GGRAsia – Ops take 6 months to start reaping smart table benefits

Ops take 6 months to start reaping smart table benefits

Jun 06, 2024 Newsdesk G2E Asia 2024, Latest News

It could take around “six months” for casinos that install ‘smart tables’ to start reaping day-to-day operational benefits.

That was the consensus view of a representative of Australia’s The Star Entertainment Group, and of a former executive of Macau operator MGM China Holdings Ltd, the self-identified first mover with smart tables in the latter market. They were speaking on a Wednesday panel at the industry trade show G2E Asia 2024.

The Star Entertainment opted for technology from casino equipment supplier Angel Group. MGM China adopted products from Walker Digital Table Systems LLC (WDTS), according to the representatives.

Rick McDonald (pictured, third right), general manager of table games strategy at Star Entertainment, explained the learning process in the smart table deployment at The Star Sydney. It took around “six months” to start achieving the firm’s “primary objectives” in terms of game protection, generation of play data for analytical purposes and to support player rating work.

“…Our initial deployment was in one room only… so about 60 [smart] tables: and we did not turn on all the features initially… we gradually started to bring things on,” said Mr McDonald.

He added: “But we’re continuously working in-house with Angel on ways to optimise understanding [on] what have been causing alerts and false positives; getting into the root cause of those in the dealer process, and how our processes need to be retrained for the way the guests are playing.”

Graeme Croft (pictured, second left), former vice president, table operations at MGM China, told the panel audience: “I think you need to brace it for six months before you see some changes.” He was referring the time it took for the Macau casino operator to start seeing operation benefits from the use of smart tables following their installation on the live gaming floors.

“The big thing is your staff – you need to have a very strong training team,” to teach colleagues how to use the technology effectively, said Mr Croft.

He noted: “There are a lot of ‘moving parts’ with the [smart table] system. Essentially, the gaming background doesn’t change, but there are some idiosyncrasies,” such as side bets, “and there’s a lot to consider… you’ve got to get everyone on board. You’ve got to get all the departments in sync.”

Staff training – and ensuring multiple departments within the casino operator can adapt to how a live game process is managed post smart table deployment – are amongst the operational challenges, said Mr McDonald. Another is navigating the vast amount of play data generated from smart tables, and to identify the real issues from the data that the gaming operation should respond to, the Star Entertainment executive also noted.

There is a growing interests in Asia in the use of smart table solutions, said Stephen Moore (pictured, second right), founder and chief executive officer of Walker Digital.

“People aren’t saying: ‘Do I need a table game automation system that increases my goal?’. They are questioning: ‘Who [supplier wise] is the best for my operation?’ or, ‘Which one fits my technology preference?’… I don’t think you’ll see any casinos really open up anymore without some level of automation in there,”, said Mr Moore.