Computing Comps

Everyone wants freebies from the casino, so here is how you go about computing comps. This is called “getting some goodies” and if you play long enough, then you should get as much as you can for free because mathematically, the casino owes you and it’s the least that they can do to compensate you. The first suggestion that we want to give you is to call a casino host and ask them what time of action was needed to warrant some sort of comps.

The host will most likely give you a pretty high number, but what they really want is for you to stop on over with your hard-earned money and give them a crack at taking it from you. The number they give you will not be what you need to bet per hand, or even the amount you are supposed to bring to the table ready to gamble with. If you sit down at a blackjack table with $500, then proceed to sit there for four hours or so, playing nearly 100 hands an hour, all the while betting $20 per hand. If you multiply that $20 by 100 hands per hour, times the four hours you sat there you’ll come to $8,000. This will be the amount of money that you have “put into action” and as you can see, can get up there pretty high without even factoring in how much you won or lost even though your bankroll was only $500.

This is just one of the factors that a casino will use to assess your rating and eligibility for their comp programs. To get the free stuff, they want you to bet a decent chunk of cash for a certain period of time, but they also judge your merit for room, food, and beverage comps on what you are probably going to lose. This means that the casino advantage is also factored in, so by playing a game that has a high house edge you are more likely to get comped. They also throw in your average bet, how many hours you would most likely play, the speed of the game, and more to compute what they expect you to lose over a certain period.

So taking a look at the example above, you are betting $20 a hand for fours hours with an average of 100 hands per hour, then they take into account the house advantage of five percent the casino holds over the average blackjack player, and they can predict in advance that you should lose $400 ($20 X 4 hrs. X 100 hands X .05 = $400) of the $8,000 wagered, or as she said, “put in action,” over that time period. The casino will gladly feed you after you have lost $400 to the house, quite the expensive meal on your part.

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