Casinos generally object to any selling of comps, whether that is in written rules or just unwritten casino policy. On the other side, players often feel that if they earn a comp, this is a “gift” that they have the right to do anything they want with it.

Now we enter the Grey Zone. Your friends and family no longer want all that casino “stuff” they don’t need that you try to give them because you can’t use it? You decide to have a garage sale to clean out your closets and storage areas? I’m sure the casino doesn’t care that you made a few dollars selling their “junk.”  You occasionally have some comped tickets to a show that doesn’t interest you. You mention it to a friend and he volunteers to take them off your hands and he offers to pay you. You want to just give them to him but he insists so you give him a discounted bargain price.   You have a long-time friend who needs a room in Vegas for a 3-day trip during a high-rate period and he says he will pay you if you get him one you can get comped. You say you wouldn’t charge a friend, but he presses some bills into your hand at the end of the visit. I don’t imagine the casino is going to punish you for an occasional favor for a friend.

During the last 30+ years we have been earning comps in casinos, the last 17 while we have been Vegas residents, we have let friends/family stay in our comped rooms for hundreds of nights.  In almost all cases, we have spoken to our hosts about these arrangements and emphasized that we would give the same amount of play as if we were sleeping in the casino bed ourselves.   There has never been a problem and since no money was changing hands this has never been a gray area for us.

However, we know many players that have made a business of selling comps, entering a very very gray area.  If they do it very carefully, they often get by with it – at least for a while, i.e., selling items and gift cards they get from casinos on eBay.   But frequently I hear about problems they eventually encounter, particularly the casino taking countermeasures against them. They may be no-mailed, making play at that casino no longer an advantage possibility. More seriously, the casino may revoke their players club membership so their ability to earn future comps is cut off. And most serious, these players may be 86’d from the property – and often from all properties of that same company.

We advantage players have enough problems finding good plays these days without making our problem even worse. Of course a wise advantage player is always looking for ways to boost the EV of their plays. However, whatever ethical standards you have – or don’t have – about what you can do with your casino comps, you might want to consider the possible negative consequences of becoming a comp salesman on the side. They might cost you more than what you can gain.

If it isn’t politically correct to parody or in any way disrespect the  Muslim religion, why doesn’t that common courtesy extend to the Christian faith?

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One casino  advertised drink specials for Labor Day weekend with a picture of Uncle Sam saying, “I want you to work less, drink more.”  What a wonderful way to show they are a caring responsible and patriotic company.  The whole PR department should be fired!

–Not “any.”  Every player, casual or advantage, has to draw his/her own line in the sand of moral standards.  As for me, the action taken by these “accused crooks” is not even in a gray area in my sandbox, but in the jet black corner.

–I keep getting questions asking me where are the “best” places to play VP in Vegas or some other jurisdiction.  I have said many times that I can not recommend specific casinos because I don’t know what your bankroll is, how many hours a week or month you plan to play, what games for which you have studied the strategy, what denomination you prefer, what your goals are, or umpteen other factors that would influence your choices.

Related to that question is one about why Brad and I play at a certain casino even thought there are “no good games there.”  We do not make our choices on “good games” but on “good plays.”  Big difference.  A “not-so-good game” may be a great play because of extra bennies, like special promotions, multiple points, tournaments, drawings, mailed free play or cash extras, etc.  Many of these are known to the public – i.e., advertised bonus points on holidays – but many are not because they come in special mailed offers or calls from hosts just to specific  customers, often with different offers for different levels of past play.  Also not every “good machine” is known to the general public, although most we play could be found by anyone who scours the extensive database found in vpFREE2.com.

–The last question I want to address is one I have discussed frequently in the past.  Do we ever pick up free play at a casino and not play any there that same day?  Yes, if it is one which doesn’t send out their free play mailers based on daily average. There we can wait and play on another day, perhaps when there are bonus points or other promotions which make it a better “play day.”

However, some casinos, even if they don’t use the daily average method, frown on this practice and  have even taken measures against such  players, usually something like cutting off their mailers entirely.  So in these casinos we usually play at least a little on the free-play pickup days.  

