There's No Such thing as a FREE Lunch

By Carl Van Eton

While it doesn't hurt to deposit $5,000 or so in the cage and draw marker after marker, contrary to popular belief, you don't have to be a high-roller to get comped. Getting your fair share of complimentary services (rooms, food, show tickets, front row seats, limos) is not reserved exclusively for black action ($100) players. Green and even red action is sufficient to get you some of the goodies if you know how to work the pit boss. (That's right, kiddies, just like the difference between a tinhorn and a professional card player, there are indeed more than a few tricks to milking the pit for comps.)

Tricks of the Trade

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Comped players, like blondes, invariably have more fun. However, unless you are prepared to sit at a table for hours on end grinding out those quarter ($25) bets until the cows come home, don't be surprised if the pit boss looks down his bulbous nose at you after accessing your rating only to inform you that "Your play does not warrant" that dinner for two, or those fight tickets you had your heart set on. Depending on which part of the country you frequent, comp policies vary from town to town and even from casino to casino.

As a general rule of thumb, the more casinos in a given area, the easier it is to get comped.  Intra-casino rivalry is the lubricant that loosens the "Let's Make a Deal" attitude of casino management. A town with but one gambling establishment can and will take advantage of their only-game-in-town status for as long as possible. However, once a casino town reaches a critical mass of six gaming halls or more, they tend to loosen their purse strings to compete for your playing dollars. After all, it is money, or the rumor of money, that a comp savvy player can use to his or her advantage. You will quickly discover your playing dollar goes much further in smaller casino towns and smaller casinos in larger towns.

Rule #1: Never play exclusively for comps

The biggest trap to avoid is the one that has caused more players to tap out than any other. That is playing for comps. As I have pointed out in more interviews, articles, books and videos than I can count is the fact that you must have a game plan laid out in advance of setting one foot on the casino floor and that you must adhere to the plan. If you have set a $300 loss limit, then you must get out of the chair and off the casino floor the moment that you have dropped $300. If you sit there and play for even as much as another ten or fifteen minutes just because you need a few more points for a meal, that $20 comp could cost you hundreds of dollars. Some bargain.

Another trap to avoid is marathon play. After about an hour  or so of play, your brain cells come to resemble tapioca. By telling the dealer to mark your seat and taking a stroll to clear out the cobwebs, you will accrue more quality playing time and less go-for-broke situations than by keeping at it all night long. By trying to get your hourly requirements in all at one sitting, you leave yourself wide open to large negative bankroll swings which will more than offset any potential gain that a comp could offer. Once you stop playing into the casino's hands, then you can learn how to play the casino to your advantage.

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The first thing that you should do when you sit down at the table is ask to be rated. You do this by presenting your Player's Card to the floorperson when you buy-in. This will get you onto the computer and start the clock. The floorman will also write down the amount of your wager, which is an important point which can be used to your advantage at peak traffic times. During off-peak hours, pit personnel stand around sucking their thumbs with nothing to do but watch whatever games are active. During peak times, particularly Friday and Saturday nights, during holidays or seasonal high traffic periods, supervisory personnel are so overloaded with administrative duties, that they have barely enough time to come up for air, much less watch you like a hawk. 

One way of milking the amount of time that the floor has you on the clock is to get a bit creative. The first thing that you have to understand is that there is no requirement that says that you have to play each and every hand. When the going gets tough or the count heads south of the border, I simply tell the dealer to pass me by. "You're too hot for me," or "I think I'll sit back until you bust once or twice," is a line which I have used many times to keep me on the clock even when I'm not betting. 

Establishing yourself as a table-hopper who never has the patience to wait for the dealer to shuffle also has its merits. As soon as the dealer starts to shuffle, I will grab my chips and walk to the other end of the pit, to a table out of the floorman's jurisdiction, telling him or her, "I'll be over there." Standing by the table, I will lay my chips on the layout, I will lean in and tell a joke, I will flirt with the dealer, I will in short do anything to make it seem as though I am wagering, short of laying a bet. If you play this tactic right, you can generate an incredible block of time without risking one red cent.

There's more than one way to skin a pit boss.

Image courtesy en.wikipedia.org

A more proactive method of finessing a comp is to use a tactic that one of my graduates developed in Las Vegas. Now Joe is a fight freak who was desperate for a pair of tickets to a sold out boxing match a couple of years back. After getting down on his hands and knees and begging the pit boss for the tickets proved fruitless, Joe decided to try another tactic. So, instead of getting hot under the collar, what he did was walk to the other side of the pit and buy about $500 in green chips, without placing a single bet. A half hour later, he casually sauntered past the same pit boss on his way to the cashier's cage, fists bulging with chips, saying," Sure glad you talked me into staying longer."

The pit boss, looking at the stack of chips then back at Joe said, "Maybe I was a bit hasty." Then he wrote out the comp.

The thing to remember is that while the pit boss might act as though all comps were coming out of his or her pocket, the bottom line is that if the cost of such largesse is more than offset by the amount of action that you show, or appear to show, at the gaming tables, then the casino can be your oyster. 

Or, as I like to remind the players on my blackjack team, "If you can't beat them out of money, EAT them out of money.  Never walk away empty handed."

Want to learn more?  Carl Van Eton has more than 20 years of professional playing experience.  If you want to stop visiting your money every time you go to the casinos, check out his website at http://biggameblackjack.com