Sometimes casinos give you money just to come in and play. There are a number of considerations concerning how you should deal with this.
For this article, I’m going to assume the amount the casino offers you is $1,000. I understand this is much higher than many of you receive and much lower than others receive. There is no one number I can pick that will duplicate what each of my readers would get — so I decided to pick a round number which should allow each of you to adjust accordingly.
Furthermore, to start with, I’m going to assume the money is in the form of play-it-through-at-least-once free play rather than cash. This is fairly typical for most video poker players but by no means universal. The decisions on how to play it can be very similar for cash versus free play, but there are differences that should be considered which I will discuss later in the article.
There can be any number of reasons casinos send money, but it’s almost always based on previous play. Sometimes, for an out-of-towner, it is the financial equivalent of the monthly mailer for a local resident. Locals with a certain amount of play get $250 a week for four weeks while an out-of-towner might get $1,000 once during the month because they come in less frequently. It could be “on spec” from the Player Development department because one of the hosts says you were a suitable player at another casino where that host had previously worked. Possibly you’ve shown your willingness to gamble at a related property elsewhere.
The first thing you need to decide is whether the offer is big enough to attract you. If it’s all the way across the country and you have to pay your airfare, $1,000 may not be enough. If it’s a few miles away, $1,000 is probably way more than enough to get you in the front door. (For example, I will drive across Vegas for $50. I will not make a trip into a casino to pick up $5 even if I was at the casino next door. Each of us sets our own parameters here.)
Another thing you need to decide is whether you want to play enough to continue to get offers from this casino or to only do a “collect and run.” There’s no one-size-fits-all answer here. Are the games in that casino good? How much time do you have? Is the casino conveniently located? Do you have a good relationship with that casino? All of these questions (and others) should be answered and factored into your decision of whether or not you take advantage of this offer.
You can get away with stiffing a particular casino one time easily enough. But if this casino shares a database with other casinos where you intend to continue playing, stiffing a casino can definitely affect your offers elsewhere. Also, if you stiff a former host you can be sure you won’t get a nice offer when that same host changes jobs again.
The quality of the games available in a casino can be researched by consulting www.vpfree2.com or by posting a question on certain video poker Internet forums. It’s also nice to have some idea of what the casino would expect from you in order for you to continue receiving such nice offers in the future. Calling up a host you don’t know and asking directly sometimes paints you as an “angle-shooter” who is looking to give the least possible play while getting the most benefits. Casinos are often understandably wary of such players.
If a host you know extends an invitation, then you might consider the following: Call her up and explain that you don’t want to get her in trouble; how much action should you play so that her recommendation to make you an offer looks good? You’re seeking the same information as in the preceding paragraph, but this time you come across as the friend of the host looking out for her rather than as an angle-shooter only looking out for yourself. It’s all in the nuance!
If you know other players who play at that casino, you might ask them how much they play and how much they receive. Not everybody will give you a straightforward answer — but if you’ve given them information in the past, often they will help you now. If you’ve stingily kept everything secret in the past, you may well be on your own this time.
If it’s part of a major chain, such as a new Harrah’s property, and you’ve played enough at other sister properties in order to justify the invitation, then you probably already have a sense of how that system works. If it’s a brand new casino not affiliated with anyone else, you’ll have to guess what they require.
If you have appropriate discipline and resources, it’s often a good idea to apply for a line of credit before your first visit. A player who establishes a $20,000 or larger line of credit would likely be more welcome than a player who didn’t set one up. Such a player would likely get a bigger second offer than one who didn’t go this route. This presumes that you have both good credit and more than $20,000 in cash sitting in a bank account somewhere. If you do, it’s a valuable asset to exploit. If you sometimes get drunk and crash and burn, you need to avoid having a line of credit like the plague! Know yourself!
If I wish to be invited back, I’m going to play enough so that my expected loss is something like 75% of what they are giving me. Let’s assume I’m going to be playing 9/6 Double Double Bonus (98.98%) and there’s a 0.25% slot club. This means that for every $100,000 coin-in I run through the machine, the casino wins (on average) $1002 and gives me back $250 in cash back. This is about the right amount to play to justify $1,000 front money.
This is a “heaven or hell” game so I could easily be up or down $10,000 or more on this much play. This is not particularly important to me. The amount I lose on average is more important to me than whether I won or lost this particular trip. If you only play until your ACTUAL loss is $750 or so, sometimes that means you are going to play $5,000 or less. No casino can continue to justify sending you 20% of your coin-in on a game that only makes 1% for them. If I actually lose $10,000 this time, my next offer may well be $2,500 and that time I just might WIN $10,000.
If I’m trying to establish myself, I frequently avoid the loosest games. Many casinos these days have 9/6 Jacks or Better (or even looser for low stakes) but punish players who play such a game. While I’m getting established, I want a reputation as a player who will give the casino action rather than as a player who is always out for the best deal for himself. Over time, I may gradually shift to the looser games, but not at the start.
Sometimes you’ll get an offer of cash instead of free play. For many purposes this is the same, but in some ways it’s different. If it’s cash, you have to pick up the money yourself, showing ID. If it’s free play, somebody with your card and pin number can pick it up for you. Let’s say a buddy and I (both of whom live in Las Vegas) each receive $1,000 free play offers from an out-of-state casino where we both have player cards. There’s room here for a “deal” of some sort if one of us wanted to “collect and run” and the other of us wanted to play enough to establish himself. Hopefully the guy who played on his buddy’s card would be smart enough to play games where W2Gs are either impossible or at least highly unlikely. Casinos (justifiably) frown on somebody else picking up appearance money and frequently punish such activity when they find it.