What's the value of comps? Please educate me.

[Lucky Larry]

Mr. Dancer and others who consider these things please educate me. I have learned the casino systems pretty well and always try to maximize my benefits but a discussion of how you determine such values would help me. What I'm interested in is how do you determine the value of your comps to determine if you beat the house, had a winning year, etc.

[olds442jetaway]

LL.... I just ballpark the values as if I were in a non casino environment where things would be cheaper. For example, and these are just round numbers, I get rooms about 100 nights a year. To get rooms this nice and even suites would easily cost 20,000 on the outside. Free play I count as cash at about 5,000. Food roughly 100 a week or about 5,000 a year, gifts about 2,000. I don’t assign a value to the free concerts since I have never paid for one in my life if you can believe that. I don’t get points I can spend at Mohegan sun on the 99 percent games. At Foxwoods, about 2,000 since they spend as cash. I use most all of them for gas. I also like a dummy don’t take advantage of the free golf at their country club like I should. If I did, it would be easily 2,000 a year. So everything added up less the golf puts my total in the mid 30,000 range. I would have to add about 20,000 to that to be even, but 2020 is going to be completely different. May not get a single W-2G.

[DougJ]

Value of comps= ZERO.

I understand that advantage players like to add in the "perceived" value of "free" stuff to artificially inflate their bottom line, justify their play (especially losers) and make themselves feel better.

Living in Vegas, adding in values of "stuff" to decide if I "beat" the casino is senseless.

I don't need a free room. I live in Vegas. I don't need free buffets or meals, I totally prefer to eat at home. In fact, my "dining out" monthly budget is ZERO. Don't care that I live in a food mecca, my home cooked meals are stellar.

And, I most certainly do NOT want the tchotchkes and junk that casinos dole out . .. cheap bed sheets, crockery and other trinkets. Goodwill may want some of those "gifts", IDK. I got tired of collecting that junk just to drive straight to the blue donation bin.

[FAA]

Olds, if you predict zero 2020 W2Gs, stay home! Save gas, money, frustration and all of us your impending laments.

[Player422738]

Value of comps= ZERO.

I understand that advantage players like to add in the "perceived" value of "free" stuff to artificially inflate their bottom line, justify their play (especially losers) and make themselves feel better.

Living in Vegas, adding in values of "stuff" to decide if I "beat" the casino is senseless.

I don't need a free room. I live in Vegas. I don't need free buffets or meals, I totally prefer to eat at home. In fact, my "dining out" monthly budget is ZERO. Don't care that I live in a food mecca, my home cooked meals are stellar.

And, I most certainly do NOT want the tchotchkes and junk that casinos dole out . .. cheap bed sheets, crockery and other trinkets. Goodwill may want some of those "gifts", IDK. I got tired of collecting that junk just to drive straight to the blue donation bin.

Exactly.

My host has been super annoying recently to bring me back as much as she can because I won some money last year. She keeps telling me this or that offer is free...I told her, anything that I am not interested in such as free rooms or cruise, is a completely waste of time and 0 value. I am not going to go back for 3 days just for enjoying the free rooms.

And I blocked that dumb host. 0 noise now.

[onemoretry]

I agree with what has been said. However, not everyone's circumstance is the same.

We are leaving Sunday for a twelve night Vegas trip. All of our accommodation, and most of our meals will be comped. There is certainly a lot of value to us there.

[olds442jetaway]

Have a great trip. The way I look at things is if I would have done something anyway for cash and it is comped, it is the same as cash to me. Sounds like OMT you have a good 1,000 to 2,000 comped that you would otherwise have to part with yourself so good for you. Best of luck on the trip and stay safe

[FAA]

My host has been super annoying recently to bring me back as much as she can because I won last year. This or that offer is free...I told her, anything that I am not interested in (rooms or cruise) is a completely waste of time and 0 value. I am not going to go back for 3 days just for the free rooms.
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Good for you. It's important not to waste one's time. I have enjoyed the occasional free room now thrown at me. But I think all it would do going forward is remind me of my foolishly accrued losses, and tempt me to lose yet more!

[BobDancer]

Value of comps= ZERO.

I understand that advantage players like to add in the "perceived" value of "free" stuff to artificially inflate their bottom line, justify their play (especially losers) and make themselves feel better.

Living in Vegas, adding in values of "stuff" to decide if I "beat" the casino is senseless.

I don't need a free room. I live in Vegas. I don't need free buffets or meals, I totally prefer to eat at home. In fact, my "dining out" monthly budget is ZERO. Don't care that I live in a food mecca, my home cooked meals are stellar.

And, I most certainly do NOT want the tchotchkes and junk that casinos dole out . .. cheap bed sheets, crockery and other trinkets. Goodwill may want some of those "gifts", IDK. I got tired of collecting that junk just to drive straight to the blue donation bin.

To each his own.

I, for one, happily eat in casinos. I get offered more meals than I can consume, so we get to treat others --- usually non-gambling friends. (Our gambling friends get their own comps!) This "social interaction" is important to us.

If you NEVER go out of town and like your own home better than staying in a casino, fine. We go out of town, periodically.

For out of town stuff, frequently Bonnie and I attend square dance conventions (not for everybody, obviously - to each his own). Having access to rooms out of town is useful. When Harrah's Lake Tahoe and Cherokee had playable games, it was great to have the casino pick up the tab for room, airfare, meals, etc.

We live in Vegas and get comped rooms for out-of-town guests. We prefer to set them up at a hotel than to have them in our home. (again --- to each his own.)

I agree that most "casino crap" isn't worth picking up. Still, sometimes usable gift cards are given away. I see those as worth face value or close to it. If it's a store I don't want to frequent, often I can sell them at 90% of face value.

Show tickets are useful. If you want to go, fine. If not, check out the GWAE podcast for 1/23/20 where we had a ticket broker who will buy your unwanted tickets.

Maybe cruising isn't your thing. We enjoy the break --- the travel --- and the entertainment at night.

Next month, South Point is offering free buffets four days a week for the entire month. You can save up the tickets. We have two different groups we treat. This allows us to "be generous" without spending a lot.

[DougJ]

To each his own.

If you NEVER go out of town and like your own home better than staying in a casino, fine. We go out of town, periodically.
. . . Having access to rooms out of town is useful. . . . .

Next month, South Point is offering free buffets four days a week for the entire month. You can save up the tickets. We have two different groups we treat. This allows us to "be generous" without spending a lot.
[/quote]

Of course, we are all different.

We travel a lot, but don't choose a holiday destination based on whether it has a casino. Lucky for us, we don't want to go to Biloxi, Joliet, or St. Louis. We maximized creative accumulation of miles and points for decades, LONG before a certain gambling forum jumped on the travel bandwagon with their blog. So, it's not that we "NEVER" go out of town, but we visit fabulous destinations like Bora Bora and Prague (First Class) for nothing more than taxes and fees. Sorry, no casinos there.

Re: South Point buffets ..... definitely "to each their own." YUCK. I am embarrassed to bring anyone to their buffet, and no one wants lung cancer from their intolerable smoky air quality. South Point is gross