Part III: Business & Regulation · Casino Marketing & Player Management

Comp Value / Comp Cost

Comps & Incentives

The internal accounting value of complimentary goods and services provided to players. Comp value may be measured at retail price (what a paying customer would have paid), at marginal cost (the incremental cost to the casino of providing the service), or at some blended rate. Accurate comp value tracking is essential for calculating the player reinvestment rate and evaluating the profitability of individual player relationships. Finance and marketing may use different comp valuation methods—marketing may emphasize retail value for player perception, while finance uses marginal cost for actual expense recognition.

In practice

The distinction between retail comp value and marginal comp cost is significant—a $200 hotel room may have retail value of $200 but marginal cost of only $40 (housekeeping, laundry, utilities), making the effective reinvestment cost much lower than face value.

One entry from the Casino Industry Glossary — 1,157 terms written for surveillance, compliance and operations professionals rather than for players. Definitions describe industry usage; where a term carries a regulatory meaning, verify against the instrument that governs your jurisdiction.