Video Poker Comp Question

Three players walk up to a bank of 9/6 JoB machines with 99.54 percent theoretical return with perfect play. All three players play the exact same number of hands with the exact same max bet amount. Call it 10,000 hands max betting the $1 machines or $5 a spin.

Player 1 plays perfectly and has makes zero mistakes the entire time. 99.54 percent theoretical return.
Player 2 is an average player, makes a couple of mistakes here and there. 98.5 percent theoretical return.
Player 3 is a drunk fool and makes tons of stupid mistakes. 95 percent theoretical return.

Would all three players get the same amount of comps? Or would player 3 get a lot more goodies from the casino for being a bad player? How much checking does a casino do to see the skill level of their video poker players? I am guessing for the video poker whales, they would scrutinize their play closely, but for the average guy? Or do they just see that the total amount wagered is $50,000 and base comps off that?

As a follow up question, do casinos care that you are playing a 9/6 JoB or an 8/5 JoB machine for comp purposes. Or are they only looking at total coin in?

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Quote: Juyemura

Three players walk up to a bank of 9/6 JoB machines with 99.54 percent theoretical return with perfect play. All three players play the exact same number of hands with the exact same max bet amount. Call it 10,000 hands max betting the $1 machines or $5 a spin.

Player 1 plays perfectly and has makes zero mistakes the entire time. 99.54 percent theoretical return.
Player 2 is an average player, makes a couple of mistakes here and there. 98.5 percent theoretical return.
Player 3 is a drunk fool and makes tons of stupid mistakes. 95 percent theoretical return.

Would all three players get the same amount of comps? Or would player 3 get a lot more goodies from the casino for being a bad player? How much checking does a casino do to see the skill level of their video poker players? I am guessing for the video poker whales, they would scrutinize their play closely, but for the average guy? Or do they just see that the total amount wagered is $50,000 and base comps of that?

Depends on the casino. Most follow the guideline of 30% of theo or 10% of actual losses. In the case of theo, all three would get the same comp. However, the better casinos do consider 10% of actual losses such that Player 3 gets more comps since he's the type of player a casino wants.

The actual theo for 9/6 JOB is less than 50 basis points (0.50%), while some casinos might entertain 200 basis points or 2% (please note there are 10,000 basis point in 1.00 or 100 basis points in 1%). If you assume the casino uses theo of 200 bp, then $50,000 of coin-in or action would be $1,000 in theo and 30% of this would be $300 in comps. If the same casino used the actual theo of about 50 bp, then the comps would be 1/4th that amount or $75.

In the case of Player 3, where he loses $2,500, 10% of actual losses would be $250 in comps. So in this case, he will do much better than $75 in comps if he casino uses 50 bp as theo. The moral of this post is to discern what the casino uses as theo for each game.

Then you have the issue of ADT, but that is best left for another day.

Quote: Ardent1

The moral of this post is to discern what the casino uses as theo for each game.
Then you have the issue of ADT, but that is best left for another day.

Or find a casino that assigns a theo to a specific machine, rather than "game" then find machines with high theo and good games and play them heavily!
(From what I've seen, GameKings that offer "slots" on them, have the best theo; ones with no slots but keno come in a close second)

Quote: TIMSPEED

Or find a casino that assigns a theo to a specific machine, rather than "game" then find machines with high theo and good games and play them heavily!
(From what I've seen, GameKings that offer "slots" on them, have the best theo; ones with no slots but keno come in a close second)

I'm guessing the machine just lumps all game results for comps then? Poor slot players...lol

Disagree.

My casino gives me bonus comps when I play and lose at VP. If I play 3 hours and do better than losing around $250, I don't get any mailer telling me to come back. If I play 3 hours and lose more than around $250, I get a mailer telling me to come back with an offer of between $10 - $50 of free play that's probably closely linked to my loss at a type of machine.

So yeah, my casino tracks the games I play and the amounts that I win or lose and send me a mailer if I lose alot of money on a single machine or group of machines. I know this is true because I played at a certain machine and lost about $600 and then won it back on another machine and got a mailer.

A few casinos give different comps depending on the specific payout. The most prominent example that comes to mind is that The Palms actually has a bank of high-return (99%+, I believe) VP/slots that gives points at half rate, or something like that.