Element of surprise is key to gaming’s success, panelists say

Panelists discussing table game trends at the Global Gaming Expo today had an innovative way to start their program. They passed out coupons and drew three winners for $50 cash each.

The point: Sometimes, all it takes is an occasional surprise to generate enthusiasm.

The popularity of table games has ebbed and flowed for decades, said panelist Robert Saucier, CEO of Galaxy Gaming Inc.

Mathematics professor Ed Thorp generated enthusiasm for table games in the 1960s when he wrote “Beat the Dealer,” a book that introduced the world to card-counting in blackjack.

Twenty years ago, 70 percent of the table games in Las Vegas casinos offered blackjack. Today, it’s closer to 52 percent.

Saucier said slot machines took command of casino floors and when interest in tables waned. But about 12 years ago, he said, interest picked up again in tables as Generation X became interested in the social aspects of poker and other card games, including blackjack.

Saucier credited the casino at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, Mandalay Bay and the Palms with reversing the trend.

But many of the gains have been reversed as more casinos adopted 6:5 blackjack payout rules on their tables, a move Saucier contends is hurting the popularity of the game.

“The worst thing you can do is change the rules to 6:5,” Saucier said. “You can’t get too greedy.”

Panelist Todd Haushalter, director of product development for Las Vegas-based Shuffle Master Inc. and a former executive at Wynn Resorts, said several table-game trends are emerging on the casino floor and should continue through 2012. He added that trend-watching is a regional exercise and that things that work in Las Vegas may not perform as well in other parts of the country.

Haushalter said baccarat, the game of choice in most Asian casinos, is on the rise in Las Vegas, as are party pits, progressive jackpots on table games and “smart shoes,” technology that helps dealers reduce errors when distributing cards.

Vendors at this year’s G2E show also demonstrated iTable technology, which distributes and plays virtual casino chips to players and issues tickets similar to those distributed by coinless ticket in-ticket out slot machines.

Haushalter shared what’s cold as well as what’s hot.

He said combination games that blend the play of separate popular games — poker and blackjack, for example — aren’t trending well because fans of the standard games are purists who don’t want to see their favorites changed.

“Just because you like pizza and you like ice cream doesn’t mean that you would like pizza-flavored ice cream,” he said.

Dice games, except for craps, aren’t as popular, he said. Even sic bo, a popular Asian dice game, hasn’t gotten much traction in Las Vegas.

He said “mindless games,” initially designed to cater to people who get intimidated by fast action in card games, are on the decline. He included his own company’s product, Casino War, in which the value on the face of a single card determines the winner, as a loser.

He also said Caribbean Stud, once a popular Strip staple, is in decline. He said the game once had 66 tables on the Strip. Today, it has eight, he said.