In a message dated 1/15/2003 2:02:50 AM Pacific Standard Time,
vpFREE@yahoogroups.com writes:
Date: Wed, 15 Jan 2003 04:59:28 -0000
Subject: Big BrotherIn light of recent concerns about how casinos are reacting to
strong VP players, I'll ask a question I have wondered before but
never had answered satisfactorily. Can a casino electronically
monitor an individuals play to determine just how strong a player
he/she is? Whether he/she is maximizing EV? It seems obvious that
it is technologically possible, but do they? I'd be happy to hear
any solid information. If no solid information is available, how
about some amusing conspiracy theories?
There's software available called CRM (customer relationship management)
software which I'm sure some of the bigger corporations are using to assess
customer tendencies & thus use these tendencies to do a better job of
marketing. It wouldn't be much of a stretch to include playing stats &
produce macro reports such as:
-- % of time on potential 100%+ machines or games
-- % of time playing during promotions
-- Actual win vs theoretical
-- Coupon usage (looking for instances of abuse, overuse, duplication or
counterfeiting)
plus a host of other reports which will help them spot the leakages in the
system & get a handle on it quicker.
A micro analysis may also be possible for some machines. Once got a printout
of my session on a 50-play machine because it wasn't recording my play at
full-coin even though I would play 10 hands at full-coin & they would run the
printout to show something like 108 coins per play. Printout did not show the
game played on the multi-game machine. The Odyssey machines (Silicon Gaming -
now defunct) were the most impressive as far as tracking play as I once
watched as they backed it up over several hundred lines to try to find a 4
OAK during a promo for me. It showed the game changes. Compared with the
macro analysis, this kind of analysis isn't practical though as you need
someone with real expertise.
The fact that a large corporation like MGM Grand allowed themselves to get
beat by a known pro like Bob Dancer as recently as 2001 means that the
casinos probably:
-- don't have the software
-- have the software & don't know how to use it (more likely)
-- have the software but substitute ego needs above what the reports tells
them they ought to do (also likely)
Smaller casinos probably aren't that sophisticated or can't afford the
software but a bean counter with good spreadsheet skills can produce many of
the reports from their existing database IF they know how to extract the
data.
Maybe this is what happened at the Coast Casinos. Someone did an analysis &
followed the logical thread. To improve the bottom line, we have to get rid
of a certain group of people who do nothing but advantage play according to
the reports.
Fortunately most of the decision-makers that bubble up to the top have a lot
of ego needs which contravene logic. So there will always be a place to play
unless Griffin expands into VP too.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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From: "cmayhem2001 <cmayhem@aol.com>" <cmayhem@aol.com>