VIP rewards are a big part of the Atlantic City experience. You can accumulate loyalty rewards for every dollar you spend in this city.
But did you also know that you can earn theoretical profits by combining the best rewards with the highest-paying casino games?
Video poker is a fun and interactive game that combines the best parts of poker and slot machines, and one of the best things about it is that learning how to play takes no time at all. Blackjack is the most popular table casino game while online slots are the popular casino game amongst the video machines. Both games Video Poker Machines At Tropicana Atlantic City. Video Poker in Atlantic City. Bally’s Atlantic City. Bally’s offers full pay Jacks or Better in a variety of denominations, but you won’t find a lot of these machines on the floor. Caesars Atlantic City. Golden Nugget Atlantic City. Harrah’s Atlantic City.
“Comp hustling” gives you the opportunity to make serious money in Atlantic City. Here’s a guide on comp hustling in this famed East Coast gambling destination.
What Is Comp Hustling?
Most Atlantic City gamblers merely play casino games and let the rewards come to them naturally. Comp hustler, in contrast, maximize the value of their rewards and get as many freebies as possible.
About Press Copyright Contact us Creators Advertise Developers Terms Privacy Policy & Safety How YouTube works Test new features Press Copyright Contact us Creators. QUESTION: I have been enjoying video poker slot machines in Atlantic City lately and I understand how I should examine the payout table before choosing a machine. I just don't know which numbers are the desirable ones. On Jacks-or-Better I look for 6-for-1 for a flush, 9.
They scour websites for coupons, sign up to AC casino newsletters, and even contact casinos themselves. No measure is too small for these people when it comes to earning loyalty benefits.
This mindset goes even better when combined with casino games that offer the highest return to player (RTP). With enough work, you may earn theoretical profits through high RTP and the best rewards.
Comp Hustling Tips
Hustling for casino comps involves different components in order to get the most from your efforts. Here are some various ways to scoop lots of rewards and earn serious money.
Choose Your Favorite Spots
Atlantic City currently offers nine land-based casinos. Therefore, you have some options when it comes to VIP programs.
You should pick one or two casinos that’ll be your comp-hunting grounds. After all, you don’t want to run around Atlantic City without a plan.
A solid plan helps you maximize your time and rewards. You can spend your hours in a couple of casinos and get the finest that AC has to offer.
The “hustle” part goes out the window in this scenario. However, you can easily switch to another gambling establishment when the rewards go downhill at your primary sport.
Play Games With the Highest RTP
You receive the most comps on slot machines and other low RTP wagers (e.g. craps prop bets). Casinos reward you more for playing such games/bets, because they stand to earn more money off you.
The problem, though, is that you’ll lose far more playing a slot machine with a 10% house edge (90% RTP) than you’ll ever get back in comps.
You’re much better off getting solid rewards and playing games with the best RTP. Video poker generally offers you the best deal.
Some Atlantic City casinos offer video poker machines boasting 99.91% RTP with perfect strategy. Assuming you find a program with a comp rate at 0.1% (on total bets) or higher, then you can make theoretical profits.
Here are the highest-paying video poker machines in Atlantic City:
- Two Pair Joker Wild (99.92% RTP) at Ocean Casino Resort
- Double Joker Wild (99.91%) at Caesars and Hard Rock
- Super Double Bonus (99.69%) at the Borgata
Play on Double and Triple Point Days
AC casinos commonly offer promotions where they offer you double or triple comp points. You can exchange the latter for cashback and/or other rewards in a casino’s VIP program.
Double and triple points effectively raise the comp rate that you’re getting. If a casino normally features a 0.1% rate, then you’ll be privy to a 0.2% (double points) or 0.3% rate.
This increase may now sound like much. However, it can definitely make a difference in your earnings when everything is added up.
Here’s an example:
- You play Two Pair Joker Wild (99.92% RTP)
- The normal comp rate is 0.1%
- Ocean Casino is offering double points (0.2% rate)
- 92 + 0.2 = 100.12% RTP
- You bet $10,000 over the course of a stay
- 0012 (edge) x 10,000 = 12
- You’ll theoretically earn a $12 profit
Fool the Pit Boss
You don’t necessarily have to be confined to video poker when comp hustling. Instead, you can use certain measures in table games to get comped more.
Of course, the pit boss doesn’t have all day to monitor your play. They simply watch you go through a couple of hands and get an idea on how much you’re betting per round.
Here’s an example:
- You’re playing blackjack.
- The pit boss sees you placing $10 bets.
- The table sees around 70 hands per hour.
- 70 x 10 = $700 in hourly wagers
- House edge is 1%.
- 700 x 0.01 = $7 in hourly losses
You’re not going to receive many comps on $7 in theoretical losses each hour. But what if you could fool the casino into believing that you’re wagering much more?
This strategy revolves around making the pit boss believe that you’re betting far more each hour than you really are.
If you place $100 bets when they’re watching, for example, then they might use $100 wagers as the measuring stick. You can then drop your bets lower once they leave.
