Australia Casino Comps Players

Comps Your Just Desserts

In these places, you'll also want to ask if there's anything other than simply playing that you have to do. For example, sometimes you have to get a change person to tell a supervisor that you've played so many hours. Sometimes you have to keep a coin buying tracking card. But in most casinos that don't have a slot club or any other way to track your play, they'll usually just take your word for it. I've gone in and played video poker for two hours in a casino that didn't have a slot club and then sought out a supervisor and said, "We've been playing here two hours and we're hungry now and want to eat. Have we qualified for a comp yet?" She simply took my word for it, appearing not to be too worried about getting cheated out of two buffets.

Comps for Table Game Players

A lot of the information in the first half of this section about how machine players get comps is also useful for table players. In fact, more and more casinos are going to a whole-casino comp system, because they realize that many people play both the machines and the tables, and many couples want to combine one person's machine play with the other's table time in order to maximize their comps.
Circus has taken this the farthest by actually issuing their table players slot club cards, setting up a point-earning schedule, and allowing demotions the same as they do for machine players, including cash back. For blackjack basic-strategy players, this is a fantastic opportunity that offers positive expectation without a special promotion. Cash back for table-game play is slowly becoming more prevalent, especially outside of Las Vegas.

Integrated Their Comp Systems

Most casinos haven't integrated their comp systems as fully as Circus has, but many now allow their table players to use a slot club card for rating purposes. In most places, you give the card to the pit boss, which sets up a separate table-game account for you. Sometimes the pits use the same slot club account number and enter their information into the same computer records that log your machine play. This allows someone from either the slot department or the pit to take into account all play and award comps accordingly.
The majority of casinos, however, still deal with table players the old-fashioned way. Even though the information eventually gets into a computer (in some form), the initial fact-gathering is done by a very human pit boss who has to rate you. So, when you sit down at a blackjack, crap, roulette, or baccarat table, the key to getting comps is getting noticed. One way to get noticed is to bet really large amounts of money. "Really large" is relative. In Vegas and Australia it could mean thousands of dollars a hand in an upscale casino like the Mirage, or green-chip ($25) play downtown at the EI Cortez. Two green chips at most of the mid-range casinos in any gambling area will get you noticed. That's the easiest way to get comps. At a lot of places, the pit boss will keep mental track of your play and write you a coffee shop comp if you ask when you're ready to leave.
But what about true low rollers? What if you're a $5 bettor, $10-$15 at the most? Can you get a comp? The answer is a resounding "Yes," if you pick casinos in what we call the mid-level range. It's fairly easy to figure-just cross out the most luxurious resorts in any casino area.
Every casino has a set policy about the minimum bet it'll track from the pit. Again, that good little word "ask" will help you out here. At any table game in any casino, tell the dealer you want to speak with the pit boss. When he comes up, you simply ask, "What is the minimum tracking bet here?" The boss will probably look at your casino betting and let you know if it's big enough. If it is, he'll probably ask if you want to be rated. He'll take your name, or sometimes he'll ask you to fill out a card with your name, address, and other information. If you already have a slot club card from the casino, give that to him.