Ellis Island Rolls Out Revamped Loyalty Club Program
A beloved off-Strip casino, Ellis Island Casino & Hotel, has unveiled its revamped Passport loyalty club.
It’s a mixed bag for players, but if it’s one thing casino customers love, it’s change!
Let’s do a shallow dive into what’s new at Ellis Island and take a look at some of the perks players get for their loyalty and hard-earned cash.
You can just skim down the page to see the tier breakout and benefits, but we prefer to slow play this information, like tantric blogging.
So, let’s see what’s new in the realm of tier points and base points. Ellis Island regulars should gird their loins at this juncture.
Yes, there’s been a significant change for video poker players. Previously, $1 of “dollar-in” got you one point or tier credit. Now, it’s $2. In English: It’s twice as difficult to get a base point or tier credit.
For electronic table games, it takes $5 to get a tier credit or point. This is a big red arrow pointing to the fact you should probably try your hand at electronic table games. Just saying.
That’s pretty much all the bad news, especially if you’re in an upper tier.
Reminder: Casinos make the most money from people who gamble the most. They reward those players with the most perks. It’s intuitive, but most of the grumbling Ellis Island is likely to hear will come from folks who have had perks taken away. They aren’t really being taken away, though. (Ellis Island is giving players more perks than ever before.) They’re being redistributed.
Example? Multipliers.
“Multipliers” are promotions that increase the value of your normal play so you accumulate rewards and comps faster than usual for the same amount of gambling.
In the past, “6x” multipliers at Ellis Island were given to everyone equally, after earning 500 points in a session. Which sounds great, but it actually “penalizes” people who gamble more. Yes, we put that word in quotation marks because in a perfect world casinos would be non-profits and we’d all get lots of freebies all the time for not playing anything like when the mob ran things blah blah freaking blah.
Anyway, Ellis Island now skews its multipliers to ensure everybody gets them, but their best players get more of them. You know, top heavy, like our favorite cocktail server at Ellis Island. Don’t make this any more awkward than it needs to be.
Such multipliers at other casinos are only given on certain days, but multipliers are done at Ellis Island all the time, as far as we know. Also, there’s no 500 credit requirement for the multipliers to kick in now.
Approved.
Here, then, is the perfunctory tier benefits chart which shows what various tiers get and please don’t become an Inner Circle because those VIP parking spaces are limited and we hate walking an additional 20 feet sometimes.
Ellis Island is a dinky little casino, so it doesn’t have a lot of the goodies a bigass Strip resort can offer, but they make the most of what little they have.
Ellis Island is in the middle of an expansion and renovation. The expansion opened a few months ago. We haven’t done a story about it because we aren’t sure how to feel about it yet.
Here’s a quick walkthrough, though.
We can’t play in the expanded casino, although, it looks very nice. Which means we’re pretty much relegated to the old BBQ restaurant space, with its distinctly funk dungeon vibe. Which, it’s worth noting, was the name of our band in high school.
The good news is Metro Pizza and Via Focaccia are back.
The next phase of the renovation is expected to open in February 2026, but expansion and renovation completion dates are fluid at Ellis Island.
In the next couple of weeks, the karaoke lounge will close as part of the renovation. Despite our best efforts, it will be moved to the Front Yard temporarily.
Overall, the tweaks to the Ellis Island players club seem reasonable and appropriate. We are an Inner Circle member, with more than $2.1 million dollar-in in 2025, so of course we’d think that.
Time-out to mansplain: “Dollar-in,” sometimes called “coin-in,” doesn’t mean you put that many dollars into the machines. It’s the sum, or volume, of your wagers. Money that’s “recycled” (won and played) is part of your “dollar-in.” You could put in $100 cash, but end up with $10,000 or more in “dollar-in,” depending upon how your luck’s going.
The update brings Ellis Island more in line with most other casinos in town. Due to our incessant Tweets about the place, it doesn’t really struggle for business, so the outlay of perks can be adjusted accordingly.
We are kidding. Although, we did Tweet about Ellis Island a lot in 2025. Until the expansion opened and we proceeded to lose tens of thousands of dollars without a handpay for several straight months on the same exact machines, which is pure coincidence, unless you’re a gambler, in which case it’s a definite conspiracy.
Anyway, we’d love to hear your thoughts about the refreshed loyalty club at Ellis Island.
We’ve already gotten some questions, like, “Does my tier status carry over from 2025 to 2026?” That’s a yes.
“Are they changing the rating formula for table games?” That’s a nope.
“Are you sure you can’t use your incredible influence to end karaoke at Ellis Island once and for all?” We aren’t done fighting the good fight yet.
See you at Ellis Island.
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