Just came back today from a 2 night (free room) stay. Played Blackjack both nights. The first night I played for 4 hours, average of $20 a hand. Got $22 in comps. The second night I played for 5 hours, average of $20 a hand. Got $9 in comps! Whoopie.

I go on average to the Borgata once a month and usually play $50 blackjack. I remember reading/hearing somewhere that the comp formula changes when your average bet is $50 or higher. (And it seems to be the case, I've earned substantially more playing $50 hands than $25 hands, not just double the comp points).

I've noticed the room comps getting a little tougher. Any other black card members notice that some Sat night comps aren't free anymore? Granted the rate is drastically reduced but there used to never be a problem booking it advance at no cost.

I guess with the economy the way it is, more people are going to AC than making Vegas trips. And it seems to have led to more Borgata gamers - even if they aren't betting as much. So it's like there are more rated players competing for the same amount of comp rooms.

Regardless, Borgata is my favorite place to play and stay.

I def agree that Borgata has gotten stingier with the comps. I've been a Black Card member for years, and Borgata has def changed a bit with their rating. On a daily visit, I usualy play an average of 2-3 hours of roulette with my spin total averaging $350 on the outside and another 2-4 hours of Bacarrat and/or BlackJack at an average hand of $150. I usually buyin arounk 5k, and immediately reload and press my bets I get cracked (very stupidly I may add). I also tip the dealers extremely well. However, for some odd reason on three separate trips this past year, Borgata (or essentially the pit boss) didn't put any of my action into the system for my play. This turned me off. I complained, but they said I needed to take it up that day I gambled at the casino. I feel awkward asking the pit boss/dealer to check my player average bet/time every 20 minutes to see if the casino is cheating me out of my comps.

Eventually I started going to Tropicana/Harrahs and although the casinos aren't as nice. Both properties take much better care of me. Tropicana actually surprised me with the amount of comps they offer me on top of what I earned and the show tickets. However, the only tower worth a damn at the Tropicana is the South Tower. Borgata is still the nicest casino, but when I brought up the difference in comps the pit bosses cocky reply that "Borgata doesn't need to do that, because it has all the clientele" pissed me off. I stopped gambling at Borgata about 4-5 months ago, when summer came they removed my Saturday night comped rooms at either hotel (Borgata/Water Club) unless I booked 2 months in advance. My host left for City Center in Las Vegas, and the casino never contacted me with a new host. I think I am done with Borgata other than for clubs/restaurants. In one day trip to Harrahs or Trop, I gained 25% of the points needed to get their Black Card equivalents.

Does anyone else feel the same way about the Borgata?

borgata pit managers
 

I do feel the unfairness sometimes on my end. The part that doesnt make sense is when i play at the high limit table for an hour and a half betting min $100 every spin vs i bet a few quarters at the regular roullette table, i actually got more points playing at the regular tables the same amount of time (give and take), with spending much less money!!. i honestly feel that some off the pit managers just do what they feel like. if they're asian and you happen to be asian, i'd bet money that they rate you better, if they see you tipping heavy, again, they'd give you more comp points. the sad part is some of the pit managers just dont even pay attention to what the players are doing and just blabbering on with the dealers talking about the weather and sports. i think borgata has to be more strict on how the dealers and/or managers stay on top of their job and i am not staying this out of snobiness. there was an italian guy sitting next to me this weekend and after the dealer bickering on in spanish with the other floor person who organizes the chips for pay out and pushes it in front of the dealer, the italian guy asked them to to get changed because it was getting ridiciulos at that point that they were laughing and talking non stop in spanish, making it very annoying for everybody at the table.. not to mention that the pit manager should have noticed this way before and broke the chit chat. ps: guess the italian guy was ticked off cos he lost a few G's :D

I dunno why the hotel rooms are so damn tight.

I just got back from a 5 day trip (had to pay $99 for saturday), earned about 400 comp dollars and got an early upgrade to a black card (went to the host desk and asked), and my rates for next trip went up! I have to pay like 140 bucks for july 10.

That's ........, I bet like $200 / hand and play for at least 4 hours a day, I shouldn't have to pay a cent for the hotel.

Since 1000 comp dollars (in a year) gets you Black Card, 400 in 5 days should get you free rooms (even on weekends). My guess is that it will take a month before their computer system syncs with your play.

Nope, the computer system updates after every session (I check on my iPhone, my hotel offers/comp dollar balances update right away).

I still had 400 some odd points to go towards a black card but stopped by the host desk on the way out and asked for the update, of course they said yes.

Apparently black chip players aren't good enough for unlimited free rooms at Borgata lol, you probably need to give purple action for that.

I meant that the free room offers (and other comps) would synchronize with your level of play.

