Crikey‘s tip yesterday about rule changes on Crown table games was spot on the mark. When Crown Casino management have been missing their main floor revenue targets, they have been systematically changing the rules on table games in their favour — not just on blackjack, but roulette and baccarat also. As we have seen in recent Crown numbers, the net result is a direct increase in revenue as punters lose more and they lose faster.
Blackjack has been the big cash cow. According to the Victorian Commission for Gambling Regulation (VCGR), Crown’s normal blackjack game carries a house advantage of 0.54%. Its new “Sports Blackjack” variation (blackjack pays 6/5, dealer hits on soft 17) has a house advantage of 2.12% — almost four times as much.
But here’s the kicker — you won’t find many, if any, normal blackjack tables on the main floor (public areas) of the casino. On a typical night in August, I counted 19 Sports Blackjack tables open and zero normal blackjack tables open. And some of these Sports tables I noticed had been placed as close to bars as possible. Just perfect to tempt a punter who wouldn’t be too alert to a few less chips with their blackjack payout.
So, it’s clear that the majority of these rule changes only apply to the “grind” — the local players/addicts who the casino relies on to generate its long-term stable income. The high rollers/rich punters wouldn’t dare play a game in the VIP rooms where they are getting paid 6/5 instead of 3/2 on a blackjack or lose a tie bet on baccarat or play a double zero roulette game. Oh, yeah, and don’t expect any detailed explanation of these rule changes on or near any of the tables.
How are they allowed to change these rules, you may ask? Who protects the helpless addicted punters? Any inquiry to the seemingly government-influenced VCGR as to why they are aiding “grind” punters to lose their savings faster, is just met with the response that any rule changes “are assessed by the commission to ensure player fairness”. What is fair about that?
Geoff Cousins was spot on in his Four Corners interview — “frankly just a horrible business”.
“helpless addicted punters” ? No-one’s forcing them to play.
The rules of table games have always been varied in detail by casinos to increase or decrease the casino percentage. Casinos are a business and assuming the cost of operating a table is similar between high stakes tables and low stakes tables it is not surprising the casino operator would take a higher percentage of the lower turnover on the low stakes tables.
The big concern is the absence of controls on gaming machines. The players rules, the reel tables, are kept a close secret. It is like the player playing Blackjack without knowing how many ten count cards are in the deck or playing craps without knowing how many dice there are or what spots are on them. The reels do not even have to be the same; the manufacturer can, for example, leave just about all the Kings off one of the reels so the player keeps getting four Kings but misses on the starved reel (reel starving).
Gaming machines are responsible for 80% to 85% of problem gamblers.
Mark, in a small way I think Crown is actually doing the mug punters (or “grind” as you call them) a massive favour.
The house always wins anyway so this way the punters do their money quicker and can get back out into the real world and enjoy their lives. Additionally when they realise just how little time they got at the tables for the money they spent they might even decide to avoid the place entirely in the future.
Mark, this certainly is entertaining, and keep it up, but when the odds are tilted, doesn’t that just mean the casino draws forward in time some of the revenue it was going to make anyway? Assuming punters basically play until they’ve got nothing left to play with, regardless of the odds or how high they peak at, tonight’s big winner is tomorrow’s big loser? Even if it was tilted in the punter’s favour wouldn’t he still blow it all in the end? Or have I misunderstood?
The old adage that a fool and his money are soon parted is true. Anybody who thinks they can win at gambling is a fool. The tragedy is that individuals think they can get beat system, and like drug and alcohol addicts become hooked.
Spending money in the casino is no different to blowing your dough (pardon the pun) in the whorehouse, “you pays your money and you get done”. The rate at which you lose your money only affects the time you spend. There should be a sign at the door saying ” abandon hope all that he who enter here”.
At the political level the Brumby government has no moral scruples whatsoever so why would you expect its agencies to be exercising reasonable judgement. We have beer barns galore, street violence on the increase, a desalination plant drawing energy from the world’s worstpractice in electricity generation, a dysfunctional rural fire system, a second-rate public transport system, overcrowded hospitals, under resourced schools, shockingly expensive Grand Prix and massive subsidies to the polluting aluminium industry to nominate just a few. By comparison, the gambling fiasco is “small beer”.