How to Trick Casinos into Giving You More Comps

Casinos give you comps as a bonus for gambling at their establishments. These rewards include cashback, free meals, free drinks, hotel suites, luxury perks, and more.

It’s definitely exciting to receive comps on your play. However, casinos don’t just randomly hand out rewards.

Gambling venues are businesses that watch their bottom line. They monitor your play and use specific formulas to figure out the comps you deserve.

But what if there’s a way to increase the amount of rewards you get without offering more play? I’m going to explore this question by discussing several ways that you can fool casinos into giving you more comps.

Bet More When the Pit Boss Is Around

Gambling establishments don’t have an elaborate way to track your play on table games. Too many uncertain variables are involved, including your bet size and the number of hands dealt per hour.

The current method of tracking table game play involves the pit boss watching your first few wagers. They’ll record how much you’re betting and move on to the next table.

Pit bosses make the rounds to keep an eye on you and other gamblers that they’re rating. But they don’t have all night to watch your bets and figure out exactly how many rewards you deserve.

It’s especially tough for pit bosses to track of your gambling action on a busy night. They may only have time to watch a few of your hands once every 1-2 hours.

This creates a great opportunity to trick them into thinking that you’re making larger wagers.

As long as the pit boss doesn’t catch you lowering your bet size, they’ll likely rate you as a $100 player. Even if they notice you varying your wager sizes, they might still put you down as a $40 or $50 player.

Pulling off this hoax will significantly boost the amount of rewards you receive.

You may not always fool the pit boss, because they rate players as part of their daily job. But attempting to deceive them is a low-risk move that can bring in more rewards.

Sit Out Some Rounds

The number of hands you play per hour also factors into how many rewards you can expect. Playing more rounds shows the casino that you’re offering more action, thus leading to extra comps.

Of course, playing additional hands also increases your exposure to the house edge. Remember that casinos hold an advantage in every game they offer.

You’re obviously hoping that luck is on your side and you can beat the casino in a given session. But realistically speaking, more rounds increases your theoretical losses.

This is why it pays to sit out a few rounds every now and then while giving off the impression that you’ve been playing the whole time. Not only do you reduce your exposure to the casino’s advantage, but you can also collect more comps.

You won’t have much luck deceiving the pit boss if you’re the only one at a blackjack or baccarat table. This trick works better on bustling games like craps and roulette, where you lay chips down on the board.

Nobody will notice that you don’t bet for a few rounds every hour. This is especially true at a busy table, where gamblers reach over each other to make bets.

Contrast this to the blackjack table, where it becomes more noticeable when you’re the lone person without cards in front of you.

Make Riskier Bets In Front of the Pit Boss

Casinos also look at the house edge on the bets you’re making when calculating comps. This allows you to fool pit bosses by making it look like you’re making riskier wagers.

You can wait until they come by the table and place bets like hard 4 (11.11% house edge) and hard 6 (9.09%).

The only players who make these bets are those who want big payouts and/or ones who don’t know the house edge on craps wagers.

The downside is that you’ll expose yourself to considerable risk when making these wagers. But the upside is that you can be rated at a much higher house edge if you successfully pull off this trick.

This is a very simple way of looking at the rating system. But the point is that pit bosses will think that you’re making much-worse bets and award you more comps.

Rat Hole Chips to Make It Look Like You’re Losing More

Casinos know that long-term customers are better than one-time visitors. The last thing they want is for a good customer to lose everything, get frustrated, and never come back.

Sometimes the pit boss takes pity on big losers and offers them better comps than their play warrants. This situation opens up another possibility to earn extra rewards.

The goal is to fool the pit boss into thinking that you’re having a terrible night at the tables. You can sell this ruse by using a technique called “rat holing.”

Rat holing involves pocketing your chips so as to hide them. This practice isn’t cheating, because you’re allowed to take your chips at any time.

The main thing you need to do is ensure that the casino staff doesn’t see you pocketing chips. Otherwise, your hoax will be exposed and you’ll look like an idiot when you start muttering about how much you’re losing.

An easy way to rat hole is by discretely palming chips and putting them in your pocket when nobody is looking. The pit boss might later see that you’ve “lost” lots of chips when you color up and leave the table.

You’ll be able to cash out the full amount — including the pocketed chips — later at the cashier’s cage. But the key is selling that you’re leaving with next to nothing.

It also helps to look depressed and say things like “I can’t win a hand tonight” when the pit boss is nearby. Hopefully they give you a break with the post-session rating.

You can take this trick a step further by visiting another table later and buying in with cash. Doing so makes it seem like you left to get more money so that you can continue playing. In reality, you still have other chips stored in your pocket.

Other Ways to Get More Comps

You don’t have to fool the casino to get all of your extra rewards. Gambling venues willingly give you other opportunities to earn more comps.

What’s nice is that it doesn’t take much effort to take advantage of these methods either. Here are additional ways that you can collect more rewards.

Sign Up for a Casino Newsletter

Land-based casinos send promotions and other special deals through email. For example, they might announce that they’re offering double comp points on New Year’s Day.

You simply need to join their newsletter to learn about these offers. You can sign up for newsletters by visiting casino websites.

Most gambling venues have a prompt on their homepage that encourages you sign up for promo news. In some cases, the prompts will lead you to the rewards program.

