MGM Fountain Club Puts Non-Gamblers on a Host List

MGM Resorts is inviting high-spending hotel guests who skip the casino into a private host list called Fountain Club. The club is invitation only, it requires an MGM Rewards account, and the company has declined to say how many gold cards it has issued.

Selected guests were contacted in late 2025 and received membership cards in gold-trimmed gift boxes. MGM confirmed the program on January 13, 2026, while it was still in a soft launch, and said more invitations could go out during the year.

The Gold Box Landed Before the Announcement

By New Year’s Day 2026 the metal card was already circulating among Strip guests, weeks before MGM spoke on the record. A company spokesperson described the audience as “high-value, nongaming guests.” MGM would not give an enrollment figure then, and it has not published one since.

The spokesperson said the early response had been “incredibly positive.” Joey Wattoo, chief marketing officer for MGM, tied the club to a visitor mix the company has watched for years, from luxury rooms and dining to shows and big events such as Formula One and the Super Bowl. MGM oversees nine casinos and four nongaming hotels on the Strip.

THE ROLL OUT

1. Late 2025: Selected guests are contacted and receive Fountain Club cards in gold-trimmed gift boxes.
2. January 13, 2026: MGM confirms the soft launch and says more invitations may go out during 2026.
3. Mid-September 2026: The Fountain Club page remains live on the MGM Rewards site, with a dedicated team phone line and inbox.

The delay between the boxes and the public confirmation was the point of a host list. MGM built the roster from folio data it already had, then told the people on it.

What Fountain Club Members Can Book

On its Rewards site, MGM still pitches invited members an exclusive suite of elevated privileges across its Las Vegas resorts, including private dining, hidden cocktail lounges and behind-the-scenes access at entertainment venues. Members book through the Fountain Club team at 866.774.7117 or fountainclub@mgmresorts.com.

You cannot apply. You must be at least 21 and already in MGM Rewards. Membership, including any renewal, is subject to separate Fountain Club rules plus the main Rewards rules. MGM has not posted a public spend floor.

THE PUBLISHED PERKS

• The host desk: Personalized concierge service from the Fountain Club Team.
• The calendar: Invitations to exclusive events and one-off experiences.
• The restaurants: Priority reservations at top MGM Resorts restaurants.
• The tickets: Presale tickets and premium seating for select events.
• The rooms: Access to book exclusive rooms and luxury suites.
• The airport: Complimentary airport transportation with a hotel reservation.
• The arrival: VIP arrival and check-in, plus priority bookings at spas, salons and pools.

Aggregator write-ups turned that airport car into free plane tickets. The company page does not say that. The useful piece is a named team that can hold a suite and a restaurant table when those are the assets that actually sell out.

MGM Now Runs Two Doors Into the Same Suites

MGM Rewards already has a published ladder: Sapphire up to 19,999 tier credits, Pearl at 20,000, Gold at 75,000 and Platinum at 200,000. NOIR remains invite only, the top Rewards tier, with featured perks that include up to $1,200 in air travel credit, a $500 tier celebration credit and complimentary transportation for qualifying members.

Fountain Club is not a sixth rung on that ladder. It is a side list. A member can hold Gold or Platinum on credits and still need a separate invitation to get the Fountain Club desk. NOIR’s automatic room upgrade, even at the top of Rewards, is written as an enhanced room in the same type booked and it excludes suites. Fountain Club’s published benefit is the right to book exclusive rooms and luxury suites.

TWO INVITE PATHS, ONE ROOM INVENTORY

That overlap is the second-order move. Table play still has NOIR. Folio spend now has a named concierge, a phone number and a claim on the rooms NOIR does not auto-upgrade into. Both lists draw from the same keys, the same restaurants and the same presale holds.

The development of the Fountain Club reflects a long-standing trend we’ve seen among Las Vegas visitors who are increasingly drawn to nongaming experiences from luxury accommodations and dining to entertainment and events.

