Inside Asian Gaming

October 2008 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 31 In Focus segregate, and estimate the elements of the mechanics of the game under different playing conditions, especially with respect to the number of players at the table, will provide the basis for finding closer to true optimal solutions with respect to the table games labour question. Such data would permit baseline calculations to estimate the average speed of the game under varying circumstances, and would allow analysts to determine how changes in the number of players affect the number of decisions per player and for the entire table over any given time period. The game of Blackjack can be used to illustrate this issue and how it might be addressed. Consider a situation where six $100 players, each planning on betting one box per round at $100 per hand, step onto the casino floor. Management’s alternatives at one extreme could be to cater to the players by having them all play at a single table with one dealer and one supervisor. At the other extreme, management could offer each player a private table with their own dealer and supervisor. Suppose that the applicable gaming tax rate is 20% and the labour cost per gaming table per operating hour is $40. Which scenario provides the better return? To be most efficient and maintain operating costs at the lowest level, management might opt for the single table scenario. If that is the case then operating costswouldbe$40ratherthanthealternative $240, and this is clearly more cost efficient. But is this solution the more profitable for the casino? Suppose that empirical observations yielded the following findings for the casino’s blackjack games.The casino’s dealers can deal a total of 350 hands per hour on average (including their own hand) and this number of hands is more or less independent of the number of players at the table. House rules are such that a perfect Basic Strategy player plays to a House Advantage of 0.5% of handle. The average $100 player that the casino attracts plays a strategy about 1.0% inferior to the Basic Strategy, creating a 1.5% average House Advantage for the casino. Under these assumptions, the single table will generate 300 player hands per hour, with a total handle of $30,000 per hour, and an expected win of $450. After labour costs are computed, the contribution to income from the single table is $410. On the other hand, the second alternative of one player per table would permit each player to make 175 wagers per hour, resulting in a handle per table of $17,500 and an expected win per table for the casino of $262.50. For the entire six tables, the expected win would be $1,575; after labour costs of $40 per table per hour are subtracted, the contribution to income for the casino from this option is $1,335 per hour, more than three times better than the one table alternative. In addition, players may be tempted to play more than one box. This increases the yield by increasing the proportion of the 350 of dealt hands which go the player. As will always be the case with taxes on win at a fixed percentage, the after-tax results will not change the optimal