EZ Pai Gow update: Las Vegas area

My EZ Pai Gow's been out a little while, but the Vegas Market was tougher than I thought; aside from the Cannery, most of my games are out of state (California, Washington, New Jersey, Mid West, etc.)
Still, a Vegas presence is something I long for, and I am making some headway now.
Wednesday, Boulder Station went live with it, which was big, as it is a Station's Property.

so I have 14 in Las Vegas, soon to be 16:
Cannery's and Rampart are 100% EZ Pai Gow (10)
Golden Nugget (1)
Riviera (1)
Boulder Station (1)
Fiesta Henderson (1)

and to add another at Fiesta for 2,
and to pick up Hooters. Finally, one near LVB and Tropicana intersection, big.

The breakout is 13 in the locals Market (Cannery/Rampart, and two Stations properties), plus one downtown (Nugget), and two on the Strip (Riviera and Hooters).
It took two years and three months to get here for the Las Vegas area, since March 29, 2010 when it went live at the Fiesta.
Not too shabby.

Congrats on the new placements! I was happy to see a new table at Running Aces here in MN as well. I keep plugging the game at Canterbury Park as well, though I think they literally don't understand the differentiating factors (which is scary since 1. they're pretty savvy, and 2. they spread an EZ bacc game)

I played UTH when I stayed at Sunset Station during WOVcon ][, but I did notice that they had an emperor's challenge table. I guess I just assumed that game was an EZ PGP configuration. What % of emperor's challenge tables are EZ PGP?

Congrats Dan! That is great progress!!

The scary part from my perspective is that you have a very elegant, clean game that is a minor change to an existing game (i.e. very familiar to players already) and with all that going for EZPGP, adoption on a wide scale in LV has taken time. Where does that leave designers with a major change to an existing game or introducing a totally new concept like I have tried to do?

The only thing that I can think of that has held back EZPGP is the fact that Fortune PGP and Emperor's Challenge PGP were already in the space of proprietary PGP and you are having to displace product that has been in place for a while and is familiar. They essentially had the "first to market" advantage on you despite the fact that you offer the commission free feature that neither of them have.

I guess that I also was surprised to learn up in WA, several houses offer the Emp Chall. PGP without charging commission and make all their $$ on copies and side bet action. It blew me away that they were giving away the commission edge.

You have a great run working.....maybe not going as fast as you thought it was going to happen......still a lot to be proud of with EZPGP. I doubt there is a designer out there right now (other than Switch & Roger) that wouldn't trade their games progress with EZPGP's progress in a heartbeat.

Keep those installs coming.....my DEQ Stock needs more quarterly revenue growth :-)

Quote: Paradigm

The scary part from my perspective is that you have a very elegant, clean game that is a minor change to an existing game (i.e. very familiar to players already) and with all that going for EZPGP, adoption on a wide scale in LV has taken time.

I've wondered this, too. It's like Dan invented sliced bread, but everyone's already used to whole loaves and don't want to switch.

I haven't ever seen your game, and obviously haven't played it, but when I physically train guys in PGP I always play EZPGP when teaching the basics of game play. I only switch to regular PGP when I have to teach "the @&$^ing commision rule".

Quote: Paradigm

Congrats Dan! That is great progress!!

The scary part from my perspective is that you have a very elegant, clean game that is a minor change to an existing game (i.e. very familiar to players already) and with all that going for EZPGP, adoption on a wide scale in LV has taken time. Where does that leave designers with a major change to an existing game or introducing a totally new concept like I have tried to do?

It's a tough road; gamblers and casino operators are very set in their ways, generally loath to try new things, the Golden Nugget a remarkable exception.

Quote: Paradigm

The only thing that I can think of that has held back EZPGP is the fact that Fortune PGP and Emperor's Challenge PGP were already in the space of proprietary PGP and you are having to displace product that has been in place for a while and is familiar. They essentially had the "first to market" advantage on you despite the fact that you offer the commission free feature that neither of them have.

Yes, they are competition, so EZ Pai Gow is not the only game in town for 7-card PGP. Existing installs have and cause inertia.

Quote: Paradigm

I guess that I also was surprised to learn up in WA, several houses offer the Emp Chall. PGP without charging commission and make all their $$ on copies and side bet action. It blew me away that they were giving away the commission edge.

They act like loss leaders, and lose a lot in table hold, but bring people in.

Quote: Paradigm

You have a great run working.....maybe not going as fast as you thought it was going to happen......still a lot to be proud of with EZPGP. I doubt there is a designer out there right now (other than Switch & Roger) that wouldn't trade their games progress with EZPGP's progress in a heartbeat.

I am very thankful. I will say that few things are as powerful in the industry as Roger telling an operator, "You should consider this game - install it."

Quote: Paradigm

Keep those installs coming.....my DEQ Stock needs more quarterly revenue growth :-)

Quote: Paigowdan

It's a tough road; gamblers and casino operators are very set in their ways, generally loath to try new things,

Selling new games has always been a buyers market,
there are many more games for sale than there are buyers.
Was it Roger who said he never has gotten a call from
a casino manager asking if he had any new games for sale.

Its easy to understand. Casino operators know you're
going to play the games he has on hand, he has no incentive
to replace them. The games salesman has to convince him
he needs new games and its not an easy sell.

I recently saw EZ Pai Gow during a trip to a location far, far away from Las Vegas. I had to do a double take! Don't worry Dan, I didn't play it ; )

From what I gather, Ameristar Casinos has jumped on the game at every casino, though they still keep either Fortune or Emperor's Challenge as a backup game. That's good, though as I've mentioned numerous times, Ameristar is a slot players first, table games second casino group, more so than most casinos outside of Vegas.

I think you should really get on your promoter/corporation/sponsor (I can't think of the word) to lean on Caesars a bit more. I've seen EZ Bacc installed at nearly every casino, but they pretty much all offer Fortune as the main game. Maybe they figure the time you save with the commission-less bets doesn't outweigh the time it takes to deal the game anyways. Bacc has way more decisions an hour, so cutting commission makes it go much faster. In PGP, you still have to deal all the hands and read them, moving much slower; cutting commission may only add 2-4 hands per hour.

Regardless, with the installs on that game, CET should be more interested in your options as well.

Congrats on the progress so far.

But it seems like you were expecting it to go faster. Are you dissatisfied with the progress? Are you kidding me?

I think you should be very happy and proud of how far you've come so far.

Quote: Paigowdan

My EZ Pai Gow's been out a little while, but the Vegas Market was tougher than I thought; aside from the Cannery, most of my games are out of state (California, Washington, New Jersey, Mid West, etc.)

New Jersey? You had hinted in the past that you were negotiating, but I wasn't aware that it was installed. When? Where?