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Casinos give you comps as a reward for playing at their establishments. These rewards differ based on whether you’re playing at a land-based or online casino.
Land-based comps consist of free beverages, meals, hotel stays, penthouse suites, cashback, show tickets, and more. Online rewards include cashback, free spins, deposit bonuses, virtual birthday gifts, and a dedicated VIP host.
The value of your comps depends upon the amount of play you offer the casino. You’ll get better rewards by making larger bets and/or playing a higher volume.
Therefore, it’s obvious that serious betting action leads to more comps. But what else can you do to increase the amount of freebies you receive?
I’m going to discuss seven important aspects that you should know with regard to maximizing your casino comps.
The best place to start is by understanding how casinos determine your rewards. Each gambling venue has their own formula for how they issue rewards.
But casinos generally use a combination of the following:
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- Bet size.
- Number of wagers (or hours played).
- The game’s house edge.
- Your VIP status.
Bet size and volume are the most-important among these factors. Casinos use these elements to determine how much play you’re giving them.
You then multiply your total bets by the casino’s comp rate to determine how many rewards you’ll receive. Here’s an example:
- You’re playing a dollar slot machine.
- You make 2,000 bets during your session.
- 2,000 x 1 = $2,000 wagered
- The casino comps slots bets at 0.1%.
- 2,000 x 0.001 = $2 in comps
This is the basic math that gambling venues use to figure out how much you should be rewarded. But this formula can also be affected by the game’s house edge and your loyalty status.
I’m going to discuss both of these aspects more in depth later. But generally speaking, you’ll receive a better comp rate when your VIP status is higher and you’re playing games with bigger house edges.
Keep in mind that land-based casinos rarely inform you on the criteria they use to rate your play. However, you may get an employee to open up and offer more info on their rewards formula.
2 – Research the Best Casinos for Comps
The gambling industry is competitive with regard to how they comp players. Gaming establishments try to reward you around the same rate as their competitors to retain your loyalty.
But this isn’t to say that all casinos are created equally in terms of comps. Some have a reputation for offering better rewards than their peers.
Google is your friend for finding gaming venues that reward you more. You can run searches based on the type of casinos you’ll be playing at to determine who comps well.
Here’s an example:
- You’re visiting Las Vegas.
- You google “best Vegas casinos for comps.”
- This brings up several articles and forum threads on the topic.
- You use these resources to form a composite idea on which casinos offer good rewards.
Looking through blog posts and forum threads isn’t a foolproof method for getting the best deals. But seeing repeated mentions of specific casinos that comp well gives you a good idea on where to play.
The D and El Cortez are a couple of Vegas establishments that have a great reputation for rewards. You don’t have to take my word for this, though, because you can easily perform your own Google research within 10-20 minutes.
Online casinos have loyalty program pages that lay out all of their rewards information. You can browse this info to figure out exactly how much should be comped for different games.
Here’s an example:
- 1,000 loyalty points can be exchanged for $1 cashback.
- Slots bets offer 1 loyalty point for every $1 bet (0.1% comp rate).
- Table games and video poker offer 1 point for every $10 bet (0.01% comp rate).
You can visit the loyalty sections of different gaming sites to figure out who’s offering the best deals. You’ll sometimes find that an internet casino outdoes their competitors in terms of comps.
These deals allow you to earn 2x or 3x the amount of loyalty rewards that you normally would. This is perfect if you’re looking for an easy way to boost your comps.
Here’s a comparison on how many rewards you can look forward to on a regular day versus a triple-point day:
- You play slots on a regular day and earn a 0.1% comp rate.
- You bet $5,000.
- 5,000 x 0.001 = $5 in rewards
- You play slots on a triple point day.
- You bet $5,000.
- 5,000 x 0.003 = $15 in rewards
Obviously earning extra points is great. But how you keep up on these deals so that you can take advantage?
The easiest way is to join an online or land-based casino’s newsletter. These newsletters commonly discuss promotions, including those involving extra points.
You can also simply visit the casino’s website and look in their promos section to find the latest offers. You’re bound to find any potential double or triple-point offers in this section.
4 – Move Up in VIP Status
The simplest way to increase your comps is by moving up the loyalty ladder. Most casinos have different statuses in their VIP program, ranging from low-stakes players to high rollers.
Casinos use simple labels to separate their VIPs, including a “player,” “room and food (RF),” and “room, food, and beverage (RFB).”
The player designation is reserved for low-stakes players who don’t stand out in any way. These gamblers are still eligible for everything from free drinks to meals, but they’re not going to receive any special treatment.
RF is a higher loyalty level that sees a gambler comped on their hotel room and food throughout the entire stay. This is a valuable package for any player who’ll be staying up to a week or longer.
RFB includes high rollers who offer enough play to the point where they receive a hotel stay, fine dining, and expensive liquor. These are the most-valued high rollers who offer the most-potential profits to casinos.
Gaming sites don’t have common loyalty levels like brick-and-mortar venues. Instead, most sites feature their own customized VIP program.
Internet casinos can have anywhere from 3-10 VIP levels depending upon the site. They use a player’s lifetime or monthly loyalty points to determine how one moves up in status.
Here’s an example:
- Bronze level = 0.1% comp rate
- Silver level = 0.11% rate
- Gold level = 0.12% rate
- Platinum level = 0.125% rate
- Diamond level = 0.13% rate
Also keep in mind that your rewards increase as you boost your status. You may only receive cashback and deposit bonuses at the lowest level, but become eligible for birthday gifts, a dedicated VIP host, higher withdrawal limits, and more as a high-level player.
It’s good to know the exact loyalty levels at any casino where you play. Doing so helps you figure out what rewards are offered at each status and what you must do to move up.
