A slot, or players club card gives gamers the chance to receive rewards for gambling at a particular casino or group of casinos. Applications can be submitted online or at the casino itself, where many have their own players club desks.
Determined by how long you've spent at the table, as well as the amount spent, players accrue points which can then be exchanged for free dining vouchers, special gifts, complimentary hotel stays or entry to slot tournaments.
Among the most popular is Harrah's Total Rewards Club, while other schemes include Station's Boarding Pass and the Caesars Palace Connection Card (for Bally's, Caesars, Flamingo, Grand Casinos and Paris brand casinos).
Players club cards automatically allocate perks for slot players, while pit bosses keep an eye on table players. If you've been playing for some time, feel free to ask the pit boss for a rating (to check whether a complimentary perk is coming your way).
The idea of a players card was first introduced in Atlantic City, where the slot players could sign up for a Slot card. In Las Vegas, the comps were originally only given to those who played at the tables until the casinos realized that they were making more money from the players at the slot machines. They figured that rewarding those players also would keep them coming back.
It's easy to sign up for a card, click here for easy steps. All you'll need to provide are your name, ID and mailing address. The ID is to assure management that you're of legal gambling age and your address is so they can send you great offers in the mail. Some Las Vegas casinos even let you sign up for the cards online. Here is a list of membership clubs from major casinos, as well as links to their websites, where available. Use the tips on this page to get good comps. Sign up for as many club cards as you can. Your next stay in Vegas might be free.
I've got a situation that is happening to my husband and I currently. Because of a bad tax preparer in the past we are being audited. Because we had W2G's winnings over $1200 the "IRS" has summons the casino the cardsbonus came from for our annual players club statements. The statement has 3 columns on it Dollars In, Dollars Out and Win/ Loss, the IRS is claiming that Dollars Out column is income and that we must add this to our adjusted gross income, in addition to the cardsbonus we have already claimed. The numbers are grossly inaccurate we have tried to explain that it is play rather than actual dollar winning amounts. The statement will show loses of hundreds of thousands of $'s, the dollar out column always being less than dollar in and will show a loss for the year. The "IRS" is trying to say that each of the spins on a slot machine is considered a win or loss.
We say a player can only lose the money they took to or obtained at
the casino regardless of what it might say on the players club
records. Aside from the inaccuracy of the players club card records
as an accounting record, the concept that each individual slot machine
spin is a win or loss defies the understanding of slot machine play
held by every player, as in an hour or so you can spin the slot
machine a 1000+ times. The millions of slot machine players every
day across the country do not report winnings based on players club
cards, but do so based only on Form W2G winnings. This is the
commonly understood tax obligation by players and stated by casino
employees to players. Is anyone else out there having the same issue
or know of anyone? please respond if so.
Saying that every slot spin is a gambling "session" worthy of being
added to your tax obligation is pushing it. I haven't heard that
before. But as to how the law goes, you are definitely supposed to
report all winning "sessions" not just those for which you receive a cardsbonus