How Many Of You See Yourselves As High-Rollers?

[SanFranciscan]

I am not a gambler myself and don't even know how to play the games. However, due to my interest in business books I was reading "Jackpot," which is about the casino business. It is apparently pretty hard to turn a profit in many casinos due largely to the large amount of comping of hotel rooms, drinks, etc. to heavier gamblers whether these big players win or lose.

Do you consider yourself a high-roller? If gambling is your entertainment, that is fine because I don't always spend my money on the most practical of things either. I do things like buy dog magazines while I don't even have a dog, soft drinks with no nutritional value, and so on. I just felt uncomfortable in the few casinos that I have been in and found the atmosphere very cold. Maybe it is not like that in all of them. Do you enjoy gambling? If you do so in large sums, how much are you motivated by the things you get "on the house"? There are things that I would go to Las Vegas or Lake Tahoe for, but I don't think that I would ever be a frequent visitor because I don't think that I would fit in with the culture there.

 

[BillSears]

I've never been to LV but I am going there for the first time in April. I expect I'll be a very low-roller. I'll probably be betting on the $5-$10 tables and maybe if I'm really feeling rich I might try out a $20 table. Right now I expect to bring along $500 to blow on various gambling over 2 days so I don't really think it will last too long.

 

[kaytieeldr]

Well, then, compared to Bill I'm almost a no-roller! With the exception of one semi-planned night playing Pai Gow Poker for $5, and maybe one session of Mini-Baccarat, I'll be at the Westin for Happy Hour (if they still have that this year) playing quarter roulette

Aside from those few individual sessions, I'll be playing penny slots for no more than fifty cents a spin.

That said, don't believe everything you read. First, soft comps like drinks, food, and rooms, don't 'cost' the casinos relatively much. They can't comp ANY gambler a free room if the hotel is 100% full, right? So if they put a high roller in a room that was going to be empty that night, where's the loss?

As for drinks, nope. This is the MOST COMMON comp in any casino, and it is available to anyone who is gambling. Period. If Bill's playing $20 a hand at blackjack, and I'm ten feet away playing nine cents a spin on a penny slot - we both still get approached by cocktail waitresses and can drink for merely the tip. Now, Bill's drinks may be top shelf while mine are well drinks (cheap brand, down behind the bar, used whenever the customer doesn't specify a brand) - but we're both still comped drinks.

Food is a little harder. I was playing mini-baccarat one day when one of the other players asked for a comp to the coffee shop. The pit boss said he couldn't do that but he could give her one for the buffet. She turned him down*, but I piped up with, "Could I have one?", NEVER expecting him to agree. Instead, he asked me how many people!

Now, hard comps - comps that actually COST the casino money, like show tickets - are harder to come by, do actually cost, and likely will only be given to high rollers.

But, ultimately - think about it. If it was actually difficult for the casinos to turn a profit due to comps, they would cut back on the comps.


*Never turn down a comp - why would you?

 

[Vexorg]

If I can walk through the Bellagio casino and see someone dropping my entire bank account on a single hand of Blackjack repeatedly, I've got to figure I'm probably not a high roller.

 

[SanFranciscan]

That said, don't believe everything you read. First, soft comps like drinks, food, and rooms, don't 'cost' the casinos relatively much. They can't comp ANY gambler a free room if the hotel is 100% full, right? So if they put a high roller in a room that was going to be empty that night, where's the loss?

*Never turn down a comp - why would you?

Oh heavens no I don't believe everything that I read. More often than not it is just the author's opinion. What did make this allegation that casinos can have trouble turning a profit sound at least somewhat credible is that the book said that it is the large ones that make the money. I thought about the Wal-Marts of the gambling industry, the casinos that even non-gamblers have heard of far and wide, and thought that there could definately be some truth to the author's allegation.

I work in a housewares store nearly every Christmas. There is an entire food team dedicated to preparing the free samples that the customers get. Management has complained about the expense of feeding people who will wait in line for as long as 15 minutes to get a little piece of turkey or whatever is being served at the stovetop at the back of the store and create a bottleneck at the front of the store to get a piece of something sweet and a cup of whatever hot drink is being served that day.

I asked one of the chefs why the company feeds all foot traffic through the store if the company is annoyed by the expense. Why don't they just stop; right? He said that the company is stuck in this trap of its own making because the free eats are something that the customers have been conditioned to expect. He says that it is like the cosmetic companies who brought in customers with their "gift with purchase" hooks and now can't sell anything without offering these incentives. Since I don't have to pay for all of this food going to people who come to get fed and typically buy nothing, I am just amused. I am sure that the shareholders are not amused at all.

I admit to my ignorance of gambling and of how casinos really operate behind the scenes because I don't work in a casino or hang out in casinos. The high security, the tension, etc. is anything but glamourous to me. However, having seen human nature in retail, where there is much less at stake, I do find it easy to believe that a surprisingly high percentage of the population has probably learned how to play to win even if they are not playing any of the gambling games or how to come out ahead even if they lost at the tables. I am somewhat amused, but I am sure that it is not funny to those who are responsible for the company's bottom line and feel that they have as much right to turn a profit as any other kind of business.

 

[kaytieeldr]

But they DO turn a profit. In Las Vegas, even the way-off-the-Strip, small neighborhood casinos turn a profit (and those are unlikely to comp anything except drinks, due in large part to them, well, not being attached to hotels and/or not having restaurants.

If they weren't turning a profit - easily - they would not remain in business. I looked for that book briefly on Barnes & Noble, but don't think the "Jackpot" I found is it. The one I found is a novel. Who's the author, or what's the ISBN? I would like to read it.

 

[SanFranciscan]

Oh, sorry. I should have told you that there is a subtitle to "Jackpot." It is Jackpot: Harrah's Winning Secrets For Customer Loyalty. It is by Robert Shook. It might be out-of-print because I got the copy I had from the library. I didn't read the whole thing because I am seasonal help each year in another industry that supposedly isn't making any money: retail. If they aren't making any money, as the media claims, how are they able to give me so many hours lately?

 

[bumbershoot]

...I do find it easy to believe that a surprisingly high percentage of the population has probably learned how to play to win even if they are not playing any of the gambling games or how to come out ahead even if they lost at the tables.

Oh, I don't believe for a second that a high percentage has learned to play to win or come out ahead. One of the reasons players are comped is NOT because they are winning, it's because they are losing. They are throwing money at the tables and not getting back much of it, so in a way they are paying for the comped items.