If free play is on the account, that is a good day to go. It is money the casino already put there. It does not help us if it expires in the app while we stay home, and it does not help us if we show up and never turn it on.
Check it before we leave
We open the app or the latest offer and write down three things. Is the free play on the account today. Which games can take it. When it expires. One line is enough. Free play, reels, good through tonight.
We also look at whether it has to be used in one chunk or if it can be spread across a few machines. Some offers are one load at one game. Some let us move. If we do not know, we ask at the club desk before we pick a seat, not after the balance is gone.
Turn it on before our own money
Free play often does nothing until we take one extra step. Depending on the casino, that is a tap at the kiosk, a card swipe, or choosing the free-play balance on the machine before the first spin. We do that first.
Then we watch the meter. We want to see the free-play amount move, not only our cash. If nothing changes, that game may not be on the offer. We stop and ask, instead of playing through it and finding out later.
Stay on the games it covers
If the offer says reels, we play reels. If it names a denomination, we sit in that range. Hopping to a game that does not qualify is how the free play sits there unused while our own money goes in.
We use it while the window is open. If it expires at midnight, we would rather use it earlier than in the last few minutes, when we are rushing and more likely to miss the step that turns it on.
Once it is used, the visit is a normal visit again. Free play is an extra. It does not change the budget we already set for our own money.
The players card has to be in for any of this. If we are going to use an offer, the card is in the reader before we start. We keep ours in a sleeve or on a clip so it is not sitting at the bottom of a bag.