Does anyone know what the general requirements are to use comp balance for RFBI (ie, to be able to comp off tips). At what level should I be playing before I even bother to ask my host?

Hard comp incidentals are hard comp incidentals. It will vary heavily by property, just like airfare.

I mean for a large stip property like, say, Bellagio, Aria, MGM Grand, Mandalay Bay.

I'm looking for a ballpark here, nothing exact. I just want to know if I'm in the ballpark. I don't want to bother bringing it up with my host if that answer is that I need to play at 10x my current level.

+1 on the tipping comment. Do the math assuming a 1% house edge on Craps and a 30% comp rate, and you need to get a $10 increase in rating for every $1.80 in hourly tips. If you make a single $5 bet "for the boys" per hour, then that needs to increase your rating by $25 to pay off. I'm assuming 60 rolls per hour here. Net-net, tip if you want to, but don't think that it will increase your rating enough to pay for itself.

As far as the Player's card, I can think of a great reason for sharing. Let's say that you live next to XYZ casino (not part of a national chain) and you head to that casino with a visiting relative. If you want to bump up your tier status quicker, you give your relative your card. They aren't planning to come back to that casino ever, so they have no chance for tier status on their own. Be aware that this is against the rules of some casinos, and this logic doesn't apply as much to Vegas casinos.

Other than the odds bet (which doesn't count for odds bets almost anywhere), no bet on the table is as low as a 1% edge. Pass/DP are in the 1.4% ballpark, and the numbers are all higher (with the exception of buying the 4/10 at a place that charges $1 commission on wins only, on a $25 bet). Anything other than Pass/Come/DP/DC, odds, buying the 4/10, and placing the 6/8 are well over 2% (placing the 5/9 is 4%!)

I highly doubt that there is a single casino out there that uses the exact HE% for the specific combination of bets made by each individual player at the table. Rather, they use an assumed overall HE% that blends the HE%'s of the typical combination of player bets.

Casino's handle odds bets in one of two ways. Either they ignore odds bets in the rating amount, or they include odds bets but also lower the assumed HE%. Obviously, if you never actually make an odds bet, then you are much better off playing in casino's that follow the former approach. My 1% HE figure was a blanket average, and included the effect of 0% odds bets since some casinos use that approach. If you know the assumed HE% that a specific casino is using, then by all means you should use that percentage in your calculations.

Note that it is the casino's assumed HE% that matters for comp calculations, not the actual HE% that you are playing against for your specific combination of bets.

My point was simply that 1% is way too low since every single bet is well above 1%. Odds don't count because they are not counted towards your average bet at almost any casino.

Bolding mine. I have heard that this varies by casino, but I do not have certainty. What I do know is that IF a casino counts odds in the rated amount, then they also drop the assumed HE% accordingly, so it is basically a wash.

This has gotten a bit off topic. My point was that when you do the math, each $1 tipped needs to result in a fairly substantial rated amount increase in order to pay off from a purely mathematical perspective. If you know the HE% that your favorite casino is using for each game, then by all means use that percentage in your calculations, but net-net you are really going to be hard pressed to get a floor person to increase your rating amount enough to make this a wash.

Now, most people also get some personal satisfaction / happiness from giving a tip, and that should be factored in as well. Just don't justify it on the basis that the tip will pay off through a higher rated amount / higher comps.

As an aside, if I ever do find a dealer who is willing to do clearly "unauthorized" things in exchange for a tip, my personal approach is to get away from that person as quickly as possible, and definitely to never, ever tip them. Nevada laws are extremely tough when it comes to collusion. Inflated ratings are probably innocent enough, but if you come across a dealer who occasionally "forgets" to take a losing bet from a big tipper, or who seems to get very careless with their handling of the hole card in blackjack and exposes it to the big tipping player, etc., then you are entering some very dangerous ground.

Technically it "varies by casino", because there are a few casinos that do count them, but almost all don't. I believe the only one on the strip is Cosmo. I am not sure if they lower the theo % to make up for that or not.

