“When you think about the type of people attracted to tables, it’s a younger demographic looking for a challenge and a social aspect where they’re cheering at a table. Borgata has actually styled their whole gaming floor around this. It’s an area operators should be considering if we want to grow that market,” he notes.

Retaining a Poker Tradition

Caribbean Stud, a game introduced to Canada in the early 1990s, and three-card poker are popular, but the traditional poker game, thanks to media saturation, has showed continued growth. 

Doug Wilson is President of International Playing Card Company of Richmond Hill, Ontario, which each year produces over 150 million decks of playing cards for all gaming sectors.   According to Wilson,  poker has yet to reach its gaming apogee. “We’ve had an excellent year, so poker still seems strong from our perspective, including for U.S. casinos.”

From his vantage point in London, England, Luke Davis of TCSJOHNHUXLEY observes poker’s continued ubiquity. “You can’t turn on the television without seeing coverage of a poker tournament or instructional show. The media has jumped on the poker band wagon, fueling its popularity in casinos across the globe,” Davis remarks.

Wary of 6:5 blackjack

At the blackjack table, 6:5 blackjack is being offered by many U.S. operators over the traditional 3:2. “It’s picking up momentum. They’re offering 6:5 by lowering the number of decks and creating more liberal rules, though it actually has a house advantage of three times the traditional game,” according to OLG’s Uhren. 

Dan Pronovost, President of DeepNet Technologies in Kitchener, Ontario, edits Blackjack Insider newsletter and says more static trends in Canadian blackjack are due to “our tighter regulations and more conservative approach to gaming.”

But he points out that New Jersey’s gaming commission has recently allowed 6:5 blackjack, which has gained a footing in Atlantic City. “It was mainly implemented for single-deck blackjack, but I’m strongly opposed to 6:5 payout because I don’t think it’s blackjack. It’s bad for a lot of players who don’t know how much money they will lose,” said Pronovost.  

Roulette’s enduring curb appeal

The wheel goes one way, the ball the other: as long as there has been Monte-Carlo, roulette, given its longevity, is the ne plus ultra of casino games because of the glamorous association with this Monaco quartier.

Roulette is what Uhren calls the “lottery of gaming. There’s not a lot of skill required, and for new social players it might be the first game they are attracted to.” To which Luke Davis adds, “it’s easy to forget that roulette is a simple game and that’s a huge part of its appeal. The demand for roulette products has never been stronger.”

New hybrid roulette systems integrate traditional tables and live dealers with electronic multi-player betting surfaces that track players’ betting activity. “It permits players to enjoy authentic roulette while delivering security, reducing costs, and increasing the number of games played per hour,” said Davis.

Baccarat from Macau to Vegas

Baccarat maintains its curb appeal and continues to grow at a rapid rate. A game hugely popular in the Macau Chinese special administrative region, the balance is so skewed in that gaming Mecca that officials are trying to entice dedicated players away from baccarat (where one dealer can only serve a dozen players at a time) to more profitable games, according to The Wall Street Journal.  

The Journal also reports that gaming revenues in Macau have recently overtaken those of the Las Vegas strip, 88 percent of which are generated at baccarat tables. The immensity of the game in Macau, according to Doug Wilson, “has translated into the North American market.” 

Uhren at OLG agrees. Baccarat continues to be a popular base game for a defined player demographic. “It hasn’t lost its appeal, but it manages off a low house-advantage and chews away at the player’s bankroll,” he notes.

Table system fusion

The term hybrid might best describe developments in table systems. Working with operators, TCSJOHNHUXLEY says it has fused technology and tradition to develop a range of touch-screen, multi-player table game products that retain the true essence of live gaming. 

“All these games feature hybrid electronic game platforms and live game content that allows players to play against a live roulette wheel, dice shaker or card shoe but strike the perfect balance between the thrill of live gaming and the advantages of electronic betting,” Davis noted. 

However, Uhren says that OLG has taken the matter of table systems into its own hands—it is currently building its own table system because OLG hasn’t been able to find anything that meets their needs. 

That is perhaps supported by Kirsten Clark, Shuffle Master Inc. Vice President of World Wide Marketing. “Where there has not been a lot of innovation in the past with traditional live table games has been with blackjack or baccarat, both games that command a lot of floor space.”

New hybrid tables consisting of roulette wheel, live dealer, and automated betting were introduced by Shuffle Master at this past November’s G2E, as well as a traditional blackjack table-top with touch-screen player positions on a standard size table surface. 

Such innovations, Clark estimates, provide casinos with a 30 percent increase in hands-per-hour, added security and dispute resolution, and increased game speed. The terminals also capture a significant amount of information.

For blackjack players, say, such a hybrid system allows them odds based on the value of their two cards and the dealer’s up-card. “Just imagine trying to do that on a live table without dramatically slowing the game,” noted Clark. 

Other equipment 

Since the late-1990s, RFID chips have been out there, possessed of both a security feature and information-capture about the value a player represents to a gaming facility. They have not, however, been feasible, says OLG’s Uhren.  

“First, RFID is not yet at the point where it is cost efficient for operators to implement; and second, it doesn’t give 100 percent accurate readings about how a player places his chips or where. We keep looking at it, though.”   

Uhren also anticipates the appearance of cameras with card-recognition systems that are great from both a player and house protection perspective. “I see them starting to pick up some momentum,” he says.

Widely accepted in the U.S., according to Doug Wilson, pre-shuffled cards for gaming are on the horizon in Canada, allowing gaming facilities to start games more quickly, save on labour, and guarantee a random shuffle. 

“Casinos are buying pre-shuffled product. It hasn’t yet happened in Canada, but I fully expect it to over the next 12 months. We’re just going through the necessary regulatory approvals in Canada,” Wilson said.

When it comes to shufflers, according to Provonost, some machines are expensive, break down, and chew up cards. “We haven’t seen that trend dominate and still see lots of casinos with dealers dealing cards. I think in Canada, shufflers are prevalent basically at the low-stake games where operators want to get as much throughput as possible.”

Producing future positive experiences

Not surprisingly, TCSJOHNHUXLEY is reluctant to divulge what might be on the horizon for 2009, but Davis says “it’s safe to state that the next 12 to 18 months will guarantee new launches that will continue to deliver viable innovations in all areas of the market.”

Yet, for his part, with new games being offered to him almost weekly, Uhren perhaps downplays such immediate viability saying that he hasn’t yet found a game that can assume the role of a new base game that has the legs of either a blackjack or a roulette. 

“The challenge is finding appealing new games that produce a positive experience for players. For me, when we look at what’s new for traditional games, it really centres on a younger demographic and our ability to grow that demographic by creating vibrant experiences on the floor.” 

By Andrew Coppolino