As old a cliché as ever there was one - “If you can’t beat them, join them.” Clichés get repeated because they contain kernels of truth. More than any other gambling game, slot machine players should join the club if they are frequent or even occasional players. In the long run, being a member of a casino “slot club” can be the best way to make a profit at the game.

Nothing is going to change the high house advantage for slots. There are more slot machines in casinos than any other game and it is for a reason - generally 60 percent to 70 percent of house profits come from the slots. Because of this the casino operator wants to encourage more people to play the machines, and wants those who play to come back more often. One way of doing this is to offer “comps” to members of the casino’s slot club.

Comps

The term “comp” is short for complimentary, and refers to free stuff the casino offers to some players, usually thought to be those folks known as “high rollers.” Comps represent a portion of a casino’s marketing budget that is aimed specifically at gaining and keeping business. Aside from the high rollers who get such special attention, members of slot clubs also can rake in the gratuities, which -- if intelligently managed -- can go a long way to covering the cost of a gambling vacation.

For the most part, every casino has a slot club, from the big names on the Las Vegas strip to the riverboats that churn up and down the Mississippi River. For anyone who plays slots, it is strongly advised to join a slot club. It is the primary tool for earning comps and receiving promotional materials from casinos that other players will neither know about nor have access to.

Slot Cards

The way most slot clubs work is that members are given cards that look like credit cards and have a magnetic strip identifying the player, which is inserted into a slot before starting to play. The cards keep track of how much and how often the casino-goer plays the slots. For each 12-spin cycle of play (or some other pre-determined number of spins) on that machine, the club member gets “points” that can be redeemed for prizes or saved up for more valuable comps. Most casinos offer a gift, such as a retired deck of cards or dice, for joining the club.

Also, club members usually get a newsletter from the casino and special promotional material through the mail. If the player has not been to the casino in a while, they might even get a discount certificate and encouragement to come back. Devoted slots players can see this add up to a significant amount. In fact, the slot club player could see a higher return on the comps received than the money won at the “one-armed bandit.”

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