Cosmopolitan Sets Date for Move to MGM Rewards

By Scott Roeben, on May 01 2024
3 min read 2 comments
Las Vegas

This has been in the works since mid-2022, when MGM Resorts took over operations of Cosmopolitan, but the resort’s Identity players club will become MGM Rewards starting July 30, 2024.

A number of dates for conversion to MGM Resorts’ loyalty club have been floated in the past, but this is official-official, finally answering the question, “When does Cosmopolitan become part of MGM Rewards?”

The announcement is welcome news for some, dreaded news for others, which makes it a lot more interesting than your typical loyalty club roll-out.

The “King of the Jungle” doesn’t live in jungles, for the record. Once again, our mansplaining has kept you from being humiliated on a game show down the road.

Naturally, we broke the news about the MGM Rewards launch at Cosmo.

The scoop was immediately confirmed by an alert Twitter follower, who shared an invite to staff to take part in a May 1 event celebrating the MGM Rewards integration.

Employees having to suffer through a tedious pep rally will get to enjoy dessert from Braud’s Funnel Cake Cafe, a thing we were not aware exists until we saw that sign.

Anyway, MGM Rewards is the cheese that binds all the MGM Resorts in Las Vegas and beyond.

Cosmopolitan is the newest member of the MGM Resorts family. MGM bought the operations of Cosmo for $1.6 billion in May 2022. Just the operations. MGM Resorts doesn’t really own casinos anymore. They operate casinos and pay rent to the owners of the buildings and land, typically REITs (real estate investment trusts). We realize that “s” in REITs is superfluous, but REIT doesn’t sound plural.

It’s like when people say “FAQs.” “FAQ” stands for “frequently asked questions.” Adding an “s” makes it “questionses.” We can’t fix everything in the world, but we’re doing our best. And don’t get us started on “ATM machines” and “PIN numbers.”

As mentioned, MGM Resorts pushed back the launch date of MGM Rewards at Cosmo several times. The chatter is the delays were related to the hack of MGM Resorts in 2023.

The hack cost MGM Resorts $100 million and played havoc with its computer systems and databases.

We trust MGM Resorts felt it was important to do the switch right, rather than risking the wrath of its valued customers who were already apprehensive the company would ruin Cosmopolitan.

Many visitors still have that apprehension, but there have been no major catastrophes at Cosmo to-date, other than a mass exodus of many longtime staff (sorry, “CoStars”) and executives when MGM Resorts took over.

While MGM Resorts is a reliable operator, it’s not considered a magical operator, and Cosmo has always been perceived as a bit magical. Cosmopolitan struggled for its first few years, but when it hit its stride, it became the go-to resort for the cool crowd, despite the fact “cool” is probably not a word people still use. The fire crowd that slaps its drip? You know what we mean. Zooly. Cosmo was the epitome of zooly, and still is, really.

What will change when Cosmo’s Identity loyalty club becomes MGM Rewards? We have no idea! That would involve research, which takes effort, and we are just here for the scoop.

That said, the most obvious change will be that Identity Points can currently only be redeemed at Cosmo, and when MGM Rewards kicks in, Cosmo will be integrated into the MGM Resorts family of resorts, and MGM Rewards Points can be redeemed at any MGM Resorts casino. That’s more than 20 casinos in eight states. Why anyone would go anywhere other than Las Vegas, who knows, but those are the facts we were able to glean during our three minutes of intense investigation into the matter.

We’re sure the transition from Identity to MGM Rewards will go smoothly, and guests will definitely benefit from the switch and nobody will complain about anything. Look, we tried typing that with a straight face. Fail.

Yes, it’s probably going to be a shitshow, mostly because change is always met with a certain amount of kvetching, especially in the era of social media where everyone treats Twitter and other platforms like ballpark urinal troughs.

There could be clarification about the transition in the official announcement, but at the moment, details are scant. An FAQ on the Cosmo site answers the transition question with, “Members can confidently continue to play and earn with Identity and know their earnings will be recognized when determining their new MGM Rewards Tier Status.”

That’s about as clear as the windshield of a car driving through a plague of locusts.

Here’s a little more information from the FAQ: “Identity members will keep their Identity Point balance when MGM Rewards becomes the loyalty program for The Cosmopolitan. Your point balance as of the transition date will automatically transfer to your new, or existing, MGM Rewards account as follows: Identity Points earned from slot play will be migrated to MGM Rewards Slot Dollars, which can be converted to Freeplay. Identity Points earned from non-gaming will be converted to MGM Rewards Points, which can be redeemed for hotel stays and spend, dining, entertainment and more.”

We’re sure they have all this figured out, so no worries!

Here’s a perfunctory link to all the MGM Rewards information you could ever want.

Gamble on and we’ll update this story when more details are available.