Pokies and Slot Machine Information

Are pokies venues loyalty programs worthwhile?

January 17, 2006 on 1:23 pm | In Slot machine overviews |

Most casinos and a good proportion of the larger venues operate player loyalty programs. You are issued a magnetic striped card which you insert into the pokies when you play.

The idea is to award ‘bonus points’ based on the amount of money you put into each machine. Simply insert the card, and play the machine as normal. Every now and then the machine will beep to let you know your points are accumulating nicely.

You’ll often find cards left in machines by players who have forgotten to remove them. You’ll also see people who attach the cards to themselves via a long chain or piece of string. A good way not to forget to remove the card!

Once you have amassed sufficient points, you can usually redeem them for something of (limited?) value such as venue parking credit or trinkets like bath robes, toasters, kettles etc. It can take a long time to amass points sufficient to redeem something useful.

A tip: most pokies will show on their player loyalty card readout the current number of points you have accrued. If you watch carefully, you will be able to determine the rate at which points are being issued - how many points you are getting per dollar of spending. Then, have a look at the rewards centre and see how many points it takes to get something of value. You can then work out how much spending it takes to redeem something. That toaster you can buy in a shop for $30 might well cost hundreds or thousands of slot machine spending to redeem.

So are these programs worthwhile? Well, you are certainly no worse off for using them. You’re still going to lose the same amount of money playing the pokies - at least this way you might have something to show for it.