Recognizing an opportunity
Recognizing an opportunity
From RFID to optical readers, opinions are mixed on the best technology for table game bet recognition
By Stephen Barlas
Casinos are beginning to wager on high-tech tables for more accurate player tracking, better bet recognition and labor cost savings.
So far, two Las Vegas-based companies have forged ahead with systems that attempt to combine player tracking and bet recognition technologies: Progressive Gaming International (PGI) with its radiofrequency identification (RFID) TableLink system and Bally Gaming & Systems with its MindPlay system, which relies on optical readers and artificial intelligence. But Las Vegas-based Shuffle Master, Inc. may soon join the fray. The company is testing an RFID game management product after sewing up key patents last December (see sidebar). IGT Systems, a subsidiary of industry slot giant IGT, is also in the mix with its TableTouch game management system, although as of yet it does not incorporate a bet recognition component.
Newcomers aside, PGI and Bally are currently the undisputed leaders in bet recognition product placements at table games. Bally has MindPlay at 100 tables, 36 of those at the Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, which announced its installations in February. Progressive has installed its RFID version of TableLink at 179 tables in five casinos.
This may seem like a small number of installations, but more casinos are lining up to give the technology a whirl. Michael Angelastro, director, table game operations, at the L'auberge du Lac Casino in Lake Charles, La., said his casino will use TableLink when it opens. Angelastro joined L'auberge after leaving a similar job at Grand Coushatta Casino in Kinder, La. where he oversaw the installation of TableLink at 71 of 82 gaming tables.
"The system allows us, via real time betting patterns, to see whether a player might be counting cards, for example," Angelastro said. "It also frees up time for the dealers and floor supervisors who can focus more on providing better service. You don't need a pit clerk. Players like it because they don't have to worry about a floor supervisor not getting over to them and taking their player card immediately when they sit down. They know the casino is accurately recording their bets, and that they will get the comped meals and rooms they deserve. And we know we are distributing those comps equitably."
Distinguishing characteristics
Despite these advantages and the inroads made by Bally and PGI, bet recognition adoption rates remain low. Indeed, little more than 1 percent of the world's estimated 32,000 table games currently utilize bet recognition technology.
One reason for this slow rate: casinos may be unfamiliar with, and hesitant to rely on, the cutting edge RFID or optical scanning technologies that make bet recognition possible.
The PGI system includes an RFID reader at each table, an antenna under each of the seven playing positions at the table and playing chips with RFID tags. Sometime during the time a player is at a table, a floor supervisor takes the player's playing card and inputs the player's identifying information into a tablet PC at the gaming table. After players put down their bets, the dealer pushes a button and the RFID reader reads and records each bet. That data is sent to the tablet PC which uploads it to the customer management server which crunches the numbers, spitting out, real time, such things as average bets, high and low wagers and gives the casino an idea of the player's bet spread.
These kinds of calculations, in a non-RFID environment, are generated, for the most part, manually at the table where the dealer passes on a sheet to a pit clerk, who uploads the data to the customer relations computer.
The Bally system, on the other hand, uses an optical reader-a camera, in effect-which takes pictures of the players' chips (and cards, if that add-on capability is leased) via its patented VisonCore™ imbedded image processing and uploads the information to a PC.
The decision to go with either an RFID- or optical reader-based system is not an easy one for gaming operators to make. Carol Pride, chief information officer for Caesars Entertainment said her company tested TableLink before settling on MindPlay. "The problem with the RFID system was that the reader would also read any chips that a player had in his lap, or in his pocket," she explained. "Maybe the system is too accomplished."
Expanding on Pride's point, Rich Soltys, senior vice president of Bally Systems MindPlay product group, states, "The MindPlay optical bet recognition exceeded 99.98 percent accuracy and 99.9 percent uptime in this long-term live test. We think this test clearly demonstrates the competitive advantages our customers will experience through proven results from a live pit."
Chipping away
In response, Progressive Gaming makes its own claims about the superiority of TableLink. "Our argument would be that our technology is more accurate, reliable, and flexible going forward," said Tim Richards, executive director of global marketing at PGI.
Indeed, the company believes enough in its product to place an order for an additional 10,000 RFID-equipped gaming chips last November and expects to order approximately 500,000 additional chips for deployment sometime in 2005. That would be enough chips to supply approximately 250 gaming tables. Progressive hopes to push that number to 10,000 over the next five years.
But the success of Progressive's strategy will depend on enhancements to its gaming chip, which is produced by Gaming Partners. The Gaming Partners chip contains a 56- or 96-bit characters on the Philips Electronics semiconductor used in the RFID inlay. That identification number, which denotes the dollar value of the chip, is placed in a database in the semiconductor's memory. New chips, however, do not rely on a database, so its RFID inlay is read much faster. Gaming Partners is working to adapt to the new label technology.
