MGM properties are confiscating your poker comps earned more than a year ago
If you earn "poker comps" at MGM properties (any property with an MLife card), you might be losing some of them.
They have quietly made a decision to "expire" all poker comps earned more than a year before the current date. This occurs every day now.
Previously, poker comps did NOT expire. This is a new policy, which started sometime in July.
This does not affect comps earned in places other than poker, which have their own separate expiration system.
Poker comps will now disappear if they were earned a year before the current date and not used. If you use comps, it draws from the "oldest" (existing) comps first. I'll give some examples:
Example #1
March 8. 2015: You earned $30 in poker comps (starting from zero)
No other activity.
Under the OLD system, you would still have that $30.
Under the CURRENT system, that $30 would be gone, as you earned it more than a year ago.
Example #2
July 13, 2013: You earned $20 in poker comps (you had zero before this)
October 1, 2014: You earned $10 in poker comps
March 8. 2015: You earned $30 in poker comps
August 9, 2015: You USED $34 in poker comps, did not earn any
October 22, 2015: You earned $20 in poker comps
Under the OLD system, you would have earned $80 in comps and spent $34, leaving you with $46.
Under the CURRENT system, you will also lose the remainder of the March 8, 2015 comps which you didn't use, because today is August 11, 2016 (more than a year later). Since you only spent $34 of the $60 worth of comps you earned more than a year ago, you lose the other $26! So now you will only have the $20 you earned on October 22, 2015, and you will lose those on October 22, 2016 if you don't spend them by then.
Example #3
September 8, 2015: You earned $15 in poker comps.
No other activity.
You still have the $15 under the current system, but will lose that $15 if you don't spend it by September 8, 2016.
Example #4
July 13, 2013: You earned $40 in poker comps (you had zero before this)
August 1, 2013: You earned $15 in poker comps
January 9, 2014: You earned $30 in poker comps
April 7, 2014: You earned $25 in poker comps
October 1, 2014: You earned $20 in poker comps
December 4, 2014: You earned $25 in poker comps
March 8. 2015: You earned $30 in poker comps
April 11, 2015: You earned $35 in poker comps
December 9, 2015: You earned $5 in poker comps
February 10, 2016: You earned $10 in poker comps
June 3, 2016: You earned $20 in poker comps
You have never spent any.
Because you have been fairly active, playing every few months, it might (erroneously) seem things should be fine. Under the old system, you would have all $245 you earned above.
HOWEVER, under the new system, ALL comps earned more than a year ago -- everything but the last $35 -- would be gone. So your comp balance would only be $35.
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This differs from normal casino comp systems, where ANY activity within the specified time period keeps ALL comps from expiring!
Therefore, you should find out when you earned all comps (go to the poker room manager for this), and then make SURE to spend every dollar you have for any comps expiring soon.
So let's say I find I have $150 in comps left, but I've only earned $15 of those since October 1, 2015. If this is my last trip to Vegas before October 1, I am DEFINITELY spending that $135 which will otherwise expire after October 1.
Again, when spending MGM poker comps, it will draw from the oldest ones first automatically.
Still, this is a really crappy system, and it's very difficult for all but regulars to avoid losing comps. Even worse, nobody was warned about this.