Can someone help a newbie out with some comps questions?

I've heard that most places look at $25 and up when rating table game players. So maybe someone who plays lots of table games will chime in.

If your budget is $1600, $400 per day x 4 days, you might wish to gamble on only 3 days and dedicate $800 to play at Aria. Sometimes the gambling day varies per casino so ask at the Players Club. If I wanted to get on Aria's radar, I would do all my gaming on 1 day at Aria and not use my MGM card anywhere else during my stay in Vegas. Earning 1000 points at Aria will look better to Aria then earning 250 points at Aria and 250 each at Bellagio, MGM and Mirage.

Casino marketing and hosts look at all types of variables when sending offers and are like a chameleon, always changing. That's why people constantly ask, I play the same as my friend and why are our offers different. My advice to you is to concentrate your play at the location(s) you would like to receive comps from and have fun doing so.

Well, I think if you play $25 a hand at BJ for 4 hours you might get a mailer for a discounted room.

That would be the minimum amount of play they will look at in order to send you something.

If you are just looking for comps then slot play is your best bet especially at Harrah's.

MGM treats table players better than Harrah's.

This is not really rocket science.
The more you play the better comps you will receive.

Visiting frequently does not hurt either. LOL

Red chip crapshooters get approximately no love. Lotsa years, little comps: it's not fair but it's gotta be said. Time on table is important, if you're not a nickel player, and the craps writers are correct that staying off the felt will keep you in the game for longer. My feet hurt, so I go, plus I play red. The most important statement was in the initial post--dont play for comps. Good Luck!

Watty,

Any results on your trip? Hope you get some good comps!

Hey Watty,

I would also encourage people to walk a very fine line when going after Comps. What they should really do is play whatever they are normally going to play and then deal with whatever the casino then offers you.

Otherwise, this could very easily become a very costly endeavor.

The reason why is that you might end up playing more than you normally would and possibly lose more money, just for the chance of getting some kind of comp.

I do guess though that it can depend on what kind of value you put on the comp itself and if you then think that it is possibly worth losing more money than you could actually pay outright for the comp itself.

RecVPPlayer

In your original post you said you still want to spen a lot of time at the craps table.
There will not be a $5 game at Aria which means $10-$15 pass line with odds backing it up on one bet will put 15% of you daily loss budget at risk on one bet.
For rating purposes odds do not count so you would be a $10 player and probably not rated.If you placed a couple more numbers for $10 or $12 each you would be above the rating minimum but exposing too much of your daily budget with risk of ruin being way too high.
As others said,try slots or VP at low stakes.Maybe Monte Carlo or Luxor would get you on the map.

Hey Watty,

I know that your trip is probably over by now, but based on how much money you could afford to lose a day, I think that for Craps you probably would get more bang for your buck by staying and playing in Downtown LV as opposed to on The Strip.

I say this because in Downtown at least at most places there, they could probably be able to rate you at a lower denomination level as opposed to on The Strip.

RecVPPlayer

They have a few thoughts here: viceloungeonline

I do hope you'll update us with a trip report!

Hey everyone. Thanks so much for all your help. I'm proud to say I stayed disciplined and didn't just play for comps. Rather I just played to have fun and do what I would have done anyway. So here's the report:

I stayed at Imperial Palace for free. Nothing special there. Because of laziness, I ended up doing all my gambling for 3 straight days at IP. I played a ton of craps at a $5 table, and I really don't know what they were tracking with me, but I know for a fact I heard someone behind the table point me out specifically and say "he's being rated." I was playing the $5 table as if it were a $10 table, if that makes any difference. I love craps so much, I bet I spent 20 hours on the table in those three days.

Thanks to one very hot run (made over $1,100 on one shooter), I had plenty of money to throw in the slots. I was able to feed several hundred dollars per day through some of those machines. I intended to hit some VP and maybe roulette, but had so much fun on the craps table that I never even did.

Then on the last day, I went to Aria. I played (and lost- but I could afford to, since the first 3 days went well) with $900 at a $10 table. Lost it all over about 4 hours. From there I also probably ran about $1000 through the slot machines, coming out ahead by about $200 or so. So I was able to at least give a decent day of effort at Aria.

Anyway, turns out I did pretty good in the comp system with Harrah's. I got all my meals comped to me (like 4 meals at different places in IP) when I checked out and still have some comp money available. Also my offers immediately got better. I have a lot more free nights available to me now (not just at IP), and even have an offer for 2 free tickets to Tim McGraw and Faith Hill in August, along with free rooms. Oh and I'm now in the second level of their program, whatever it's called.

As for my Mlife account, it doesn't appear that my one day at Aria really did anything for me. No big deal, I didn't expect much from one day. I have like $25 in express comps and I don't know what these mean, but I have 194 HGS points and I need 6700 tier credits to reach Pearl level.

Anyway, all told I only lost a few hundred dollars which was well within my budget, but I had a lot of fun and did increase my standing with Harrah's, if nothing else.

Sounds like you made Platinum. Good for you. Now you can check out your offers on the CE site.
Probably get some for other places too, not just IP.