| Casino Comps: Facts & Findings |
With at least one Adult Webmaster show per year in Vegas (Internext in January) wouldnt you like to have your room comped for your stay? How would you like to stay in a luxurious suite literally on the house? Having to shell out $100+ per night isnt sensible when you can get it paid for you for pennies on the dollar. Im not saying you can get this for free, because you *will* have to gamble to earn these comps, and gambling isnt free. In fact, unless one is a professional gambler (and I shudder to think how stressful a profession this could be), it is far from free. So if you dont like gambling and dont want to gamble then you best hit the back button now because this article isnt for you. If you do enjoy gambling recreationally or think you might like it, then Im going to give you the keys to getting the house to throw some very nice comps your way.
Disclaimer: By the way, please note that I said "recreationally" -- gambling is not something one should do with money he/she doesnt have. Use only discretionary dollars for gambling! Use money you would take to go out to the movies or to a nice dinner on, do not use rent, mortgage or other important money. That would not be discretionary if you took food off the table just to hit the casino, so before ever putting even one nickel into a machine, be sure that nickel is one you can afford to lose.
My wife and I like to visit Nevada (Reno, Tahoe or Vegas) about 4-6 times per year. We have done this for the last 5 years with varying levels of success (and failure). We arent high rollers and our maximum bankroll is usually less than $2000 for an entire 3-4 day trip. As Ive written before in prior articles we really only play two types of games: craps and video keno. We can parlay this $2000 bankroll into $500 or more worth of comps for a single visit, and yet still leave the gambling mecca with an average loss of about 15% of our bankroll.
You heard me right, on average we will take $2000, lose $300, and earn $500 in comps. This is a net average gain of $200 for each of our visits. Is this really possible? Yes! So how do we do it?
Well first of all, we dont always only lose $300, that is an *average* number. We might lose $1500 on any given trip or maybe all $2000. The next trip however we might come home with $2500 or $3000 (thus we won $500-$1000). Im saying that the *average* that weve calculated over the many trips that weve taken is a loss of about 15% of our overall bankroll.
Most of the time we are losers as far as the bottom line gambling goes (like I said above, we lose 15% of our bankroll on average), I want to be clear about that, as anybody who *honestly* writes articles on gambling will tell you (and many of the gambling books Ive read, "honesty" seems to be something that many of them seem to forget is important, or they have just a lot better skill than we do), but there are times/trips we do come away "ahead" from a gambling perspective. The odds say you will lose and in fact no matter how great or wise a player you are, statistically and factually over time you *will* lose.
There is good news for players, though.
What weve come to learn from our last consistent 5 years of casino visiting and gambling is that you can lose at the actual gambling and yet still come away a winner through the comps that casinos offer players. You can visit these casinos for trips very inexpensively compared to other types of vacations, if you go with a plan and if you take advantage of the comps structure these casinos have in place.
So, this article is about how to get those casino comps and more specifically about how casinos calculate the comps they give players -- and how you can be a part of it without needing to be a high roller. Thats right, we dont play $100 per hand blackjack, but we do play quarter to dollar video keno and the $5-10 minimum wager craps tables.
Step 1. Get a player tracking card before you do *any* gambling.
Thats right, dont stick even a nickel into a machine without first having a player tracking card inserted first. Anywhere you intend to even put one nickel in a machine, make sure that you first have a player tracking card and it is inserted into the machine. What if the casino doesnt have a player tracking card? Then go gamble somewhere that does. Almost every casino has some sort of player tracking card system and those who dont will be forced to do so sooner or later.
You can usually obtain a player tracking card from a special booth or visitor information center inside the casino. Ask any host or employee at the casino where to get your "player tracking card" and they will show you the way.
Step 2. *Ask* for information when getting the player tracking card about how they determine comps. Usually there will be some sort of book or general guideline, but weve learned that once you gamble a certain amount of time and dollars then you will get someone (a personalized casino host) to give you the inside scoop on how it all works.
Recently we learned that at one particular casino in Reno that we visit that they calculate your comps as 25% of the losses they calculate you should have lost. In other words if they figure through their algorithm that you have lost $1000, then they will give you $250 in comps. So in my example when we earn $500 in comps with this particular casino in their eyes we have lost $2000 during that trip.
But remember: you dont have to actually lose this amount of money!
Are you confused? Dont be. The casinos algorithm is based on coins cycled through, not on what you actually won or lost in a single machine or in all the machines that you have played. So the more you play, the more they figure in their algorithm that you lose -- even if you arent actually losing.
On a quarter machine with maximum coins bet (we always bet maximum coins) weve worked this out to be about $40-50 per hour (casinos player base loss figures, not actual player loss figures) when we both are playing, or $20-25 per hour per person. Thus the casino is comping about $5 per hour per person (25%) on a max coins in quarter playing video keno person. Its all relative so if you are playing $1 machines instead of quarters just multiply the numbers out. Therefore if you spend 50 hours over 4 days (12.5 hours per day) gambling and you play primarily quarters (maximum coins bet), youll generate roughly $250 in comps per person. Since my wife and I both play, this is how we generate our $500 in comps stated earlier in this article.
