Casino Enterprise Management

Each of us wants to be important and special. Each of us worries about being neither. Our lives are defined by endless cycles of achievement, joy, failure, and sorrow. How much we achieve or possess is irrelevant. I want more than I have and so do you, so does everyone else. I worry about losing what I have and so do you, so does everyone else.

In ancient Greece, success or failure was determined by the goddess Fortuna, the second daughter of Jupiter. Fortuna possessed a segmented wheel, each section of which represented a different level of success or failure. Every man’s fate was determined by a spin of Fortuna’s wheel, where success and failure were equally possible. A person unhappy with their position in life could petition Fortuna to again spin her wheel in the hopes of a better outcome—but always at the risk of a lesser result.

Though we no longer believe in the goddess Fortuna, her wheel is still well-known to the gambling world. “Wheel of Fortune” games are found in most casinos, whether as a Big Six game, a roulette table, or a bonus wheel on top of a slot machine. In fact, the slot machine itself is nothing more than three of Fortuna’s wheels turned sideways.

Gambling is a microcosm of life: the chance for more, the risk of less. Games of chance allow a player to test her fate and receive a clear and immediate result. Winning brings feelings of joy and a sense of being special. Losing simply makes winning meaningful—for without the concept of less, the achievement of more is not possible.

Casino players are divided into two camps: those that seek fate’s favor and those that want to compete. Games of pure chance, such as slot machines, are games of fate. No skill is required, indeed, no skill is allowed. Games of competition, such as blackjack or poker, provide an element of skill and allow one player to prove herself better than another player or the house.

By far the majority of gamblers prefer pure games of chance, especially in the form of slot machines, so let’s look at five features that give players what they want. These features are certainly about allowing players the opportunity to be a winner but they also deal with convenience and accessibility—some we do a pretty good job of delivering. Others represent untapped opportunity for player satisfaction and casino profit. After each, I assign a grade to indicate how well I think our industry is doing in meeting each aspect of player desire.

Please let me know if you disagree.

Bonuses
Games with secondary games, such as IGT’s “Top Dollar,” allow players to wager on a standard slot machine on which some of the game outcomes allow admission to a secondary game. The standard slot machine is configured to allow a secondary game once every 40 or 50 game plays, making the event readily available, but still seemingly special. Achievement of the secondary game feels like an important win to the player and offers a chance to be seen as a winner to others.

The result: a win that’s more important than the reward’s monetary value.

Game manufacturers offer a wide range of bonus games, including mystery jackpots, and wheels and—in this aspect—players are given what they really want, though even better bonuses are possible.

Industry grade: B+.

Nearness of Win
Players want to be winners.

Of course, to be a winner you have to win—and the casino’s need for profit limits the number of actual wins that can be offered. Not every game can, or should result in a winning outcome. But many—perhaps most—games should ideally result in coming close to a win.

A few columns back, I described the near-miss feature of slot machines in the 1980s, wherein losing outcomes were displayed, using symbols that appeared to be close to winning.

Instead of showing a loss as “Bar Blank Seven,” a result of “Seven Seven Blank,” with the last “Seven” symbol sitting just above or below the payline, was displayed. Players had reason to feel they’d almost won an important award and were encouraged to play again.

Of course, the near-miss was ruled deceptive and perhaps it was. Still, the concept remains a valid one. Just as fishermen are excited by the one that got away, gamblers will be excited by the win that almost was.

We don’t do a very good job of helping players feel close to winning, and this technique offers real opportunity for future profit.

Industry grade: C-.

Denomination
Denomination is the size of a wager, which directly influences the size of a win.

No joy is found without opportunity for a meaningful win.

Importantly, the loss must be meaningful as well. As Max Rubin put it in his excellent CasinoFest II seminar, “There has to be a tingle to the wager.”

Losses should hurt a little because that pain increases the importance of wins. Some people feel the tingle at a nickel, most are satisfied with quarter-sized wagers, and a few need the thrill of $100 or $500 bets.

Until the 1950s, games were limited to single coin bets when multi-coin games of different denominations came to be. Now we have multi-line, multi-credit games of one-cent denomination, and players can choose a wager size of between one cent and $5 or more. We can insert paper money and more or less choose the bet size.

Our industry has done a solid job of allowing players to enjoy a wager sized to meet their needs.

Industry grade: A.

Simplicity
How easy is it to play our games? Are the rewards clearly understood? Is the proposition well-defined?

Too often we confuse simplicity with explanation.

As a rule, if you have to explain the wager, it is not simple. Gambling is emotional, not logical, and slot machines are games of chance, not of skill. Asking players to read through pages of paytables on a video screen, or interpret complex rules, is simply wrong.

The basic 3-reel slot machine is a model of simplicity. If it has too few pays, there’s not enough variety to maintain interest. Too many pay combinations are even worse and can cause players to feel overwhelmed.

Games with complex animation sequences that have nothing to do with the wager are counterproductive. Aristocrat makes some great games, but I cannot comprehend what Zorro riding into a village on an overhead display has to do with the allure of gambling.

Interestingly, Aristocrat is also responsible for bringing line games to the United States. These games have incredibly complex paytables and no one can figure out all the ways to pay such games offer.

To the logical mind, these games appear complex. Emotionally though, they’re very simple. Many times I’ve asked players if they understand how line game paytables work. The answer is always the same: “All I know is, I keep winning.”

There are so many ways to win that wins very often result. Because wins are expressed in credits, a win amount that is less than the wager amount still feels like a great outcome, giving line games a powerful emotional appeal.

Industry grade: C.

Affinity
These are games that remind people of past experiences.
Perhaps the strongest affinity is brand extension, such as Bally’s series of Blazing 7 machines, or IGT’s Double Diamonds game (though Double Diamonds Deluxe with cheese might be reaching the limit).

Monopoly and Wheel of Fortune prove the power of affinity. Perhaps the game of Spam, and some of the others serve to define the limits of effectiveness.

Industry grade: B+.

Updates
One of the best parts about writing this column is getting comments from people like you.

The article describing the origins of player tracking brought a number of comments and all are appreciated. Frank Baldwin, general manager for Circus Circus Reno, was kind enough to provide a more detailed description of how the original Premium Points promotion worked at Harrah’s.

Frank wrote: “The original ‘Premium Point Program’ started in the 1950s and the actual points were hand-paid by the slot attendants at the same time that they paid the cash portion of a jackpot. Every machine dropped twenty coins into the money tray when a jackpot hit and the balance was hand-paid along with the appropriate amount of premium points.

“The number of points earned was determined by the denomination of the machine and the type of jackpot won. For example: A five-cent jackpot paid $7.50 and the player received 25 Premium Points which could be redeemed for merchandise at the Premium Booth and as you pointed out, the points could be accumulated for bigger prizes. It was a great marketing concept. This information is based upon my personal experience as I started my casino career working at Harrah’s Reno in the slot department in January 1961.”

Thanks for your insight Frank. It is great to hear about an important industry milestone from someone that witnessed it firsthand. By the time you read this, Frank will be starting his 47th year of work in the gaming industry.

If anyone out there can top that, please drop me a line.

John Acres is CEO of Acres-Fiore and a Director of Game Logic Inc. He is the Founder of EDT, Mikohn and Acres Gaming, and holds a number of U.S. patents relating to the gaming industry. He can be reached at john@acresfiore.com or (541) 738-4301.