A walk down Comp Memory Lane

I posted this on another message board, but since it references an LVA-published book, I thought I would post it here as well.

I used to visit Vegas a good bit in the late 1990s. It was a different world. I would sometimes walk all the way from the MGM to Downtown, stopping in any casino that offered a funbook or good blackjack. You could get about $50 or $60 in value out of the funbooks with very little play. Yes, the match plays and such weren't a sure thing, but I came to gamble. Video poker was treated just like a slot machine for earning points, and comps were darn generous.

I recently went to the Internet Archive to see if I could find saved versions of the "Lodestone's Las Vegas," a video poker and comp website authored by John Kelly, later in cooperation with Skip Hughes. This website was active from the late 1990s to the mid- to late-2000s. It started out free but then went to paid subscriptions. One of the features I liked the most was the Top 40 list of casinos. In awarding "stars" for the quality of inventory, a casino where the best game was 9-6 JOB got only two of five stars. A casino where the best game was 8-5 Bonus got only one star. I think these guys would be stunned to learn that at lots of Strip casinos the very best game is 7-5 Bonus. In any event, here is a link to a "sample" of the Top 40. You can do your own snooping to find additional info through the Archive.

LODESTONE'S LAS VEGAS VIDEO POKER AND SLOT CLUB RATINGSLODESTONE'S VIDEO POKER AND SLOT CLUB RATINGS (archive.org)

After having some fun looking at this old stuff and shedding a tear for all the stuff that no longer exists, I visited Amazon and purchased a cheap, used copy of Jeffrey Compton's "Las Vegas Advisor Guide to Slot Clubs," published in 1995. The book is worthless today except as a window to the past. I got lucky and got a copy of the book owned by someone who clipped news items about slot club changes from the LVA and stuck them in the book on the appropriate casino page. He also took a number of notes about comps and such.

Interesting factoids from the book or notes:

■ Compton wasn't a fan of the Barbary Coast slot club, except for triple-point specials. With triple points five hours of dollar vp would earn a comp to Michael's, a top gourmet room. The former book owner in a note said only cashback was offered, no dinner comp, but it must have existed at one time.

■ Compton's "A" list was Desert Inn, Flamingo, Golden Nugget, Sam's Town, and San Remo.

■ The Desert Inn was offering one percent cash back on its 9-6 JOB games, with additional food comps sometimes available for bigger players. A note from the former book owner said the cash back had been reduced to .86% in March, 1996, and that the casino was banning professional vp players.

■ The former book owner had a note that $200 coin-in per day was good for a buffet for two at Imperial Palace. 25-cent play for two hours at Treasure Island was good for a comp meal for one.

■ The Golden Nugget had .67% cash back with a twist. Machines had a countdown from 75 to 0; after reaching 0 the machine would spit out a ticket worth 50 cents. When cashing tickets, they also came with a food comp. 100 tickets was worth $50 plus dinner for two at Stephano's, a really nice Italian restaurant. 50 tickets were worth $25 plus a coffee shop comp for two. 40 tickets got $20 and two buffet comps. An interesting wrinkle was that you could walk around the casino and find machines that were about to hit zero, easily doubling or tripling the comp and cash-back rate.

My personal memory is of very generous comp policies everywhere, and video poker was an incredible way to generate comps. Mirage/TI returned .67% cashback and .67% comps on their 9-6 JOB games. Room offers and special event invites didn't go against one's comp account, and invites often included an offer of double cashback or double comps. In the mid-2000s Casino Royale offered lots of free rooms and coupons that for six months or so offered double pay on royal flushes. They eventually changed it so that the royal had to be on the bottom playline on multi-plays. I don't remember getting many comps from Binion's Horseshoe , but I would love to walk back in and see 40 single-deck blackjack tables.

Anyone else have fun memories of great deals of the past?

I remember a promo, I don't remember where it was, but you got a scratch ticket for every slot or VP payout $25 or over. The scratchers were mostly worth $2 but some were worth $5/25. They had 10/7 double bonus for dollars. Now, you hit a straight or better about once every 28 hands. So even at $2 each, the scatchers were worth $6 for every $140 you played. Amazingly, they kept it up for two months.

Kevin,

I remember the "glory days" as well. Plenty of single deck BJ around town. Easy to count and not get caught if one was not greedy. Binions had a buffet upstairs. Friday was king crab legs. Always got a comp.

I looked at my records and forgot how good it was back then. Take 2007. A sample from October:

Binions - $420 free play (FP)

Fiesta Rancho - $190 FP,3x pts 6 days, 4x pts 1 day, 5x pts 4 days

South Point - $320 FP, 2x pts 1 day

Texas Station - $820 FP, 4x pts 7 days, 6x pts 2 days

Rampart - $200 FP, 2x 4 days

There were some others as well. Note the free play was for both Mrs. Don and myself.

