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next level comps are what's beyond RFB - room, food, beverage, show tickets and other "soft" comps.

soft comps are called that because they cost the casino a fraction of what the value is to you.

when they comp that $5,000/night suite, they aren't paying $5,000 for that. they are paying a little for housekeeping and a little more for the butler and other staff. but basically it costs them almost nothing to give you that.

the same with restaurants at their property. if you spend $2,000 at the restaurant for a nice meal and some wine, it probably cost them $50 in food.

what we're talking about now are the "hard comps". things that actually cost the casino money.

when they give you cash for your airplane ticket or a cash discount after a loss, that costs them the exact amount they give you.

so what does it take to get this level of comps?

it requires gambling, a lot, and usually requires losing a lot too. this level of comps isn't just acquired by playing. if you're winning trip after trip, you're never going to see these hard comps.

they are reserved for the losers - or at least those who appear to lose.

how much do you need to gamble? for starters you need to have a 50k line or more. that means you're risking and sometimes losing as much as 50k per trip. the key is actually risking and sometimes losing. if you're sitting on that 50k line and only betting $100 per hand and every time you get down 10k you quit for the trip, that doesn't count.

one way to know how much you're risking relative to your credit line is to take your credit line and divide it by 50. so for a 50k line they're expecting you to play 1k average bet for 4 hours a day.

so let's assume you're actually risking at least 50k per trip. now the key is you have to ask for these comps. they don't give them out because you look pretty. if you want hard comps you need to ask your host. there's plenty of players who deserve these and don't ask and the host is more than happy to continue feeding him RFB and never mentioning how much he's leaving on the table.

if you lose 50k, you deserve at least 10% back in comps, which is 5k. if you only spent 2k on F&B, you should make sure your host is giving you 3k in cash when you walk out the door.

the same is true even if you don't lose, based on theo. let's say you had an epic trip and gamble 18 hours at 3k per hand at BJ. that's over 27k in theo. you should be getting at least 35% of that in comps - 8k. if you only spent 5k in F&B, you should be getting 3k in AF on the way out the door regardless of whether you won or lost.

but again, you have to ask for these comps! your host will never, ever, ever volunteer this to you. ever.

what other kind of hard comps can you receive?

there's more than just cash AF/discounts. there's also bill-backs, which are where the casino pays for you to receive something at a completely unrelated property. this could be tickets for a show at some other casino, racing a Ferrari at the track, a helo tour of the Grand Canyon, etc.

these are still hard comps because those other establishments don't care who's footing the bill, but somebody has gotta pay full freight. the casino isn't getting a discount because it's a casino.

again with this kind of thing, you have to ask for these comps! they will never offer to do these things for you. but if you're staying at MGM and really want to see Britney at PH, they can definitely make that happen.

so you really have to lose?

so I said earlier that you have to lose to receive these types of comps. and that's true. but that's not the entire story. let's say you go for 3 days and drop 50k. they're happy with you. now you come back 2 more trips and win 20k each trip. well you've only lost 10k for 3 trips, but you still had one trip where you lost 50k.

now you're in the boat you want to be in. risking and losing a lot of money occasionally, but winning enough that you're not getting crushed and sent to the poor house.

this is the type of situation where you start to get the things you ask for without actually losing as much as the people next to you. very nice.

 

Thanks.

 

Great info, but some hard comps can be had for less. I don't have a CL with CET, never have. And my numbers aren't near yours above, but my host at PH has comped tickets to cirque du soleil shows at MLIFE for me. I've also received airfare reimbursement in the form of cash (well, a slip of paper that I bring to the cage where they give me cash). This was done with about $1200-$1300 theo per day average on my trips, but probably mostly losing trips like you indicated above.