LOL, some "expert" says Casino decling holds means "more player value" MEMO TO DUDE: Just because people are playing less does not mean casinos are offering "better deals".
And LOL at how he says most of the slot hold increase is due to penny slots. MAY I SEE THE CASINO HOLD NUMBERS ON $1 and UP machines please?!!
What has happened is
2006: Greedy Casinos turned up the house edge 'knowing' more and more customers were coming.
2008-2010 Desperate Casinos turned up the house edge 'knowing' there basically was no tomorrow.......they needed profits NOW or they were heanding towards bankruptcy!
SPONSORED LINKS
Numbers show casinos aren't being tight-fisted
Talk to anyone in Las Vegas, no matter how long he's been here, and eventually you'll hear the same thing: "Back in the old days, everything was better." It's easy to look around at all of the problems and indignities we face these days and agree that things were better once. It's probably true in some ways and different in others; looking at some of the numbers backs this up.
Reading the comments of the local dailies online, one is bombarded by the plainly spoken idea that today's casino managers are pricing themselves out of business; raising prices has killed the goose that laid the golden egg. The yearlong decline in room rates seems to bear this assumption out, but there's more to it than that.
A widely held assumption is that today's casino games are less "fair" to the customers than those of the days of yore, that managers have ruthlessly tightened slots and stripped favorable plays from table games, leaving nothing but sucker bets on the casino floor.
David G. Schwartz
A cursory examination of the statistics behind the business seems to prove this point, at least for slot machines. Since 1994, the average hold percentage of all Nevada slots has increased from less than 5 percent to more than 6 percent. That doesn't sound like much, but it's the equivalent of a 20 percent increase in the "cost" to play machines.
Looking at the numbers more closely, though, casts some doubt on the idea that a shortsighted emphasis on squeezing more cash out of slot players has ruined the industry. Much of the increase in average hold percentage is caused by players migrating from quarter machines to higher-hold penny machines that return less money but evidently have a higher entertainment value. Penny machines make more money per machine than dollars because players choose them, time and again.
The table-game numbers present an even greater challenge to the idea that managers are putting the screws to players. True, in the past few years there's been a regrettable spread of bad plays like 6-5 blackjack (this can't disappear soon enough, if only because its negative perceptions far outstrip any incremental revenue gains it generates). But -- surprise! -- the average table hold has declined significantly over two decades.
This is true for the four biggest-volume games on the casino floor. Since the early 1990s, blackjack, craps, and baccarat have seen a decline in average annual hold percentage -- about 3 percentage points. In 2009, the house kept just more than 11 percent of all money wagered on these games. The drop in roulette has been greater -- about 5 percentage points -- but just as clear.
It's hard to say exactly why casinos are keeping less player money these days. The trend started in the late 1990s, so it isn't a recessionary urge to press fewer bets. But it's undeniable that, whatever complaints you might have about casinos today, you can't say that they're keeping more player money than ever. When it comes to table games, it's just not true.
All of which proves why it's important to look at the numbers behind the perceptions. Particularly now, casinos need to deliver real value to their players. It's unfortunate that, when they do, it often goes unrealized by much of the general public.
David G. Schwartz is director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. His latest book is "Roll the Bones: The History of Gambling."
