Harrahs (now Caesars) Entertainment is where I spend most of my gambling dollars because they have so many properties and my play is combined at all of the properties to determine my player status.
There are four player levels (not counting, I'm sure, the high rollers "whales" and such): Gold Players are pretty much everyone who sets foot in one of their casinos -- as soon as you sign up you are a Gold Player and maintain that level until you have a higher yearly coin in. Spend $40,000 (video poker) in a year and you become Platinum; spend $110,000 in a year and you are accorded Diamond status. Seven Stars is the highest but they don't advertise how much you have to spend to get that level.
The "spending" levels listed are for video poker players which is what I play primarily; slot machine players need to only have half that amount spent in a year.
Keep in mind that the machines are tracking COIN IN which is naturally much higher than what a person is physically taking out of their wallet. For example, if I put a $20 bill in a 25 cent video poker machine, I have paid for 16 hands (at $1.25 per hand). However, during those 16 hands I will have won or broken even on about 95% of them so for $20 I might be able to play 30, 40 or even more hands (especially if I hit a 4 of a kind or some other high paying win). Assuming I keep playing until I lose the original $20 I could realistically run through $100-$200 which all counts toward your player score but is still just the $20 I initially put into the machine.
Okay, so back to my status. For a long time I was platinum which was good enough for me because it was better than my pals had (LOL!) and it pretty much guaranteed me a comp room any time I wanted to visit AC.
But then somehow I got an offer to be flown out for a 4 day weekend at Harrahs Reno. We thought it would be pretty cool to do that since we hadn't been there together since 1984ish so I RSVPd Yes. In the meantime, between the RSVP and the actual arrival in Reno, I hit Diamond status! So my first time as a Diamond player would be in Reno and I didn't really know what to expect from that but I thought it would be pretty cool and I was right!
At check in the guy told me the hours of the Diamond Lounge and I wasn't overly impressed because once before a long time ago I got a Free Pass to go to the Diamond Lounge (or whatever they called it) at the Tropicana and when I went in it was just a private gambling salon with machines I couldn't afford to play anyway. But I figured I would show Mike the lounge when we got a chance.
Of course our first order of business, (after taking care of other business ;) was to find a cocktail waitress and a loose machine. After playing for a little while a floor worker came over, "Linda? Here is a voucher for the two of you to have dinner at the buffet" Okay, cool, free food for the diamond player, I'm not complaining! So I found Mike and when we went to the buffet I discovered that even better than the free food was the Diamond Player line pass! That meant that no matter how many people were on line for the buffet, as soon as I came to the Diamond Line, they would immediately come over to me, grab a set up from a different area (linen napkins for the diamonds!) and escort us to a private dining area inside the buffet itself. Diamonds also have their choice of cocktails inside their private area! Very, very cool and the food was very, very good!
That first night, coming out of the buffet, I noticed a partially hidden door on the side wall with a small placard stating "Diamond Club". I said to Mike, let me show you what I mean about the high limit slot room. Boo-ya I was totally off the mark. The Diamond Lounge here is a small, intimate space with soft couches, low lighting, club and pub tables, a roaring fireplace, cozy bar, tuxedo'd host and a small snack buffet. Basically a place to get away from it all. Very very nice! We ended up spending part of every day/night here just chilling with drinks, watching tv or reading the newspapers, etc.
For breakfast/lunch we decided to try the generic cafe and here, too, there was a separate entrance for Diamonds with a dedicated host to guarantee no wait, and a separate room for dining.
Meanwhile, every day a casino floor clerk would come to find me, "Linda? Here is a voucher for the two of you to visit the buffet for dinner" It was really nice to be treated so royally! So on the last night, when the casino floor clerk came over "Linda....." I basically waved him off nicely, hardly taking my eyes off my machine, "oh, thanks anyway but we're leaving in the morning so we won't be here to eat tomorrow" The gentleman replied, "I'm the Casino Host" That is when I realized he wasn't a generic casino worker. Basically what had happened was that since I was Platinum when I booked, and then turned Diamond before I got there, nobody had alerted him that I was there so he was falling all over himself apologizing for not having done anything for me!! I'm telling him not to worry about it, everything was perfect, but he's trying to figure out how he can make it up to me now that it's midnight and we're leaving in like 6 hours :P So he's offering to have some midnight snack delivered to my room?!?! No, thanks anyway but I won't be in my room LOL. So then he says, well at the very least I'm going to have a limo pick you up and bring you to the airport in the morning. Very very cool!!!
Mike's not into the frills but I totally loved being a Diamond in Reno!
Now, I get back home and my first visit to AC as a Diamond occurs in December when I went down with Jean. The whole car ride down I'm telling her about all the Diamond perks and how great it is being a diamond and how much fun we're going to have getting the "treatment"...... wow, was I sadly mistaken!
Apparently there isn't much $$$ in Reno where being a Diamond means you are big fish in a small bowl....in AC everyone and their mother is a diamond!! There are no line passes because the lines for Diamond Players are longer than any other. In fact, when I went to check in at the hotel, there was NOBODY on the "regular patron" line, but 8 people in front of me on the Diamond Line!! Where's the benefit there??
So I said to Jean, well we'll at least get to visit the Diamond Lounge - wait til you see how cool this place is. NOT! The Diamond Lounge here is the size of a school cafeteria and yes there is more food choices than just the snacky-snacks in Reno, it is a huge cavernous space with regular dining tables like a restaurant, loud, lots of wait staff, hustle/bustle, bright, takes a while to get a drink, that sort of thing. Hmmmmm....well at least the food was free and the tables by the front windows had a very nice view overlooking the boardwalk and ocean. But not quite the elite status I experienced in Reno.
Oh, well, apparently in Atlantic City you're nobody until you carry Seven Stars status....I'll be glad to visit Reno again in a couple of weeks!
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