I was fortunate enough to be the cage and vault roundtable moderator at NIGA’s annual Indian Gaming Trade Show and Convention in Phoenix this year, and the truth of the matter is boy, did I learn a lot! The roundtable’s initial agenda consisted of four items, but by the end (three hours later), we had discussed 23 different topics.
Last fall, I received a phone call from a casino executive who was concerned about the hold percentage of his Twenty-One games. He told me his hold percentage had dropped below its usual level in the last few months, and he decided it was time to move the shuffle point forward and cut off more cards.
Last month I briefly described my partnership with Rich Fiore and our first game concept, Spin Star. Because Fiore is more capable, his time is fully occupied with bringing Spin Star to life. Meanwhile, I get to write a business plan and seek out investors.
In general, we are not big fans of regulation by checklist. Itemizing regulatory requirements can create an equality of the masses of sorts, but not all requirements hold the same importance. More importantly, checklists tend to produce a certain myopia that may conceal otherwise obvious problems or deficiencies.
Traditionally, gambling and smoking are complementary vices, so it’s no surprise the gaming industry is affected by the international and domestic movements toward legislatively restricting smoking. An estimated 22 states have some kind of smoking ban in effect, either in restaurants or in all public places. About 56 percent of Americans live in smoke-free areas.
Read news about gaming regulation here. Slot machines are on the way to two Indiana racetracks. A new riverboat law affecting Iowa casinos. Missouri may lose its loss limit in a move that may have been spurred by Kansas’ legalization of casinos. Internet gambling returns in New York, an expansion in Pennsylvania and poker becomes an official sport in Russia.
Obviously, any analysis of business performance, objectives or metrics requires supporting data. But when generating a visual analysis, it is important to look at the questions asked and analyze the results, not just the data. It is easy to form a syllogism — a logical argument — from two premises to reach a conclusion, but whether that conclusion holds water is another story.
Norwegian explorer Roald Admunsen, the first man to reach the South Pole, when asked to explain why his journey had been so uneventful while his rival British explorer Robert Scott and his team had perished in their attempt, is reputed to have replied, “If you are having an adventure, then you have done something wrong.” In our experience, the best regulators emulate Admunsen.
Many of you might glance at the title of this article and assume it does not apply to your casino. You deal all your Twenty-One games face up and either use a protective faceplate on your shoes, or train your dealers to always cover the face of the shoe with their left hand. If you strongly feel your casino is safe from marked card play, you need to read this article.
In the movie The Wizard of Oz, Dorothy and her friends pulled back the curtain on the Great and Powerful Oz. What they found was surprising; it wasn’t a wizard, a super human, or a higher power, but an ordinary man who had created an elaborate façade. Pulling the curtain back on the IT infrastructure required to run a typical resort or casino today might surprise some of the people who work there.
