We saved our Vegas comps in two trips. Here's how...
This post is about how we reversed our declining freeplay and resort credit offers after two trips to Vegas. If you value comps from a casino loyalty program, this article is for you.
Here’s the backstory.
We only started gambling in April, 2024. We chose MGM Rewards over Caesars because we think their Vegas hotels are nicer and they have more sophisticated online financial tools (which are improved regularly).
After our first trip, we started receiving offers. Our initial MGM comps were only for free hotel rooms, but after about six trips they began to include $375 in freeplay and $250 in resort credit. That’s a lot for us.
In our first full year of gambling, our total coin-in was about $122,000 using a $2,000 bankroll (yes, it’s possible) and we ended the year with a $8,000 profit (up 7%).
The second year was not so happy. We ended the year down 5% on a coin-in of $156,000. If you do the math, it’s a lot.
Even though we gambled $30K more in year two, our comps steadily declined. Our freeplay offer dropped every month from $375 to $250 to $150 to $130 and finally to $80. Our resort credit also dropped from $250 to $100.
Initially I thought this was because we kept getting upgraded to fancy $1,800 a night suites (that we didn’t ask for), but apparently that was wrong.
So, how did we do it?
The answer was simple and painless.
We changed how we gamble.
Our normal playing style on slots (we have a slot channel) is fairly unorthodox. We make large bets for a short period of time:
- $100 goes in
- $5-$25 spins
- win/lose
- cash out
A typical session on a slot used to last 1-2 minutes or about 12 spins.
Now, if we make a large line hit or bonus, we don’t cash out. We’ll make a few more spins, sometimes at a higher bet, sometimes lower. It’s that simple. The silver lining to all of this was that playing for a bit longer actually improved our win rate.
Our comps bounced back up two days after our last Vegas trip. Our comps went back by 3x ($250 in freeplay and $250 in resort credit) in only two trips (Dec, 2025 and Feb, 2026).
Mission accomplished.
So, what exactly did we change?
It was ridiculously easy. Here’s what we changed:
- Instead of limiting our coin-in on a slot to $100, we occasionally start with $200.
- If we get a big line hit or bonus, we don’t immediately cash out and walk. We’ll stay on the slot for a at least a few more spins.
- We limited our gambling to full days. If we arrived in Vegas at 8pm, we wouldn’t start gambling until midnight. If our flight home was at 10am, we wouldn’t gamble at all that day.
I should also note that being inconsistent didn’t matter. We’ll still just walk away after $100 like we used to, just not every time.
These small changes got us an extra $2,500 to gamble with this year. That may seem like notihng, but as I mentioned our entire bankroll is $2,000.
Additional background information
We did hit three MGM daily tier accelerators in a row: two for $5K coin-in and one for $10K coin-in. I definitely think the latter made a difference.
I did find a friendly slot in high limits that allowed me to turn five minutes of $20 spins into a $1,000 in coin-in.
All of this is an open secret
I wanted to share this story so that there was at least one example of it working with detailed information. I was completely surprised how well it worked.
We spoke to a host at the Cosmo in October of last year after some prodding by one of our YouTube subscribers (thanks again, Brent) about why our offers were steadily dropping. She said “you aren’t gambling as much as you used to”…despite our annual totals saying otherwise.
What she was really saying was that we weren’t gambling as LONG ON A SLOT as we used to. Message received. Action taken. Results realized.
Questions?
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