Next I looked at the games being offered in 2007:

Four Queens - $1 & $2 10/7 DB (the $2 was removed in March)

South Point - $2 NSUD

Palms - $1 & $2 NSUD in 3 & 5 play; $2 10/7 DB

Texas - $1 10/7 DB; $1 BDW progressive

Fiesta - $1 10/7 DB progressive; $1 9/6 Jacks progressive

Gold Coast - $2 NSUD

Rampart - $2 NSUD

LV Club - $1 10/7 DB

Golden Nugget - $5 9/6 Jacks

Fitzgeralds - $1 8/5 BP progressive 

As Archie Bunker sang "those were the days!"

I remember always having received so many offers, I only bothered to cash in the best ones. Only $20 free play? Feh! Not worth the detour!

And yeah, the machine selection back then...it makes one weep in mourning :(

Great post Frank!  Yes, people who are new to the comp game today have no idea how incredbile things were in the late 90's into the early 2000's.   

Funny, I too have looked at the Lodestone's site on the archive.   Here's one of the pages https://web.archive.org/web/20031018115946/https://www.flash.net/~mchino/hitrun.htm

How about staying/playing at the Mirage (the top place in LV at the time), playing 9/6 VP with .67 cash back (makes the game positive EV) and about the same in comps?   Playing enough of course would get you comp rooms and VIP tournament invites.  It's hard to believe now.

How about Sam's Town's 4 play Full Pay Dueces wild machines?   $10k a day coin in got you a Gold card (comped meals) and a suite  (okay, that only lasted about a year).

On of my favorite, easier slam dunks that went on for many years, was the $20 comp voucher at the Reserve that you could earn by playing about 20 minutes on a 5 play 25c 10/7 double bonus machine on Fridays.  And yes, that voucher would pay for a full filet mignon dinner at their steakhouse, with salad, potato, veggy, etc.  AND you kept the points, they weren't deducted when receiving the comp voucher. This lasted about 7 years.

And then playing 9/6 Jacks at Terribles on 3x points day, when $3,333k coin in got you a $75 voucher for dinner at a few local restaurants (McCormick and Schmicks was our choice), which just about covered dinner for 2.   That went on for about 10 years.   Yes, that's well over 2% of your coin in, given back in comps.

How does one pronounce Terribles? I saw it from my taxi cab window and the driver corrected me and gave me the proper pronunciation. I don't remember it, but almost none of the letters in the name are pronounced. Or maybe I misheard what he said.

It's pronounced the way you might suppose, with an apostrophe before the "s." The cab driver might have been yanking your chain, or maybe English was his third language.

OK, how about, "If you want to visit Terribles, then you should wear a bull's horns"? (That's the best I can do.)

Yes I remember well. My first visit to Las Vegas at the Tender age of 21.   I worked at a little steak house near the Sands. Around 1965. After a few months went back to California. I really started

to bargain hunt in the 1990. My friend was living in Las Vegas I would visit two three times a year. With a handful of fun books and entertainment book when it had some good bargains . Not so much now. Even the hotel rooms had magazines with deals. We ate till busting. 99 cent for everything from a giant hotdog. Breakfast, and crab cocktails. I stayed at Golden Nugget a lot

It was a polished Diamond then.Then the Tropicana they offered comps. Don't even get a ad

from them anymore. Sad nevertheless it will go soon. I loved there pools. The icening on the

cake was lounge shows Good entertainment for cost of a drink. More important the shows

were plenty of real celebrities. Not tributes. The cost was reasonable. Most recently last 5-6 years

my go too is LVA coupons still some good deals for current times.

I do miss those days gone forever My dear friend as well.Still I always have a great time in the new

Las Vegas 

I just want to mention two of the degradations. 

1) Back in the day, when you got points for video poker at the same rate as slots. And some of the video poker was FPDW.

2) Back in the day, when you got actual comps for sports bets and the sports comp rate was the same as race comp rate, sometimes as much as a buck for every $125 played (Circus-Circus). And you could nicely ask for discretionary comps on top of it all.

Not really comps but.....

I remember first joining this website (circa 2003-ish).    The LVA matchplay coupons were not tracked electronically by the casinos so you could trade with other people and get a whole bunch of them.   I remember accumulating 20 matchplay coupons for Hard Rock, Riviera, and Rampart.   And then you had the American Casino guide ones two.  You could buy multiple books of those and keep hitting the same places over and over.   And even the local newspaper had Boyd matchplays.   And the little magazine you get in your hotel room had matchplays and slot play.

Between all those coupons and the sign up bonuses for all the casinos you really didnt have to play much of your own money.     

Then I remember taking my father for the $5 steak at Ellis Island.   Never saw him so happy.  He wanted to move to Vegas and go there every night.