The details of today’s incident caused me to wonder whether I should say anything to casino management. If they chose to “fix” the inconsistency it could either go in a way that would slightly benefit or slightly hurt other players. I’ve kept quiet, but I am writing about it. Maybe one or more of you will speak up about it. I’m sure this happens in more places than I know about.
The One Club is the slot club system used by Circa, Golden Gate, and The D, in downtown Las Vegas — all of which are casinos owned by Derek Stevens. Among other benefits, Bonnie and I each receive $100 in food and beverage twice a month from the One Club. We redeem these comps at 8 East and Saginaw’s Delicatessen inside Circa and Joe Vicari’s Andiamo’s Steakhouse inside The D. There are other eligible food outlets and numerous bars, but these are the places we frequent.
The idiosyncrasy that prompted this blog post is that the two restaurants at Circa include sales tax of 8.5% or so against our comp balance when we eat there and the one at the D doesn’t. So, we get $100 retail worth of food at The D and only about $92 worth at Circa. And both casinos belong to the same organization.
In many casino restaurants, sales tax disappears when you use a comp or pay with points. Things can vary when the restaurants are not owned by the casino but just rent the space. Some of these don’t accept comps at all, but others, like Ruth’s Chris Steakhouses in various Harrah’s casinos, charge extra if you are using comps.
There are other Joe Vicari restaurants around the country, so I’m guessing Andiamo’s isn’t actually owned by The D. And that’s the place that waives sales tax for compees. I can find no other Saginaw’s Delicatessens or 8 East restaurants on Google, so I’m guessing these are owned by Circa.
I’ve not met Derek Stevens, the owner of the other casinos involved here, but he has the reputation of being approachable. I believe I could find a way to ask him about his sales tax on comps policy if I tried hard enough.
But what would happen if I did? One possibility is that he would remove this internal inconsistency by starting to charge sales tax on comped dinners at Andiamo’s — which is a solution that players certainly don’t want.
So, I’ll let things be and remain curious about why things are the way they are. There are a whole lot of situations where I don’t understand things, but I don’t have a mission in life to get to the bottom of everything.
I ate at Andiamos recently. Amazing meal and well worth it!
There are 4 Andiamo’s restaurants in the Detroit area.
And tax on comps is inconsistent at many places in Las Vegas.
Here in Detroit, I used a comp at Fishbone’s , near Hollywood Casino at Greektown. They have a mandatory 18% tip ( even when dining solo sitting at the bar). And they charge sales tax on the meal AND the tip. It’s one of those things that I don’t think is worth the bother. Now, the sales tax of 6% on an 18% tip is a little over 1% but it is annoying to be taxed on a service.
The funny part is that whether the restaurant charges sales tax or doesn’t charge sales tax should not affect their bottom line. That money should go right to the state. You would think they would rather the money stay with the customer ( who might tip more or spend it) rather than give it to the state.
I was wondering about this the other day. Not in LV, but at the Hard Rock in Bristol, TN. I was unaware that sales tax is often waived on comps, which seems to be the case at the Hard Rock Cafe in the Hard Rock Casino here. I bought a meal sans comps the other day at the Hard Rock Cafe, and noticed the sales tax immediately.
I almost stopped keeping tabs on this stuff, as Tennessee previously had a 5% state sales tax on food, but 7% on retail food. Then they dropped the state sales tax to 4% but kept the tax on retail food at 7%. I quit trying to figure it out. My origin state, Pennsylvania, allegedly does not tax non-retail food, but the exceptions are so numerous and varied that one must assume you’re going to be taxed.
In addition, Bristol TN straddles the state line, so there is a Bristol VA also — same city, different tax rules depending on which side of certain streets.
Bottom line — I appreciate no tax on comped food. Will endeavor to eat as many steak dinners at the Hard Rock as possible.
Going through the Tax Commission website is that if a comped meal is from a casino’s own restaurant, it is tax-free. If it is a partnership, where another company owns the restaurant itself, the meal does count as a sale and the entity that would be on the hook for the sales tax is the casino as it is considered a transaction between the casino and the restaurant.
I’ve received the opposite information from restaurant staff when I’ve inquired about the inconsistency in taxes. I was told that Andiamos is owned by the casino and the others weren’t. Saginaws is owned by a Michigan company and 8 east by the Chef that owns Le Thai.
I agree with Albert Pearson.
Wow! Finally
Someone finds this as frustrating as I have! (Not sure why you thought if you Google a restaurant and others don’t come up that it’s owned by the casino. Surprisingly assumptive)
As far as the “should you say something”? I already have and numerous times. As this is SO frustrating to me. But alas as these are outside businesses and are rung up as a sale they say they need to charge tax to be compliant with the county.
This is just another tic in the “con” column for Circa as far as I’m concerned.
And yes! Andiamo is fantastic!
“Should you say anything?” — Well, Bob, by writing in detail about this issue on a semi-public website, I believe that you have already said something about it. And certainly someone from the three casinos you refer to probably reads your column regularly, so they are no doubt aware also.