So What?

The Las Vegas Advisor publishes a “Question of the Day” every day. People send in questions and the LVA gets someone knowledgeable to answer each question. Often video poker questions are shuttled my way.

In a recent QOD, someone noted that they were quarter NSU Deuces players at Green Valley Ranch Casino, which is run by Station Casinos. The players saw on the screen “advantage player tracking system.”  These players usually only played on multiplier days.

If they are getting a half-percent in players’ club rewards, this is a game that yields the player less than $3 per hour if they play perfectly. Basically, nobody plays NSU Deuces perfectly. I certainly can’t and estimate that fewer than one-in-a-thousand players can. My comment at the end of the QOD was, “It’s a real shame that casinos are doing this to quarter players. You might have a $3/hour advantage over them on the big multiplier days if you play competently. You’d think a casino could fade that.”

I received an email from someone who works in casino management and wrote, “Casinos no longer look at a $3/hour-winner player as just that – as their analysis adds $6 an hour (from all players) for free drinks and general maintenance items (bathroom, garage if parking is free) etc.”

This is probably true, although the $6 figure may vary from place to place. Casinos and other businesses have “overhead” expenses, and if that is going to be allocated on a per-player-per-hour basis, it’s going to be some such number.

Personally, I’m surprised that free drinks are included in this calculation. I believe that giving away free drinks is a money-making proposition for casinos. The more people drink, on average, the more they lose. Yes, the drinks cost the casino money, but the increased revenue from players more than offsets this cost.

Going with the $6 figure for now, it doesn’t change my feelings on this. If the player costs the casino $9 per hour, is that really a significant threat to the casino’s bottom line? Few players play completely accurately. Players bring friends along and their friends play even worse. Players have leaks, where even if they play video poker reasonably competently, they also bet on their favorite football team, and in that game, they are definitely a square. Even solid players go on tilt periodically and do some crazy stuff that usually costs them a lot of money.

I’ve found $200/hour opportunities in casinos. Sometimes I get restricted after the casino figures out that they are giving away the farm. I understand that. (I don’t like it, but I understand it.)

But there needs to be a threshold where casinos tolerate a certain level of “winner.” I personally think that threshold should be higher than $10 per hour.

Possibly I would feel differently were I a casino manager. But worrying about $10 per hour players often leads to kicking out losing players who have just gotten lucky recently.

If any winners at all bothers a casino, they can certainly remove games that give players a chance. But if those games are there, players should be allowed to play them.

Enough of my rant. I’ll go back to a regular blog next week.

Author’s Note:  After this article was prepared, I received information that the IGT brand for player tracking systems is called “Advantage.” Thus, “Advantage Player Track System Activated” simply means that the casino is using the IGT software. It does not mean necessarily that the system believes the particular players are playing with an advantage.

Does this mean my rant was misplaced? Perhaps. Perhaps not. I still believe that casinos should allow players with small advantages to play, and that Station Casinos are among the worst culprits at not allowing this to happen. I will never be allowed to see the actual data to prove this one way or another, but looking at the data from the outside, this is the way it appears to this observer.