The application of digital technology in gambling industry

PurposeThe study aims to integrate the insights gained from the gambling industry into a value creation conceptual framework for analyzing the influence of digital technology application. Both primary and secondary data from industry practitioners are examined and discussed.Design/methodology/approachIn-depth interviews covering top management from six major casinos in Macau were conducted with industry experts, who provided the pioneering feedback on digitalization technology implemented with examples from major casino cities, including Macau, Las Vegas, Monte Carlo, Singapore, Seoul and some others.FindingsThe study provides an overview of the current status of the application of digital technology in the gambling industry and the level of the feasibility, practicability and profitability of this development on the casino floor. Digital technologies are found to augment the gambling industry in aspects of the product, service and operational structure. Research also discovers that benefits and values gained by the casino can be categorized in three dimensions: (1) value perceived by the customer, (2) value obtained from the customer and (3) value gained by the firm.Originality/valueThe research serves as a reference for Macau policymakers regarding regulations on emerging digital technologies in the gambling industry, as well as for casino management seeking to understand new potential business opportunities and future developments in digitalization.

Macau gambling industry's quick V-shape rebound from 2014 to 2019

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to summarize the factors that result in V-shape rebound of Macau gambling industry's from 2014 to 2019. Both internal and external factors are examined and discussed by representatives from academia, industry and government.Design/methodology/approachPractitioners from the gambling industry offered their cutting-edged analysis and viewpoints with observation and comments from scholars and government representatives in gambling domain.FindingsInternally, actions are taken by both the Macau government and Macau casino operators to rebrand Macau with nongambling elements and to adjust the strategies to attract more tourists from a wider range. Externally, global economic upturn and support from the China government also enhance Macau's quick rebound. A total of nine key factors are finally recognized.Originality/valueThis study provides answers and sense-making explanations to why Macau gambling industry can recover in such a short time after a big drop in Gross Gambling Revenue in 2014. This work reveals that Macau, by learning the lessons from the dramatic decline, conducts various self-rescue action plans which contribute to the quick V-shape rebound. This study is also a self-examination of Macau gambling industry from the firsthand perspectives of scholars, government representatives and casino management.

Advanced player tracking system

<div class="page" title="Page 1"><div class="layoutArea"><div class="column"><p>The Player Tracking System (PTS) is already well renowned in the Casino industry. It can track the activity of users and monitor the performance and operation of gaming machines. The recognized downside of such a system is that users usually do not want to be tracked, mostly, because they feel that the functioning of the gaming machine might be tampered with to minimize their winning potential. PTS has to offer a variety of services to stimulate a user to use the membership card. In this paper, we propose an Advanced PTS that simplifies some tedious tasks, automates conversion of bonus points to playing credits, displays jackpot counters, introduces the gaming machine reservation system, provides cashless transfers, delivers interactive personalized awards and promotions with prize winning games, enables ordering of refreshments from the gaming machine, and provides some additional innovative features. Its use reduces the workload of casino employees and enables the casino management team to access configuration of the system and analytical data with the use of a web browser from all desired locations and devices. The biggest installation of the presented APTS manages more than 400 gaming machines, and is well-received by the users.</p></div></div></div>

GAMBLING ON GAMBLING: FINANCIAL IMPLICATIONS OF RAISING BET LIMITS AND TABLE DIFFERENTIALS

The house advantage for Baccarat is known, hence the theoretical win can be determined. What is impractical to theoretically determine is the frequency and financial implications of extreme events, for example, prolonged winning streaks coupled with various betting patterns. The simulation herein provides such granularity. We explore the effect of following the ‘hot hand’, that is, rapidly escalating bets when players are on a winning streak. To minimize their exposure, casino management sets a table bet maximum as well as a table differential. These figures can and do serve as a means to differentiate one casino from another. As the allowable bet maximum increases so does the total amount bet, which increases the theoretical winnings, thus suggesting that a high bet limit and differential is beneficial for the house. However, the greater are these amounts, the greater the number of shoes that end with players losing relative to a constant betting scenario (the number of times a player wins at all can drop from ~47% of the time to less than a quarter); but there will, on occasion, be more extreme payouts to players. This simulation is therefore intended to help casino managers set betting limits that maximize total winnings while bearing in mind both the likelihood and magnitude of negative outcomes to the casino.

Dynamic Thread Pool based Service Tracking Manager

The Service Tracking Manager (STM) application is a management software that integrates, collects, and manages alerts/events information from Casino Management Systems. It allows casinos to track alerts and events at different locations. Casinos staff attends to various kinds of requests. The requests can be for providing customer service, handle events related to slots, alerts for security reasons, and so on. As the size of the casino increases, handling, managing, and prioritizing the requests become difficult and casinos resort to hiring more staff. STM is independent of the host system and receives requests from Slot Management Systems, Casino Management Systems and other source applications as appropriate. Once the requests are received, the STM application helps in managing and prioritizing the requests. The main functionality or the key operation to be performed on the data is the parsing to check if it is required by the STM system. To distribute the work, the Thread Pool concept is used. The STM application also runs the logic for prioritizing the tasks and assigns it to the staff. The present work proposes a service tracking manager based on dynamic thread pool concept. The paper examines the correlation between the internal characteristics and the performance of the static and dynamic thread pool. The simulation results show that dynamic optimization for thread pool size is very effective in alleviating the management overhead and improving the overall performance