discflicker's Blog

Live Gaming Malls

You are a big fan of the Wizard of Vegas and you love to play the games with the best paybacks because you know the odds. You’re itchin’ to play some live table games… craps and maybe some roulette, and so you drive to Vegas over the Xmas break.

On the way into town you pass a (formally abandoned) shopping mall with a big sign reading:

“Live Craps and Roulette… Competitive Gaming… BEST ODDS ANYWHERE!”

You want the best odds so you pull in to check it out. You see that the following 3 Vegas casinos (all about to fall into chapter 11 bankruptcy, as most of the casinos around town are, btw) are involved in some kind of a co-operative offering:

The HurstShoe

BaillMeOutPliies

CemetaryStation

But when you drive up and look inside, all you see is a bunch of player-stations that look like big slot machines, sectioned off into a bunch of zones, like a giant food-court.

You don’t want to play slots or any kind of electronic randomization… you want LIVE dice and roulette spins. You’re out of here!

But just as you turn away, you suddenly hear a HUGE roar from EVERYONE in the ENTIRE mall. You wonder what could THAT have been, so you park your car and go inside to investigate it… you DO see some live dice being thrown.

But, it’s being done on only ONE craps table for the entire mall, up on an elevated stage where a single stick man is running the entire casino with one craps table and one roulette wheel.

Being a Wizard of Vegas regular, you recognize that this configuration looks like Shufflemaster Rapid-Craps and Shufflemaster Rapid-Roulette on steroids, but here in this GAMING MALL, there is an extra layer of software between the dice (and wheel), and the players: this is called the COMPETITIVE brokering layer; HERE IS WHAT THE PLAYERS SEE:


The HurstShoe 20 x odds, 31 to 1 on the 12, free hot dogs.

BaillMeOutPliies 10 x odds, 31 to 1 on the 12 AND the 2.

CemetaryStation 10 x odds, a free room for 1 night (in any of our Nevada properties) if you win 10 passes in a row.


The concept of casinos directly competing for your business intrigues you. You walk up to the HurstShoe cashier station and buy-in for $1,000. The HurstShoe cashier gives you a bunch of free stuff, assigns you a PIN number and tells you to “Pick a lucky seat and have at it!” You decide to sit in the HurstShoe section because they’re giving you free drinks and shrimp cocktails as long as you sit there, but they tell you that your pin is good on any machine in the mall, and you can cash out at any cashier in the mall, as well.

You sit down and you learn the intuitively obvious layout and you also see a “tip the current shooter” button and a message: “Your turn to shoot the dice: 119 players”. You begin to play and now you understand how the roar in this place can be deafening.

You are playing the HurstShoe game... you are playing the HurstShoe’s odds against the HurstShoe casino’s money. You can switch to a different “virtual casino layer”, and have your balance immediately transferred to it with the touch of a button.

But why switch? Why is this any better than driving right to the HurstShoe, parking in their parking lot, and playing their tables with their hotel and restaurants right there for any comps?

Well, first off, you are a Wizard of Vegas guy, and you’re more interested in getting a better game than any comps, for one thing. But the next thing is way more IMPORTANT;

A few minutes into it, you hear the stickman (a famous ex-quarterback, comedian, heckled washed-up politician, etc.) who has a microphone and is basically entertaining the entire gaming mall of casinos with his very best calls, announces:

The HurstShoe now proudly offers the 12 at 32 to one odds until 5:00 PM today. Good luck!

The above message is displayed on the screen, which now reads:


Latest announcement:
“The HurstShoe now proudly pays the 12 at 32 to 1 odds until 5:00 PM today. Good luck!”

The HurstShoe:
20 x odds, 32 to 1on the 12 (till 5:00 PM then 31 to 1), free hot dogs.

BaillMeOutPliies:
10 x odds, 31 to 1 on the 12 AND the 2.

CemetaryStation:
10 x odds, a free room for 1 night if you win 10 passes in a row.


You say “cool, I’m already “at” the HurstShoe”, but a few minutes later, you THEN HEAR the stickman say THIS:


In response to the generous offer of 32 to 1 by our friends at The HurstShoe, CemetrayStation now proudly offers BOTH the 12 AND the 2 at 32 to one, all day. Good luck!

The above message is displayed on the screen, which now reads:


Latest announcement:
“In response to the generous offer by our friends at The HurstShoe of 32 to 1 ONLY on the 12, CemetrayStation now proudly offers BOTH the 12 AND the 2 at 32 to 1, all day. Good luck!”

The HurstShoe:
20 x odds, 32 to 1on the 12 (till 5:00 PM then 31 to 1), free hot dogs.

BaillMeOutPliies:
10 x odds, 31 to 1 on the 12 AND the 2.

CemetaryStation:
10 x odds, 32 to 1 on the 2 AND the 12, a free room for 1 night if you win 10 passes in a row.



Not to be out-done, the next thing you hear is:

In response to the generous offers by our friends, for all players averaging $25 bets over the past 2 hours, BaillMeOutPliies now proudly offers 44 to 1 on the 12 one time-only today (Max bet, $1000) when you start up or switch to us; you only need to stay with us for your next 25 shooters wagered upon. Good luck.

The above message is displayed on the screen, which now reads:


Latest announcement:
"In response to the generous offers by our friends, for all players averaging $25 bets over the past 2 hours, BaillMeOutPliies now proudly offers 44 to 1 on the 12 one time-only today (Max bet, $1000) when you start up or switch to us; you only need to stay with us for your next 25 shooters wagered upon. Good luck."

The HurstShoe:
20 x odds, 32 to 1on the 12 (till 5:00 PM then 31 to 1), free hot dogs.

BaillMeOutPliies:
10 x odds, 31 to 1 on the 12 AND the 2. 44 to 1 on the 12 one-time today when you start up or switch to us, you only need to stay with us for your next 25 shooters wagered upon. Max bet: $1000., Min. average bet / hour to qualify : $25.

CemetaryStation:
10 x odds, 32 to 1 on the 2 AND the 12, a free room for 1 night if you win 10 passes in a row.


And suddenly you realize that the casinos are competing for your business LIVE. It’s E-Bay meets Vegas, head-on.


The owners of the Gaming Mall Casino are not required to have a steak in the gaming part of it…. they only provide the common facilities, and thus this company can simply start up by cleaning up the deserted mall’s old food-court area, installing a bunch of thermals and cash stations, buy a software package that runs the whole show, and hire a one-stickman crew to run the entire operation.

The casinos have very little steak in it as well; initially, they only need to sign-up and make their money available in case they have a losing day… the remaining overhead is minor. Their on-property staff can eventually be reduced as well because when this all gets rolling, I can foresee only ONE craps table in any casino from now on, with remote live video networking to make all of the live games using this technology available to all player stations utilizing it anywhere in the world.

The players get the best of all worlds; they can now choose to get the best gaming deal in town in a safe and secure environment (because its all chip-less bank transactions), or they can drive to some casino’s captive property parking deck and play there and there alone, at least 30 minutes to get to another casino game floor.

And of course, the entire gaming mall can be made available to the internet, no problem what-so-ever.


QUESTIONS for the good people at the Wizard of odds:

Can it get any better than this (for the players)?

Is this bad for the casino industry, given the state it is in right now?

Is this bad for anyone?

If a bunch of smaller casinos jumped on-board, perhaps as a last-ditch effort to reduce costs, would the larger casinos join the party as well, because that is where the entire industry is heading, (like it or not), or would they resist?

What if it started becoming really popular with only the startups, would they sign up then or say never, no way?


Is this technically feasible? YES!!!

Is this a reasonable proposal?