Inside Asian Gaming

December 2010 | INSIDE ASIAN GAMING 41 Profit Boosters 1.2% on that shift. Some casinos would see their win drop by more than 1.2% and others would see less of an impact—it depends on the profile of the players, but it certainly drops. Putting cup holders on your games should allow you to nearly eliminate this problem, keep your games going, thereby increasing your win, and ultimately your hold percentage. Now that the stage has been set with the cup holder, we will look at other ways to improve the speed and ultimately increase the win and hold percentages of your games. Stop Shuffling For some reason we still see some dealers give the cards a single riffle before putting them into the shuffler on their single deck games. I always ask why and I am usually told that is, “just the way we do it”, or, “it is just to be extra sure.” It may only take an extra five seconds, but that is a full minute you lose every 12 rounds. This policy just eats away at your profits day-in and day-out and adds nothing to the security of the game. I promise you the shuffler will give you a sufficient shuffle. Government regulators and independent testing facilities all over the world also agree the shuffle is totally random, so please let the shuffler do the shuffling. “Changing $100” Can we please adjust this figure for inflation? How long havewe been calling this out for now? Every time it is done the game stops and now with reduced supervision levels, the game often stops for longer than it should. This doesn’t just apply to buy-ins, but also cash-outs under a certain amount, certain winning bets, and check change. Certainly the dealer needs to keep the supervisor apprised of activity on their table for player rating and the like, but the game should not have to stop for this to happen. Casinos have no problem with dealers advancing thousands of dollars per round, often times involving complex payouts, but for some reason, we still have this tired old procedure in many casinos. Big Racks Are Great I have to admit, I do like big racks… or chip floats as they are sometimes called. They come in all different sizes—12 tubes, 15 tubes, double stacked, large wooden ones on baccarat games, and more. The bigger the rack is, the more chips it can hold, and more chips on the game means less fills will be needed. You can also use the extra space on a larger rack to leave space for incoming chips, thereby reducing the number of credits needed. Every time a game gets a fill or a credit it takes time and just like in the cup holder example, it costs your casino money. Don’t Let Dealers Drop Their Tips Of course I don’t mean that literally, you would have a revolt on your hands—they should just color up their tips before they drop them. Let five singles become a red chip or five reds become a green chip. This will keep more chips in the rack and result in the need for less fills. Most casinos are pretty good about this, but for those not doing this it is an easy way to keep the game going and pick that “low hanging fruit” to increase your win a little. Also, encourage your dealers to do this coloring up when the game has no players or when there is a natural break in the action so as to not slow down play. Stop Staring and Spin The difference between a good roulette dealer and a bad roulette dealer can be 10 spins an hour. Losing 10 spins an hour can have a devastating impact on your roulette win or, conversely, gaining those 10 spins could be fantastic. It is far too common (European casinos aside) to see a roulette dealer let players make all their bets and spin the ball just before calling, “No more bets,” letting the ball go for 20+ seconds while nothing is happening. A way to increase the spins per hour is to spin the ball early while the bets are being placed, then with about 5-10 seconds before the ball drops, call “no more bets.” With this simple change in dealing technique you could dramatically increase your roulette win. Great roulette dealers can sense the pace of the game and use the ball spin to keep it moving at all times. ------------------------- Todd Haushalter has worked as a dealer, run a scheduling department, opened properties, but mostly he is the guy who figures out ways to make major casinos more profitable—most notablyWynn Resorts where he spent four years before joining Shuffle Master. Now, as Shuffle Master’s Director of Product Development, he travels the world working closely with casinos’ management teams to identify new ways to help make casinos more successful.