TOP TEN LIST FOR TABLE GAMES
by Ken Davie
This article was inspired by my dear friend and slot guru extraordinaire Butch Witcher. Butch's wonderful 'Top Ten list for Slot Managers' inspired me to write my own article regarding table games. Also, Butch mercilessly hounded me to write something! Here are the 10 things I came up with. Most would appear to be common sense, but it's easy to get complacent in any business these days, and to be successful you need to pay attention to the basics.
1. Be a Miner
2. The Players are your Guests
3. Gamble!
4. Support your Local Regulators
5. Embrace your desktop
6. Play nicely with the other Boys and Girls
7. Be Anal about Analysis
8. Edison was an Idiot!
9. Be Afraid, be Very Afraid
10. Responsible Gambling
1. Be a Miner
Yes, that's right, get down into the pits! The pit is the center of the universe for a table game manager. Each pit is its own domain and the chemistry in one may be totally different from the one next door. Take at least 5 or 6 hours of your work week to do the tour. Stop and talk to every floorperson and pit boss and, when they're not involved in the game, the dealers. Carry a notepad. You'll get dozens of comments and ideas on your rounds and the people will appreciate the boss taking the time to come and see them. It is very easy to ignore this valuable exercise but none of the bosses in any other department wants to venture into these exotic and intimidating areas. They're all yours. Get out there. Be seen!
2. The Players are your Guests
We call them players and we call them guests, and maybe some other things, but they're the lifeblood of the industry and you need to know a LOT of them. They're generally not difficult to approach and almost always open to a dinner invitation where they have a captive game-expert audience for their comments/questions/gripes. You can learn a lot at one dinner when the wine/beer/cocktails start flowing! It's always sensible to collaborate with the Marketing/Player Development guys and gals in this process and I'll discuss that at greater length in a later section. Keep a lot of business cards with you and hand them out to your guests at every opportunity. The more they call you the more you'll learn about your business.
3. Gamble!
Please don't call in a few months blaming me for your credit card debt! I'll chat about problem gambling in a minute. I'm simply saying that a great way to get the players viewpoint (and valuable insight into their state of mind) is to play a little yourself. I emphasize a little. It doesn't cost much to get into action on a low limit table game and have some fun while educating yourself in how a player thinks, and why they sometimes react in certain situations. You might be surprised. It's almost analogous to the change in a reasonable person's demeanor when they get into a car. The most benign and sensible individual can turn into a maniac behind the wheel.
4. Support your Local Regulators
Or sheriff if you like! They are not going to go away, and the better rapport you have with this group, the easier your life will be. This applies to ANY jurisdiction you find yourself in. It's your job to cooperate in every way you can and at the same time to attempt to educate the regulators on how your business works. In some jurisdictions, regulations have changed dramatically (for the better) as gaming matures. The more years a jurisdiction is open, the higher the likelihood that the regulations will adapt for the betterment of all. They don't change because of acrimonious disputes about sometimes insignificant details. They change because of the collaborative effort put forth by both sides in improving the regs, thereby building a climate of mutual trust and respect which makes everyone's life a lot easier while still maintaining the standards needed to ensure the public trust in the process.
5. Embrace your Desktop
Computers are an integral part of our business these days. I have the Hotel system on my desktop and also 'Autocad'. They have been and continue to be invaluable tools. A few years ago in an Atlantic City casino, a gentleman claimed a $100,000 Keno jackpot. The management was suspicious for a number of reasons. They called the Division of Gaming Enforcement and a couple of agents came in to investigate. The Casino Manager was fiddling around on the Hotel system checking the folio of the guy who claimed the jackpot and noticed a comment saying, "Give a key to 'John Doe'". They called the representative from the Keno manufacturer and mentioned this name. There was a stunned silence lasting a full half-minute and then they were informed that this was the individual from the Gaming Board to whom the source code for the Keno system had been submitted for approval. This guy fled to New York and high-tailed it back to Vegas under a false name where he was apprehended at the airport before he could get back to his lab.
6. Play nicely with the other Boys and Girls
The other departments are critical to your success. As the head of the table game department, you are the role model on whom everyone depends for their lead. You may not always get along with the other departments, but your professional demeanor and a little common sense will take you a long way and the owners/ bosses/stockholders will thank you for it. Also, your collaboration with your counterparts in other casinos can be a great help to you in your business. Visit other casinos, call your compadres around the world, be open to new ideas and respect other points of view. My hero in this regard is Steve Karoul, a veteran Marketing/Player Development executive who has worked all over the world (currently at Foxwoods) and who has a network the C.I.A. would be jealous of. Steve's e-mails are a geography lesson in and of themselves. So get out there, make some phone calls, network, and play nicely!
7. Be Anal about Analysis
Understanding your business and your industry is critical to your success. There is no substitute for a gifted operations analyst to support your efforts. I like the 'bottom-line' approach most of all. A gifted analyst will provide you with the substance of reports in a summarized form. This summary should allow you to make operational decisions that will optimize your potential on the casino floor. A great analyst will cut and dice (sorry!) historical and trend information in many ways and take into account all of the obvious and all of the extraneous aspects affecting your business. Here are a few basic details that should be in your analysis. There are many more.
o Drop per table per day
o Win per table per day
o Hold percentage
o Percentage contribution to revenue
o Utilization (head counts)
o Game mix
o Industry trends by game
o Revenue per square foot
You get the idea. You can't do too much analysis, but you can certainly do too little. Be anal!
8. Edison was an Idiot!
You can be assured that at least some people had this opinion of that wonderful inventor Thomas Edison. We all have a drawer or a closet filled with ill-conceived ideas. Some are so crackpot that they are immediately discarded with a kind pat on the head and the bum's rush to the door for the perpetrator. It's such a pity to keep turning them away, but I always make the time to give the inventor an 'audience'. There's a good reason. Back in 1992 a Brit game inventor called Derek Webb visited several Atlantic City casinos with his new game with limited success. Derek invented 3-Card Poker, which was eventually acquired by another corporation. They currently have around 1200 units in the field. If you're in the business, you know the range of rental costs for a game. Do the math. I'm waiting patiently for an Edison or DaVinci or Webb to walk through MY door!
9. Be Afraid, be Very Afraid
Someone is stealing from you. Right now, yes, NOW, on your casino floor, someone is either thinking seriously about stealin
Date Posted: 12-Sep-2005
Ken Davie has over 30 years experience in the gaming industry mostly in the USA. Currently VP of Table Games at Foxwoods Resort Casino he is responsiblefor 388 table games and the Racebook Operation and manages 3000 personnel.
