Current thoughts on Cosmo?

No real question here.. Just making some comments to see if I can generate any discussion. Haven’t seen any new posts here in quite some time.

My wife and I visit Cosmo two or three times a year and are heading back in June. Last year we managed to reach Platinum level in their Identity club. We’ve now got an assigned host, get drivers to and from the airport, nicer rooms, better comps, concert tickets, etc. It’s quite nice and I will freely admit that they have me hooked – I definitely want to gamble there enough that I stay at the Platinum level!

I saw the casino owners are investigating selling the place. Has anyone ever experienced being at a high level in a casino’s player’s club when the property has been sold? Cosmo is a bit different from other casinos in that it’s on its own and not part of a company that owns many casinos, so it’s not like my player’s club status is valid at other casinos. I’m curious as to how a merger with another casino might affect player’s club members.

I will also say that I love their new player’s club website. This may be how other player’s clubs are these days, but Cosmo is the only one I have recent experience with. On their website, you can see how many points you earned each day and how, which sessions earned bonus points, etc. You can see when your points expire, how many you need to earn by what date to stay at your current level or advance, how much you’ve earned in resort credit, etc. I was blown away with the transparency, especially because we switched to staying the at Cosmopolitan after leaving the Wynn – where everything related to the Red Card program is a secret.

Cosmo loves you if you are slot player but not so much for VP or tables. It wasn’t always that way but the changes in regards to VP are staggering over the past 8 years. With bounce back offers, comps and their generous Identity multipliers, a VP player had a good chance for a cheap or free Cosmo vacation. Not even close these days.

If you are Platinum, I’m going to assume you are playing a lot of slots. The comps and benefits are decent if that is important to you and for Platinum level are above Caesars and MGM but are still a losing game. If you enjoy the property and are comfortable with losing the money you will over time in the slots, I don’t think you will find a better option on the strip.

Word of warning if you consider playing any of the slot tournaments instead of taking a Free Play offer. The tournaments are stacked with players making Platinum 100 times over and get additional entries and such. There is a reason many of the YouTube “stars” are making the Cosmo their home. They are losing $100’s of thousands a year there but are making good money from their videos and the ads. Obviously they are only uploading winners, but anyone who understands slots knows they are losing big bucks. And Cosmo is rewarding these players but stacking the tournaments.

Glad to hear you enjoy Cosmo. As for a change in ownership, Vegas is only going one way, and it’s certainly not in the players favor.

Yeah, years ago VP was pretty much all we played. I remember when the changes started coming and felt the offers dry up. (We were at the Wynn in those days and, not only did the offers for VP players dry up, the number of VP machines was greatly reduced.) These days, I prefer slots and my wife prefers VP, (although she usually plays at the $1 or $5 machines, so she racks up the VP points faster than I do).

I know slots (and Vegas in general) are a losing game. I don't go to make money and don't expect to. In fact, each trip, I plan on losing 50% of my gambling budget, which has been just about how it's worked out the last couple of years. Honestly, the slots are more entertaining than VP to me and I'm there for entertainment. I also really enjoy their spa.

I have heard they don't give points based on table play, but we usually head downtown for that anyway.

In return for giving up 50% of my budget, I do want to get good comps - nice rooms, meals, free play - and Cosmo is giving me that. My current offer is 4 free nights, $250 in free play, and $200 dining credit. I'll get free airport transportation and, when I leave I'll get more stuff comped from my host.

Thanks for the tip about the slot tournaments. I played in one once simply because it happened to be going on while I was there, but have never made a trip just to be in one.

We've stayed at Cosmo three times so far, first trip in 2018. I play human table games only, no slots no machines whatsoever.

I have a pretty large credit line at Cosmo, but my average bet is around $300., although I will play up to $2000. per hand at times, but sparingly.

The first trip my Cosmo Identity card was of course Velvet. I asked my host to bump it up to at least Gold to get me the free parking (in 2018 Cosmo didn't yet have the policy of free valet parking for all hotel guests), and he told me that he had nothing to do with Identity. During that trip I went to see what I could do directly at the Identity counter in the casino, and they said that since I was not a slots player that there was no hard and fast formula as to how/when my player card could move up.

