Soft comps are those handled in-house. They require only a paper transfer of funds from one department of the casino-hotel to another. Examples of soft comps are room comps, food comps, in-house lim- ousine service, and free beverages. For obvious reasons, casinos are much more willing to grant soft comps than hard comps. You may ask yourself, "Isn't it expensive for the casino to be giving awayeverything free?" The answer is yes. The saving grace is that, under the U.S. tax code, it is all tax deductible as a cost of doing business. You can be sure that the hotel is charging the casino the rack rate for rooms the casino is comping. The same holds true for restaurants, spas, retail shops, and so on. Without this tax benefit, many casinos would not comp at all, or would make comps much more difficult to get.