Question of the Day - 29 July 2024

We wrote fairly extensively about Video Poker Analyzer in the August 2023 LVA. For those who didn't see it, here's the annotated version.

Las Vegas-based casino-technology company Acres Manufacturing is selling Video Poker Analyzer, software that detects the skill level of video poker players. The Acres pitch is that it allows casinos to “specifically market to high-value patrons with no risk of exposure to advantage players.” VPA “evaluates every decision made in video poker” in order to “precisely identify the value of each video poker player on any game, paytable, and denomination.” The result? Casinos can create individualized marketing campaigns “derived entirely from players’ suboptimal decisions” by keeping track of “the sum of all error values over time.” 

In other words, as in blackjack-play analyzers that have been in use for a long time to pick off card counters, casinos can track video poker decisions, hand by hand in real time, to minimize compounding losses to highly skilled players via free play and comps.

To answer your question, it's not known, at least not to anyone outside Acres, which casinos use VP Analyzer. Over the years, the pros have believed that this place or that place must have it. But we've never seen any confirmation that a casino not only has it, but is also using it, which are birds of a different color. We've asked Bob Dancer and he doesn't have any suspicions about which casinos might be deploying Video Poker Analyzer.

The bottom line is this: Even people in the know don't know how deep this goes. Just that fact leads us to suspect that not a lot of casinos are using it at this time. 

Besides, here's the rest of what we wrote in LVA.

Is this a doomsday development? Not for 99% of players and maybe not even for the other 1%. There are lots of questions. How many casinos will buy it? How many casinos will use it rigorously and properly? And most importantly, who will it really hurt?

It could hurt the hardcore pros who play specifically for profit, but they can move around from place to place. There’s more danger for comp hustlers who’ve built up their comp profile at a few specific casinos. If their cover is suddenly blown, like the pros, the hustlers will have to move on to other targets. These two groups comprise the highly skilled players, of which there aren’t many. The fact is, most don’t play as well as they think they do, so an analysis won’t affect them.

Honestly, we’ve heard that similar programs have been in use for years, with no appreciable effect on the video poker-playing community as a whole. Strange as it might sound, use of analysis software could function as a security blanket for some casinos, making it less likely that they worry about devaluing paytables.