4 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Try to Get Comps at Casinos

For a lot of casino-goers, comps are the ultimate high. They feel rewarding, but casinos are also a bit unclear about how to get them. And because of that mystery, it’s often associated with high rollers. This reputation influences gamblers to spend more, and it compels them to focus on obtaining comps rather than doing the actual gambling.

While comps can be fun to receive and often make you feel like a superstar, they’re not always worth your time. I’m sharing some excellent reasons why you should avoid comps entirely and focus on the gambling itself.

Below, you’ll learn exactly why comps might not be worth your time.

1 – You’ll Spend Too Much Trying to Get the Comps

If you want to get something comped at a casino, there are various ways to go about it, but the primary idea is to spend money.

You see, comps developed as a way to keep the high rollers happy, and that’s still pretty much what they’re used for today. When a whale walks into a casino, the management wants to make sure they’ll spend all the money there and not at the competition’s establishment.

High rollers are big business for casinos, and while the average schmuck is going to be worthwhile too, there’s nothing like bringing in someone for private games whose going to be dropping an obscene amount of money in a night.

But what about you, the average gambler?

How do you go about getting comps? Well, it’s precisely the same as the high rollers—you also spend a lot of money.

This assumes, of course, that you have a lot of money to spend. If you want to get comps, you need to get noticed by management. They need to see that you’re dropping big bucks regularly for a comp to make sense.

What does that mean? It means you’re going to have to be playing $50 hands at least, maybe more, just to get their attention. And you can’t just play a single hand for $50. You need to be playing at that level for an hour or two, but more likely for a lot longer than that.

Let’s say that you’re playing the way you should be playing to spend money like that. You’re likely spending about 1% of your bankroll. That means you need to walk into the casino with about $5,000 ready to drop to get some comps.

Is that really worth it? You better have some serious cash coming in each month if you don’t mind spending that kind of dough at a casino.

You also need to be playing pretty regularly so that you get the attention of management. That means you have to be spending money like this, probably once a week or more.

All that for some free food, free drinks, and maybe a free room? That seems a little silly, doesn’t it?

Sure, there are other ways to game the system. Some people will claim that you don’t need to spend more than about $400 at a slot machine to get comps throughout the year if you know where to play and how to play correctly, but that’s all hearsay.

It’s really not worth it from a financial perspective. But let’s say you’re willing and able to spend that much money in a casino, there’s still a big problem with trying to get comps. Keep reading below to find out.

2 – You’re Going to Have Too Many Drinks and Eat Too Much Food

Getting comps means spending a lot of time gambling. You’re probably going to be sitting at the table for a length of time that, if you like to drink, means you’re going to be getting a little too drunk too quickly just trying to get to the point of being comped in the first place.

This problem becomes exacerbated when you consider the fact that they’re giving it to you for free. Because who would ever turn down free drinks?

You’ll run into the same problem with food. If you keep getting free meals, why wouldn’t you want to just stick around and keep real money gambling? This can put a severe dent in your bankroll. Believe me when I say that the house always wins. This is just one of the ways they get their money back.

Do you really believe that the casino would be handing out free drinks and food if they didn’t think it was profitable? Of course, they wouldn’t. Overall, this means you’re not really getting anything for free. Instead, you’re paying for that food and those drinks with the money you’re losing at the tables.

Let’s take that same $5,000 that we mentioned earlier. If you spend all that money and get a free room, free drinks, and free food, that’s worth maybe $1,000. You’re still in the hole $4,000. That doesn’t sound like much of a “deal” to me.

3 – You’ll Stay Later Than You Normally Would

Another big problem with trying to get comps has to do with money as well. You’re going to end up staying at the casino a lot longer than you usually would.

Think about it. If your goal is just to get stuff comped, then you’re going to end up sticking around long enough to get the comps themselves, right? That means you’re going to need to be there for at least a few hours, and you’re getting the free food and drinks piled on.

Hey, if you’ve already gotten a free meal and had time away from the tables, you’ll probably want to go back a little longer, right? Of course, you would.

Then, let’s add in the fact that the biggest comp you’re going to get at a casino is probably a free room. And if you stay at the casino for the entire night, you’re obviously going to end up gambling the next day, too. That’s going to be pretty hard to get around.

So, now, you’ve been there all day and all night and part of the next day, maybe even the entirety of the next day. If you don’t have a lot going on, that’s highly likely. Let’s say that you go there on a Friday and spend the night. You don’t have work the next day, so why not stick around until the next afternoon and spend a little more, right?

That’s assuming you didn’t win money the night before, obviously, which is generally a reasonable assumption. So, now, when you take the comps out, you’ve probably spent something like $8,000 or $8,500 in a single night just to get some free food and a free room with tiny bottles of overpriced liquor.

Is that really worth it? Probably not.

4 – You’ll End up Going to the Casino More Often Than You Would Normally

Comps have one goal, and that’s to get you back into the casino as often as possible. The more you go to the casino, the more comps you get.

This makes sense, and it probably excites you. It feels great to have the staff know you and want to keep you happy. You feel like a rockstar, and you know what? If you have that kind of money to spend and have no problem spending that kind of time at the casino, then yes, it makes sense to go for comps.

But most of us can’t afford to go to the casino that often, so I’m guessing you probably don’t want to spend your entire weekend at the casino either.

So, you’ll end up there a few times a week if you’re continually trying to get comps. And again, you’re going to be spending more than you normally would, so you might start digging a financial hole you can’t get yourself out of quite so easily.

Conclusion

Comps are great fun, and sometimes, getting them makes you feel like you’re getting special treatment. But they’re mostly not worth the money you have to sink into the casino to get them. Think hard before you start chasing them.

Casino comps are a fraction of how much you actually spend gambling at a land-based casino. Do you agree or disagree? Let me know in the comments.