Even more on comps

17 April 2018

By Frank Scoblete

If you really want to be a savvy comp commander, I’m going to show you a secret way that only I know about to discover what exact formula the casinos you play in use to rate you. Here goes: Ask them!

Yes, no one knows this secret, but you can actually ask to see your rating. When you go to your host (by all means get a host, even if you are a low roller), just ask to see “the screen.” He or she will show you exactly how they are rating you – what house edge they are using, how much your average bet is, what your theoretical loss is, and what they are willing to give you back in terms of comps.

And you’ll get what you deserve.

Now, let’s start moving into the fun territory of the undeserving, shall we?

How to stretch your comps
True story time. I played three days at a very nice Las Vegas casino, just a notch below an A+, where I was RFB, which meant I was a big shot and got everything “free” – gourmet restaurants, room service, shows, limos and a big, big-shot suite with two bathrooms, a Jacuzzi, a living room, dining room, four televisions, a huge bedroom and a stable for my polo ponies.

When it was time to leave, I checked out my “screen” and asked my host if the casino would pick up the airfare for me and my wife, the Beautiful AP, and he said: “That would put you way over the return we can give you based on your theoretical.”

I looked at the screen and next to my “room” was $1,500! Yep, that’s what they “charged” me for the suite – per night! Thus, $4,500 of my comp return based on my “theoretical loss” was eaten up by the big-shot suite, which I basically slept in, showered in and did a couple of unmentionable things with my wife in.

So I asked him how much a regular room would have been “charged” to me. It turned out to be $250. And he then volunteered the information that I would have gotten the airfare “no problem” had I taken a regular room.

So right there, I learned a very valuable lesson. Did I really have to stay in a suite if not doing so would allow me to have our airfare covered? In good Vegas hotels all the rooms are good, by definition, and I really don’t do much in a big-shot suite that I wouldn’t do in a regular room.

Here’s another little trick. When you ask for a comp for the café for two, don’t let the floor person or pit boss write it out for the “normal amount,” say $50 for two, because often they take that whole $50 off your comp allowance even if your meal came to $30. If you know what you’re going to eat, or if you know approximately what you’re going to spend in the café, when you ask for a comp say, “Make the comp for two for $37.” This way you only use up the actual money you spent.

Again, feel free to ask your host how they handle a meal price that comes in under the comp value. Many casinos return the unused portion to you.

Visit Frank’s website at www.frankscoblete.com. Frank Scoblete’s latest books are I Am a Dice Controller: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Craps, Confessions of a Wayward Catholic and I Am a Card Counter: Inside the World of Advantage-Play Blackjack. Available from Amazon.com, Kindle, Barnes and Noble, and at bookstores.