One common mistake that beginning gamblers make is assuming that are all casino games offer the same amount of rewards. But as mentioned before, the house edge plays a role in the comps you receive.
Games with a larger house advantage will offer you more freebies, because the casino has a better chance of beating you. In contrast, games with a low house edge won’t deliver as many rewards.
If you’re playing a slot machine with a 10% house advantage, for example, you can expect to be well rewarded. You won’t, however, get as many comps when playing a blackjack game with a 0.5% house edge.
Therefore, it’s a terrible idea to brave games with poor odds just because you can get better comps. But note that you’re also looking at larger theoretical losses too.
Here’s a comparison to illustrate this point:
American roulette
- American roulette has a 5.26% house edge.
- You bet $1,000.
- 1,000 x 0.0526 = $52.60 in theoretical losses
- The comp rate for American roulette is 0.2%.
- 60 x 0.002 = 0.11
- 6 – 0.11 = $52.49 total loss with American roulette
European roulette
- You switch to European roulette (2.70% house edge).
- You bet $1,000.
- 1,000 x 0.027 = $27 in theoretical losses
- The comp rate for European roulette is 0.1%.
- 27 x 0.001 = 0.03
- 27 – 0.03 = $26.97 total loss with European roulette
The casino is willing to award you more for playing American roulette when considering that they’ll still win back more money in the long run. Therefore, you should never choose a casino game based solely on the rewards.
But you may be willing to play a certain slot machine with a high house edge simply because you like its theme and/or features. In these cases, you can take comfort in knowing that you’ll be eligible for more comps.
6 – Fool the Pit Boss
You may be fully aware of how your play is rated in land-based table games. But just in case you’re not, I’ll quickly go through the process before discussing this tip.
The first step to getting table game comps at brick-and-mortar casinos is signing up for the player’s club. You’ll then receive a card that can be used with either table games or slot machines to get rewarded.
When playing table games, you need to hand your card to the dealer and tell them that you wish to be rated. They’ll then inform the pit boss, who’ll briefly monitor your play.
The pit boss has a good idea on how many hands any table game sees per hour. But they won’t have a clue on how much you bet.
Therefore, they watch your first few wagers in order to see your bet size. They’ll multiply your wager size by the average number of hands per hour to figure out your comps.
Here’s an example:
- The pit boss notes that you bet an average of $10 per hand.
- The blackjack table you’re playing at sees 70 hands per hour.
- 70 x 10 = $700 wagered per hour
- The casino’s comp rate for blackjack is 0.05%.
- 700 x 0.0005 = $0.35 in rewards
Obviously $0.35 won’t earn you much in the way of comps. But what if you could trick the pit boss into thinking that you’re betting more than you really are?
This forms the basis for tip #6 in that you can make it appear as if you’re placing larger wagers the entire session. You simply make bigger bets when the pit boss is watching, then lower your wagers when they leave.
You also need to keep an eye on when the pit boss makes their rounds again. Increase your wager again when they come back around to keep up the appearance that you’re betting more.
The best-case scenario is that you fool the pit boss into thinking you’re wagering more the entire time. Here’s an example:
- You normally bet the table minimum of $10.
- You play for three hours (approx. 210 hands).
- The comp rate is 0.05%
- 210 x 10 x 0.0005 = $1.05 in comps under normal circumstances
- You raise your wagers to $100 whenever the pit boss comes around.
- They rate you as a $100 player.
- 210 x 100 x 0.0005 = $10.50 in comps after tricking pit boss
Even if they only rate you as betting between $10 and $100, you’ll still be in line for more rewards than simply wagering $10 the entire time.
Just be aware that this method doesn’t always work. Rating gamblers is part of a pit boss’ job, and they’re used to players trying to pull one over on them.
If you’re not having any luck in fooling them, you can always try a different road by speaking with the pit boss about boosting your rewards. You may be rated slightly higher this way or have an extra half hour added onto your time.
This idea doesn’t work all the time either. However, it certainly doesn’t hurt to ask them about getting better rewards.
7 – Join Newsletter & Check Casino Social Media Pages
Casinos like to publicize their latest offers. You should definitely take advantage of these opportunities so that you can pick up additional comps.
The best way to make this happen is by ensuring that you’re connected with your favorite casinos. Join their newsletter and follow their social media pages.
Taking these steps helps you keep up on the most-recent deals. For example, you may open your email to find that an online casino is offering triple loyalty points throughout the month.
Following a casino’s Facebook and Twitter accounts is a must if you want to stay informed on their offers. Social media is used more than ever today, especially when casinos and other businesses want to promote their deals.
Of course, you can still find plenty of great promotions by visiting a casino’s website directly. But newsletters and social media save you time by making sure that this info is delivered directly to you.
Making big bets and playing casino games for endless hours aren’t the only things you can do to boost your comps. You can also take several other steps to get the most-rewards possible.
Everything begins with understanding how casinos determine your comps. Knowing the rating process helps you get a realistic picture on how many rewards you’ll earn and what you can do to accumulate more.
From here, you should begin researching the best land-based and online casinos in terms of comps. Some gambling venues have a reputation for delivering more rewards than the competition.
You should also take advantage of promotions involving comp points whenever possible. Many casinos offer double or even triple points during certain periods.
You can stay updated on these offers by signing up for casinos’ newsletters and following their social media accounts. Doing so ensures that these promos come to you, rather than you having to look for them.
Fooling the pit boss is an advanced technique you can use to accumulate more rewards. You simply need to bet bigger when they’re rating your play to hopefully pull this trick off.
Moving up in VIP status and playing games with high house edges are two more ways to boost your comps. Remember, though, that both of these methods involve betting more and taking on greater risks.
In summary, you have plenty of options for earning more gambling rewards. Choose the best option(s) for your situation and start maximizing your comps.