Food stamps

Among the kinds of comps casinos provide their regular players are food credits. These are usually coupons -- my spouse and I call them "food stamps" -- that are part of a monthly calendar of offers sent by the marketing department.

These coupons have advantages and disadvantages over the other common forms of food comps.

At many if not most casinos, table game players (and sometimes slot players) earn comps that can be issued only by a host or pit boss, a process that can take some time. And often players aren't informed of their balances, so a request can result in a frustrating and embarrassing rejection. Using food stamps avoids these difficulties.

Slot points are the other way many players "pay" for food. The advantage of using points is that its easy for players to determine their balances and redeem them. But at most casinos points can be used for other valuable things, such as free play and cash back. So it's smart to use other kinds of comps to pay for food.

Food stamps typically come with conditions. Usually they are valid only on certain dates, or invalid on certain days, such as holidays or weekends. Often they are valid only at some of a casino's restaurants. Sometimes they cannot be combined with other food stamps or other types of comps. They are almost always for a specific player, who must provide ID and sometimes a players card to redeem the coupon.

For us, the most troublesome restriction -- one that's on almost all food stamps -- is that they cannot be used for takeout. This does not mean that you can't order more food than you can eat and take the rest home, but you do have to be seated in a restaurant and eat something. This might seem like it would be embarrassing, but we do it all the time, and have found that servers are more than happy to cooperate in the belief that a bigger check will mean a bigger tip.

But you can only so many meals a month, and with the amount of gambling we do, we always wind up with food stamps we can't use for sit-down dining. Fortunately, we've discovered some ways to get around the dining-in restriction.

At the delis at Sam's Town and Green Valley Ranch the employees have been happy to pull together big orders of stuff for us to take out. One big advantage of being able to "shop" at the delis is that they carry canned and bottled beverages and other items that won't spoil, so we can stock up if we have enough credits to use. Other deli items we buy with food stamps include prepared salads, fruit plates, cakes and pies. Sometimes deli employees spend considerable time helping us make good use of our food stamps. To be considerate of other deli customers, who are often in a hurry, we let them cut in and ask the employees to stop what they're doing for us and take care of the others. We also tip employees who have helped us with a big order.

At most casinos food stamps cannot be used at food court outlets, but in Las Vegas there is at least one exception -- the Palms. All of the outlets there accept Palms food coupons. Also at the Palms, the 24/7 Cafe now has a case displaying sandwiches, salads, fruit plates, pastries and Krispy Kreme doughnuts. Food stamps can be used to pay for these items for takeout.

One final tip regarding food stamps: Don't be afraid to ask for exceptions to the rules. We have had some success getting restaurants to accept food stamps from both my spouse and me despite rules against using more than one coupon per party. Signs that appeared within the past few months at the M Resort suggest that expiration dates can also be overlooked: "Unfortunately, we no longer accept expired or post dated coupons." Unfortunately, I never thought to try to use an expired or post dated food stamp at the M when they were being accepted.