Over-the-top Comps

Here’s a question I am asked over and over:  “What are some of the fantastic comps casinos have given you?”

Wow, after 31 years of working the casino comp system, that answer would probably take a whole book to answer – in fact, maybe I might write a book about this sometime – or at least a big section in the autobiographical tome I’ve been thinking about writing when I get too old and feeble to play video poker.  Although I am definitely heading to that condition, I am hoping it is pretty far down the road – so here are just a few examples that come to mind today.

As I have written and spoken about many times, when we first started visiting casinos, we were blackjack players and active in casino junkets which were popular at the time.  And those junkets provided some luxurious comps.  Here is one of my favorite photos of Brad, enjoying the luxury in our French-Provincial-styled hotel room in Monte Carlo – the real city, not the faux one on the Vegas Strip.

Tom-Monte Carlo

After a few years, because we were looking for more long-term Vegas stays in our retirement years rather than short-term casino visits, we left blackjack and the starting-to-fade fancy junket trips and turned to low-level video poker.  This provided plenty of food and room comps for weeks, even months on end, but on a more basic level.  So back in these early quarter VP days, it didn’t take much to impress us.  When we were Westward Ho regulars, even a basic comped room at Caesars Palace during the dead December season made us feel like VIP’s.

But as we continued to stay frugal, our bankroll grew and we slowly went up and up in denomination, and the comp level went up proportionally.   Now, having a suite is commonplace, and it takes something special to impress us.  Like – having the two-story “Rain Man” suite at Caesars Palace for our grandchildren’s special visit!

In the last few years we sometimes have been put in “butler suites.”  I guess is sounds like we are jaded – but the truth of the matter, we are.  The accommodations and service in these sometimes are actually “too much” for our quite simple tastes.  We don’t need our breakfast oatmeal served with white gloves.  We don’t need a piano or a pool table in our suite – although I do know how to play the piano and Brad does know how to shoot pool, that’s not really on our must-do list anymore.

Last time a casino wanted to give us a “butler suite,” I turned it down because of our experience during our last visit there.  Brad is getting really hard of hearing and I gave up communicating with him when my voice had to carry through 2 living rooms, one bedroom, one double bath, one single bath, and one dining room.  I couldn’t even find him half the time.  Maybe he was watching one of the 6 TV’s but probably not since we couldn’t figure out how to get the sound on – turns out they were connected to two stereo systems.  There were NINE remotes.   I took inventory: 4 thermostats and THIRTY-NINE light switches – and I would stumble around in the dark freezing to death trying to find just one I could figure out how to use properly.  Maybe I could have turned on the electric fireplace if I could find its control switch.  Oh, here’s a towel warmer in the bathroom that looks like all I have to do is plug it in – but would I survive long enough for it to warm up.

But we did get kind of excited recently when we experienced something new.  We had never had a fireplace in our limo before.

fireplace

So I guess there are still new and exciting things to come!

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8 Responses to Over-the-top Comps

  1. Kevin Lewis says:

    Perhaps the best thing I ever got from a casino wasn’t technically a comp, but, close enough. I got an invite from the Palms to a combination VP/poker tourney. you played a session of each and your credits were added to your chips to give you a final score. Best overall was $10,000, second best was $5,000, and the winners of each half were given $5,000 each as well. I absolutely crushed the VP (AAAAkicker twice at DDB, plus about five other quads), so I won $5,000 right there. I then determined to simply fold every hand at the hold ’em game so as to preserve my chips, and wound up taking second place overall, for a total haul of $10,000. The funny thing is, I was “only” a dollar player back then and furthermore, had been consistently winning; yet, I got the invite. Anybody playing decent machines and/or failing to lose (not just winning) these days doesn’t get a juicy tourney invite; in fact, he’s lucky if the casino doesn’t send a team of hitmen to his house.
    A few months later, I also qualified for a drawing at the Palms wherein twenty people won prizes varying from $1,000 to $5,000. You got tickets for your play, and I was a relatively puny entrant: only two tickets in the drum (of about 200 total). One fellow told me he had nineteen tickets in the drum. They drew both my tickets, for $2,000 and $1,000, respectively. They didn’t draw a single one of Mister Nineteen’s tickets. He didn’t take it well. (I wonder if Bob Dancer, often having 50% or more of the drawing tickets in play, takes it with the proper equanimity when his name isn’t drawn. Probably so–a $10K prize would add maybe 0.000000000000003% to his bankroll–it would be like you or I finding a nickel on the floor.)

  2. Roger Leggitt says:

    Write that book and put me down for a copy. I have all the rest of yours.

  3. Joan & Tom in AZ says:

    We have learned so much from you, Jean, and we have wonderful suite memories. Our favorite was the Flat Iron Suite at the “M” several years ago. We got that — not because of extreme high level of play — but because we were kind and friendly to the check-in host. It was just one night, but we’ll always remember it as one of our favorites. We’ve had suites in Laughlin, at Caesars, at the Orleans, at the South Coast. But, that suite at the “M” was truly amazing. We’d love to read a book about all your “Sweet” experiences.

  4. Jane Goldberg says:

    I have a very much the opposite story, from one of your often spoken about casino chains, Harrah’s. I’ll always think of it as Harrah’s as that name is how I knew it when I first started gambling. Three things really have made me hate the chain and their corporate stinginess toward their Diamond and Diamond Aspirations customers. Please let me share what they’ve done. In 2015, I earned at a huge loss, 80,000 tier credits at VP ($10/credit). so I could get a free flight to Atlantic City. My family is from NJ and my niece was getting married on April 11, 2015. What I didn’t see anywhere in the Aspirations literature was that my free trip had to be taken by 3/31/15. It was in there, somewhere, apparently. They wouldn’t give it to me so I could go to NJ courtesy of Harrah’s-11 days past the cutoff. I would have not even tried, had I known. OK; that’s on me, I guess.

    Then, a couple months ago at Rio, I go to cage to get an Electronic Funds withdrawal. It was free for Diamond menbers-now they (I), too have a $4.00 service charge. Nice, right? And Last week, I get an offer for an event with a caveat-if you make your own reservation online, you won’t be dinged with the service charge we’re assessing if you dare speak to an agent to make the reservation. This is for a Diamond, comped, invitation. A service charge. WTF? Seriously? This is how they treat their Diamonds? Unbelievable!

  5. Mo LA says:

    Jean , just request that the butler give you a crash course on the “electronic” switches in the suite and then give him the night off!!!
    MO

  6. Gino says:

    Great memories… Great stories… Hope you do write a book… Would love to hear all all the stories

  7. ken orgera says:

    pretty nice !

  8. Jerry McEwen says:

    You go girl, you are our role model and we all strive for those kind of comps. Just not the Butler Suite.

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