and one other man was
ahead of me.
Here’s the conversation:
Host: “We have
you down as a $100 blackjack player playing for
12.5 hours for three days. We’ll pick up your
room and $300 in food for your stay.”
Player: “Wait a minute, didn’t you say
at this level of betting I was RLF [room, limited
food] and that I could charge everything from the
non-gourmet rooms and you’d pick it up?”
Host: “Our policy
is to pick up the non-gourmet up to a certain point.
You charged approximately $180 per day to your room
in food bills...”
Player: “My wife eats a lot.”
Host: “About $498 worth of food and we’ll
pick up $300 worth.”
Player: “But I lost $2,375!”
Host: “Whether you win or lose isn’t the
issue, how much you bet, for how long, is how we
decide what to give you.”
I then decided to try
a little experiment. I would mimic this player’s
betting level and hours played, but I would ask
for my comps up front for everything but the gourmet
rooms. Those I would charge to my room. My breakfasts
(total cost $20), and my lunches (approximately
$40) were comp as you go. I stayed three days and
got comps for $180 up front. (When I asked for a
comp, pit bosses inquired if I was staying at the
hotel. I answered yes but I prefer to get comps
this way. No one turned me down.) I charged $487
in gourmet meals to my room. At the end of my three
days I went to the host.
Host: “We have
you listed as playing 12.5 hours at $100 per hand.
We’ll pick up your room and $300 of your food.”
Me: “Thank you, that’s very generous of
you.”
In fact, by getting
my non-gourmet comps up front, I was given $480
in comps for food, while the player I mimicked had
only received $300 for food. Whether this stratagem
will work at every casino is hard to say, but you
can’t lose anything by trying it. So get those
comps up front!
Good
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