Joey Wattoo, Chief Marketing Officer, MGM Resorts

Non-Gaming Already Supplies 76% of Strip Sales

MGM did not need a new club to learn where the money is. In calendar 2025, the company’s own Las Vegas Strip segment table showed casino revenue of $2.01 billion against $8.44 billion in total Strip resort sales. Rooms brought in $2.88 billion, food and beverage $2.26 billion, and entertainment, retail and other $1.29 billion. Non-gaming was $6.43 billion, or 76% of the segment. The casino line was 24%.

The Strip as a whole looks the same. In the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s Abstract for fiscal 2025, the year ended June 30, 2025, gaming was 26.1% of Strip revenue across 51 licensees. Rooms were the largest line at 33.5%. It was the 27th straight year that gaming made up less than half of Strip sales.

WHERE THE STRIP BILL LANDS

Those are different ledgers and different year-ends, and they tell the same story. A host program aimed at people who buy suites, tasting menus and presales is aimed at the larger pile of cash.

The 2026 hotel tape even gives MGM a reason to lock those guests in. For the quarter ended June 30, 2026, MGM’s Strip occupancy held at 93% while average daily rate slipped to $242 from $252 a year earlier, and RevPAR fell to $224 from $235. Casino revenue in that quarter rose. The club is still a hotel tool: when room rates soften, the guests who spend on food, shows and suites are the ones worth a dedicated desk.

Suite Keys Are the Prize Both Lists Want

The obvious knock on Fountain Club is that a guest who already drops a fortune on a penthouse is not waiting in the regular line. High spenders have long been walked to better rooms. A second list only changes the stay if it can put that guest ahead of other elites when the last corner suite, the last Prime table, or the last F1 presale is on the board.

That is the labor MGM is buying. Technology has thinned out human hosts for anyone who is not a rated player. Fountain Club puts a person back on the account, then lets that person spend company inventory on a guest whose value never shows up in table drop. Gold and Platinum members still get waived resort fees, celebration credits and, at Platinum, air travel credit. They do not get this desk.

WHAT WE KNOW

• The door: Invitation only, 21 or older, and already an MGM Rewards member.
• The perks: Host, suites, restaurants, tickets, airport car with a stay, VIP arrival.
• The books: Non-gaming is 76% of MGM’s 2025 Strip sales and 73.9% of the wider Strip in FY 2025.

WHAT IS UNCONFIRMED

• The roster: MGM has not said how many members it invited or how many it added after January 2026.
• The floor: No published dollar threshold, stay count or folio test.
• The gift: Guest chatter about sharing status with a friend has not been written into the public rules.

Mid-tier Rewards members are the ones who feel the queue. They earn credits on rooms and meals, they are not NOIR, and they now share restaurant holds and suite inventory with a club that does not have to show a rating at the cage.

The Other Fountain Club Sits on the F1 Track

Search the name in September 2026 and the first hits are often the wrong product. Bellagio Fountain Club is MGM’s trackside hospitality build for the Formula 1 Heineken Las Vegas Grand Prix, a temporary venue with chefs, a view of the fountains and a race weekend price. MGM’s own account was still selling that experience in early September 2026.

Fountain Club by MGM is a year-round Rewards side list. The shared name is not an accident of branding so much as an accident of the Bellagio fountains, and it will keep mixing a loyalty desk with a grandstand. One is a ticket. The other is a relationship MGM wants on the folio every weekend, not only when the cars are in town.

Wynn, Venetian and Caesars Still Guard the Pit

Rival programs already score hotel and restaurant spend. Venetian Rewards publishes two points per dollar on hotel dining, plus entertainment, retail and spa, then keeps Chairman as an invite tier aimed at the resort’s highest-value casino guests. Wynn Rewards still runs Black at 70,000 tier credits and holds its villas for valued guests on invitation. Caesars is building Olympus for 2027 as an invite tier on top of a 300,000-credit bar.

Those lists still treat the casino as the front door to the most private rooms. MGM’s move is to print a second door with the non-gaming guests named in the pitch. The company already earns three dollars off the floor for every dollar in the cage on the Strip. Fountain Club is how it assigns a host to the larger share.

The page is still up. The phone number still rings. MGM still will not say how many gold cards it printed, or what folio it takes to get the next one.