It comes up often on a forum – one person, who visits a casino like clockwork each week gets small offers, while someone who only goes occasionally gets big offers. Shouldn’t the loyal player that is there all the time get better offers, all other things being equal?
So that leads to the myth that going to a casino more would result in improved offers.
Status: Pretty myth-ical.
Understanding Offers
Most casino offers are calculated based on a few basic metrics – the amount you’re betting, the game(s) you’re playing, and the amount of time you play, which lead to a calculation known as Average Daily Theoretical (ADT). Whether you win or lose, the math behind casino games figures that, given enough time and bets, you’ll lose at a certain rate. And it’s that calculation that also helps casino understand how much each casino customer brings to the table when gambling.
So, at a basic level, a player betting more, for longer, will be worth more to a casino than one betting less, for less time.
Most casinos look for 4 hours of play as the magic number where things get interesting for them. Those players who have hosts have routinely noted hosts telling them 4 hours is an important number. Four hours smooths out some of the ups and downs and improves the chances the casino gets what they’re hoping out of a visit. A handpay or major win could still lead to an upside day, but smaller wins will likely get cancelled out by all that play.
That means those who play for four hours vs. a hit and run to their local will likely see better offers.
It’s also helpful to look at how your casino breaks down offers. Some offer a certain bonus on a daily basis, a twice a week basis, a weekly basis, or a twice a month basis. The more often you can come in and accept your offer, and do, that will factor in. If you have a casino that offers a weekly or an every other week bonus, that will calculate differently than those with a daily offering.
How Often You Visit Matters
A key word in ADT is “Daily” – each gaming day gets its own calculation, and they evaluate all the days you play in a certain window of time (whether six months, a year, etc.) in their calculations. The more frequently you go to a casino, the more days they can calculate and average. So your offers will likely be more stable, especially if your budget is the same.
But let’s say a player has a $400 a month budget to gamble. Consider these three players:
- Player A brings $100 to the casino every single week.
- Player B brings $200 to the casino every other week.
- Player C goes just once a month with $400.
Player A, with a small, limited budget, will likely not be able to bet as much as often; they will also struggle to ride the inevitable ups and downs, and could run out of money before they were ready to go home. A low better can easily lose $100 in an hour, but let’s presume Player A makes it an hour and a half or two hours.
Player B has a bit more money to work with, and may bet at a slightly higher level, and have enough money to ride out some tough runs to reach a big hit or bonus. Let’s presume Player B can play 3-4 hours.
Finally, Player C is likely to stay longer as they’re not going as often, and with a $400 budget can likely push even harder, put their bets up even more, and still many times play for 4-6 hours.
And the Winner is…
The casino’s going to like Player C a lot – they’re putting more money on the line in that visit, even though it’s the same as Player A is putting up. They also know Player C doesn’t come as often. The combination of the higher visit budget (which can be harder to win the entire amount of in one visit) and the less frequent visits (which may make them worry next month doesn’t happen, or ends up at a different casino) will lead the casino to give Player C a bigger offer.
Also working in the advantage of Player C is that their higher budget means they’re facing a lower “risk of ruin.” The term which frequently comes up in gambling analysis, is a calculation of what the likelihood of your running out of money will be given a game, the house edge of the game, your bet and how long you play. The goal is to ensure you’re bringing enough money to ride out the short-term variance of a game and get past some hard losing streaks. If you run out of money in the middle of a losing streak, you may underperform the ADT expectation and get less coin in than $100 or $200 should get you.
Those of us who have gambled enough have all felt it – runs of bad luck at table games Blackjack, a slot machine that has a ton of dead spins. Conversely, there’s days where you feel like nothing can do you wrong. So missing out on that ability to bet for enough time, and capture enough spins, can impact negatively your offer. And since offers are generally calculated to be in the neighborhood of 20-30% of your ADT, those with enough bankroll to ride out swings, or at least betting at a level that lets them successfully play for that four hours, will see better offers.
So between the bankroll you bring per visit, the frequency of your visits (which marketing will decide how that impacts your offers), and your ability to successfully gamble for enough time, will all factor in to the quality of the offers you get.
So, if all things were exactly equal (since amount spent is 4x) Player C would get a 4x offer vs. Player A, but the short-stacking and frequency of visitation in practice means Player C will probably get more. Whether that 4x, though, is 100% freeplay or other perks, may depend on how a casino offers perks. So like anything you’ll want to look at what matters to you and how your casino handles such offers.
Ways to Maximize Your Offers
I have a few tips that I leverage to try to get the best offers you can.
- Most people live in a market where there’s more than one casino. If you want to go visit a casino regularly with a smaller budget, have that be a different casino than the one you take the bigger trips. Some people like to always visit their favorite casino, but if you have good offers, protect them by not watering down your ADT with hit-and-run visits with little to no budget.
- Visit a bit less often, and increase your per-visit budget accordingly, so you can maximize each visit. Some people want to visit weekly, but if you’re lamenting a $10 per visit offer, it’s worth a try.
- Start out your betting in a way that you can sustain a few hours if you have a rough patch. You can up your bet if you’re getting some early luck, or the money’s lasting better than expected, but better to give yourself enough runway upfront than to run out of money early.
- Only use the comps you need. If you’re offered a hotel room but don’t need it, don’t book it unless you’re doing a special trip with a higher budget. The comps you use vs. the play you offer will also factor in to your future offers. If you’re overcomped on a visit, you’ll certainly see your offers dip to make up for it.
- On the other hand, don’t feel guilty about using a comp. If they’ve offered it, youv’e probably paid for it at some point. But if your goal is to not deplete your offers at a place, use only what’s required for that visit.
What’s the best offer you’ve ever received? Share in the comments!
