With Free Play, How Do You Know When You're Ahead?

I just don’t get free play. I tend to avoid it even when gifted free play. How do you know when you’re ahead? Am I forced to play it all or can I withdraw some and cash out?

[Editor's Note: We're delighted that Jean Scott felt well enough to answer this question for us, especially since she was our first and only choice to take it on.]

When Deke first shot me this question, my thoughts went wild. Who in the world would try to avoid getting money? Because free play is money!

But I quickly settled myself down and realized that this topic, like almost every one on casinos or gambling, requires some further explanation. After all, free play is money a casino gives you, but a lot strings are attached before you can stick it in your pocket. Players like this one who submitted the question need a lot of details to fully understand it.

So here we go.

Your free play can come from a casino in various ways. It might be a coupon for table play; you simply hand it over to the dealer, who gives you special chips that have to be played. When you win, you're paid in regular chips that can be cashed in at the cage.

Free play for machine use is a little more complicated.

It might come as a special physical ticket you insert into the bill acceptor. Or it might be loaded on your players club card. In either case, you must run the full amount of the free play once through the machine.

Which leads us right into the question of how you know when to cash out. Hopefully, you've been hitting some paying hands along the way, but now your free play amount and your winnings are all mixed in together.

Some people want to put the whole amount of the free play in their pocket and walk, so they keep track of the number of hands they're playing. For example, if they have $100 in free play and are playing $5 a hand, they'll count up to 20 hands and cash out. Whatever's left, if anything, is profit.

Alternatively, those who have larger amounts and/or don’t feel the need to be that exact just cash out every few hands until the machine shows that they don’t have any free play left. Then they can put all those accumulated tickets back in the machine to make one win ticket to take to the cage or kiosk and exchange for cash.

That should answer the basic questions. I could write pages (and I have in my books and on my blogs) about whether the above maneuvers are always wise. Players have their own personal goals. Some view free play as just a positive addition to their bankroll and a way to increase their entertainment time in the casino. Serious players will study how casinos view their use of free play and determine future benefits. That's what Brad and I did for many many years in countless free-play situations.

But that doesn't in the least mean I recommend against going for the gusto. “If the casino wants to give me money, I'll take every bit of free play that comes my way, even if it only lasts three minutes! Sometimes I’ll hit a big jackpot with it, then I’ll dash off an email to Jean Scott. And she’ll be happy I shared this good news!”

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Comments

Vegas Fan Oct-22-2024

On some machines

The color of the amount In the machine is red when you start playing with free play, then changes to white when you're using"real"money.

Tim Soldan Oct-22-2024

How do the casinos view the player's actions?

Sure would have liked to hear more about how the casinos view the free play usage, as Jean mentioned. I'm probably the player they like least, as I am the onw who does the countdown to how many spins it takes to get the free play used and then cash out and pack up and leave. Just like yesterday we went to an unnamed casino, ate on a coupon and had to join the players club to use it. As we had never had a card there, got one and with it came $20 in free play. The coupon was for $25 in food. Our bill came to $42, got $13 out of the twenty in fp so $38 toward our food left a paltry $5 cost for a great meal, plus we tipped the server on top of that. Now if that had been a casino that I usually played at, I think maybe I should'nt have done it that way. Jean please give us a little more explanation.... or anybody?

Gregory Oct-22-2024

Avoid free play?

Why?  Free play is one of the reasons I go to the casino.  A couple of months ago my $25 in free play scored me $1400 on nickel Ultimate-X five play deuces.  People say you can't win on free play...it's just not true. I've won many times on free play.  To the machine, credits are credits.  No sense leaving it on the table.

Kevin Rough Oct-22-2024

Blame Casino Royale

I think some people don't understand free play because of the old machines at Casino Royale.  You could only cash out a jackpot.  Otherwise you had to play all the credits won.  So I don't think this is a dumb question.

But then I remember the first time I ever got free play thirty years ago.  The Claridge in Atlantic City sent me a post card which I had to turn in at the player's club desk where I was then handed two rolls of quarters.

Randall Ward Oct-22-2024

freeplay

freeplay is great. that's all

Sandra Ritter Oct-22-2024

I love free play

I always tie my trip with a free play promotion. My next trip will have 5 free nights, free play and casino credit. I play my free play once through then cash out. If my daughter(s) is(are) with me, we all play it and then I let them split what we "won".

Andrew Krum Oct-22-2024

royal

I hit a royal on my 1st hand with my 5$ in free play. Free play is free money.

Barry Inciong Oct-22-2024

In the past cashing out forfeited remaining freeplay

Anyone remember that many years ago, if you cashed out, you would simply lose unused freeplay?  You could not bring it up on another machine.  It was simply gone. 
 Basically they would encourage you to keep playing hoping you would were not tracking when you played all of it.  It seems that this policy has changed universally but I still wish there was more transparency.

sunny78 Oct-22-2024

"free"

In the world of gambling, the question one should ask is the following: How does one get that "free" play?

There's a wise old saying that says there ain't nothing free in life. It's wise for a reason. Because it's 100% true.

Susan Johnson Oct-22-2024

fun money

Many years ago, I hit a royal on my free play!  My husband and I always play together on our free play, $20 at a time, so as to more easily keep track of when we've played enough hands.  At Southpoint, we can tell by our point total since it's $1 a point.  Some places actually keep track for you.  We play it through in the morning on a heavy play day.  It adds to our bankroll and it's fun to start out ahead!

Bob Nelson Oct-22-2024

Play it!

My one VP Royal came on a $10 free play from the MRB.  Thanks LVA!

Joseph Oct-22-2024

Freeplay

On the machines I play, how much freeplay you have left is displayed on the screen that my players card activates.

Llew Oct-23-2024

Free play

Several months ago, Hard Rock in Atlantic City had a 10x free play promo starting at midnight. So I played $.50 VP hard for 2+ hours. Checked at the kyosk on the way out. I “earned” $1.20. Hmmmm. $1.20 x 10 = $12. Not too bad for VP.

Next time I went, I checked the kiosk again. It still showed only $1.20!  No multiplier!  Wha…..? 
So I checked with a slot manager. Turns out the $1.20 was *with* the multipler.  So, basically, 2+ hours of $.50 VP play had earned me 12 cents!  Gimme a break! Now I don’t make a special trip to a casino for a mulltiplier.     Bleh

Question of the Day - 22 October 2024

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