Can anyone explain how casino comp dollars are calculated by the casinos?
It is much more rewarding to play slots. Slots is where the casino makes most of its money so they are more willing to give better comp value on the machines. For table games, most casinos use the formula, average bet x amount of time spent playing x average hands per hourX house edge. If you are playing $5 blackjack for an hour you should get dealt about 50-55 hands. If you are playing $1 slots, u should roughtly get 300 pulls or more in that same hour, where as you almost always bet at least $2-$3 a spin for maxium payout, the casino can get up to $900 from the slot player and only about $250 from that same table game player. Althought with table games there is such a thing as a quick loss comp, at the casino I work at, you can get up to 10% of what you loss in comp value. If you lost $500 in an hour, you could essentially get a free meal valued up to $50. In the end, slots is your biggest comp collector, but there are some perks to table games.
On a table game, each game has an expected loss percentage, and an estimated number of hands played per hour. You would then multiply this loss percentage by the average amount bet, multiplied by the number of bets made (based on time played and expected hands/hour), and this would give you your expected loss. You will then be comped back a certain percentage of this, perhaps 20%. I don’t think the casinos will give you their exact formulas, and it will probably vary from casino to casino (and it varies based on the game played), but if the casino has a system where you can check your comp balance on a machine, you can check it before and after and see how much in comps you got for your play, and this will give you a rough estimate. I would suggest for testing purposes that you play the same amount on each hand (if you vary your bets you don’t really know what the pit boss is recording as your bet amount). Also, wait awhile after you finished playing when checking your “before” and “af
Comp dollars are calculated based on the amount of time played (per hour) and average amount bet. The average amount and time played are determined by the floorperson writing your rating card. Every casino is different when figuring comp dollars. Also every table game has a different comp payout because of the expected house edge. You will get the most per dolllar out of Carribean Stud than you will with Blackjack and least amount with Baccarat. At my casino, players were getting 1 comp dollar per hour for every $25 average bet per hour on Blackjack. The amount lost, won, or bought in for doesn’t even get entered in the computer. It is only used to make sure you don’t go over the $10,000 limit in a day.
