Not long ago I wrote about a time I was in Reno when there was a power outage at the Eldorado, the hotel where I was staying and playing. After calling the Peppermill to make sure they were open, Bonnie and I, along with one other player, took a Lyft to that casino (maybe two miles away) and paid retail for a meal at Caf\u00e9 Milano. I commented that it was a novel experience for me to pay for a meal in a casino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One reader commented: \u201cDoes it bother you in the least that you\u2019re so damn cheap that you won\u2019t pay for a meal outside of a casino?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Another reader came to my \u201crescue,\u201d if that\u2019s the appropriate term, but I thought the subject was worth exploring a bit. So here we are.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Since I moved to Las Vegas in 1993, I\u2019ve received more than $1 million dollars in \u201cfree\u201d food. I put the quotation marks around the word \u201cfree\u201d because I always tip on meals, comped or not. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
This doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019ve saved $1 million dollars on food. On some of the more expensive meals, the tip was more than I would have paid for a meal that wasn\u2019t comped. Still, I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve saved several hundred thousand dollars over that time period by this practice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t consider this \u201ccheap.\u201d (Or \u201cdamn cheap\u201d or even \u201cdamned cheap,\u201d which I believed is better English). I consider this as part of the slot club benefits that result from my decision to gamble at a particular game in a particular casino at a particular time. Food comps are part of the equation when I decide whether a game is positive enough to play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There are times I pay for food in a casino. If I\u2019m playing at the South Point on a Monday, I\u2019ll often eat there using points because on Mondays, seniors get half price meals if they use their points. That makes their breakfast buffet cost $8 worth of points rather than $16 worth of cash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I have essentially unlimited food comps at a casino 15 miles away from the South Point, but driving 30 miles roundtrip (and spending more than one extra hour traveling) to save $8 is a stupid type of economy, in my opinion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Let\u2019s say I have a $40 food comp at a casino. I check to see if the sales tax goes away when you use the comps. If I only want $20 worth of food and it\u2019s a \u201cuse it or lose it\u201d comp, I\u2019ll sometimes take food home. Not always, though. If I\u2019ll be driving around Las Vegas in the summertime and don\u2019t have an ice chest in the car, I won\u2019t take food to go because it will spoil before I arrive home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
If I spend more than the comp for a meal, I\u2019ll usually pay with points (if I have them) in those casinos where sales tax disappears when you pay with comps and points.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I\u2019m playing and all food is free, it\u2019s smart to take advantage of that food — saving both time and money. There are casinos I\u2019ve played at where I don\u2019t take advantage of food comps because the quality of the meals is sub-par. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
I play less in casinos than I used to, so Bonnie and I eat at home more than occasionally. I don\u2019t usually have comps at grocery stores.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Near the end of the month, Bonnie and I take inventory of what unused food comps we have that will expire. Sometimes there\u2019s no way we can use up all the comps. Often, we\u2019ll go out to eat at casinos more in the last week of the month than the first week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The original question asked if it bothers me in the least to be so damn cheap. The simple answer is no, it doesn\u2019t bother me at all. One of the \u201csecrets\u201d of obtaining and keeping a bankroll is not to spend money on things I don\u2019t need. And if I have food for free, I don\u2019t need to pay for a meal somewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But if Bonnie and\/or I are hungry and no food comp is available, I pay for meals.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Not long ago I wrote about a time I was in Reno when there was a power outage at the Eldorado, the hotel where I was staying and playing. After calling the Peppermill to make sure they were open, Bonnie and I, along with one other player, took a Lyft to that casino (maybe two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15763,"featured_media":843442,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[558,643,557],"tags":[561,585],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/09\/spinach-2.png?fit=500%2C300&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870548"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15763"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=870548"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870548\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":870549,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870548\/revisions\/870549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/843442"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870548"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870548"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lasvegasadvisor.com\/shop\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870548"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}