In many casinos, some types of benefits are available only through a host and using the host system does not decrease your slot club benefits or your direct-mail offers. So learning your way around the host system can make the whole comp system more flexible for you and be a great supplement to the other outlets for securing comps. A note on the Internet put it this way: “Getting comps at the slot club booth is like paying full price. Getting comps through your host is like buying on sale.”

The benefits go beyond the purely financial. Having your own host has great psychological impact. Good host programs are committed to a VIP approach—and everyone likes to feel important.

Unless you play at an extremely high level, in most casinos you have to take the initiative and look for a host. In my opinion, this is one of the main weaknesses in the system—the casinos should have their hosts looking for you. Many players are just too intimidated or have the perception that you have to be a high roller to qualify for host treatment. (I believed that myself early on.) The majority of gamblers are not comfortable making that first contact themselves.

A few casinos have slot club representatives out on the floor looking for players who aren’t using a club card. But in many of the larger casinos, even those with advanced player-tracking computers (which a host can use to see where gamblers are playing the machines at a high enough level to be getting comps), often no contact by a host is made. I’ve had more people complain to me that they’ve gone to a new casino and played the dollar machines for a couple of hours with their player’s card inserted, even in a high-limit room, and never had a host come over to welcome them, much less ask if there was anything the casino could do for them.

The host system is often difficult to use, since details about how it works are not readily available to the public. It’s a system that punishes the shy players and rewards the aggressive ones. Why do casinos continue with this secretive system that frustrates players so much? Apparently, some casinos believe that people will play more if they don’t know the exact comp requirements, and are simply hoping they’ll reach some lofty level of benefits. Personally, I think they just get disgusted and move to a casino where they know exactly how much play it takes to get what they want.

Sometimes it seems like you’re just haggling with the host, which can leave you feeling belittled rather than rewarded. The comp system was set up by the casino, but too often the hosts act like it’s the greedy players themselves who thought the whole thing up. Many players feel like they’re begging just to find out the basic details of an overly secretive comp policy.

My take on the disadvantages of the casino host system doesn’t just come off the top of my head. It’s based squarely on my own experiences and on my e-mail. I probably get more questions on this subject than on any other. “Why haven’t I seen these hosts you talk about?” And, “Isn’t a host only for really big gamblers?” And, “I wouldn’t have the nerve to go up and ask a host for anything; what if she turned me down?” However, you can get so many more benefits if you use the host system that it pays for most frequent casino visitors to spend some time and effort to learn how to get around the disadvantages. That means first learning the basics.

1. Top-level casinos—These are usually the largest and classiest operations, with luxury hotels attached and many extra amenities. They’re often the newest—although some are classic veterans. They offer the broadest range and highest level of comps; therefore their host systems are usually geared to the heavy dollar-and-up machine player and the table player who makes at least $50-$100 bets. A rough rule-of-thumb might be that a $1 machine player should probably wait until he’s played three to four hours and a $5-machine player perhaps an hour before approaching a host.

2. Low-level casinos—These are usually the older and smaller casinos in a jurisdiction; they often look tired, if not actually rundown and shabby. They sometimes don’t offer accommodations and if they do, they’re basic no-frills rooms. Many don’t even have a host system, but if they do, you can approach a host after an hour or two of quarter play or a few minutes at the dollar machines. You can often get a comp after an hour or so of $5 table play. Some of these casinos have a hard time competing in the age of big and glitzy casinos and are glad to see (and comp generously) anyone who looks like more than a minimum-bet gambler. Still, others in this category run on low profit margins and can be pretty stingy about comping anything.

3. Mid-level casinos—If you can’t place a casino in either the top or bottom categories, you’ve got what I call a mid-level casino, by far the majority. Because there are so many of them, the range of comp benefits, and thus the range of betting requirements, is broad. In strong local markets in Las Vegas and on riverboats, comp requirements are usually based on a longer-term history of play, while casinos with a fly-in market give out comps on a trip basis.

However, regular dollar players, even those playing only a couple of hours a day, will find that they’re warmly welcomed by the hosts in most mid-level casinos, and heavy quarter players might also be surprised at the number of benefits they can receive. The minimum bet to get rated for table-game comps usually ranges from $10 to $25 per hand.