Max Rubin - Comp City: A Guide to Free Casino Vacations

Comp City

A Guide to Free Casino Vacations, Second Edition

Published by

Huntington Press

3665 Procyon Street

Las Vegas, Nevada 89103

(702) 252-0655

(702) 252-0675 Fax

E-mail:

Copyright 2012, Max Rubin

ISBN: 978-1-935396-91-8

Cover Design: Bethany Coffey Rihel & Laurie Cabot

Interior Design & Production: Bethany Coffey Rihel & Laurie Cabot

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be translated, reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying and recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the express written permission of the publisher, except brief extracts by a reviewer for inclusion in critical articles or reviews.

Dedicated to Don Speer, who bridged the gap between gamblers needs and technologys promise by keeping one foot in the golden age of Las Vegas and the other on the possibilities of tomorrow. The result, to the envy of the entire gaming industry, is the best gambling house in the world. Barona.

Special thanks to the special people who helped me refine the graft and exploit the system, let me share in their comps, and cheered me along the way. Andy L., Anthony, Arlo & Jan, Arnold, Art & Elena, Bethany, Big Al, Billy & Bucky, Billy P., Bill Z., Blair, Bob D., Bunkie, Bob L., Deke, Don & Kelly & Family, Dustin M., Frank & Jimmy S., Filthy Phil, Fritz O., George & Karen, Hazel & Rico, Iris, James G., Javier, Jeff C., Jessica J., Jessica R., Jim, Jimmy W., Joann, Joe R., Joe W., John C., John G., John L.S., Jorge & Rada, Karol, Kathy M., Key, Kimmy & Pete, Lee, Leslie & Mike, Michael K., Mike C., Megan, Merla & Tom, Mom, Munchkin, Paxton & Marie, Nick, Nila, Pete C., Rick G., Roger G., Roger J., Rose, Sharky, Stanford, Steve F., the Greeks, the MITs, Tim, Tom A., Tommy & Debbie, Troy, and Zeljko.

And were all indebted to the casino companies that have placed their leadership in the hands of the accountbots and management-by-option executives who unwittingly set the table for our nightly feasts.

Everything You Always Wanted To Know About Comps
(But They Were Afraid To Tell You)

by Michael Konik

N ot long after reading the first edition of Max Rubins Comp City, I strolled into a well-known Las Vegas casino with a wad of money in my pocket, a nicely tailored jacket upon my back, and what appeared to be a naive smile plastered across my face. Except my smile wasnt born of blissful ignorance, as the casino eagerly supposed. It was the product of knowing I was about to be treated to a weekend of debauched gluttonycompliments of my gracious hosts.

Or at least I hoped it would be. This was a test of sorts. Comp City, I thought after my first read-through, was funny, enlightening, and delightfully naughty. But was it practical? Would Max Rubins techniques work in the real world, under the scrutiny of surveillance cameras, pit bosses, and Vice Presidents of This and That who had to sign off on the golf and airfare and heavyweight championship fight tickets to which a high roller such as myself would be entitled?

They worked. And they continue to work.

To this day, I do not gamble anywhere, for any amount, without getting something backeven if its an inedible roast beef dinner I plan to give away to a bum on the street.

Though you may not be consciously hustling for ill-begotten perquisites, merely knowing how the comp system operates is a beautiful thing. This knowledge allows you to evaluate how good (or bad) a deal a casino is willing to extend to earn your business. Had I not read Maxs book, I wouldnt have understood that, like the slot machines that clutter their floors, some Strip properties are loose with comps and others are tight. On several occasions since I first read Comp City, Ive had to conceal my amusement when various hosts and marketing executives attempted vainlyand often erroneouslyto explain to me, their fresh new customer, how comps really work.

The timid worry that they might not be entitled to all the freebies a properly managed casino might be willing to throw their way. Dont fret. The next time pangs of guilt impede on your fully comped RFB weekend, remember this: The casinos are not your friends, and they do not love winners and losers equally. Their goal is to extract as much money from as many people as possible.

So get yourself a little refund along the way.

Enjoy the second edition of Comp City.

I ts been nearly eight years since the first edition of Comp City hit the bookshelves. Comp City was the first book to reveal, in massive detail, the intricacies of the policies and procedures behind the table-game complimentary system, as well as proven methods for exploiting that systems flaws and weaknesses. Players read the book and, judging from my mail, rejoiced in their newfound knowledge of how to get way more than their fair share of the booty the casinos are serving up. The casinos, in typical fashion, read the book andwell, more on that in a minute.

Many gamblers believe that the casinos have tightened the screws on comps. They havent. Why not? Because they cant. Over the last few years in Las Vegas alone, staffing the new megaresorts has meant hiring and training hundreds of new pit bosses and floormen. And most of them dont know squat. In the good old days, the industry was run by wise and crafty bosses who often laughed at accepted accounting principles and relied on instinct, intuition, and experience to make money. Todays casinos are managed by highly educated executives with no concept of what crafty means. They rely on techno-weenies and live and die by their voluminous reports in an attempt to maintain their bottom lines. Make no mistake, this new breed makes the casinos more money. A lot more. But their systems leave gaps that can be exploited by the new comp crafticians. Thats us. And Im here to tell you that there has never been a better time to get free stuff from the wannabe wiseguys who run the joints.

Thats why the casinos hate Comp City. Always have, always will. In fact, Ive got a lot of ex-pals in this business who dont like Max anymore, due to what this book has done to their profit margins. And they cant do a thing about it.

The techniques in this book work anywhere gambling is legal, which leads to one of the major differences between Comp City I and II. The first edition focused almost entirely on Las Vegas; Comp City II covers the whole country with thumbnail sketches of every gambling jurisdiction. Fact is, though, theyre only marginally necessary. The rudimentary comp-hustling maneuvers tend to work regardless of where you apply them. Some jurisdictions give away comparatively more (or less) than Las Vegasand I tell you about thembut for the most part, the systems are basically the same.

This isnt to say that tweaking a good Nevada move wont produce better results in Illinois, Indiana, or Iowa. It just might. And you have to be aware of that. In fact, this is true of the whole wide world of comps. Perhaps the biggest complaint about the first edition was that something described didnt work exactly as advertised at this or that casino. Thats to be expected. Different joints have their own idiosyncrasies, and thats become more prevalent as casinos have proliferated around the country over the past several years. Accordingly, scores of comp wizards have refined and improved some of the techniques I presented in ways even I never dreamed of. Many have kindly shared those methods with me, and I share them with you from time to time in these pages. But the point is, youll always make out better as a wizard when you become an expert in the places where you like to play.