How do we know what any one casino’s policy is on this subject?  Word gets around pretty quickly in the VP community.  Players tell their VP-playing friends.  The news is posted on VP Internet forums when someone finds he is on the no-mail list.  But sometimes you just can’t know for sure, so it never hurts in those cases to play at least a bit when you pick up your free play.

I think about the general subject of charity a lot – and down through the years I have shared some of my ideas about this on Internet forums and in other public writings. I have spoken about our long-time work with the Salvation Army and Visiting Nurse Service when we were living in Indianapolis. And here in Las Vegas I have organized some projects where my gambling friends could make donations for the needy. And I have mentioned several times how much I love my current volunteer project, working with kindergarteners in a school that serves many low-income families.

However, Brad and I prefer to do most of our charitable giving privately. Actually both years we have been in New Orleans we have contributed money and shared comps with a needy family in the city, but it feels like “bragging” if I write about those specifics.

I do plan to continue writing about this subject in general terms, and I continue to encourage gamblers to have a “balanced life.” The casino environment is very artificial and can tempt a person to be narrow-minded and self-centered. We have always fought that trend. And when we have good luck in a casino, we immediately look for ways to share our good fortune. (And the amazing thing about this is that the more we give away, the more that comes back to us! I don’t worship karma, but I surely can’t deny its existence!)

Right now the disaster in Haiti is forefront in our minds. You can find many Internet sites that will give you quick ways to find reliable charities that are helping. One of the easiest ways to contribute, especially for people who feel they can give only a small amount, is by texting a message, Haiti, to 90999 on your cell phone. $10 will be added to your phone bill and given directly to the Red Cross. For details on this and other ways to contribute, click here.

I encourage you to open your heart – and give as much as you feel you can afford – at least as much as you would spend on a few hands of the slot or VP machine you usually play! I bet it willl make you feel good!

Does living and gambling in Vegas change a person?  Sure!  Do you know what one of my biggest problems was when I was in the hospital last week.  I kept feeling I should tip everyone when they did something nice for me – but I didn’t have any bills in the pocket of my hospital gown, just the portable heart monitor.  (Don’t worry about me, they were just doing a lot of tests to see why I’m not so perky these days.  All came out okay, even the MRI to see if I still had a brain.  I do.)

I just got an e-mail from the MGM Grand (where I don’t play, but I do play at sister properties so my name is on all their lists) with this subject:  “Tweet your sins for a free night at MGM Grand.”   I am SO SO tired of casinos  using the word “sin” to try to attract younger customers.  Is the younger generation that shallow – or  totally devoid of higher standards?

I don’t know how to tweet – and I’m not sure I want to learn.  I have lived quite happily for 70 years without tweeting.

I just heard (from a skilled gambler who shall remain nameless) that a friend of his saw a well-known “promotion scrambler” get handcuffed and taken in the back at the 4 Queens casino sometime last month. “He was working several peoples’ cards on their promotion–the same promotion that you wrote about in your blog. Evidently he was paying people to use their cards.”

This report does not surprise me. There is a small number of players who not only feel that “all is fair in love and war” but in casinos too. And juicy promotions can bring out the greed big time. A big slot club signing bonus going on? Gather up some of the homeless and bring them to the casinos – pay them a little bit and take the biggest chunk of the bonus for yourself. A big check-cashing bonus promotion going on? Get your non-player friends to cash their paychecks at that casino and “buy” the valuable bonus coupon they get.

I have been writing about ethics and gambling ever since I had a whole chapter subtitled “Strange Bedfellows” on that subject back in my first book, The Frugal Gambler. Here’s what I wrote in the section called “The Casino as a War Zone”: “After I’d been gambling for awhile, I realized that very little in a casino is black and white, ethically speaking. Going into a casino is kind of like entering a war zone. It’s you against the house, and it starts to seem like the house has a license to steal. So if you get a chance to steal something back, you rationalize that it’s only fair. When I started thinking that way, I knew I had to formulate my code of casino ethics. I’m not going to tell you what that entire code is, because it’s a personal thing. You’ll have to come up with you own code if you intend to ‘fight’ in this battle zone.”

I went on to say that my code is always being tested — and that is still true today because gambling ethical issues are still in a large gray area. But I must warn you that casinos ARE taking measures to ferret out those that they feel are abusing the system.