MGM Gold Tier, Year Two - Still Worth It?
In 2024, we were able to earn MGM Gold Tier status in 8 months.
In 2025, we did it in 4. Here’s how…
Disclaimer: We are not affiliated with MGM. We’re just customers. The views expressed are our own.
MGM Gold Tier, How We Got It
So how did we cut our time to MGM Gold in half? Simple. We used one of the least known and least used loyalty programs in Vegas.
BACKGROUND
Because we don’t pay for hotel rooms at MGM properties, almost all of our tier credits are earned through gambling. That’s where the MGM Daily Tier Accelerator comes in.
THE MGM DAILY TIER ACCELERATOR EXPLAINED
If you can afford to gamble $5K in a day, this is the program for you. The MGM Daily Tier Accelerator provides between 1,250 and 40,000 bonus tier credits. Details are available on the MGM Rewards website.
As of Aug, 2025, the accelerator tiers are…
- If you earn 5K tier credits in a day – Get 1,250 bonus tier credits
- For 10K, get 5,000 tier credits
- For 20K, get 20,000 tier credits
- For 40K, get 60,000 tier credits
Because we have a YouTube slot channel, SlotBears, gambling $5K in a day is the norm. Between January and April, we visited Vegas eight times (a total of 24 days) and received the bonus tier credits from the accelerator multiple times.
Attempting to hit a tier accelerator milestone is not for the faint of heart, but it is possible using a $1,000 bankroll. It’s also possible to hit the $10K milestone if you have $2K to gamble. We know this because we did it.
Obviously, this is not a program for everyone, nor should it be. If you don’t visit an MGM casino more than 3-4 times in a year, MGM fGold Tier isn’t something you’ll want to chase. If you visit Vegas once a month or more, we think it’s worth the effort.
What is MGM Gold Tier?
MGM Gold Tier is the third of five tiers in MGM’s loyalty program.
- Sapphire: $0 in tier credits (everyone starts here)
- Pearl: $20K in tier credits
- Gold: $75K in tier credits
- Platinum: $200K in tier credits
- Noir: Invitation only
BIG Benefits of MGM Gold Tier
For us, there are three big benefits: free hotel rooms, no resort fees, and a dedicated check-in line. Two save money and one saves time. While you don’t need MGM Gold Tier to get free rooms in Vegas, the room upgrades are well worth it.
NOTE: We are MGM loyalists, which means we ALWAYS stay and gamble at MGM properties in Las Vegas. The reasons we chose MGM are simple:
- the hotels are nicer and there are a lot of them to chose from
- the casinos aren’t cramped
- MGM’s online financial tools are the most sophisticated
IMPORTANT: To receive freeplay and the resort credit, you MUST book directly through MGM Resorts. If you book your room any other way, you get nothing.
Bankroll Growth = Shorter Time to Gold
We built our gambling bankroll from $2K to $8K in 2024, which was an exceptionally lucky year. With an $8K bankroll, we could make larger bets in the same time period.
As in 2024, we used the MGM Daily Tier Accelerator program, one of the most overlooked loyalty programs in Vegas.
2025 MGM Rewards Program Changes
In 2025, MGM’s loyalty program added “milestones”.
We’ll cover this in a separate article, but MGM is basically rewarding customers with additional perks if they reach 50K, 125K, and 200K tier credits.
This benefits both gamblers and MGM. Many people will stop gambling after reaching 75K tier credits which gets them Gold Tier benefits. The milestone gives them an added incentive to continue gambling/spending, since the gulf between Gold and Platinum is huge ($125K).
Existing Benefits (and how they apply)
No resort fee: The number one benefit for us is the waiving of resort fees. We’ve been offered free hotel rooms since our first stay in Vegas, but when combined with this perc, we saved about $30K in 2024.
Freeplay: In less than a year, our freeplay amount went from $150 to $375 then down to $250 (with no explanation and despite our avg. bet size tripling).
Gold Tier also gets us a 20% boost in what MGM calls “Slot Dollars”, which is basically just freeplay in addition to what is awarded when we book a hotel room.
Resort credit: We receive between $150 and $300 in resort credit for the first stay in a month. In other words, if you visit Las Vegas twice in the same month, you won’t get the freeplay and resort credit on the second trip. It varies by property; at higher-end resorts like Aria, the resort credit is lower. That seems counterintuitive, but it’s tied to demand. $150 in Las Vegas = 6 hamburgers.
$100 Celebration Credit (formerly “Annual Dinner”): This can be spent on just about anything at an MGM resort, and it’s realistic. $100 will buy you four hamburgers in Vegas.
Free parking: No benefit to us. We take taxis.
Free annual cruise: Not a benefit for us, but we understand why most people would appreciate this. It also gives some insight into how much revenue is generated by shipboard casinos.
The complete list of MGM Gold Tier benefits is LONG. ALWAYS check them before attempting to reach Gold Tier since they can change without notice.
Is Gold Tier for Frequent Gamblers?
Yes. If you only visit an MGM casino once a year, we don’t think it’s worth it.
If you make multiple trips however, the savings can be substantial. We saved approximately $24K on hotel rooms in 2024-2025.
Getting Gold Tier in 10 Minutes
If you have a large gambling bankroll, you could earn MGM Gold Tier or even Platinum Tier on your first day.
How large is a “large bankroll”? If you can comfortably make $250 spins on a slot machine, we mean you. We’ve actually seen this happen at the MGM Grand, so it’s not a fantasy.
Gold Tier requires 75,000 tier credits, so in theory you could earn MGM Gold Tier in 10 minutes or less ($75,000 = $250 spins for 300 spins).
So for most people, getting MGM Gold Tier is a multi-day or multi-trip effort. Because we have a slot channel and fly to Vegas 1-2 times a month, we qualify as “frequent gamblers”.
Pro Tips
The 24-hour timer begins at midnight. You can begin gambling at 12:01am. If you’re in the middle of a session at 11:55pm the day prior, cash out and pull your card from the machine.
The bonus tier credits you receive the following day (usually credited to your account at around 9AM), they count towards that day’s goal. For example, if you gamble $5K on day one, you only need to gamble $3,750 on day to get another accelerator. On a 3-day trip, it breaks down like this:
DAY 1: You $5K gambled
DAY 2: 1,250 bonus tier credits awarded, you gamble $3,750 which means you get another bonus the following day
DAY 3: You repeat what you did on Day Two. This means you gambled $12,750 but received tier credits for $16,500.
No stamina? Don’t do it: While playing slots isn’t physically demanding, the mental stress and endorphin rushes took their toll. By the time 11:59pm rolled around, I was exhausted. I’d downed 11 large cups of coffee that day, about 1-1/2 gallons.