September 4th, 2021

Before continuing on the subject of casino rewards, I need to repeat what I have emphasized many times before: Any suggestions and examples I give in my writings do not apply to all casinos at all times. With any casino information, there are so many nuances and exceptions, so few universal considerations. I grow weary of having to so frequently use “most,” “sometimes,” “usually,” “occasionally.”

Furthermore, not all information I share will be of interest or usable to all casino visitors. When people write to me and say that they don’t see how anyone could patronize X or Y casino company, they’re overlooking the differences in players: their goals, skills, experience, bankroll, and location. If that company has casinos all over the country, you can bet some players are finding good plays for themselves in some of them.

With that emphasized, I’ll continue to discuss some of the techniques players can use today that will generate more rewards, even in this time of challenging casino conditions.

One of the most common ways to score better casino mailers, including the higher free play you treasure, is to take notice of a common casino marketing practice that looks at a customer’s daily average and sends out rewards based on that number, with the more you play the better your mailer. Some casinos call it trip average for those who stay overnight.

In either case, one of the pieces of information that goes into figuring that “average” is from the tracking data gathered during the time you have played a game using your players card on a machine or at a table game. If that sounds simple enough to understand, just wait for the variations I need to warn you about.  Many casinos turn this into a complex system, not just counting the days you actually played, but adding in days you showed your players card to do anything: check in/out of the hotel, enter a VIP lounge, use a coupon or comp, or merely check your point balance at a club kiosk. I used to tease my friends: Hide your players card when you go into the restroom or you might be “tripped.”

I can give you only a brief general look at this valuable reward-boosting technique here, but I spent several pages in More Frugal Gambling discussing “averages,” listing the many ways you can ruin them and the best ways to maximize them. In the book, I touched on  tips for those who are staying on a several-night visit in a hotel-casino, such as avoiding short-time play on the days you check in and out and bunching up your play on the other days. Some couples keep one of their cards for short-term play and use the other only on days when they can play longer, keep up a higher average, and thus get better mailers. I also discussed a related method to use to establish yourself at a new casino: No walk-through play on your first visit, but make it the biggest daily play your bankroll will allow. Then sit back and wait and often you might be pleasantly surprised at the juicy mailers that start coming your way.

[Editor’s Note: Jean is notoriously modest about touting her own products, but when it comes to More Frugal Gambling, even though it was published in 2003 and some of the details and examples in the book are out of date, most of the basics not only still apply, but also provide valuable guidance. And the 84-page section on comps is still the best single resource to help players navigate the maze of the casino reward system. Best of all, the hefty 408-page book sells for a ridiculously low $6.99.]

I can’t leave the subject of daily average without talking about “theo.” You may have heard a player or even a casino host talk about the ADT (average daily theoretical). Too many players believe – and I must confess that I didn’t understand or appreciate this concept for a long time – that this meant the casino would reward you by looking at your theoretical win/loss figure based on the expected value (EV) of the game. For example, if you play a 99.7% game, your long-term theoretical loss would be .3% of your coin-in and you assumed that the casino would reward you in your mailer, with free play and other goodies, by returning a percentage of that figure.

This is not the way the system works. The casino sets its own theo, the percentage it uses for the expected player loss. For no reason that I have ever been able to figure out, the casino may set its theo higher or lower than the EV would dictate. Sometimes it’s close to the EV math. For example, in many casinos, it’s well known that the theo for 8/5 Bonus Poker is higher than for 9/6 Jacks or Better. (Don’t be confused – you want the casino theo higher, so the rewards will be higher; you want your theoretical EV loss to be lower, so you won’t lose so much.)

I hear your next question – if you aren’t too confused now to even know what to ask.  😊 How do I find games that have a significantly higher theo than the EV of the game? I’m sorry that I can’t give you an easy answer to this. It’s an advanced technique that only a small number of skilled players readily use – and they are not talking, except perhaps to a few trusted fellow players. Occasionally, a friendly host will reveal the theo of a game you play, but most players wouldn’t ask one about this; it might target them as knowledgeable and the casino might reduce their rewards.

This brings me to another very important way many players find information about casinos with better reward systems: They talk to other players. I can’t emphasize this enough.

Some information will never be found online. You may get hints of possible opportunities when you follow discussions on the gambling forums, but the more valuable those opportunities are, the more protective of that information players in the know will be. Obviously, you shouldn’t go up to strangers playing a certain game in the casino and ask them why they think it’s a good game, especially if you recognize them as a skilled player. But if you’ve been friendly to other players and casual chatting has made you acquaintances and eventually perhaps even friends, it will open up many avenues to share information.

I first met many of my precious long-time friends 30+ years ago as we were sitting beside each other at a video poker machine and struck up a conversation about strategy. I often talk to newer skilled players today and ask them how they got interested in advantage play and how they already have learned so much. No one has ever said that they just look up things on the Internet. It’s almost always “I met this player who became a friend and …”