When things appear equal, but they’re not, what’s going on? That’s the crux of today’s question regarding a husband and wife and their casino experience, sent in as a follow up to our article regarding what qualifies a player for hosts:
Still doesn’t make sense to me. My wife and I go together all the time whether once a month or more. We have the same amount to play, she stays on one machine I jump all over. Everything seems even yet she gets hosts, she advances faster in tier, and gets promotions all the time, I get nothing.
Robert A.
Something’s different, that’s for sure. If you’re both going at the same time, playing the same types of games with the same budget, but she’s seeing tier advancement and you’re not, there’s definitely a difference. Of course, we don’t have all the information here in your question, but aspects of things casinos look at are:
- What games you’re playing
- How much per spin
- How long you’re playing
Let’s focus on that last one for a moment, because one thing you did share is the question is that you jump around and she doesn’t. That’s a huge differentiator all else being equal. How often do you get up? How long are you walking around per jump while she’s consistently betting in the mean time?
We’ve shared the example here in the past of two players. One goes to a roulette table and puts $500 on black. The other takes $500 to slots and does 500 $1 bets. Which will the casino like more?
The casino will like the slot player more. With the roulette player, they get one crack at the money. The expected house advantage on American (00) Roulette is a bit over 5%, so the casino will calculate the expected win as a bit above $25. But in reality they’ll either win $500 or lose $500 because it’s a single bet.
Meanwhile, the slot player doing 500 $1 bets, means there’s 500 wagers, with a larger house edge by the way on slots vs. roulette, is more valuable because there’s 500 chances to win money. The expected win is more, and casinos know the more wagers that are placed, the more likely they’re going to win on a player.
So now let’s bring it back around to your situation. If you’re not taking as many spins as her because she’s staying put and you’re not, before we even look at other things like are you playing the same games or not, that probably has a pretty good impact on why she’s accumulating tier credits more quickly vs. you – she’s getting more time on machine in.
Hosts love time on machine – they often advise players to aim for 3-4 hours of play. That’s the sweet spot for hundreds of resolved bets and that math working much more strongly in the casino’s favor.
If you are also playing lower house advantage games like video poker at least part of the time, where she’s anchored in slots, that would further tilt things in her favor. Some casinos give tier credits based on dollars wagered on machines like slots or video poker (Caesars is the largest example of this in 2024), whereas others award tier credits based on expected loss (MGM is the largest example of this in 2024).
So even with the few sentences you gave us, we can spot at least one critical detail that could explain at least part of the delta. If your casino gives you coin-in/coin-out reporting, compare your two numbers and we’d expect hers to be larger, and if so, that’s your indicator of why her tier is growing faster, her promotions are more robust and she has a host.
And it may give you some indication of some of the course correcting to do to better align with where she is. If your coin-in is lower, find ways to boost it by playing games that let you get more spins in, or bet a bit higher to offset it (just don’t go so far as the one $500 bet option).
And since you have access to a host through your wife, you can always ask her too – what gives? Hosts tend to be pretty open about where the disconnect is. If your numbers just aren’t there, they’ll usually tell you what you need to do.
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