Making Gaming and Bingo Personal

The following is an excerpt from an interesting article that I just stumbled across regarding personalizing player tracking and the gaming experience.

"Her name is Diane. She carries a ticket worth $76.25, wanders about the Pechanga Resort & Casino’s gaming floor, and perhaps holds the key to your future. Her odyssey began 23 minutes ago with Coyote Moon and a crisp $100 bill. Losing $11.50, she cashed out, walked halfway across the casino to settle at an older, single pay-line Bally machine. Down another $24.25 after four and a half minutes, Diane moves to an Aristocrat game, followed by quick stops at IGT, Bally, IGT and Konami games. She never studies pay tables and doesn’t seem to care much about artwork. Her cash-out ticket serves as a kind of divining rod for choosing the next potentially lucky game.

I know Diane because I’m a stalker. For the last three decades, I’ve secretly watched people gamble. My goal is to figure out what players want and design games, systems and promotions to deliver satisfaction. In her late fifties, Diane is special exactly because she’s not. She behaves as do most, spending little and searching a lot. Pechanga’s games do not satisfy Diane, and it is doubtful the games of other casinos would fare much better.

That’s because, though Diane is like the majority of players, Diane isn’t considered valuable. Her play is unmeasured and perhaps too infrequent. Pechanga, like other casinos, specialize in hosting players that happen to like what is currently offered and play in high volume. Trouble is, there aren’t enough of these players to go around. Certainly the Pechanga slot floor is successful. Certainly it is well managed—they don’t come any better than Buddy Frank and his crew.

Certainly too, Pechanga’s revenues are suffering this year—just as all casinos in competitive markets are suffering. Whether you choose to blame obscene energy prices, the housing fiasco or too many casinos with too many machines, revenues in 2008 are down and falling.

For the past 20 years or so, we’ve thrived on pent-up demand. Legal barriers artificially restricted the supply of gaming machines, and any casino with open doors and electricity was met with a flood of customers and piles of profit.

Not anymore."

For more information please see John Acres INSIDER EDGE: Gambling 2.0...this time it’s personal, SlotManager, July 14, 2008.