Jeff's Life In Retrospect

Don’t know about you, but the idea of free stuff in Vegas conjures of the images of old when Vegas was Vegas. They knew you by name there (if you were a decent player). It was far less corporate than today. One constant is you can still get free cocktails pretty much anywhere in the casino-even the penny machine area.

Getting free rooms and other perks in the old days was tough for machine players. You basically had to catch the eye of the pit boss. Today, that’s all changed. Comps, which is just a short way of saying complimentary or free stuff, are easier to get because all play can be tracked through player cards.

One day the player card was introduced and video poker and slot machines that could read them started showing up. The system progressed into a fine-tuned compensation machine. You play $x and you get Y points to spend on stuff, like free rooms, clothes, food, cash back, etc.

I guess the downside to all of this is the tight line casinos follow. They really follow a compensation rule set and don’t deviate from it at all. It’s nice, but the personal touch has left the place. But the upside is you can play anything in the casino and get points toward free stuff. Whether you like Keno, Bingo, slots, poker or sports betting, you’re earning points toward free stuff.

Of course, all of this has moved online. Many online casinos now offer player rewards and all sorts of goodies. Dare I say, they’ve outdone Vegas. It’s a toss up. Brick and mortar casinos can give you free rooms and shows. Online casinos can give you most everything else, but they also give bonuses that offline casinos don’t-like cash bonuses for playing, depositing, etc.

Whether you’re playing in the real world or a virtual one, make sure you’re getting rewarded. In the real world, player cards also work as coupons. You can get discounts on shows, buffets and all sorts of stuff. And I wouldn’t play at any online casino that didn’t offer bonuses of some sort.

One nice feature of player cards is the ability to get a printout of your wins and losses for the tax season-if you want.

In the end, Vegas and online casinos offer all sorts of free stuff for players. The one constant is that you have to get into the system to get it. Before playing anywhere, do a little research and find out how to get free stuff and what you get.

The fairer sex is fast becoming a dominating presence at nearly every casino online, and not merely as some man’s “lucky charm”. Back in 2002, a study revealed that women made up about 60% of all casino online players. The pit boss only knows what the numbers are today (though one study puts it at 53%) but one thing is for certain: long gone are the days of gambling, whether online or off, being purely a man’s world.

The anonymity of the web makes it easier for women to be taken seriously as they sit down at the casino online table — though for certain many a lady has taken full advantage of not being taken seriously at the casino and wound up rolling the table over. Many male gamblers, in fact, present themselves as women in order to profit from the deception. Likewise many female gamblers disguise themselves at the casino online as men in order to reap the rewards deception garners. The popular name for these gender-bending players, incidentally, is Betrosexual

Take the game of multiplayer poker — one of the many multiplayer games where Betrosexuals run most rampant. 62% of all women surveyed in the U.S. play the game as often as 4 times each month, with 5 out of every 6 of them preferring to play at the casino online. Statistics suggest that at least 1 out of every 6 online poker players is a woman, with that number widely expected to grow. But Betrosexuals and multi-player games notwithstanding, gals still enjoy a good adrenaline rush as much as any guy, and it’s nowhere more apparent than at the casino online.

At least one casino online hosts a Ladies Only Player Forum and there’s at least one casino online that caters strictly to women players. Many others run weekly Ladies Night promotions highlighting particular games with fabulous bonus prizes — slots, video poker, craps, etc. — all of which seem to attract women gamblers in droves. And if a casino online offers online bingo, you can be sure the numbers are even higher. There are even ladies-only casino online portal/directory sites.

A recent U.K. study conducted at the University of Dundee found that a high percentage of women in Scotland have turned to the casino online to combat depression and other emotional difficulties as well as to cope with failing relationships.

Whether it’s the comfort and safety of playing from their own computer, the anonymity of sitting in with a bunch of men who otherwise may not treat them as equals (or even let them join in), or the confidence and wealth that the long-overdue emergence of women in business and leadership roles has brought, women are here at the casino online, and they’re here to stay.

One likely consequence of this female infusion in the casino online industry will be in the way online casinos are promoted. Before long, we’re bound to see svelte male models displayed on the landing pages of every casino online right alongside the buxom female models who have so successfully enticed new players through their virtual doors for oh so long.