I played 9/6 Jacks or Better video poker at the Trump Taj Mahal and Trump Plaza about 2 weeks ago. The player's club wouldn't tell me anything about the cash or comp earnings rate, or even the rate for earning tier points, but when I played at the Taj Mahal I was counting my hands, so I was able to figure out how much I played. I earned 755 tier points for what I believed was 3,000 hands ($1 machine at $5 per hand), so I'm assuming that I must have played about 3,020 hands, and they award 1 tier point per $20 played. I didn't bother to count how many hands I played at the Trump Plaza, but based on my length of play and approximate speed, it seems that evrything is the same over there.
According to my calculations, both casinos are awarding 1 tier point per $20 played, a cash back rate of 0.18%, and a comp rate of 0.20%. This seems to be fairly reasonable compared to Bally's AC, which has about 0.21% cash back and 0.10% comps (when not being multiplied). It might be worthwhile for me to play there when I'm on LFB at one of the Harrah's casinos and don't want to play there and have my comps taken away, or on a day when one of the Trump casinos doubles their cash back. What I don't like about their rewards program is that all their comps expire 6 months after they are earned, unlike HET where the comps never expire if you earn at least 1 point every 6 months. Also, the HET casinos periodically have days where you can exchange comps for 50% cash, and Bally's always allows you to purchase gas cards ($50 comps for $25 card). With Trump, you can't exchange your comps for cash or gift cards, so you have to buy overpriced brand name items that you might not need or want. Not only that, but you're more limited if you are trying to save up for something nice because the comps expire.
My main problem was that I couldn't find what I wanted in a non-smoking section. As far as I can tell, the Trump Taj Mahal only has 9/6 machines for $1, which is what I prefer, except they are all in the smoking section. The Trump Plaza has $0.25 9/6 machines in the non-smoking section, but the only $1 9/6 machines I was able to find were in a smoking section.
I refuse to play there again if I can't play what I want in a non-smoking section. If anyone knows if I overlooked anything in the non-smoking section, or if the Trump Marina has any $1 9/6 machines in a non-smoking section, please let me know. I'm reluctant to play in the Trump Marina because I'm not wasting my money to park there, so I have to park at Harrah's or take the shuttle there and then walk from there to the Trump Marina. I know Trump has a shuttle but I don't think I can use it on the regular player's card.