But, even before the end of that first trip, my card was Sterling.

After the end of the second trip, I was Gold.

About four days into the third trip, after just one night of heavy play (I ended up even or slightly ahead that night, but after coming back from a hefty negative), when I went to get a second card for her to carry around, they told me that I was now Platinum.

So, it is quite possible to achieve Platinum relatively quickly, even with solely table games play. As mentioned, I average around $300. per hand not anything whale-ish. And I mostly just play hit and run I will often just play until ahead then quit for the day. So it's not like I sit there four hours a day, every day.

By the way, looking into my Identity "portal" I see only my status, my offers, and how many Identity points** I have to use to buy stuff at the resort - I don't have the full panoply you slots player describe (I can't see how many points I have or what I need to do to maintain my status). I get Identity points for things that we end up paying for that are not comp'ed, such as anything we buy from the 2nd floor shops, any spa charges, any food that is not comp'ed, etc.
** My Identity points are represented by $0. in "Identity Play" because I don't play slots.


As far as what happens when a resort is bought out / taken over - it depends. For example when Tim and Tom bought the Golden Nugget in 2003, it became Benny Binion like player friendly - they'd book most any bet, give 100X odds on craps, all that. Then when Landry's bought the Nugget in 2005, it went completely in the opposite direction less player friendly than it had ever been.

That's good to know about table games. I went back and read their FAQs and it states: "Identity Points aren’t earned with table play, but Identity members can earn tier status, promotional offers, and comps at the table because your play is rated—so always show your Identity card to the dealer when sitting at a table." So your experience makes sense.

There are two places to see the info I was talking about and neither is very intuitive to find:

1) When you log in, there is a bar across the top of the website that shows your points with a spinning card to the far left. Clicking anywhere on that bar causes it to drop down with the "points needed by" info I mentioned.

2) How you earned your points can be seen by selecting the Identity menu in the very top menu bar, then selecting "Your Recent Activity" option from the page that pops up. That not only shows points earned by play, but points earned by spending money at restaurants, stores, etc.

My wife and I play using the same card number and this web site feature helped me realize that, when you are earning 2X and 3X points on machines, only one card gets the bonus points - whichever one is inserted first. (These sessions are identified on the website with a purple box that says "2X" or "3X' next to the entry.) Since slots award more points than VP, I always make sure I am the one who puts in my card first.

Thanks. I checked it. 1) For table games players it is as I thought...no "points needed by" nothing like that. It looks like this:
https://i.imgur.com/I1CuTmV.jpg
which shows only the # of Identity Points that I have (which, again, have nothing to do with my play, have only to do with whatever spent at the resort that was Not comp'ed off), and then below that the "$0 For Identity Play" - $0 because I don't play slots.

Also, note that at the moment I have only 19K points, but I am Platinum, which supposedly requires 50K points. My Identity Points refer just to points I have earned by spending cash at the resort, and if I use these points to buy things, then my point count will go down to zero, but still I will remain Platinum. These are points accumulated over many weeks of stays, over the three trips. Accumulated points; haven't spent any. I think at the moment I advanced to platinum my Identity Points were something like 12K, but again, these points have Nothing to do with table game play.

And then, 2) "My Recent Activity" shows only how the Identity Points accumulated from stuff we paid for but did not get comp'ed off. There is absolutely no record of play noted anywhere in "My Recent Activity." Table Game play does not result in tit for tat points.

However, there was a line item in "My Recent Activity" that read:
TIER ADVANCEMENT: CONGRATS ON EARNING PLATINUM!
_________, 2019
+0 Identity Points ($0.00)

I don't think the points I have accumulated have much if anything to do with advancement to Platinum - that was all as a result of table play, especially given that I advanced to platinum about four days into a two week stay, after a big night of table game play, and during a point at which no charges were being made to the room, everything was being comp'ed off.

Bottom line: points and such are for slots players. Table game players, points don't mean much, if anything.