Palm Chips
Casinos generally offer more comps after you’ve had a really rough night at the table games. They don’t want you leaving angry and vowing never to come back.
However, you don’t necessarily need to lose big just to trick them. You can instead “palm chips” and make it appear as if you’re losing a lot.
Palming refers to the art of slipping chips into your pocket without the dealer or pit boss seeing. When done right, they’ll merely think that you lost the money.
If the pit boss comes back around and sees you with barely any chips left, they might take pity and offer more rewards. You can act angry to further sell your perceived losses.
Know What to Spend Rewards On
Most casinos provide you with plenty of options for how to spend your comps. If you want the most value, then you might want to forgo limousine transportation and think about what you really want.
Meals are never a bad choice, especially in a reasonably priced casino restaurant. You’ll likely have rewards points left over too.
You can spend these points on items in the casino store, ranging from bottled water to hygiene products. These are the same type of items that you might spend money on anyways, so they’re giving you true value.
What Comps Will You Get?
Each Atlantic City casino differs on the exact rewards they offer. Generally speaking, though, you can look forward to the following:
- Better rules in VIP games (e.g. highstakes blackjack)
- Cashback
- Free drinks
- Free play
- Free Uber transportation
- Hotel stay
- Items in the casino store
- Limousine transportation
- Meals
- Nightclub bottle service
- Shopping credit
- Spa treatment
Best Atlantic City Casinos for Comp Hustling
Ocean Casino Resort
Ocean Casino holds the crown for best VIP benefits in Atlantic City. Its Ocean Wow Rewards Club provides more value than anything seen in the city’s other eight establishments.
The Rewards Club offers five tiers. You move up the ladder and on to better rewards by gambling or spending more at Ocean.
Examples of rewards here include free play, negotiable comps, free parking, VIP lounge access, and even a free lease on a Mercedes-Benz.
You also receive comp dollars that can be used on slot machines, dining, shopping, hotel stays, and dining.
Best Video Poker Machines In Atlantic City Md
Tropicana Atlantic City
Tropicana offers another top-tier VIP program called the Trop Advantage Players Club. This program has remained one of the best in Atlantic City for years.
Trop Advantage is notable for offering one of the highest comp rates on casino play. It also provides plenty of options for how to use comp points.
This program features five tiers just like the one at Ocean Casino. It gives you an opportunity to earn free play, fine dining, shopping credits, and more.
Resorts Casino Hotel
The Rewards Casino offers a Star Card that lets you accumulate VIP benefits throughout the casino. You earn comp dollars for your play/spending that can be spent at any Resorts property, including Mohegan Sun Pocono (Pennsylvania), and Mohegan Sun (Connecticut).
Some of the available rewards in this program include cashback, comp dollars, hotel stay discounts, meals, and show tickets.
The comp dollars are especially useful as a gambler. You can use these funds to play real money slots and video poker machines.
Conclusion
You aren’t going to get rich through comp hustling. Assuming your goal is to win big, then you’re better offer mastering an advantage play method like card counting, hole carding, or shuffle tracking.
However, you can at least earn small theoretical profits under perfect circumstances. These circumstances include finding games with high payback and great rewards.
Many gamblers overlook the RTP of the games they’re playing. As a result, they miss out on potential benefits.
Chances are, you’ll only come close to earning theoretical profits through comp hustling. For example, you might earn 99.7% RTP with rewards included. But you’ll still have fun trying to maximize your comps and winnings.
Atlantic City is known for 3 things:
- The beach
- The boardwalk
- The casinos
This page concerns itself with #3, but only in terms of what are the best video poker deals at the various casinos. Atlantic City video poker is actually a pretty good deal, especially compared to the slot machine games there. In fact, since most of the casinos have relatively unfavorable blackjack rules, the smart money in casino games there tends to be the video poker machines.
Most of the casinos offer at least a few full pay Jacks or Better games. We like those games, because the strategy is familiar to most players. It’s also easy to spot because of the 9/6 pay table. You can find more information about that game in particular on our site, including strategies and how to spot the best pay tables.
None of the casinos offer any games with a 100% or greater return to player, but that’s not surprising. Atlantic City casinos seem to be able to lose money without any help from expert VP players. You can probably combine the players club membership card at some of these casinos with the best strategy and most generous games and come close to a break-even game.
Please keep in mind that even though we hope that the listings below are still accurate when you read this, casinos change their game selections, locations, and layouts all the time. If you’ll contact us when we need to make updates, we’ll make changes to this page accordingly.
Bally’s Atlantic City
Bally’s offers full pay Jacks or Better in a variety of denominations, but you won’t find a lot of these machines on the floor. There are probably less than 2 dozen of these games in the entire casino, and most of them are in the smoking sections on the GameKing games. They’re available in the following denominations: 25 cents, 50 cents, $1, $2, and $5. The higher denomination games are the more common ones.
This is, by the way, the best video poker game in the casino. The next best game is Double Double Bonus Aces and Faces with a payback percentage of 99.46%. But most players already know the correct strategies for Jacks or Better. They’re less likely to be able to play Double Double Bonus Aces and Faces with the correct strategy, which might add as much as 1% to 2% to the house edge.
