A comp is not a gift. It is a refund of a fixed slice of what the casino expects to win from you, computed from four numbers you control. Here is the formula the host runs on you, and a calculator that runs it on your own play.
On this page: theoretical loss · rated edge · the reinvestment rate · calculator · ADT and offers · the levers · what comps never do · sources
When a pit boss "rates" your play, or a slot club card tracks your coin-in, the casino is building one figure: your theoretical loss, called theo. It is not what you actually won or lost. It is what the math says you should have lost:
This is why a lucky winning weekend still earns you an offer, and a brutal losing one does not earn extra. Actual results are noise to the casino. Theo is the signal, and everything they give you is priced from it.
For table games the house edge in the formula is not your edge. It is a fixed number the property assigns to the game, based on how an average player plays it. Blackjack is commonly rated around 2%, even though a perfect basic-strategy player faces about 0.5% on a decent game. Craps pass line is rated near its true 1.4%. Double-zero roulette is 5.3%.
That gap matters. A basic-strategy blackjack player is being comped as if losing four times faster than they really are. Per dollar of real expected loss, blackjack played well is the best comp deal in the pit. Play badly and the gap closes to nothing.
Slots and video poker are the reverse: the machine reports exact coin-in, and the club pays points on it at a published rate. There is no rating floor to fight over, but there is also no way to be graded better than you play. A 9/6 Jacks or Better machine at 0.46% edge and a 10% penny slot earn the same points per dollar through the card. They cost you very different amounts to earn them.
Casinos give back a share of theo in comps, offers, and free play. The share is called the reinvestment rate. The widely reported range for Strip and locals properties is roughly 30 to 40 percent of theo, higher for top-tier hosted players and lower on games the property considers already generous. It is not published. It is inferred from what players report getting, and it moves with the property's mood and the calendar.
Read that the other way round and you have the price list: every $1 of comp costs you about $2.50 to $3.30 of expected loss. A $300 "free" room is a $750 to $1,000 expected-loss purchase. That is the honest frame, and it is the one every credible comps writer uses.
Pick a game, or set the edge and pace yourself. Numbers are per trip. The blackjack preset uses the rated edge, not the true edge, because that is what the host uses.
| Expected comp value at your rate | $49 |
|---|---|
| Comp range at 30% to 40% | $42 to $56 |
| Your expected loss per $1 of comp | $2.86 |
| Total wagered (coin-in) | $7,000 |
Point-based clubs publish their own rate instead of a percentage. Caesars Rewards, for example, pays 1 Reward Credit per $5 of slot coin-in and a Reward Credit spends at one cent, so the published slot rebate is 0.2% of coin-in before tier multipliers and mailers. Check the current earn table at the club desk; these change. The five big Vegas programs are compared side by side here.
Comps at the table are the small half. The big half is the mail: free rooms, free play, resort credit. Those are driven by average daily theo (ADT), your theo per gaming day averaged over recent trips, usually the last 12 months. A host or the marketing system sorts players into ADT bands and each band gets a tier of offers.
Comps lower the price of a trip you were going to take anyway. They do not turn a negative-expectation game positive. The numbers above make that plain: the casino returns a third of what it expects to win, and it expects to win. Anyone selling you a comp "system" that beats the house is selling the other two thirds.
The exceptions are narrow and well documented elsewhere: full-pay video poker with a strong enough cashback rate, and promotion stacking, where the total of points, mailers, and multipliers exceeds the edge. Both need a specific machine and a specific promotion and vanish the moment the casino notices. That is a separate subject and it is not the game most people are playing.
Everything on this page is arithmetic and cited practice. Rating conventions and reinvestment rates differ by property and change without notice. Nothing here makes a casino game profitable.