We often get questions from players about why their casino offers differ despite somewhat seemingly similar scenarios. Today’s question is a great example of this:
So when you go to a casino, say with $1,000. Two different people: One person bets 1.50-$2.50, another bets $5.00-$10. Does person number 2 receive better perks from the casino? The reason I ask is because my sister in law bets small while we bet big. We supposedly both lost our $1,000. A month later I got $150 in free play while she only got $50. I said, “I don’t know.” Other than maybe because I bet larger?
Shana D.
The bet amount factors into things, but the most important thing of all is the amount of coin-in on a visit. Coin-in isn’t the dollar amount you put into a machine, but the total amount of all your wagers.
Let’s build upon your example. Let’s say you’re capable of 500 spins per hour (newer slots could be higher, given they play faster). Both of you are at the casino the same amount of time, 4 hours, so you can complete a total of 2,000 spins while there. You both spent $1,000, but played the same amount of time.
- Player 1: $1.50-2.00 a spin means a range of $3,000-$4,000 in total coin-in in four hours.
- Player 2: $5-$10 means $10,000 to $20,000 in total coin-in in four hours.
Player 2 is potentially doing 3-5x more in total wagers than player 1, and so that’s likely why the offer is around triple.
Now, it’s worth noting that player 1 doing $3,000-4,000 in bets and losing $1,000 would be pretty unlucky. That said, it’s not impossible – our editor logged two recent examples where he lost more than $600 per casino visit on less than $2,000 in total bets, a similar ratio.
The increasing volatility of slots means losing sessions can be more likely, and steeper, than they used to be. But then winning sessions can also be bigger on the plus side.
But since offers most frequently place the most weight on the amount wagered, and the expected loss (also known as theoretical loss) that would be expected on that, it would be the easiest explanation for what you saw.
The lower bettor, even if they went home with some of their $1,000, simply can’t wager as much in the same amount of time as a higher bettor, presuming neither of you run out of money, because you can only complete so many spins in an hour. The lower bettor could rapid fire to make up some ground, but that sort of defeats the purpose of the smaller bets.
So that’s what we think is happening here, and hopefully gives your friend something to consider as to why things went the way they do. They could bet more, but the money could also disappear faster, running out before it’s time to go home.
While we advise gamblers to (almost) always play with a players card to capture any perks you’re entitled to for using it, we don’t encourage players to play bigger simply to chase comps. If the offer is smaller but the casino loss is most often smaller, that seems like a fair trade-off in the end.
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