Reservation blackjack

Here is a link to Reservation Blackjack at the Aurora Casino in Chicago. For $20 you can reserve one hour at a $5 minimum Blackjack table at the time you want to play! Hollywood standard Blackjack rules apply. Bookings are non-transferable, non-refundable and non-cancelable.

While obviously this is being marketed as if you were reserving a table at a restaurant, it's true purpose is to subsidize the low minimums without resorting to the increasingly common 6:5 pays on blackjack. If there is an empty seat at the one of the reservation tables you can pay your $20 and buy a reservation that begins right at that moment.

I think it is also fairly obvious that the reservation fee far exceeds the reduction in expected value of playing a short pay blackjack game. Presuming you have 4 blackjacks in an hour and you are playing $5 minimum that would be $10 in bonus for 3:2 blackjack, and $4 in 6:5 blackjack. It is similar to the 25 cent fee that some Indian Casinos used to charge to play a hand of $5 blackjack; a practice that I think has vanished completely as it was very irritating.

The popularity of this game is high enough that Penn National Gaming Inc. (who owns the Aurora Casino) may extend it to their other casinos as well.

As one writer noted there's a niche market for the unusual service, especially among very casual recreational gamblers who attend casinos infrequently. Obvious some revenue is earned by the fact that it is non-transferable, non-refundable, and non-cancelable.

The way I figure it, people are less concerned about house edges, as they are about potential losses of high minimum games. You could probably show them an EV calculation that say that they are actually likely to lose less money if they just played the $10 minimum game. So the casino is getting a triple bonus (1) they collect the fee which is larger than the expected value of other options, (2) they collect on no shows or late-arrivals, (3) they have a player who might otherwise not play if he can't find a table with the minimum he is comfortable playing.
I also figure that there is not a lot of copycats because over the range of revenue for the casino, it is not that valuable to establish the reservation system
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It makes me think that you could also develop a niche, pay to play market to attract a relatively sophisticated players who want a lot of action at a reduced or zero house edge. The payback is attracting customers who would otherwise not come into the establishment. Hooters makes $32 dollars in pit revenue per occupied room night (for example). The pay to play fee is kind of a low budget version of the high minimum games offered by many casinos that have better rules.

Is it a $5 minimum/$5 maximum table? What is the maximum allowed bet?

I don't know what the maximum is since it is not posted. In Vegas I only know of one tiny casino, Poker Palace with a $50 maximum. A handful of other tiny casinos have $200 maximums (like Gold Spike downtown). Even the mid-levels are $1000. The biggest casinos almost alway permit $10000. Only two (that I know about) go over that amount (Golden Nugget $15000 and Ceasars $50000). I can't imagine not being able to find a seat if you are a high level player.

Paco, you made me shudder with that picture post. Poker Palace is a frightening place to be at night. On the other hand, you just gave me an idea for a thread.

silver nugget has a $50 maximum.

The other advantage to the player is that if they reserve ahead of time, they know they'll get a seat at the table. Knowing nothing about this particular casino, I do know that on the local casino boat it's very hard to get a seat at one of the limited BJ tables- you have to plop down probably 90 minutes before sailing time and just sit for another half hour while the boat gets out to international water. Get on board too late, and it's a slot machine night for you.

So if I'm driving in from an hour away for a couple hours of gambling and I can't get a seat, then my lost time & gas money probably make the $20 reservation a wash.

That being said, starting out 4 units behind is a pretty bad deal. I wonder if they offer $10 tables for free, or if it jumps to a $25 table from the $5.

I'm guessing they have some $10 tables. Almost every casino (except on Saturday night) has at least one $10 table in Vegas. Aurora Casino is 42 miles outside of Chicago.

If you are taking your wife and mother in law to the casino, and they insist that basic strategy spoils the fun of blackjack, then you are probably better off reserving seats rather than playing $10 hands instead of $5 hands. But $20 over 80 hands @ $5 apiece is 5% which is a pretty large fee for a game that measures HA as less than 1% ideally.

Although they advertise it as a reservation system, you can't play $5 minimum unless you pay the fee, even if there are empty seats.

My main point was that there are customers who will pay fees for perceived advantage. If you actually get a real substantive advantage, you should be able to sell seats. Furthermore you might be able to steal customers who would not otherwise come if you have an advantage. Either way, fees will only appeal to a small percentage of the customer base.

From my limited gambling experience in Chicagoland, the Chicago casino market on the boats I think is underserved. I doubt you would find any $10 tables in the Hollywood on a weekend night. Therefore the $20 reservation becomes a good value for the low dollar gambler who doesn't want to risk $15 to $25 per hand and guarantees that they'll be able to gamble at a low value table. It's a ripoff, absolutely. At 100 hands per hour, your expected loss, even in a H17 game, is .0066 x 5 x 100 = $3.30. Paying $20 increases the house edge by 4% to $23.30 or 4.66%, making it one of the worst table games to play.

Quote: boymimbo

From my limited gambling experience in Chicagoland, the Chicago casino market on the boats I think is underserved. I doubt you would find any $10 tables in the Hollywood on a weekend night.

Looked up the stats and there are 16 blackjack tables that average $1440 per day. Blackjack tables at the major casinos on the strip are making $1630 per day, but it is and almost triple Hooter's return per table. So I think you might be correct about Saturday night. If the minimums are $20 on a Saturday night, that means $20 to secure a seat at a $5 table makes much more sense.

I wonder how many tables are reserved and how many are open?

As a generally low-roller, that story is just depressing. Another reason that Vegas will continue to have appeal.

I used to live and play in the Chicagoland area. On the Illinois side, you can NEVER find a 5 dollar table... EVER. In fact, on the Indiana side it is difficult except at Majestic Star in scary Gary, Indiana.

I'd say that most of the table minimums in Aurora are 15. This is for a number of reasons. 1) Aurora is a VERY large suburb and for all intensive purposes the next closest casinos are still 40 minutes away. 2) Penn Natl also owns Empress, in Joliet, which USED [not sure if they still do] to offer a much better game (dealer stands on soft 17, resplit aces ok), and they offered that at 10 dollars nearly all the times (except weekends). 3) Hollywood is relatively small, and Illinois gaming law prohibits any more than 1200 gaming spots to be open. I remember a time when penny slots weren't even in the casinos, it was all 2 cent slots.

Hope that clarifies gaming in Hollywood.