Casino Technology
A recent study found that a small percentage of video poker gamblers, known as advantage players (APs) possess the ability to cut into casino profitability.
Using its Video Poker Analyzer tool, Acres Manufacturing Company, a company that provides next-generation customer loyalty technology and services to casino owners, looked at how APs can consistently beat the house while earning a disproportionate amount of loyalty points.
Collectively, these players caused a loss to the casino equivalent to 25.64% of its carded win on video poker during the period of the study,” according to Acres. “Furthermore, over two-thirds of the APs profited from their play during the period. Because the group accounted for 26% of video poker coin-in, the casino’s loyalty program rewarded each AP significantly more than higher margin players.”
Fortunately for casino operators, such players comprise just 1% of guests. The Acres survey examined three million hands played by 1,000 APs in the Las Vegas locals market.
Video Poker Still Profitability Fixture for Casinos
In fiscal 2023, Nevada casinos generated nearly $30 billion in sales and on the gross gaming revenue (GGR) side of the ledger, slots and other gaming machines — the category in which video poker resides — were major contributors as is usually the case.
Gaming devices are more profitable for casino operators because there’s less labor cost and overhead involved than with table games. Those are among the reasons the industry has added gaming devices, including video poker machines, in recent years – sometimes at the expense to table games.
In Las Vegas, video poker is staple at local casinos. Operators know as much and while 99% of players don’t fall into the advantage category, it could be beneficial to “the house” to mitigate the impact of too many tier credits and points being allocated to select players. After all, those points can be redeemed for freebies on other profit generators, including food and beverage and rooms.
Tech Important in Identifying Video Poker APs
As is the case with nearly every other industry, casino gaming is increasingly technology-centric and tech can be pivotal in terms of operators leveling the playing field with highly skilled video poker players.
Acres said its Video Poker Analyzer analyzes players’ decisions against the optimal strategy for each hand dealt. It then identifies players’ mistakes, assigning those errors a dollar value, which helps operators better predict profit and loss created by a particular bettor.
“A casino operator deploying Video Poker Analyzer may see more than a 45% upside to its video poker profits through a combination of excluding and reducing unprofitable APs from the active player base and through the redeployment of valuable marketing dollars to those players with the highest upside potential,” concluded Acres.
The post Smart Video Poker Players Hamper Casino Profits, Says Study appeared first on Casino.org.
Rephrased by The Mystic Gambler
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