Base points instead of the old 800 plus
4x bonus points (like I did when I played over $12,000 through). That is
another 6400 plus the 1600 = 8000 total points. That would equal $80 in comp
value for food, or 2 tickets to Skintight.
So you take the 2 tickets to Skintight, just like you would have under the
old "bonus" program, but now you get no food, no free room, no "bonus" $30 food
comp.
Let's say you ran up 799 points under old system, not qualifying you for the
"bonus" - but you would have probably only gotten say $30 in food. Now you
get $80 in food/comp value.
So the new system could have you better off than the old, as long as you are
talking about levels of play where a "bonus feature" never kicked in.
For example say under old system you were a Vegas local and you played 800
points, but didn't need a free room because you were there for a slot club
tournament and that free room didn't come out of your comp points. You also didn't
need show tickets because you'd seen the show. You didn't need RFB because
you were going to eat at the free party for the slot tournament. Under old
system you would have gotten $30 food bonus plus $30 regular food comp or $60
total. You had to use or lose your $30 food bonus and your $30 regular
food/other comp credit was banked.
Under new system you get $80 in food/comp credit. You bank it all.
So under that scenario you are better off under new system.
So basically new comp credit system could be better than old on a comp for
comp basis, assuming you would not use the old "Bonus Extra Goodies" and
assuming you play enough so that the Bonus points kick in at a high rate.
All above very confusing to be sure.
It probably behooves higher level players to write Tom Jenkin at Harrahs and
complain about lack of those big "bonus" awards.
It remains to be seen exactly what levels of play on what types of machines
generate what sort of Bonus Points.
On personal note since I didn't need to use food or room or show tickets
today, I apparently was better off under new system since I ended up with more
banked comps than I would have under old system. But if I had wanted show
tickets I would have been less well off.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]