Casinos could enjoy a jump in revenue by adopting a concept common at ski resorts, says the consultant behind an international training program for slot executives.
The strategy, according to Slot Academy founder Lucien Wijsman, involves recognizing how customers differ in what they want from a casino visit and being more up-front with them about the costs and risks they face.
“We confuse players by being unclear about what it costs to play a game,” Wijsman said in a phone interview from London. Operators tend to focus on the cost of one credit, but penny machines often cost more per spin than a nearby quarter game.
Compounding that, casinos seldom provide even a hint about a game’s volatility. High-volatility, or high-risk, machines feature large payouts that hit infrequently; low-volatility games have smaller prizes that hit more often.
Wijsman compared the ups and downs of slot payoffs to the difficulty rankings for downhill ski trails. European resorts color-code their slopes as blue for easy or beginner level, red for intermediate, and black for expert.
“If you are a black-hill skier, you don’t want to go down a red hill,” he said. “If you’re a red-hill skier, you’ll be terrified if you find yourself on a black hill against your wishes.
“It’s the exact same thing in slot games. We have blue, black, and red type of machines. We should be telling this to our players.”
Wijsman will be the instructor at a Slot Academy session next Tuesday through Thursday at Choctaw Casino & Resort in Durant, Oklahoma, about 100 miles north of Dallas. The University of Nevada, Reno and Clarion Events, headquartered in London, are co-sponsors. Participants can earn credits toward a UNR Certificate in Gaming Management.
Wijsman, who has managed or consulted for casinos on every inhabited continent except Australia, described the three-day program as an intensive mix of marketing ideas and data analysis that helps slot managers improve their bottom line.
He said casino visitors can be separated into three broad types, with subsets of each:
Those who go occasionally, just for fun or as part of group
Those who go several times a week and want to play as long as their budget allows
Gamblers looking for a big, quick score.
“We have a bank of machines, and we think one size fits all,” he said. “One size does not fit all.”
He suggested that casinos group machines and other games that appeal to their customer segments, like having one mini-casino for the “fun” crowd, another for the time-on-device group, and a another for those seeking big risk and big reward.
“It’s a food basket of strategies that exceed the expectation of a specific visitor profile. And that’s not what casinos do.”
Communication with players is an essential part of the approach, he said, noting that IGT in Europe has experimented with a roller coaster icon suggesting the level of a game’s volatility, from gentle hills and dips to looping corkscrews.
“It’s not about financial risk. It’s about the experience,” Wijsman said. “Is it smooth, is it sporty, or is it extreme? That’s a very important piece of information.”
Determining the best payback percentage for a casino’s slots is much more complex than picking a number that should meet revenue goals. Again, it involves understanding the mix of casino customers, Wijsman said.
For example, those who visit several times a week and want to get the longest play for their money would benefit from a higher payback percentage. With their experience, they can sense the difference between machines offering 90 percent and 94 percent payback, he said.
Although the rule of thumb is that higher-denomination machines typically have the highest percentage payback, Wijsman isn’t convinced that’s the best approach.
Casino visitors who are part of the “gambler” segment typically play a short time and bet big at highly volatile games.
“For the gambler, it’s all about winning or losing,” Wijsman said. “You’re not giving a gambler extra time by giving him a higher payback percentage. You also don’t give him a bigger sense of feeling that he’s winning.
“I think it’s more important to look at the type of games that you have, the volatility of the games and to explain that to your players. Use mystery prizes that create adrenaline for players. Those types of things for gamblers are much more important than the actual payback percentage.”
Wijsman’s primary advice for casino managers is to understand that their customers have different, often competing, needs when playing.
“If you go to a restaurant with 10 people, food courts work because different people can have what they want, and they understand it,” he said. “There’s not a cook who can cook for every mouth.
“I think a casino is like a food court. You have to be very clear in what you have to offer so players can say ‘I want this’ and ‘I want that.’”
