What is Comps?

Comps, short for complimentaries, are free rewards a casino gives loyal players as a thank-you for their play, ranging from free drinks, meals and hotel rooms to show tickets, cashback and, for high-rollers, flights and limousines. They are not tied to whether you win or lose a specific session; instead they are earned on your tracked wagering over time and are the land-based equivalent of an online loyalty scheme. The size of a comp is driven by your theoretical loss, not your actual result. A pit boss or player-tracking system logs your average bet, hours played and the game's house edge, then applies a reinvestment rate — often around 20 to 40 percent of expected loss — to decide what to offer. Worked example: you play blackjack at $50 per hand and roughly 60 hands per hour for four hours, staking about $12,000 in total. At a modest 1 percent house edge your theoretical loss is around $120. A casino reinvesting 30 percent would comp you roughly $36 in value — perhaps a buffet and a discounted room — regardless of whether you actually walked away up or down that night. Practical player context: always insert your loyalty card or ask to be rated, because unrated play earns nothing. Comps are a marketing cost designed to keep you gambling, so treat them as a small rebate on money you were already prepared to risk, never as a reason to bet more or longer than you planned. Compare with comp-points, casino-comp, loyalty-points and the VIP program.