Harrah's is looking at RFID technology:
"Concurrently we are working on the next generation, which could be RFID (radio frequency identification) type technology that will enable us to track every hand and capture every wager that a player makes. We and our strategic partners feel we will be ready for deployment in early to mid-2006."
Harrah's reaches out to touch table play
December 30, 2005
BY JOHN G. BROKOPP GAMING COLUMNIST
Gaming industry juggernaut Harrah's Entertainment, which is represented by two properties (Harrah's Joliet and Horseshoe Hammond) in the Chicago area and which has a presence in every major gambling jurisdiction in the nation and many emerging markets around the globe, is on the cusp of cultivating a previously uncharted segment of its business: table games players.
Cards, dice and green felt once ruled as King of Beasts in the casino world, but within the last decade was surpassed and then left in a cloud of dust by slot play, which now accounts for an estimated 70 percent of gaming revenues.
Slot supremacy has not come about by accident. Through the use of player's club cards and sophisticated computerized methods of tracking play, the casino industry has excelled at crafting marketing strategies designed to individually target every consumer demographic of the business.
A similar approach to identifying table games players has, up to now, been nonexistent, primarily for logistic reasons. Rating table games play has long been an inexact science, estimation at best, whereby pit supervisors use their powers of observation to note buy-ins, average bet size and duration of play.
But that's all about to change.
Recognizing the untapped resources of table games, and the fact this aspect of the gambling business has been invigorated in recent years by the surge in popularity of poker, Harrah's Entertainment is launching a bold initiative in 2006 to bring tracking individual play into the 21st century.
"As a company, table games are very important to us," said Gerry Tuthill, vice president of table games for Harrah's Entertainment, Inc. "Part of my role with the company is overseeing the expansion and growth of this important segment of business for us. Wrapping the kinds of tools and capabilities around table games, similar to what our slot customers have grown accustomed to, will be a major initiative."
Harrah's already has the technological infrastructure in place to make precision rating of table games play a reality. This year it introduced a product called Table Touch, which eliminates approximation by empowering supervisors with a computer network and real-time data base.
"Small laptop-type PCs are affixed to the tables, which gives supervisors access to inputting and accessing all the necessary player information in real time," Tuthill explained. "It makes it possible to generate markers and comps, as well as complete any conceivable need or transaction face-to-face with the customer.
"We are currently in the process of rolling out Table Touch technology. It has been installed in Las Vegas at all of our Caesars properties, with the exception of the Flamingo, as well as the Rio, Harrah's Las Vegas, Harrah's Tahoe and Harrah's Laughlin. It has to touch 100 percent of our table games, so very quickly we have accelerated our installations and probably by mid-year 2006 we'll be fully installed.
"Concurrently we are working on the next generation, which could be RFID (radio frequency identification) type technology that will enable us to track every hand and capture every wager that a player makes. We and our strategic partners feel we will be ready for deployment in early to mid-2006."
John G. Brokopp is a local free-lance gaming writer. E-mail jbrokopp@sbcglobal.net.
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