I’ve heard of players in a casino getting “comped” a night in the hotel. What does that usually take - playing for a long time? Gambling a lot of money? Frequent return visits?
Put enough money on the table and they’ll notice you.
Yes, yes, and yes.
For the most part, it just goes by a straight up “you’ve spend this much money here, you get this” chart.
That’s the way it used to be. (and should be). Nowadays, you have to act like a common street beggar to get a casino to offer you anything.
I bet you can’t do it the way Philip Baker Hall taught John C. Reilly how in Sydney any more.
I’d love to see a casino worker break it down, but from my understanding it helps to:
- Play for an extended period of time
- Either win or lose a lot of money (if you lost, so you feel better about the casino to come back, and if you won, to keep you comfortable to keep playing until you lose, and,
- Be playing at the non-scrub tables.
I’ve had friends ask for comps and be told they hadn’t played long enough, I’m sure asking for a comp is the last way to ever get a free drink or meal or hotel.
My parents have asked for free meals and gotten them.
You do need to play for long enough. My folks are mostly slots players and now have a rough idea on how long to play at their spending level to get comped. And the amount certainly matters. My father went once without my mother, and there was a distinct uptick in how much mail he got from the casino with offers, ads, and comps.
Oh, and the economy matters, too. Apparently, the number of comps went down in the Tunica casinos when people stopped going as much after the recession hit and it started taking longer to get anything.
First rule of Vegas: it never hurts to ask. Worst that will happen is the pit boss says no.
When I go to Vegas to play a little blackjack, I will wave over the pit boss after a few hours of play and discretely ask if I could get a meal comp or something. About half the time they say yes and I’m off to the buffet. Once on a slow night I got a free meal at a fancy steakhouse.
I don’t play nearly enough money to get free hotel nights, though. But I always do get a small discount at the end of my stay by presenting my player’s card at checkout.
Until a casino worker does come in, could you explain what “non-scrub tables” means?
I think the perception problem most people (at least, the people I know) have with comps is just how much you have to put in to get the comps. If a free room costs the casino $150/night, they’re not going to comp that because you put in $200 in losses over a couple of hours. They’d go out of business that way, and besides, they’ve got regulars who just spent $10,000 and a high roller who’s gone through $100,000.
If you think of it like frequent-flyer miles or other rewards clubs (say 1% to 5% back in rewards), then you’re in a more reasonable frame of mind for the comps you may have earned at a casino.
So if you have lost $10,000 and get comped a free $300 hotel room, who is the sucker 
I just made that term up, I meant the non-cheapest table to play at, at the casino I go to on rare occasions for example the cheapest game is $2/4 limit hold 'em.
Prezactly. Casinos comp big players in order to keep them in the casino. It’s the same reason why casinos have wonderful buffets and friendly young women wandering about who want to know if your blood alcohol level is high enough. The casinos offer the buffet as a service, really, to the gamblers, though other people will go into a casino specifically to eat at the buffet, but they pass the slots, and drop a few bucks there. When I lived in Las Vegas (about 25 years ago), most residents believed that casinos either didn’t make much of a profit on the buffets, or that the buffets were actually losing money when considered by themselves. The casinos simply didn’t want to take the chance that a hungry gambler would go somewhere else to eat, and then not come back. And the friendly young women would offer free drinks to anyone who was actively gambling, both so that the gambler didn’t get up from the table or slot, and in order to help the gambler make poor decisions. Casinos NEVER do anything out of kindness…they intend to milk every penny from gamblers, and if this means offering free or low cost items in order to keep someone at the table or slots, then they’ll do it. And the bigger the bet, the more likely it is that the casino will want to keep that gambler inside.
My father loved to play Keno, and probably found every single bus trip between the Inland Empire and Vegas/Stateline. He would go with a set amount of money to spend, and wouldn’t touch a dime more.
Daddy played Keno at his favorite casinos, and he got to know most of the Keno writers and Keno runners and Keno shift managers by name. He was a very personable man, and very polite. Everyone loved him. It got to the point where the managers would come on shift, look for Harry, and then tell him, “You need to eat something” and hand him a comp ticket for a meal.
Occasionally, he’d be offered a room.
As a rule, Daddy usually paid for his trip with his winnings. If he merely broke even, he said he had a “bad time,” or “just had fun.” However, typically, he’d come back with an extra thousand. My sister and I ALWAYS got nice birthday and Christmas presents from him.
He wasn’t a high roller by any means. But he was a frequent player, he was friendly, and he got to know everyone by name.
~VOW
Steve Wynn has remarked that his buffets basically break even.
My advise to you as someone with 25 years in the leisure travel industry is to just ask… worst they can do is say no. My last trip to Vegas my wife booked some ridiculously cheap deal for airfare and a room at Caesar’s. At Caesar’s I explained nicely to the woman at the desk that we hadn’t been out without kids in several years… next thing she was on the phone asking someone to “Run Mr. Spud” (I assume a credit check) and before we knew it we were in a suite on the 36th floor and getting calls for our opportunity for VIP seating to see some guy named Elton John. On the way back I asked the gate agent if there was any chance my wife and I could be seated closer together since we were 5 rows apart on the long flight back. We ended up in first class.
Just ask… it can’t hurt.
Another vote for asking. I tend to ask for specific things and I assume I’m pretty reasonable because I’ve never been refused.
‘I’d like to take a break for dinner you think you guys can cover my meal?’
The Tunica Casinos have mostly gone to an automated system now. There are kiosks scattered around the casino floor where you swipe your players card and enter a PIN to see what comps you have available. They also send out mailers every month with offers for rooms, food, and free slot play.
I haven’t really been a regular player in several years, but when I did, I’d generally take about $600 for a couple days at the tables. I never paid a dime for my room, food, or drinks. I mostly played black jack and three card poker at the $5 minimum tables, with a little slot play mixed in.
The Horseshoe advertised itself as the easiest comp in town, and it was. You could play blackjack for an hour or two at the $5 table and get a comp buffet, no problem.
I understand it has tightened up a little from what it was when I was playing.
Wow, I had no idea that asking for comps actually worked, my only experience with comps has been seeing my friend get shot down snippily for asking. Thanks all. 
A scrub is a guy who thinks he’s fly and is also known as a buster. Always talkin’ about what he wants and just sits on his broke ass.