The producers

7 June 2016

By Frank Scoblete

The head executives of the casinos justifiably think of all players as contributors to the casinos’ profits, if not today, tonight or tomorrow, then certainly soon enough to suit the bosses in an individual casino’s hierarchy. That goes for little players looking for the $5 tables and big players looking for comfort, fine drink and high stakes in the high-roller rooms.

All casino players are “producers” of the bottom line. But some producers are far more valuable than other producers. Who are these producers? They are the players the casinos will reserve whole tables for. These are the producers who play for outrageous amounts, often far higher than what middle-class individuals earn in a year. I’ve seen craps players have over $100,000 on the layout at one time!

The big producers are certainly given the royal treatment: suites, limos, shows, celebrity parties, sporting events, shopping sprees, airfares and free copies of my books. Without those big players many a luxury casinos’ bottom line wouldn’t be as good as the executives want. The “big boys” (and “big girls”) make those big casinos possible.

If you take a $500 blackjack basic strategy player (meaning a darn good player) playing in the high-roller room at one hundred hands per hour; he can expect to lose $2,500 per hour. Yikes!

Compare him to the $5 basic strategy player whose expectation is to lose $25 per hour. You need 100 of those $5 players to lose what our big producer loses. That’s a lot of $5 players.

What about a thousand-dollar player? What about a $10,000 player? They can expect all of the good stuff, but are they getting enough good stuff to make betting such staggering amounts worth their while?

Do those high rollers have everything they can get out of the casinos where they play? I don’t think so. I think they can get much more.

Most high rollers tend to limit their play to a given casino in Vegas or Atlantic City (or elsewhere) and while many will head to casinos outside of the United States or Canada, they often simply go to another property owned by the same company where they play at home.

Now, yes, if they are mega-rollers, they will be treated like kings and queens but there is a level above kings and queens and that level is emperors and empresses. That’s the level they should be shooting for.

First, I think high rollers should spread their action to different casinos in the same venue. The casino usually wants four hours of play to give a player the full array of comps. That obtains for high rollers and low rollers alike. But what we find is that many high rollers like to put in far more time than those measly four hours. Are they really getting the benefits of those extra hours over and above the four?

I think not.

A $1,000 to $10,000 player can write his or her own ticket. Why not write that ticket in several competing casinos? Indeed, by playing in various casinos a high roller might be able to get more than a casino would normally give. Casinos are as jealous of each other’s high rolling producers as Othello was of Cassio.

What if the high roller tells his host at casino “A” that he is going to also play at casino “B” because casino “B” is giving a cash rebate on his losses? Maybe a reduction of 10% in what the individual loses on any given weekend? Would casino “A” want to keep this guy’s action away from casino “B”? A decent bet casino “A” might offer the same or a better rebate plan. Now our high roller has two casinos giving him a far, far better deal.

There are many high rollers who do not know that casinos will make individual rebate deals to lessen the house edge on various games – which means they will indeed return some of a player’s losses. There is no reason not to give every high roller (those at the thousands of dollars level) some rebate considering the amount of money these producers lose to the casinos over time.

Casinos are in the money business. Plain and simply the job of a host or any casino executive is to keep the money flowing from the big producers. If they have to bend the normal rules somewhat to keep their high rollers happy then they will often (gladly) bend those rules. The casino industry has plenty of smart executives who are doing the rebate programs right now.

The same holds true for slot players. If you are a mega-slot player at those $100 machines, then you can angle for the cash rebates as well. Just don’t stick to only one casino. Let your hosts know you are hunting around. Competition among casinos is good for players who know how to play the game.


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.