I was wondering if anyone on the forum was engaging in "Manufactured Spending" for credit card bonuses, airline miles, etc? If so, I would like to share any ideas of how to manufacture spending in the casino space.
Thanks in advance.
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I was wondering if anyone on the forum was engaging in "Manufactured Spending" for credit card bonuses, airline miles, etc? If so, I would like to share any ideas of how to manufacture spending in the casino space.
Thanks in advance.
Having seen no responses, let me supply some additional background and share some information that may be of interest to all. A number of years ago, I played at a certain casino in northern Nevada named after a lost continent. They allowed me to take markers and then pay them back with my credit card. There was no extra fee for this and the charge on the card was coded as "Hotel". I was able to take markers up to $10k and them pay them off in the manner. They never attempted to reconcile my marker draws against my actual win/loss. As a result, I frequently left with all or more than my actual marker. I would then deposit the cash to pay off the card balance. I was getting 3% - 4% cashback for hotel stays on my credit cards, so this was an easy, no risk way to pick up an extra $300 - $400 per trip. I no longer play there due to the fall off in VP there and reduced mail offers, so I'm not sure if it still works. You will have to go through a host to make it happen. My standard M.O. was to frequently complain to my host how I was getting killed everywhere I played during the trip.
I am looking for others with similar experiences with marker payments or any other ideas of how to create charges on a credit card (without a cash advance fee) and eventually wind up with the cash to pay off the charge.
Questions, replies, comments are welcomed. If anyone is interested in the specifics of Manufactured Spending, there are a number of helpful websites and forums out there. The folks doing MS are all most helpful, but there seems to be no one on the MS sites that seem to know anything about casinos.
I remember hearing that on a cruise you could charge your casino chips to your room (which is paid for with a credit card). If true, then all that remains is to redeem the chips for cash or churn them by hedging them on roulette or craps if available (otherwise the lowest house edge game) if playthrough is required first.
Yes, that works on some cruise lines. Many have now taken to charging a fee (usually around 3%) to charge casino withdrawals to your shipboard account. This fee is usually waived if you can get to one of the higher levels of their slot club. Yes, even most cruise casinos now have tiered benefits for the slot clubs. I avoid this route due to the terrible VP pay tables and the length of time it takes to get to the necessary level with Blackjack. You can sometimes "social engineer" your way into getting them to waive the fees even if you don't reach the necessary level of play. It helps if you are going on a cruise comped from land casino play.The cruise lines usually assume you are a degenerate gambler and are more than happy to waive the fees.
One problem with cruises is that you run into a currency declaration issue if you bring in more than $10K and don't report it to Customs. Even though there nothing wrong with what I was doing, I was always hesitant to have to report, so I've always taken less than $10K in casino advances.
I suppose you could fund an online casino account using a credit card and then withdraw using a different method (choosing a low house-edge game like Black Jack Switch to churn the deposit once, if required, or hedge it out on online craps - obviously you would want to opt-out of a deposit bonus if playing strictly for manufactured spending as you refer to it ). Best done at a keyboard/virtual keyboard in the state of New Jersey at a New Jersey-based online casino I would guess.
Thanks, I will look into online casinos. This never occured to me. Could you expand on the NJ comment?
I found something vaguely related. Not really worth its own thread so I didn't make one, but I found out a friend had gotten "free bellagio rooms" without spending any $. It is MyVegas Slots. Anyway, it is fun running through the games and so forth, but they had one deal where you'd get 800 million coins for $3. So buying this 3 times you could get 3 nights at Mirage (shitty super select dates only .. but $9). They removed the deal though. Not sure if it is to cycle around again in the future, but none of the current deals give you near as many chips. I've only played for like a week. THere is even freeplay available etc. Anyway.. if you are bored at night it is worth playing on FB while watching TV or whatever. I'm not suggesting anyone buy the chips for this, but when it had 800mil - 1billion chips for $3 it was definitely a sorta AP play.
I wonder if i can get those rooms comped, You also have to have an mlife card. I wonder if I could get the rooms comped on these dates anyway. haha..
I could get roughly 3x the freeplay value from what I put into the game, but rooms seem like a better deal. I hate giving strip properties $$ anymore, and their gambling sucks so bad I refuse to bother playing there much anymore. If I am going to gamble.. need to find somewhere else. Off-strip or whatever.
I could play poker at Bellagio or something, but due to the dates that doesn't seem like a good idea. There are other deals, like 1 night at bellagio, but it'd required $15 of the deal that they removed.
It is strange to me because I just started playing it and the deal was there... so it doesn't seem like a mistake. They know the math behind this stuff. I guess enough "ploppies" buy the chips at the far higher rates where they clearly aren't giving away anything.
Online gambling in New Jersey is regulated and it is legal to operate online casinos in the state of New Jersey (i.e. have the servers and operations there). State law there requires that all customers of the online casinos there also physically be in the state when playing there. As a result of being state-regulated, credit card transactions are not blocked (for depositing and withdrawing), withdrawals are not difficult (you often have to jump through hoops getting withdrawals from non-US casinos unless you are using bitcoin), the games are much less likely to be rigged (as is not infrequently the case with overseas shops), and you are much less likely of being stiffed (unless you totally destroy them with AP play and have to get the media involved to get your withdrawal ;-)). So, buy your chips with a high cash-back credit card product (like the Capital One shit - "what's in your wallet") and then choose a different method for withdrawal like a check or going to the physical portion of the casino (the Nugget has an online and physical presence in New Jersey) and getting the withdrawal from the cage. Purely speculative on my part, as I've only done online gambling as an AP, not as a Manufactured Spender.Quote:
Originally Posted by The Gentle Grafter
Thanks, tableplay for all the details on NJ. I'm not in that area, but next time I am, I will definitely take advantage of this opportunity.