Cosmo Pushes Back Identity Switch to MGM Rewards, Cyber Attackwise

By Scott Roeben, on December 19 2023
2 min read 2 comments
Gambling Las Vegas

Cosmopolitan was supposed to switch its loyalty club from Identity to MGM Rewards on Feb. 1, 2024. Now, not so much.

Cosmo, which hates when people call it that, sent a notice to Identity club members saying the launch of MGM Rewards will now happen “at a later date in 2024.”

Industry chatter is the delay is further fallout of the MGM Resorts hack that has caused turmoil at the company for several months. And it’s still not over.

If Cosmo could find a model who’s a little less judgmental, that’d be great.

Here’s the e-mail recently sent to members of the Identity loyalty club, “Extraordinary experiences, world-class offerings, unrivaled benefits—as an Identity Member, The Cosmopolitan gives you the best of everything we have to offer, and it will only get better with the debut of MGM Rewards. As we continue working to enhance and elevate this transition, we want to let you know that MGM Rewards at The Cosmopolitan will now launch at a later date in 2024.”

Translation: The key to not missing a target date (again) is to not have one.

The transition from Identity to MGM Rewards has been a moving target. Much of the resort’s systems have been integrated into MGM Resorts, but the loyalty club is a straggler.

The loyalty club change was arguably one of the more complicated aspects of the purchase of Cosmopolitan’s operations by MGM Resorts.

MGM bought the operations of Cosmo from Blackstone Group for $1.6 billion in May 2022.

That’s right, by the time the loyalty club changeover at Cosmo is complete, it may have taken two years.

Trust us, a slow transition is preferable to a chaotic one. If casino players lose their perks, they lose their minds. Slow and steady wins the race.

The MGM Resorts hack continues to be a source of headaches at the company, despite many of the guest-facing systems being fully restored. Behind-the-scenes, we’re still hearing about affects of the data breach that crippled the company.

Lots of internal I.T. folks and outside consultants have been working for months to restore the company’s various systems while taking steps to assure they won’t be compromised again. The company has said the hack is likely to be a $100 million hit to its bottom line. We suspect it’s much more.

When we hear more about when MGM Rewards will be rolled out at Cosmopolitan, you know we’ll keep you in the loop so you can impress your drinking buddies with your expansive insider knowledge of Las Vegas. We know how you are.