At Bally’s, you can also find the following games with a payback percentage of over 99%:
- Joker Wild
- Bonus Aces and Faces
- Double Bonus Aces and Faces
- Bonus Poker (There are a lot of these games in the casino, and the payback percentage is 99.17%. If you’re having trouble getting on one of the full pay Jacks or Better game, this is the one to go for.)
The best payback percentage at the Borgata belongs to the Super Double Bonus games in the original area of the casino. If you play with the correct strategy, you’re looking at a 99.69% payback percentage. These games are available for a quarter, 50 cents, or a dollar.
The Borgata also offers 9/6 Jacks or Better, which is an equally legitimate choice. You’re sacrificing 0.15% in payback percentage, but you’re probably better at playing Jacks or Better than Super Double Bonus. The Borgata actually has quite a few of these games throughout the property, with denominations starting at a quarter. But the high roller area has these games for $10, $25, and $50.
The only other video poker game at the Borgata with a payback percentage north of 99% is Bonus Poker, and they only have a few of these games. They’re mostly available in higher denominations, too, starting at $1 and going up to $50.
You can find several video poker games here with a payback percentage of between 98% and 99% though, including:
- Double Double Bonus
- Jacks or Better
- Bonus Poker
- Double Bonus Poker
Caesar has about a dozen Double Joker Wild games available for 25 cents. This game has a payback percentage of 99.91%, which makes it not only the best video poker game in Caesars, but also one of the best video poker games in the entire city.
Caesars also offers about a dozen full pay Jacks or Better games. These are available in the following denominations: 25 cents, $1, $2, and $5.
The Double Double Bonus games are also worth noting, as they have a payback percentage of 98.98%. There are only a handful of these in the middle of the casino.
Like many of its competitors, Golden Nugget offers full pay Jacks or Better as its best-paying video poker option. But you’ll only find a handful of these games available near the rear of the casino. They’re available in a variety of denominations, though: 25 cents, 50 cents, $1, $2, and $5.
They also have a couple of Bonus Poker games available for $1 and $5. These have a payback percentage of 99.17%.
The Double Bonus games are the only other video poker games worth mentioning at this property. They have a payback percentage of 99.11%. They’re available in the same denominations as the Jacks or Better games.
Harrah’s has over half a dozen of playable video poker variations available, the best of which are their full pay Jacks or Better games. They have plenty of these games available, and they’re reasonably easy to find, too. They’re available in the following denominations: 25 cents, 50 cents, $1, $2, $5, and $10.
They also have the 99.46% version of Double Double Bonus Aces and Faces. These are available in the same denominations as the Jacks or Better games.
Jokers Wild is available with a 99.29% payback percentage. Bonus Aces and Faces has a similar payback percentage, 99.26%. And Double Bonus Aces and Faces is available with 99.24%.
Bonus Poker, Double Bonus Poker, and Double Double Bonus are also all available in their best paying variations. All of these games are available in the same denominations that we listed above in the Jacks or Better paragraph.
Best Video Poker Machines In Atlantic City Maryland
Resorts Atlantic City only has one video poker game worth mentioning here:
The Bonus Poker games are available for 25 cents, 50 cents, or a dollar. They have a 99.17% payback percentage.
Other than that, you won’t find much of interest in terms of VP games here.
The best option at the Tropicana Atlantic City is also the only appropriate game for low rollers—Joker Wild. The payback percentage is 99.59%, and the game is only available for a 25 cent denomination.
They also have a couple (literally just 2) full pay Jacks or Better games for $1, $2, $5, or $10. They’re in the high limit area.
Those are the only options if you’re looking for 99%+, but if you can live with 98% to 99%, they also have options in that range, too:
Double Double Bonus for $5 with a 98.98% payback percentage is also available. There’s also a Deuces Wild game with a 98.91% return to player available for $5.
The Trump Taj Mahal actually has a reasonably good selection of games with decent RTP (return to player) figures. Their best game is Jacks or Better with a 99.54% payback percentage—it’s available for $1 or $2.
99.17% Bonus Poker is also available throughout the casino. It’s available in the following denominations: $1, $2, and $5.
Those are the only 2 games with a 99%+ potential, but they have a couple of games in the 98%-99% range, too:
Double Double Bonus with 98.98% is scattered throughout the casino. They also have a Deuces Wild game with 98.91%. These games are available for a quarter, making them the best for low rollers in this property.
Atlantic City isn’t a video poker paradise, but most of the casinos offer at least one or two games worth looking at. We like to stick to variations with a 99%+ return to player, but that’s not entirely possible for all bankrolls at all properties.
The Borgata and Harrahs are our 2 favorite casinos for VP in the city. We’re not impressed with the selection at the Golden Nugget, though.
We like blackjack, too, but in Atlantic City, the rules are so unfavorable that full pay Jacks or Better or Bonus Poker are clearly the better options.
You just have to watch the pay tables, as these games are mixed in with the other games on the casino floor.