I am not sure where to start the topic on this, but wanted to get some thoughts on this article from any fellow card counters out there.
Casino evaluates funds transfer and blackjack surveillance systems
Story by Thomas Hoffman
AUGUST 18, 2003 ( COMPUTERWORLD ) - UNCASVILLE, Conn. -- The Mohegan Sun casino next month plans to begin testing two technologies that officials at the gaming resort hope will help lower costs and improve its customer retention rates and profit margins.
In one project, Mohegan Sun will install automated funds transfer (AFT) technology on 300 to 400 of the high-roller slot machines in its two casinos here. The technology is based on software from Advanced Casino Systems Corp. in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., and will let slots players establish credit with the casino and then use magnetic cards to download all or part of those funds into a slot machine.
The second test involves a video surveillance and data-collection system that will be installed at 10 of Mohegan Sun's 130 blackjack tables. Blackjack players will be able to swipe their casino cards through readers built into chair armrests, and the system will track the size and frequency of their bets and integrate the data into a player rating system that runs on an IBM AS/400 server.
Mohegan Sun expects several benefits from the AFT system, CIO Daniel Garrow said this month in an interview. Currently, if a slots player wins a jackpot of more than $1,200, the machine locks up while he is asked to fill out a form for the Internal Revenue Service. But with the AFT technology, "we can allow the player to keep playing, since they're not withdrawing the funds right away," he said.
Patricia Wright, an analyst at Fitch Ratings Ltd. in New York, said casinos that have installed so-called ticket-in, ticket-out technologies have realized "good savings, since there's less downtime on slot machines because they don't have to refill them constantly."
The blackjack-table monitoring system that Mohegan Sun plans to test was developed by MindPlay LLC in Bellevue, Wash. Pattern-recognition algorithms analyze betting images captured by video cameras to determine chip denominations and gamblers' wager amounts, said MindPlay. The data collected from the table is sent to a MindPlay server and can be integrated with a casino's player rating system.
The monitoring system will not only help Mohegan Sun root out players who are counting cards but also help it generate more accurate player ratings than its current approach, which relies on pit managers, Garrow said. More accurate ratings could prevent Mohegan Sun from extending more credit to high rollers than it needs to, thus saving the casino money, he added.
If the casino decides to roll out MindPlay's system at all of its blackjack tables, the total cost could be about $3 million, Garrow said. But Wright said that similar table-surveillance systems are among the hottest technologies casinos are deploying.
Casino evaluates funds transfer and blackjack surveillance systems
Story by Thomas Hoffman
AUGUST 18, 2003 ( COMPUTERWORLD ) - UNCASVILLE, Conn. -- The Mohegan Sun casino next month plans to begin testing two technologies that officials at the gaming resort hope will help lower costs and improve its customer retention rates and profit margins.
In one project, Mohegan Sun will install automated funds transfer (AFT) technology on 300 to 400 of the high-roller slot machines in its two casinos here. The technology is based on software from Advanced Casino Systems Corp. in Egg Harbor Township, N.J., and will let slots players establish credit with the casino and then use magnetic cards to download all or part of those funds into a slot machine.
The second test involves a video surveillance and data-collection system that will be installed at 10 of Mohegan Sun's 130 blackjack tables. Blackjack players will be able to swipe their casino cards through readers built into chair armrests, and the system will track the size and frequency of their bets and integrate the data into a player rating system that runs on an IBM AS/400 server.
Mohegan Sun expects several benefits from the AFT system, CIO Daniel Garrow said this month in an interview. Currently, if a slots player wins a jackpot of more than $1,200, the machine locks up while he is asked to fill out a form for the Internal Revenue Service. But with the AFT technology, "we can allow the player to keep playing, since they're not withdrawing the funds right away," he said.
Patricia Wright, an analyst at Fitch Ratings Ltd. in New York, said casinos that have installed so-called ticket-in, ticket-out technologies have realized "good savings, since there's less downtime on slot machines because they don't have to refill them constantly."
The blackjack-table monitoring system that Mohegan Sun plans to test was developed by MindPlay LLC in Bellevue, Wash. Pattern-recognition algorithms analyze betting images captured by video cameras to determine chip denominations and gamblers' wager amounts, said MindPlay. The data collected from the table is sent to a MindPlay server and can be integrated with a casino's player rating system.
The monitoring system will not only help Mohegan Sun root out players who are counting cards but also help it generate more accurate player ratings than its current approach, which relies on pit managers, Garrow said. More accurate ratings could prevent Mohegan Sun from extending more credit to high rollers than it needs to, thus saving the casino money, he added.
If the casino decides to roll out MindPlay's system at all of its blackjack tables, the total cost could be about $3 million, Garrow said. But Wright said that similar table-surveillance systems are among the hottest technologies casinos are deploying.
