Rob, I am not saying that -EV players have to lose. For example, I ran $500,000 coin-in to -EV machines to earn my Seven Stars this year, and I won $7600. But I know that was thanks to dumb luck (plus playing the highest-return games near-perfectly), not from any special strategies.

Alan, it is only "fair" to count comps as real value if you would have otherwise paid real money to have done the same thing.

Let's take the Norwegian Cruise. I am getting a now-sold-out $4040 cruise for about $680. So what is my real value? Well, it's definitely NOT $3360 (the difference between what I paid and the price of the room) because I wouldn't have paid over $4k to have a balcony room on a 7-day cruise. That's overpriced. But at the same time, if I wanted that cruise, that's what I would have had to pay. I think it's fair to value it at what I really WOULD have paid to take it -- maybe like $2200. So that's still a real value of $1500 or so, plus the opportunity to actually do something that I wouldn't have if I actually had to pay for it.

Then there's the annual trip. I get real value out of that because I use the airfare to go somewhere I actually want, and just use the CET casino as a short stopping point. So that's another $1200, plus the real value of the $500 in food (or $500 in RCs at New Orleans), which is at least worth a few hundred in real $.

The $500 in meals? Not worth $500 in real money to me, but at the same time, I like eating in nice/decent restaurants, so it's again worth at least a few hundred.

Then there's the many free rooms I use, including at times I really need them such as the WSOP.

So, yes, you can extract some fair value out of the base Seven Stars program alone, IF you enjoy doing the things that the benefits bring, which I do.

How does the casino keep its doors open? Because most players aren't like me. Most don't use or earn their comps optimally, and are just there to gamble.