I only play slots (black card level not titanium) and get my rooms comped up to 2 days per week (even weekends) every week. [In general slot players are given better "stuff" than table games.]

Oh yeah, by far slots players get better comps.

That's because slots players = more $ to the casino.

Higher house advantage (Can be > 10% on reel slots easily), and far less expensive to operate.

Hell, a lot of places in vegas don't even rate you if you're playing < $25 / hand at table games, because they're not making money off you at that betting level. It costs them more to provide the seat, dealer, pit crew, etc then they're making off the house advantage on your betting.

I'm a table games only player, and will probably never play slots, unless they put in full pay deuces wild machines!

Oh well, I booked my next trip already anyway. Gonna be $119 for 5 nights (thursday - monday, the charge is of course for saturday). I figure I'll earn 400 comp dollars+ and only spend like 300 of it on food during the trip so that'll cover most of my hotel bill.

Was this your first time playing at Borgata, or your first time in a while? Have you recently significantly increased your play levels or have you in the past had stays where you've gotten many fewer comp dollars per stay? In my somewhat trial-and-error experience of observing how my Borgata comp offers evolve after each visit, I've noticed that they definitely use a per-trip averaging method, so if you had a few much smaller stays in the past, those may still be dragging you down even with this big stay on the books. I've also noticed that there seems to be something of a "history" effect, in that even if you play roughly the same amount each time, you get slightly better comps over time--so perhaps, as foolish as this may be on their part, one big trip might not be enough to get you fully in their good graces (though to some extent I may also be confusing this effect with the averaging across each visit effect).

They may also be discounting your play somewhat because of how long you spent at the hotel; certainly it's logical to think that someone who does that many comp dollars while staying only one night might be considered more valuable to the hotel than someone who has a room for several nights. So maybe you're getting rated more like an 80 comp dollars per night player, rather than a 400 comp dollars per trip player.

Or maybe it's something else entirely, these are just some ideas. The casinos must love how, with their opaque rewards systems, they get us running around like trained monkeys trying to figure out which is the right button to press to make things come out.

Well, before I was just a 1/2 NL poker player, so I got pretty much no offers at all.

Then after that I've had 4 trips.

1st trip was on someone else's hotel room, I played just enough to get 2 weekdays comped (around 60 comp dollars)

2nd trip was on 2 weekdays, I played enough to get better comps (around 60 comp dollars)

3rd trip was 5 days starting June 10, (4 days comped, 150 bucks + taxes for saturday). (around 100 comp dollars)

4th trip (which I just got back from tuesday) was 5 days starting June 24, 4 days comped, $99 for saturday (around 400 comp dollars + discretionary upgrade to black card when i asked the host)

Next trip starts on July 8, 5 days, 4 comped, $119 for saturday. Depending on how things go I could earn anywhere from 400 - 800 comp dollars

Yeah I'd definitely say that's the problem. Your other older trips, when you were earning very few comps at poker or less than $100 playing less, are dragging down your average, and thus you are being rated at something much less than a $400 comps a trip player. You can debate whether this is fair but it would seem to be the way the system works. If you're really concerned about getting Saturdays comped, you might try talking to someone at the Borgata and see if they can wipe out or reduce the influence of some of your older stays, especially if you earn a similar amount your next trip, at which point I'd say you'd have a strong case.

The poker trips don't count, for anything that is. Poker doesn't get you reduced room rates (only the "poker rate" which isn't all that great).

Right now I'm not ALL that concerned because I'll most likely earn enough comp $ to pay off the hotel bill anyway. Unless I have a massive downswing my first day or something I can bet at a level to earn at minimum $100 comps a day

I have casino credit now too, I got it during my last trip, so I dunno how much that counts towards anything. I use most of what I have. I have about 6K, and on average I'll take 3 - 4K out sitting at a table.

I just checked the rates to reserve a comp room with my borgata black card for tonight. I know it's very late notice but they quoted me $509. I think it's pretty crazy, does this mean for somebody with no comps and cards will pay $700-$800 to book a room or because it's the weekend, borgata does not care and they charge the maximum they can since it's a Saturday night??

Last time i checked the same date 2 weeks ago, comp room was $99 for this same Saturday.
Moral of the story is book in advance...

Also, a while ago i wanted to book a comp room and they told me they were sold out, i was skeptical so i hung up and called back again and asked them i wanted to reserve a room and charge it on my card... Sure enough, they said they were completely booked out ..

price of rooms
 

:confused:this is something i noticed at borgata, there are lots of young club goers, i noticed that they have 1 or 2 people check in and then they have 4 or 5 people chipping in for the room you do the math on even a $800.00 room for a saturday night. the person checking cards in the lobby of the hotel is really not doing that great of a job, as i have been waved in trying to find my key on many many occasions. just a thought