Vegas Trip report
September 23rd, 2010 at 11:00:53 PM
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... this thread picks up from the blog because comments/replies are easier to deal with here ...
Day 4
Two meetings, one was a fly-by - that is, no appointment, but the DCO happened to walk into the pit as I was schmoozing the craps dealers. He gave me 10 minutes of his time and then because he liked what he saw, suggested I call their corporate office, which I did. One more meeting planned for next week.
Later on, met with two folks from one casino. One of them used the words "home run" in reference to Bad Beat Blackjack, and that's in spite of the fact that their BJ tables are already covered with side bets. He's going to take that to his corporate team himself. That's the most favorable review so far, I think. Even better, they liked the Hard Pass bet too.
Afterwards, met Dan and his wife for dinner at Metro Pizza (where I had a salad. But it was a good salad.) Had a good conversation about the trials and tribulations of game marketing.
Meetings 5, installs 0 - for now.
Day 4
Two meetings, one was a fly-by - that is, no appointment, but the DCO happened to walk into the pit as I was schmoozing the craps dealers. He gave me 10 minutes of his time and then because he liked what he saw, suggested I call their corporate office, which I did. One more meeting planned for next week.
Later on, met with two folks from one casino. One of them used the words "home run" in reference to Bad Beat Blackjack, and that's in spite of the fact that their BJ tables are already covered with side bets. He's going to take that to his corporate team himself. That's the most favorable review so far, I think. Even better, they liked the Hard Pass bet too.
Afterwards, met Dan and his wife for dinner at Metro Pizza (where I had a salad. But it was a good salad.) Had a good conversation about the trials and tribulations of game marketing.
Meetings 5, installs 0 - for now.
"In my own case, when it seemed to me after a long illness that death was close at hand, I found no little solace in playing constantly at dice."
-- Girolamo Cardano, 1563
September 24th, 2010 at 6:10:09 PM
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Day 5
Only one meeting, but it was a good one. Spent an hour with an operator talking about lots and lots of things. Started with the meat-and-potatoes (the side bets, at least one of which he liked) but then conversation veered toward other things. Like bingo. In Nevada, bingo can be partly house-banked. That is, unlike the charitable situation where it's purely pari-mutuel, the house in Nevada can offer special bets and seed the pot. So you might have a guaranteed $250 bingo even if only 30 people are playing. The house would take a loss on that one.
Point is, we started talking about Uppercut as a bingo side bet. It'd work basically the same way as in roulette, just with the first N bingo balls instead of N consecutive roulette spins. I did the math a long time ago, and the long-and-short of it is that you can offer a graduated pay scale up to, say, 1000-for-1 on a bingo side bet and still have a good house edge. But unlike the other special bingo plays, this one is a community bet; it's all-or-nothing. Imagine a room full of bingo players all cheering at the same time because they *all* won $100...
Meetings 6, installs 0
Only one meeting, but it was a good one. Spent an hour with an operator talking about lots and lots of things. Started with the meat-and-potatoes (the side bets, at least one of which he liked) but then conversation veered toward other things. Like bingo. In Nevada, bingo can be partly house-banked. That is, unlike the charitable situation where it's purely pari-mutuel, the house in Nevada can offer special bets and seed the pot. So you might have a guaranteed $250 bingo even if only 30 people are playing. The house would take a loss on that one.
Point is, we started talking about Uppercut as a bingo side bet. It'd work basically the same way as in roulette, just with the first N bingo balls instead of N consecutive roulette spins. I did the math a long time ago, and the long-and-short of it is that you can offer a graduated pay scale up to, say, 1000-for-1 on a bingo side bet and still have a good house edge. But unlike the other special bingo plays, this one is a community bet; it's all-or-nothing. Imagine a room full of bingo players all cheering at the same time because they *all* won $100...
Meetings 6, installs 0
"In my own case, when it seemed to me after a long illness that death was close at hand, I found no little solace in playing constantly at dice."
-- Girolamo Cardano, 1563
September 24th, 2010 at 8:14:26 PM
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Quote: MathExtremistIn Nevada, bingo can be partly house-banked.
As far as I know, it is always house banked here.
