Free Food, Free Booze, Free Love and Free Lunches.

How about let's see, $27.99 per person for a Sunday champagne brunch. Thats $56 for 2 people to eat breakfast on a Sunday morning. Gotta be a lotta profit in that. At the pool 1 beer and 1 cocktail = $18, and then I am supposed to tip on top of that. Walking between Paris and Bally's there is a sign 2 slices of Pizza and a drink for ONLY $9.99. My god I can get 2 slices and a drink for $5 anytime any day off strip. The food and drink prices on the strip are absolutely horrendous.

the place I go...has basically NON-STOP conventions/conferences, and THAT pays for the lights to stay on...
They give most everyone free rooms, because they wouldn't sell them anyway, so they figure if they can get you IN the hotel/casino, then you'll gamble...granted, 99% of the machines are "full pay" (JoB, BP, NSUD), MOST people are playing slots and BADLY playing vP (if they even are)
The Rooms = They wouldn't sell anyway
The Food = Trust me, it's overpriced, so those who ARE paying full-price make up for yours
The Booze = It's not top-shelf and booze always has the effect of "loosening pockets"
The FreePlay (Be it slots or chips) = Are you really just going to "suck it out" then leave?

So we have:
Less than optimal play being darn near universal
>The Rooms = They wouldn't sell anyway
......... most casinos seem to sell half their rooms.
>The Food = Trust me, it's overpriced, so those who ARE paying full-price make up for yours
True. Those utterly absurd prices are so far out of my league I forget that some people actually pay them.
>The Booze = It's not top-shelf and booze always has the effect of "loosening pockets"
Yes. The booze they give away is highly profitable to them and to the city's hookers and DUI lawyers.
>The FreePlay (Be it slots or chips) = Are you really just going to "suck it out" then leave?
No. The "one free pull" is a publicity stunt. Its the word "free" that does the trick. There doesn't have to be value behind it.

Yes. The days when Circus Circus introduced their breakfast buffet at three dollars are long gone, but even then the casino was still making a profit on it. I tend to forget the super prices and focus on the more bargain oriented prices that I would want to pay at some locals casino. The graveyard specials are great but most people take the buffet even at half price specials.

Quote: TIMSPEED

The FreePlay (Be it slots or chips) = Are you really just going to "suck it out" then leave?

Me, yes, 100% of the time.

I'm not a slot player but several friends and family members are. They can't always be at the casinos on the days that they are offered free slot play so they give it to me. I play it down to the last free bet and cash out. It makes no difference if it's $1 or $1000. I kept track this year and I'm up about $2800.

Going back to your original statement of not buying the idea that "there is no such thing as a free lunch" is an age old economics quote. The idea of "no free lunch" does not imply that no one in the world can ever find something at no cost to themselves, but that someone always foots the bill for the convience of someone else to procure that "free" item. In the case of the bars offering free lunches in the past, the economics of the situation remained largely the same. The financial guru for the bar decided that by offering free lunches to their patrons, their patrons would be more willing to spend money on the booze which makes for a larger profit anyway. After one bar started this promotion, the other bars needed to match this idea in order to keep business in their bars as well.

The bottom line is that businesses will do whatever they can to make themselves profitable. Being from New Jersey, I have been to the local Sands in Pennsylvania on occasion and they are always running promotions (typically once a month) advertising giveaways for cars. For every x amount of dollars that you gamble, you get points towards the car drawing which draws an enormous amount of people to play. On certain nights, they offer additional promos such as 10x points or even 25x points on the night of the drawing itself. I went to the casino one night that they had one of these drawings (completely by accident) and it was the most crowded casino I have ever been in. There were literally lines 2 and 3 deep waiting to play SLOT MACHINES! Table minimums were almost universally $50 for every game, and had the fire marshal shown up, I'm sure they would have been breaking code. Since the drawing was in 15 minutes (at 9:00 PM), I stuck around (naturally I lost) and then headed out. However, upon leaving I heard an announcement "Don't forget the second chance drawing for $5,000 in free slot play at 11:00!"

This didn't entice me to stay, but it did get me to thinking how a powerful marketing department can work wonders for a casino's bottom line. Even though the car offered was a new 2011 corvette, it was still the base model and msrp was around $40 or $50k. This is suggested retail, and since the casino partered with a local dealership to advertise their products, I'm sure the car was deeply discounted to the casino. On the night of the drawing alone, I would say that the casino could have made 10 to 20 times what they offered for "free" without breaking a sweat.

The whole scheme is intended to make people feel like they are getting a great deal. For the intelligent players who can exhibit self-control and manipulate the comp system to their advantage, more power to them. The sad (or maybe happy) truth is that there are so many more clueless gamblers than intelligent ones that the casinos are willing to eat small losses to the smart people for the massive gains from the foolish. The happiness comes from us reaping the rewards :-)

Quote: duckmankilla

The idea of "no free lunch" does not imply that no one in the world can ever find something at no cost to themselves, but that someone always foots the bill for the convenience of someone else to procure that "free" item. . . .
For the intelligent players who can exhibit self-control and manipulate the comp system to their advantage, more power to them. The sad (or maybe happy) truth is that there are so many more clueless gamblers than intelligent ones that the casinos are willing to eat small losses to the smart people for the massive gains from the foolish. The happiness comes from us reaping the rewards :-)

Yes. I imagine this is economically correct. The "Free Lunch" is free to those who eat it but paid for by everyone who orders a drink there whether it be lunchtime or not. Somebody pays. Of course in a casino it may be the person who most thinks that he is getting something for free.

Manipulating comps? Intelligence and self-control?
That's like those people who took only the free flashlight and did not buy batteries and then six months later took only the free batteries and did not buy a flashlight. Or those who buy their Christmas ornaments fifty-percent off just after Christmas and put them away until the next Christmas. Or buy clothing out of season or any other money saving trick requiring knowledge and self-control. Of course the festive atmosphere, beautiful women and free booze at a casino often makes there be darned few people with self-control around the place and I guess that is why these Special Drawings for a Sexy Convertible are always late at night after everyone is a bit plastered and has probably already paid quite dearly for one of those "free tickets".

So the trick is to stay sober, stay smart ... and somehow squeeze Lady Luck's throat until she favors you.

Quote: FleaStiff

We know there are all these point systems and point multipliers and special this and special that. Now you don't even have to be in the casino, you can play at home via facebook and accumulate your casino points.

Serious? How do they do that if you are not putting up any cash?

>>> Now you don't even have to be in the casino, you can play at home via facebook and accumulate your casino points.
>Serious? How do they do that if you are not putting up any cash?
I'm trying to re-find a website I had previously encountered. I know there were two such sites. One was a website that allowed non-money slot play the other was a facebook related site that was owned by Stations Casinos under a different corporate name.
Now I seem unable to re-locate these sites. I'll keep trying from time to time.