Now if you figure that hourly amount out then that sounds like we are losing $20,000 per trip ($40 per hour times 50 hours). Ouch! No, no, no I said we were not big spenders, and were not ;)
We are actually cycling through something like $20,000 per trip in quarters, yes, but no way are we actually losing that much. The casino knows we arent either. According to my calculations, they must figure the lost in actual coin cycling is about 5-10% of whatever this cycle number is. So in reality their algorithm is that weve lost about $1500-2000 (which is our starting bankroll, what do you know!).
Remember that players are winning from time to time, its not all put money in and never win anything back or nobody would ever gamble at all. As stated before, we may in fact have lost this $1500-2000 amount, but rarely would we. Sometimes well lose $1000-1500, more often well lose $500 - $1000 and frequently well lose $250-$500 of our starting bankroll. Sometimes well also break even, but its somewhat rare and even rarer when at the end of the 3-4 day trip we actually leave with more than our starting bankroll (meaning, we actually left "ahead" as winners).
Thats why they call this gambling.
The one constant in all the numbers Ive thrown at you here is that we will get $500 in comps, regardless of how much we actually win or lose as long as we spend the time cycling through the coins. Its the process of cycling through the coins that generates the comps, *not* how much you win or lose.
So before you fall for the myth that casinos only comp those who win a lot of money or wager a lot of money, thats not true. Sure, they want whales (high rollers) but they also love steady eddies. Folks who put through a whole of coins over a compressed period of time. They dont really care how much you win or lose, as much as they care how long you are playing and what games you are playing (so they know when to invite you back for special contests and promotions).
They know that statistically the longer you play, no matter what your average bet is, the more you will lose statistically and this is how they make their money. But it seems like a paradox because as I explained in the beginning they actually reward those who play more with more $$$ in comps.
So how can they comp someone theoretically more dollars than they *actually* take in?
Well naturally they dont because:
1) they dont have to comp everybody (not every player tracks their play) and
2) not everybody uses all the comp dollars that they have earned (wasted comps)
*3) some players play games with a higher casino edge
*#3 is very important and something that every seasoned gambler already knows. If you reduce the casino edge by playing games where you have the best odds, you will actually decrease your actual dollar loss and yet maintain your same level of comp dollars. Casinos do adjust their comp algorithm based upon what games you play, but as you develop a long-standing relationship with a casino and learn how their tracking works, you will figure out generally what those numbers are. We had one casino sit us down in front of a computer and show us the numbers they figured out we had lost for us. Since we always track what we actually spend, our starting bankroll, and how much time we spend actually gambling I was able to calculate the numbers Ive shared in this article.
So what does this all mean?
If you visit 20 different casinos over your time in Vegas sight seeing youll dilute this factor and the amount of comps you will receive will be less than if you spend all this time concentrated at one casino. Casinos love tourists because they scatter their money around, throwing in $20 here and $20 there. Maybe they visit the gift shop and drop some money there or catch a show. Casual gamblers can be a big profit for casinos. We believed for some time that it was best to hit many different casinos. Now were more of the mindset to focus on a select few casinos for our playing and consequently our comps time. Build up a player history there so you can get things such as guaranteed room availability (yes, it exists), free limo rides to and from the airport, free suite upgrades (stay where the high rollers stay without paying for or being a high roller), express/VIP lines, special concert tickets and seating and much more!
Now obviously you cant spend 50 hours over 4 days in the casino gambling during Internext (youd be missing out on the business) so what you really need to do is plan 1-2 other trips *besides* Internext to Vegas over the course of a year so that your trip to Internext is completely paid for by comps. On these trips youll spend your 50 hours over 4 days in the casino gambling. Again, if you have no desire or inclination to gamble then this would be a waste of time, but if you enjoy gambling and have the discretionary dollars you can take 3 trips a year to Vegas and have one on the house in luxury each year ;)
My advice is that if you are just a passing tourist not to spend many dollars gambling, because you will for all intents and purposes be throwing it down a rathole. There is such a thing as blind luck, but then that doesnt have much relevance in this practical article. However, if you do want to gamble, then why not gamble with a purpose to earn comps for future trips?
And by all means keep track of your gambling! Know how much you start with, how much you win and how much you lost in any given session. Take breaks so that you can be fresh for each gambling session. Ive found that my Palm Pilot comes in handy for recording information like this. Its compact and allows for notes about sessions.
Keep in mind that these are numbers Ive calculated based upon our numerous casino visits over the last 5 years and that your actual comp dollars will depend on the following factors:
1) type of game you play
2) amount of time you play,
3) how much money (coin denomination) you play
4) number of coins played (always play max) or in the case of table games like craps the average bet and time spent at the table
On your next trip to Nevada, or any other gambling mecca, may the comps be with you :)
TDavids achievements over the years on the web include: writing and contributing over 100 different articles to various online publications, a print magazine columnist, custom programming for clients spanning the globe, owning and operating numerous websites like TdScripts and has hosted a weekly live radio show on Fridays from 2-4pm PT focusing on the technical side of webmastering since May 2000 at ScriptSchool. |
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| Article Details |
| Author: TDavid |
| Date Posted: March 16th, 2004 |
| Topic: |
| Reader Rating: 0.0 / 5 |
| Comments Posted: 0 (see below) |
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