I understand this. Me point it that it can be substantial.

It's not like there is an agreement between the player and the floor. Almost every floorperson used to be a dealer, and some of them still are (dual-rate) and they are going to treat tippers better than non-tippers. That's just how it works.

It's just like if you go to a bar where you are known for tipping well, you are likely to get more generous pours. You don't meet with the bartender beforehand and agree to give him an extra $3 for an extra ounce of booze. It's just that the bartender knows that you are tipping $5 and most other people are tipping $2, so he likes you and pours a little (sometimes a lot) more generously. For that matter, if you tip the cocktail waitress at the casino $5 when everyone else is tipping $1, I guarantee you that she will come by a lot more often to see if you need anything. If you're going to be playing somewhere for a long time, and want good, fast, service, give her $5 when you order your first drink (not when she brings it to you).

One offer code per ... ?
 

I had three rooms booked for an early January stay and one room booked for a late January stay.

Today the offers came out for January -- at least mine did -- and I wanted to take advantage of (a) the lower room rate and (b) the resort credit.

In an ideal world, I would have just re-booked these on-line and canceled the old ones on-line. The Mlife website being what it is, I can barely and rarely find existing reservations, much less cancel them. (Any tips here?)

So I called in to re-book. Always an adventure, calling into Mlife ....

I gave the CSA the four reservation numbers, my Mlife number, and the offer code. He said that only one of the reservations could get the resort credit. I said -- thinking he was referring to the early January three-room reservation set that, okay, them's must be the rules -- "fine," but surely all of the rooms could be re-booked at the lower room rate under the offer code. After a long siege on hold, the CSA came back to confirm that I could get the better room rate offered under the offer code, but only one resort credit among the four bookings.

Say what? The fourth booking was for a stay 3-4 weeks after the first one. Does this mean we can only use the offer code one time per quarter? We went around and around on this and he held firm.

If it's true, it's true, and that's life ... er, Mlife. If it's not, someone please tell me how to cancel out that fourth reservation on line so I can get the credit on the second stay, without so much time on the phone!

TIA

Most offers have fine print saying that you can only use them multiple times subject to your play during the previous times using them.

In other words, you can show up once and use your offer without playing, but they will not let you get away with it a 2nd time. On the other hand, if you play at your normal level (that got you the offer in the first place) you should have no problems using it multiple times.

If you plan on playing, I'd just leave things with only the first offer having resort credit. After your stay (when you are done playing, before you check out) talk to a host (the on-call host is fine) and ask if he can apply the same offer to your next stay.

Basically, they are not going to let someone give them a little bit of play, get an offer, and then keep coming back over and over again with free/cheap rooms and free food and drinks without playing. If they allowed this it would be too easy to abuse (and, trust me, many people would abuse it). There are professionals who make a living off of offers like this (mostly ones that include freeeplay)

Any high level MLIFE players willing to provide a discount on a room Jan 1-4? Willing to pass on some of the savings.

Thanks!

I know that some people do this frequently (sell discounted rooms) but doesn't this just destroy your ATT, which is the primary measure that m-life uses for things like offers and tournament invites?

And how exactly would we do that? It's not as if you can check in as me and then maintain my casino rating while you're there...

If you book a room and don't play, then yes it will hit your ADT. That said, whenever I go to Vegas, I generally have at least 2 comped rooms simply because a fair amount of places require me to book a room in order to get the freeplay or other goodies they are offering (GN is a prime example). I'll usually get a room on the strip, one at a Stations property and one downtown. Then again, my play is enough to keep the rooms and some FP flowing, even when spread around like this. I always feel bad that some rooms are going unused, but at least it's less work for the housekeeping staff :).

Personally, I would not be a huge fan of selling any extra rooms, simply because my name would still be on the room, and I would also get my name linked to the room buyer / occupant (no way I am not at least adding their name to the room). Bad things could happen to me if they did something stupid like trash the room, or if they turned out to be some kind of AP, or cheater, or just general scum bag.

I have given extra rooms away for free to friends and relatives, however....