Smarter Gambling Understanding Comps Video

6 Tips for Getting More Casino Comps (With Video)

Mohegan Sun types of comps
Written by Joshua

I’ve been collaborating with The Jackpot Gents (the team behind the American Casino Guide book) for most of this year, and we’ve done some videos based on content I’ve written for the site.

This time out, I hadn’t written the content first! So today, I can not only share our conversation on the topic of 6 Tips for Getting More Casino Comps, but I can also share with you the video, where we covered similar ground:

1. Use Your Players Card

Regular readers know this, but you can’t get comped if you don’t use your players card. Players cards will not impact your slot paybacks, but they do guarantee comps in the form of comp dollars earned as you play and offers to entice you to come back.

So it’s important to start with the obvious!

2. Play for 3-4 Hours

You sometimes might hear a host say this – you need to play for a few hours for the best opportunity to earn comps or get back-end comps. Why is this? Think of this example of two different players playing Roulette:

  1. Player A wagers $500 on black. Win or lose, the player will walk away.
  2. Player B makes 50 $10 wagers on black. At the end of those wagers, the player will walk away.

On the surface, both players are worth the same to the casino – $500 worth of bets, exposed to a house edge on Roulette of a bit more than 5% (presuming standard 00 American Roulette).

However, with Player A, it’s either a $500 win or loss for the casino. With Player B, there’s 50 chances to make some money, and the odds of it being either a $500 win or loss for the casino are practically zero. Think of flipping a coin 50 times and it landing on heads all 50 times – not very likely, is it?

A slot player can do 400-600 spins an hour. Four hours is 2,000 spins – that’s a lot of spins! And with each spin, you’re giving the casino a chance to win money. The casino knows the more wagers you make, the more likely they’ll make money, which is why that time consideration is floated out there – it’s there way of saying they aren’t likely to comp hit and run players.

3. Be Consistent

If you go to the casino with a $500 budget each trip, and then suddenly start going with $100 or $200, that’s going to knock down your comps. One way you can get more comps is simply being consistent, so the casino knows what to give you and keeps giving you it.

Similarly, bet at a level that’s consistent and one that your bankroll can support. If you go to a casino with $200 and normally do $1 spins, and decide instead to do $5 spins, your money may run out much faster, and to the casino you didn’t do as much play, even though you spent the same amount. Remember most players keep playing (at least for awhile) with their wins, and without wins, you can’t get that play on the board.

4. Consolidate Your Visits

If you’re a frequent casino visitor, just changing up your frequency by going less often with a larger budget can change the type of player you are in the casino’s eyes.

For instance, if you visit weekly with a $100 budget, and change to going every other week with a $200 budget, the casino’s going to see you as a $200 per trip player instead of a $100 per trip player, even though the amount you spend is the same.

They can only give you so much of certain things, like rooms, so many times the comps will get balanced out in the favor of more free play or food credit, especially once you get to certain budget levels. Other times you might be on the bubble of better offers, which being rated a higher level player improves your ability to get those offers.

In either sense, playing less often with a larger budget can help you reposition how the casino sees you and get the best bang for your buck.

5. Time Your Visits

In one of our previous conversations we talked about how low-limit players can maximize their opportunities, and one way was to time your visits for casino promotions. In the case of getting more comps, timing a visit for when comp dollar multipliers are happening are an obvious way to earn more on a specific visit.

Recent offers I’ve received for Laughlin, for instance, tease 5x-500x Rewards Credit multipliers at Caesars properties. Even a 5x multiplier means you get $1 for every $100 you play, a 1% rebate. I’ve talked about 10x multipliers at Vegas casinos in the past that can return even more – up to 4% back at Plaza, and up to a whopping 15% back at OYO.

6. Go At Least Once in Awhile

Casino offers tend to come in cycles, but they also are based on play over a certain window of time. What happens if you don’t play at all in that window? For many casinos, the offers will simply stop flowing.

Most of the time I see offers time out after 6, 12 or 24 months, depending on the casino, although I’ve also seen 3 at locals casinos. As such, visiting at least once in awhile keeps you on their radar and ensures offers continue to flow.

Bonus Suggestion: Play Where You Value the Comps

Casinos comp in different ways. Some will put more weight on a hotel room; others will prefer to give more free play and make rooms harder to get. Sometimes this can simply depend on how much supply a casino has. But if you live in close proximity to more than one casino, you should evaluate what makes the most sense for you.

The best way to compare and contrast is to go to each casino once, with a similar budget, and play for a similar amount of time. Then see what you get back in terms of offers from each, and continue to play at the casino that gives you the offer that suits you the best.

About the author

Joshua

My name is Joshua, and I’m a slot enthusiast who works in tech as a marketer by day, and dabbles in casinos periodically during off-times. Know Your Slots will reflect my interests in understanding the various ways you can play slots, travel, casino promotions and how you can get the most out of your casino visits.

2 Comments

    • Hi Mike – the free play itself will not give you coin-in, but once you’ve played it through once, if you keep playing with your winnings from the free play, you’re now playing with cash, and that cash will count towards your coin-in.

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