"For with much wisdom comes much sorrow." -- Ecclesiastes 1:18 (NIV)
September 24th, 2010 at 11:02:49 PM
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Right, I mean to contrast with non-house-banked bingo, where player buyins go into a pot and that pot (and only that pot) gets disbursed to the winner(s). The pot for the main bingo game in NV contains some player money but also some house money. The special bingos and other prizes are entirely house-funded, not player-vs-player at all.
"In my own case, when it seemed to me after a long illness that death was close at hand, I found no little solace in playing constantly at dice."
-- Girolamo Cardano, 1563
September 27th, 2010 at 10:15:14 PM
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Days 6-8. Other than Saturday morning I took the weekend off. I don't think I left too many of you hanging, right?
There appears to be quite some momentum about the idea of a bingo side bet, so I'm shifting focus onto that and I met with a bingo vendor today to discuss further. This is learning by jumping in feet-first; I have very little experience with the bingo operations side. No operator meetings today but several potentially-big appointments coming up tomorrow. Unfortunately, they are entirely on the opposite side of Las Vegas from each other - at one point, I have to drive from Summerlin to the Boulder highway.
Meetings 8, installs 0. I may not end up with any installs per se by the end of this week, but I'm somewhat optimistic about doing a MOU as a contract precursor.
Just as an aside: it's surprising to me how vastly different operators' preferences are within the same general geographic market. You'd think that most casinos in a particular off-strip region would generally cater to the same players and therefore use a similar game mix, but that's simply not the case at all. The range of game mix and side-bet offerings is really quite diverse.
There appears to be quite some momentum about the idea of a bingo side bet, so I'm shifting focus onto that and I met with a bingo vendor today to discuss further. This is learning by jumping in feet-first; I have very little experience with the bingo operations side. No operator meetings today but several potentially-big appointments coming up tomorrow. Unfortunately, they are entirely on the opposite side of Las Vegas from each other - at one point, I have to drive from Summerlin to the Boulder highway.
Meetings 8, installs 0. I may not end up with any installs per se by the end of this week, but I'm somewhat optimistic about doing a MOU as a contract precursor.
Just as an aside: it's surprising to me how vastly different operators' preferences are within the same general geographic market. You'd think that most casinos in a particular off-strip region would generally cater to the same players and therefore use a similar game mix, but that's simply not the case at all. The range of game mix and side-bet offerings is really quite diverse.
"In my own case, when it seemed to me after a long illness that death was close at hand, I found no little solace in playing constantly at dice."
-- Girolamo Cardano, 1563
September 27th, 2010 at 11:13:52 PM
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It's been a while but one time when I was playing the first 3 numbers called were B1, B2, then B3.
“Man Babes” #AxelFabulous
September 28th, 2010 at 11:50:38 PM
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Day 9
Whew, long day -- put 60 miles on the car. Had meetings with two corporate VPs, and there's a good chance that a bingo systems project could get green-lighted. I'll know next week for sure, but it's been virtually unanimous thumbs-up from everyone. Also had an offer to field-trial the Twist'em game conditional on reworking the dealer's house way in a potentially simpler way. I'll have to run more numbers on that first, but the idea of easy-to-learn tiles play is really interesting to several operators, and getting a field-trial on my dominoes game would be excellent. The last meeting was with another locals-market table games operator who liked Bad Beat Blackjack and he may agree to a short-term trial prior to G2E. If that happens, I'll have Vegas-area data by the time the show starts.
Meetings 11, installs 0.
Whew, long day -- put 60 miles on the car. Had meetings with two corporate VPs, and there's a good chance that a bingo systems project could get green-lighted. I'll know next week for sure, but it's been virtually unanimous thumbs-up from everyone. Also had an offer to field-trial the Twist'em game conditional on reworking the dealer's house way in a potentially simpler way. I'll have to run more numbers on that first, but the idea of easy-to-learn tiles play is really interesting to several operators, and getting a field-trial on my dominoes game would be excellent. The last meeting was with another locals-market table games operator who liked Bad Beat Blackjack and he may agree to a short-term trial prior to G2E. If that happens, I'll have Vegas-area data by the time the show starts.
