Did my good luck decrease my free play?

Hi, John,

Thanks for giving us a lot of useful info in your columns.

I have a question about players' clubs that award free slot play to club members who qualify. Is the amount of free play awarded based solely on money spent (as I'd always thought) or are winnings taken into consideration, too? I had a couple of good winning months a while back, followed by a month when dental bills cut into my gaming budget and the very next month my free play was cut nearly in half.

Thanks again for your informative articles.

Ruth

Dear Ruth,

Thanks for the kind words about my columns.

Any casino can use any formula it wants at any time to award free play, but the formulas are usually based only on the amount of play you give. Casinos know that players win sometimes — after all, their business model is to shift money from some players to other players while taking their cut — and they won't penalize you for your good luck.

I think your experience backs this up. It seems from your letter that your free play stayed the same after your winning months and didn't fall until you played less because of your dental bills.

Best of luck in and out of the casinos,
John

Send your slot and video poker questions to John Robison, Slot Expert, at slotexpert@comcast.net. Because of the volume of mail I receive, I regret that I can't reply to every question.