Comps – what every player should know

Casinos need their players to keep coming back whether they are their high-rollers or just someone who makes regular visits. They use comps to achieve this. What kind of comps are out there? For the average player, you can get free beverages, free meals, cash, and discounted hotel rooms are the most common. For the high-rollers who will bet thousands per visit, the casino give away free rooms, food, beverages, limo service, Vegas shows, and even free airfare.

Usually a player will join the casino’s reward club and receive a card resembling a credit card. These cards can be inserted into slot machines to track usage, or tracked by a pit boss. The pit boss will track your buy-in, your average bet size, and how long you play for. In most reward clubs, you earn points as you play and then later you can redeem those points for comps. If you are playing at a slot, you will often see your current points and amount of points to your next level. Where slot play earns cash, you will often see something like this when you insert your card “Welcome John, currently you have 85 points. You need 15 points more to be credited $10”. Other reward clubs will have you check your card at the reward club booth. The attendant will check your card and let you know what you qualify for and they can also issue the comp.

At table games such as blackjack, a formula is used to determine the comps earned. For example, if a player bets $10 per hand and the house figures that they play 30 hands per hour, then the player is betting $300 per hour. The house knows it has a 2% edge on this game, so they should win about $6. Different casinos offer different percentages for comps anywhere from 10% to 40%. This results in a comp or $0.60 to $2.40 in this case and it is regardless of whether the player won or lost.

Every player who regularly visits a casino and gambles should have a reward card. An extra benefit to having the card is that they will put you on their mailing lists and often that includes special offers. These special offers often include tournament invitations, free or discounted rooms, and cash vouchers for play. One thing to be aware with for comps is that some have expiry dates on them and should be used in a timely manner.