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Penny Wise, Pound Foolish - Casino Edition
Jul. 2nd, 2018 11:01 pmI was wandering around the Beltline today when I walked by the Elbow River Casino. Not having a chip (I collect $1 chips from places I've played Roulette), I figured I'd throw away $20.
The casino was a casino - flashing lights from too many people gambling away their pension on too many slot machines. In the centre were the table games, and I found one roulette table. It was surrounded by gamblers, many of whom were gambling a lot more than I intended to. Of note, all six "spots" were full. For those of you unfamiliar with roulette, there's room for six people around the table. Seat #1 is closest to the wheel and the low numbers, and the rest of the seats wrap around two sides to the high numbers. Since my preferred numbers are mostly low/middle numbers, I like to sit in seat #1 or #2. My arms are long enough I can sit in seat #3, but past that, it's a no go.
So the table is busy, and lots of people are betting lots of chips on lots of numbers. And here's where things get dumb - there's a croupier running the table, and an assistant, and they're both spending the vast majority of their time organizing the chips into piles. They're only getting a spin (and therefore bets) in about every five to ten minutes. In the time I was there, they managed four spins. In Vegas, this would be a lot faster, mostly because all the tables have automatic casino chip sorting machines. I couldn't find any data on how much these cost (it's a small market, and the sellers don't advertise their prices), but similar machines in other industries (notably agricultural sorters that visually identify grades of produce) seem to be in the range of $10,000 to $30,000 USD. Let's say a sorting machine costs $20,000. I don't imagine it would take a casino long to recover that investment. If it took them a year, I'd be shocked. A busy casino's roulette table can make $2500 an hour, so doubling the number of spins would pay it off rapidly. I doubt the Elbow River casino was seeing that much money, but that's because they're not playing fast enough. Hell, maybe my numbers are off by a factor of magnitude - maybe it takes a few months to recoup that money. They can still do it - it's not like plan A is to stay in business a single month.
And yeah, I get that if they go too fast, it exhausts the player's bankrolls too quickly, but here's the thing - people were walking away without playing. Notably, this is what happened to me - I up and left without spending a dollar.
They also had a second roulette table that wasn't being used. They could have easily made back the $20/hour they're paying their croupiers by hiring two more people. I imagine if it wasn't the middle of the afternoon, they'd have done that. Again, $2500/hour potential profit vs. $20/hour wages x two employees one employee, if you had chip sorters.<\br>
This sort of thing baffles me. Gambling is not known for a merciful management style to the customers. You'd think someone would crunch the numbers on this and decide they could make more money on that chunk of floor space.
Elbow River casino is not the only local joint like this either - Grey Eagle is the same.
On the way out, I decided to play some roulette anyway - on the automatic roulette machines (basically an 8-seat slot machine, except there's a physical wheel that you bet on at your screen). I don't get roulette chips for this that I can collect, but I might win a few bucks. I was going to play because I saw there was only six people sitting at the machine. Room for two more! Except I discovered that one guy was making bets on three of the screens! What the hell? There was literally no reason to do this - he could have simply made three times as many bets on one screen!
Oh well, gambling is irrational. I just didn't realize how deep the irrationality goes.
The casino was a casino - flashing lights from too many people gambling away their pension on too many slot machines. In the centre were the table games, and I found one roulette table. It was surrounded by gamblers, many of whom were gambling a lot more than I intended to. Of note, all six "spots" were full. For those of you unfamiliar with roulette, there's room for six people around the table. Seat #1 is closest to the wheel and the low numbers, and the rest of the seats wrap around two sides to the high numbers. Since my preferred numbers are mostly low/middle numbers, I like to sit in seat #1 or #2. My arms are long enough I can sit in seat #3, but past that, it's a no go.
So the table is busy, and lots of people are betting lots of chips on lots of numbers. And here's where things get dumb - there's a croupier running the table, and an assistant, and they're both spending the vast majority of their time organizing the chips into piles. They're only getting a spin (and therefore bets) in about every five to ten minutes. In the time I was there, they managed four spins. In Vegas, this would be a lot faster, mostly because all the tables have automatic casino chip sorting machines. I couldn't find any data on how much these cost (it's a small market, and the sellers don't advertise their prices), but similar machines in other industries (notably agricultural sorters that visually identify grades of produce) seem to be in the range of $10,000 to $30,000 USD. Let's say a sorting machine costs $20,000. I don't imagine it would take a casino long to recover that investment. If it took them a year, I'd be shocked. A busy casino's roulette table can make $2500 an hour, so doubling the number of spins would pay it off rapidly. I doubt the Elbow River casino was seeing that much money, but that's because they're not playing fast enough. Hell, maybe my numbers are off by a factor of magnitude - maybe it takes a few months to recoup that money. They can still do it - it's not like plan A is to stay in business a single month.
And yeah, I get that if they go too fast, it exhausts the player's bankrolls too quickly, but here's the thing - people were walking away without playing. Notably, this is what happened to me - I up and left without spending a dollar.
They also had a second roulette table that wasn't being used. They could have easily made back the $20/hour they're paying their croupiers by hiring two more people. I imagine if it wasn't the middle of the afternoon, they'd have done that. Again, $2500/hour potential profit vs. $20/hour wages x two employees one employee, if you had chip sorters.<\br>
This sort of thing baffles me. Gambling is not known for a merciful management style to the customers. You'd think someone would crunch the numbers on this and decide they could make more money on that chunk of floor space.
Elbow River casino is not the only local joint like this either - Grey Eagle is the same.
On the way out, I decided to play some roulette anyway - on the automatic roulette machines (basically an 8-seat slot machine, except there's a physical wheel that you bet on at your screen). I don't get roulette chips for this that I can collect, but I might win a few bucks. I was going to play because I saw there was only six people sitting at the machine. Room for two more! Except I discovered that one guy was making bets on three of the screens! What the hell? There was literally no reason to do this - he could have simply made three times as many bets on one screen!
Oh well, gambling is irrational. I just didn't realize how deep the irrationality goes.