You’ll need to join the loyalty program in this case to also receive a newsletter. You can quickly sign up for the loyalty plan by entering details like your name, home address, email, and phone number.

It’s definitely worth signing up if you like a casino and plan on gambling there more often. You should receive plenty of deals and rewards to make signing up worth your while.

Visit Casino Social Media Pages

Most land-based casinos keep a strong presence on Facebook and Twitter. They spend lots of time promoting themselves through these channels, given that everybody uses social media today.

Some of the posts are primarily used to showcase what the casino offers (e.g. a picture of their fancy restaurant). But others will actually present special deals to social media followers.

I suggest that you follow your favorite casinos’ Facebook and Twitter accounts in order to receive more deals.

Spend Money in Other Areas

One of the biggest myths surrounding casino comps is that they’re only available to gamblers. The truth, though, is that you can get rewarded for spending money in other areas too.

You can ask if you earn extra rewards with your player’s club card when buying anything at a casino resort. These instances include when you check into the hotel, purchase drinks, shop at stores, or eat at restaurants.

You may not earn points on every single purchase you make. However, it’s at least worth asking to see what you get rewards points for.

Some casino corporations even have extensive VIP programs that automatically award you points whenever you spend at their properties. MGM Resorts, for example, features an M Life program that extends to all of their properties throughout the world.

Simply visit the MGM Resorts website — or wherever else you want rewards — and complete the online signup to qualify for these programs.

Look for Casinos with Great Comp Rates

Most casinos are competitive with each other in terms of their comp rates. But you can find differences by researching the industry.

Some establishments have a reputation for offering more rewards to gamblers than the competition. These are great places to play in order to maximize your comps.

You can use a variety of google searches to find casinos that comp well in your area. It’s worth spending 10-20 minutes on research when considering that you stand to earn far more rewards.

What Not to Do When Earning Comps

I’ve discussed multiple ways that you can improve the number of rewards you get. This includes both tricks and legitimate means to boost your comps.

However, there are other practices that you definitely want to avoid, because they can cost you serious money. The following methods might earn you more rewards, but they’ll also crush your bankroll.

Don’t Play More Just to Get Big Comps

A common mistake among many gamblers is playing longer just to upgrade their rewards. Those with this mindset believe that the comps they’re chasing makes it worth playing more rounds.

The reality is that your theoretical losses will always outweigh whatever comps you earn. Casinos are masters at knowing how much they can reward you while still making profits.

Remember, you only want to create the impression that you’re playing longer by sitting out hands. You don’t want to actually play extra rounds unless you feel like it.

Don’t Make Risky Bets Just for Rewards

Earlier I described how you can earn more comps by placing a few risky craps bets. Unfortunately, some gamblers take this too far and make risky bets a regular staple of their sessions.

I’ve been next to craps players making iffy prop bets just to increase the amount of rewards they earn. What they don’t realize is that their losses will easily offset the higher comp rate they receive.

The only time you want to make wagers with high house edges is when the pit boss makes their rounds. Other than this, stick to bets with low house advantages so that you have a better chance of winning money.

Always Stick to Your Bankroll

Trying to fool casinos and earning more rewards is an exciting experience. You’ll feel especially good when you pull off these ruses and bank more comps.

But you always want to remember that the casino is still profiting off your action. Even the extra rewards you earn from a game like blackjack or roulette don’t counteract your losses.

You need to set up a bankroll management plan before you start gambling and stay with it.

Don’t let your pursuit of comps get in the way of bankroll management. Instead, look at rewards as a means of supplementing any potential winnings.

Compare Casino Hotel and Restaurant Rates to Other Local Venues

Just because a casino offers an all-encompassing rewards plan doesn’t mean it’s a great deal. Sure, it’s nice to rack up points for buying a dinner or drinking at the bar. But you also have to consider the value of these points in relation to how much you’re paying.

Don’t be blinded by the rewards you receive. You should instead research other hotels, restaurants, and/or nightclubs to see what they’re offering.

You may find a far better deal at another restaurant or hotel across town. Paying much less for a comparable service is more valuable than rewards points any day.

Conclusion

I don’t mean to mislead you into thinking that it’s easy to con the pit boss and make off with more rewards. This employee spends every workday rating players, so they know the tricks.

But this also doesn’t mean that you can’t fool them into giving you more comps. Remember that the pit boss has plenty of players to rate, meaning they can’t watch you 24/7.

This fact opens the door for you to skillfully manipulate them into rating you higher.

One of the best maneuvers is to increase your bet 4x-5x when you notice the pit boss watching. They might rate you at this wager size, or at least somewhere in between your lowest and highest bet.

You can also make riskier bets when they’re monitoring your table. Doing so makes it seem like you’re facing greater theoretical losses, which leads to more rewards.

Another hoax involves sitting out hands in games like craps and roulette. This move reduces your exposure to the house edge while still making it seem like you’re playing every round.

Rat holing chips and making it appear that you’re losing more can lead to additional comps too. Discreetly pocket your chips throughout a session so that the pit boss thinks you took on heavy losses.

Be sure to take advantage of other comp-boosting methods as well. These include signing up for the casino’s newsletter, joining their rewards program, visiting social media pages, and looking for casinos with great comp rates.

Use the advice offered here on your next casino visit to upgrade your rewards and get more for your money!