Newbie looking for Mlife advice

Hello all,
I'm new here and have looked around the forum and have picked up on a lot of great advice, but not sure how much I can apply specifically to me.
My wife and I go to Vegas 3-5 times a year and will generally drop $2000-4000 a trip gambling. This is mostly on BJ ($25 average bet), slots (max bet penny to dollar) and an occasional poker variety game ( about $25-40 a hand).
I know our play isn't extremely high, I'm a mlife gold, my wife should be there next trip.

Looking for advice on property to play at where with our play we could be getting comped stay?
We both get free three nights from Luxor with $50-75 free play online and a generic offer for two free night Sun-Thu at most properties with reduced weekend rates.
It seems like playing at where you want to stay is what most say. Is this so? Recommendations for our level of play (wife doesn't like the smell of Luxor)?
Last trip a couple weeks ago we booked stayed and played a Mandalay but haven't recieved any offers from them, I'm guessing there out of our league?
Should we consider contacting a host?

Thank for any advice you can share

Cheers

 

As for not having received offers yet from Mandalay Bay give it some time. You're play should warranted something from them although maybe not the same three nights as Luxor but likely at least 2 nights. MLife is notoriously slow with turn around on trips so because your last trip was only a couple of weeks ago you most likely won't here from them until a new round of casino specific offers go out in April or May and will most likely be included in your corporate "summer offer" in the coming months.

You're play is still at a pretty good level to receive at least rooms and some minimal free play. I am a $25 blackjack player and $10-20 craps player. I have gotten to gold level once but I am back at pearl currently on my way back to gold and I get corporate seasonal offers that include 4 nights at Excalibur or Luxor, 3 nights at Monte Carlo, NYNY, Mirage, Mandalay and MGM then 2 nights ARIA and Bellagio. I spent most of my last trip at Monte Carlo and landed three nights at Hotel 32 from an offer direct from the casino.

Just give it some time, your most recent trip was only a couple weeks ago. It will take some time for you to make your way through the systems and into lists for offers but you'll get there.

 

Like someone else said, that's definitely too soon on Mandalay Bay. Generally, they only send offers out max of every month, and I usually receive the same offer 1-2 times a quarter from them. Offers come pretty much on an individual casino basis, and then you get a corporate offer from MGM. The corporate offer is usually not nearly as good as the offers you'll get from the individual casinos themselves as long as you've gambled there.

Couple tips that may help:

- You can link your and your wife's mlife cards at the mlife desk. This will let you both share the highest status of either player (I'm Gold, my wife is Sapphire, but she gets a gold card because she's linked to me).

- You can ask the dealer to rate you and your wife together when playing at the same table. This will raise your avg bet and ADT and should lead to better offers. I do this with my wife and it helps me out a lot.

 

Klawrey - Thanks for sharing. I really do hope we get some offers like you're mentioning, the wife really doesn't like the Luxor smell but the casino size and variety of games is great. I do worry the MC might be a little on the small size for my wifes slot play, she likes to hope around new machines a lot.

Chilly - I appreciate the tips. I definately think we need to look into maybe using the same card at slots and seeing if they'll rate us together when we play next to each other.

 

You can also just stay at any casino and have them comp the room on the backend before you check out.

 

As for contacting a host: they're out of your league. You could talk to one, but even doing that can be absurdly difficult, as the mLife counter attendants will glimpse your play and say "I'm sorry you don't qualify". Hosts are busy enough that they don't want to deal with fish -- and your play looks very fishy. But $2000-4000 is real money! The trick is how to make sure the casino sees that money.

Summary:
- your loss amount is enough to get you free weekend nights plus $100+ at nearly any MGM resort
- combine your accounts!
- play better games
- stay where you want
- give new places a trip plus 3 months before you expect good offers

I play at a similar level to the OP; on average I lose about $2k -- including coming back breakeven, winning sometimes, and losing $4k+ sometimes. I tend to get squirrelly if I lose too much and reduce my bets, while betting more when I'm on a hot streak. What do I get for a $2k average loss? Suites comped plus a few hundred in freeplay or dining credit. I have been for years. You can definitely play the comp game better.

First: You're just dropping $1-2k each, not $2-4k. Definitely link your accounts or play on the same card.

At $25 BJ, $2000 is 80 units. That's a ton. If you are "generally" dropping 80+ units at blackjack, then you play an absurdly bad game. Learn basic strategy. I'm actually guessing that y'all are dropping $2000+ on slots and the carnival games. In addition to being far more swingy than BJ, the house edge on those penny slots is about 30x the edge on BJ. Without any big jackpots (of $1000 or more), it's very easy to drop tons of money through slots. The casino isn't going to give you credit for losing money; only wagering it. And when you don't hit any of those big jackpots, the effective return you're seeing on slots could be as bad as 70%. You think you drop $1500 over three days but the casino sees you only put $5,000 through ... and is only going to give you a couple weekday nights. Yes, the casino knows exactly what payout % that slot machine had, but you don't get credit for actual theo, only approximate theo -- which is about the return on the $5 slots, ie the ones where the max bet on a single spin is $15 or $100 or more. And those machines still have a 5% house edge. You're getting credit for a 5% theo, playing to a 10% theo, and receiving a bad-luck 30% theo.

Play better games -- video poker, 25c-$1-$5 slots where the max bet is 3 units, basic strategy BJ, or passline craps. Heck, roulette would be better, or craps + high-risk prop bets. Penny slots are good for neither your bankroll nor comps.

A $15,000 per-year bankroll should let you play $1000 blackjack. That'll get you a big suite, limo from the airport, and free premium dining. Yet it'd be swingy as hell! $200 BJ would give you far more room for bad luck -- AND still get you a room plus freeplay or dining credit at nearly any MGM property (minus Aria / Vdara / Bellagio). Two people both playing perfect basic-strategy $100 BJ would be considered the same level of betting if your accounts were linked, and lower the variance even further.

As for play-where-you-stay: no, not really. Stay where you want. You should generally do most of your playing there, but mLife is sufficiently integrated that you should get comps at Luxor for any time you spend playing at Bellagio, just as you can comp meals at Mandalay or MGM even while staying at the Luxor. I've popped over to the Monte Carlo a couple trips ago and got lucky at a roulette table -- which meant I kept gambling there for a few hours: 5.26% x $50 x 2 hours x 60 games = $300 expected loss, $90-120 in expected comps. That was enough for the MC to send me offers for two free (non-event) weekend nights. How quickly you get offers depends on the hotel, and Mandalay Bay is slow in this regard. Give them time -- and feel free to stay there again.

 

The best advise I can provide is this, start playing at only CET properties. They notoriously comp better than MLife in my experience, and there are more CET properties around the United States than MLife. I live in Maryland, so when I play at the Horseshoe in Baltimore, my tier credits go up for when I stay at Paris in Las Vegas, same with Bally's, Caesars and Harrah's in Atlantic City.

I only redeem MyVegas points and party at MLife properties (mostly Mirage, MB and MGM Grand) as those casinos have great vibes.

 

You are leaving out the denominator in your stats - how many nights you stay per trip.