The Goal
First, a disclaimer. We are not affiliated with MGM. We’re just customers. The rules for loyalty programs change; ALWAYS find out what they are before attempting anything like this.
Here’s our story. We wanted to go from MGM Sapphire Tier to Pearl Tier on a recent trip to Las Vegas. The hurdle was that we only had a $1,000 bankroll. The way we got around this was using something called the MGM Daily Tier Accelerator. This would still require pushing all of our bankroll through the slots five times, but I’m a gambler—a new gambler—but still a gambler.
Here’s why and how we did it.
Is It Worth It?
With loyalty comes benefits.
Casino loyalty programs are the same as those for an airline or hotel chain, except in Vegas it also comes with freeplay (free credits to gamble with). Since we travel to Las Vegas every month, the savings amount to about $28,000 a year.
If you rarely gamble or visit Las Vegas, this probably isn’t for you. You should also factor in what’s important. We enjoy gambling, so removing the expense of a hotel room, resort fees, and food and drink expenses was valuable to us.
Bankroll Needed
PLEASE NOTE: Gambling to move up a loyalty tier in a day is for gamblers with at least a $1,000 bankroll. Weigh the benefits before attempting.
Your bankroll is how much money you’ve set aside to gamble with. This has to be money that you wouldn’t miss if you burned it.
If you’re starting with zero tier credits, you’ll be attempting to gamble $20K. That’s a lot. The better strategy would be to gamble normally and see if you want to continue with MGM or switch to another loyalty program.
If you do attempt to start from zero with MGM, break it up over 3-4 days. Over our first few trips to Las Vegas, we accumulated about 13,000 tier credits. At MGM, one dollar played on a slot equals one tier credit, but one dollar spent at certain restaurants and stores can be worth four credits. The rewards desk has all of this information. There are a LOT of rules to follow and they change constantly, so be sure you know what they are before you make your attempt.
NOTE: At MGM, the tier accelerator benefit amount counts towards your next milestone. If you gamble $5K in a day, then get the additional 1,250 credits, you only need to gamble another $3,750 to hit the next day’s 5K milestone.
Day 1: $5K
Day 2: $3,750
Day 3: $3,750
Day 4: $3,750
This would get you to 20K credits. If you have a larger bankroll ($2K), you can also go for the 10K milestone on Day 1 and 5K on Day 2, which means you can reach Pearl in 1-1/2 days. We reached the 10K milestone once, but honestly I wouldn’t recommend it for new gamblers.
Vegas Regulars
If you visit Vegas multiple times a year, it’s possible to move up the first two tiers in two visits. We know this is possible because we’ve done it.
We gradually built up to 13K MGM tier credits over five visits. We choose MGM simply because a) they acquired the Cosmopolitan (one of our favorite hotels), and b) we liked their properties more in general.
Do we ever gamble at other casinos? Yes. We also achieve Platinum Tier status at Caesars.
MGM Daily Tier Accelerators
At the time I’m writing this (Nov. 2024), the MGM tier accelerators have these milestones and benefits:
- 5K tier credits in a 24-hour period (midnight until 11:59pm) gets you a 1,250 tier credit bonus
- 10K = an additional 5K
- 20K = 20K bonus
- 40K = 60K bonus
For complete information, visit the MGM Rewards website.
Pearl in 17 hours
This may come as a surprise, but we made the Pearl by gambling normally. Our lucky break was that we won our first handpay (a jackpot over $1,200). This more than doubled our bankroll, so it was much easier to meet the 5K milestone. If you watch our videos, you can actually watch how our betting strategy has evolved over the past eight months.
At the time we went from Sapphire to Pearl, we were still betting low, sometimes the minimum amount for a slot. Our default bet now (mid-December, 2024) is $3-$6, depending on the slot. In high limits, our bets can be as large as $30-$50 per spin.
MGM has very sophisticated win/loss tracking tools. These are available to anyone that registers with their loyalty program. This allowed me to track in real-time how much I needed to gamble in order to hit the milestone. Their most recent update to their tools allows us to track exactly how much we gambled per session, not just by day.
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.
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 cups of coffee that day.
Stop if you’re losing: We took many, many breaks if I hit a dry spell. We’d grab a slice of pizza, visit the pool, or even just go for a walk. If you’re burning through your bankroll in the first hour, stop and reassess which games you’re playing and your bet amounts.