Meetings 11, installs 0.
"In my own case, when it seemed to me after a long illness that death was close at hand, I found no little solace in playing constantly at dice."
-- Girolamo Cardano, 1563
September 29th, 2010 at 9:55:39 AM
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Great news Stacy. I am enjoying your blog and rooting for you to succeed.
Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication - Leonardo da Vinci
September 30th, 2010 at 7:36:04 AM
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Day 10
Not much today; in news unrelated to table game licensing I have been engaged in another legal matter. That'll keep me busy for a little while.
I did have one meeting with an operator I've met before at a high-end property. He's not really in the market for new product right now, but he's always gracious enough to see me when I'm in Las Vegas. I showed him Twist'em and he thought it was intriguing. But that's not the fun part. The fun part is where we had the meeting. Last time it was on the floor in an empty section of the pit. This time, I was ushered through the high-limit area into the back where the private gaming salons are. I was informed that it takes a 7-figure amount just to get in there. So we had our meeting in one of the salons. Apparently they're entirely customizable -- for that kind of money, they'll put whatever games you want in there. This was set up for roulette - two different tables (single zero, la partage, plus the racetrack bets). The whale who's coming in likes to bet on roulette but does not necessarily bother watching the wheel, so they have two wheels set up so the guy can shuttle between them. The operator said that salons like this are how they really make their money, and when I found out how the guy plays, I believe it. He'll give them more action in an hour than most people wager in their lifetimes.
Otherwise, it's follow-up time. In the game sales business, it's not enough to meet once and expect deals to be done. In other words, this isn't the grocery store where your prospective buyer plucks your products off the shelf and takes them home. I've got two days left - let's see how it goes.
Meetings 12, installs 0.
Not much today; in news unrelated to table game licensing I have been engaged in another legal matter. That'll keep me busy for a little while.
I did have one meeting with an operator I've met before at a high-end property. He's not really in the market for new product right now, but he's always gracious enough to see me when I'm in Las Vegas. I showed him Twist'em and he thought it was intriguing. But that's not the fun part. The fun part is where we had the meeting. Last time it was on the floor in an empty section of the pit. This time, I was ushered through the high-limit area into the back where the private gaming salons are. I was informed that it takes a 7-figure amount just to get in there. So we had our meeting in one of the salons. Apparently they're entirely customizable -- for that kind of money, they'll put whatever games you want in there. This was set up for roulette - two different tables (single zero, la partage, plus the racetrack bets). The whale who's coming in likes to bet on roulette but does not necessarily bother watching the wheel, so they have two wheels set up so the guy can shuttle between them. The operator said that salons like this are how they really make their money, and when I found out how the guy plays, I believe it. He'll give them more action in an hour than most people wager in their lifetimes.
Otherwise, it's follow-up time. In the game sales business, it's not enough to meet once and expect deals to be done. In other words, this isn't the grocery store where your prospective buyer plucks your products off the shelf and takes them home. I've got two days left - let's see how it goes.
Meetings 12, installs 0.
"In my own case, when it seemed to me after a long illness that death was close at hand, I found no little solace in playing constantly at dice."
-- Girolamo Cardano, 1563
October 1st, 2010 at 9:11:52 AM
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Days 11-12. I'm wrapping up early because it's Friday, nothing interesting is going to happen today, and I leave first thing in the morning.
I won't make any installs this trip. Of the multiple operators who expressed serious interest, all of them have scheduled internal meetings for next week. Those are all prerequisites to making any further decisions. So I do have some good potential but I didn't place any product this trip.
I'll be back for G2E and maybe a bit before. Until then...
Final score this trip: Meetings 12, installs 0, interested properties 4.
I won't make any installs this trip. Of the multiple operators who expressed serious interest, all of them have scheduled internal meetings for next week. Those are all prerequisites to making any further decisions. So I do have some good potential but I didn't place any product this trip.
I'll be back for G2E and maybe a bit before. Until then...
Final score this trip: Meetings 12, installs 0, interested properties 4.
"In my own case, when it seemed to me after a long illness that death was close at hand, I found no little solace in playing constantly at dice."
-- Girolamo Cardano, 1563