Cost wars
In addition to touting technology differences, PGI and Bally are fighting for customers through a more old-fashioned method: underselling. "Each of us is desperately trying to put the other out of business, and we're both losing our ass," said PGI's Richards.
Indeed, PGI and MindPlay have been cutting prices viciously in 2005 in an effort to gain new casino customers. For example, Bally's Soltys said his company recently restructured the pricing for MindPlay. Casinos that want full MindPlay capability, including bet and card recognition, pay a monthly lease fee of $695.
Even with the pricing changes, some in the industry still believe bet recognition technology is still too expensive for many gaming properties. Brian Casey, director, marketing for Reno, Nev.-based IGT Systems, said the cost of MindPlay may restrict its marketing reach. "Smaller casinos won't be able to afford it," he said. "Everyone loves idea of bet recognition. So do we. You just won't see the penetration of those products."
That is doubly true right now since both PGI and Bally sell their systems for use with card games only. Richards said TableLink will become available for other games such as roulette and craps once Progressive develops a faster RFID semiconductor for its product line.
SIDEBAR
Count them in
Despite patent concerns, Shuffle Master is developing an RFID-based bet recognition system of its own
Last December, Shuffle Master, an $85 million a year supplier of automatic card shufflers and proprietary table games, purchased two RFID patents from a Florida law firm. Shuffle Master turned around and sold a license for one of those patents to Progressive Gaming International, even though Shuffle Master expects to market a rival RFID-gaming table system called the Intelligent Table System. PGI has a non-exclusive license from Shuffle Master for that patent, according to Tim Richards, executive director of global marketing at PGI.
Shuffle Master extended a license for the second patent to Gaming Partners, PGI's gaming chip supplier. However, apparently unbeknownst to Shuffle Master and Gaming Partners, a little company called CHIPCO International, a small family-run firm in Raymond, Maine, had already secured a patent for the use of RFID inlays in gaming chips, although CHIPCO uses a different bit labeling scheme than Gaming Partners.
"It takes us three-quarters of a second to read a stack of 20 chips at all seven betting stations on a poker table," said John Kendall, president of CHIPCO.
Kendall believes the first purchasers of commercial quantities of his playing chips will be casinos now being built in the Chinese province of Macau. "There is significant interest there because those casinos are just opening, and they are buying equipment and supplies for the first time," he said.
Mark Yoseloff, CEO and chairman of the board of Shuffle Master, declines to discuss the patent situation. But he contends that none of the vendors have a leg up on the others because none of the products are yet ready for prime time.
"A lot of this early stage stuff is not designed for continuous use in a casino," he said. "It is designed for a science lab."
Richards disagrees with this observation. "This is well beyond the lab," he said, noting that TableLink is installed and running on table games at several casinos nationwide.
-Stephen Barlas
From RFID to optical readers, opinions are mixed on the best technology for table game bet recognition
By Stephen Barlas
Casinos are beginning to wager on high-tech tables for more accurate player tracking, better bet recognition and labor cost savings.
So far, two Las Vegas-based companies have forged ahead with systems that attempt to combine player tracking and bet recognition technologies: Progressive Gaming International (PGI) with its radiofrequency identification (RFID) TableLink system and Bally Gaming & Systems with its MindPlay system, which relies on optical readers and artificial intelligence. But Las Vegas-based Shuffle Master, Inc. may soon join the fray. The company is testing an RFID game management product after sewing up key patents last December (see sidebar). IGT Systems, a subsidiary of industry slot giant IGT, is also in the mix with its TableTouch game management system, although as of yet it does not incorporate a bet recognition component.
Newcomers aside, PGI and Bally are currently the undisputed leaders in bet recognition product placements at table games. Bally has MindPlay at 100 tables, 36 of those at the Flamingo Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, which announced its installations in February. Progressive has installed its RFID version of TableLink at 179 tables in five casinos.
This may seem like a small number of installations, but more casinos are lining up to give the technology a whirl. Michael Angelastro, director, table game operations, at the L'auberge du Lac Casino in Lake Charles, La., said his casino will use TableLink when it opens. Angelastro joined L'auberge after leaving a similar job at Grand Coushatta Casino in Kinder, La. where he oversaw the installation of TableLink at 71 of 82 gaming tables.
"The system allows us, via real time betting patterns, to see whether a player might be counting cards, for example," Angelastro said. "It also frees up time for the dealers and floor supervisors who can focus more on providing better service. You don't need a pit clerk. Players like it because they don't have to worry about a floor supervisor not getting over to them and taking their player card immediately when they sit down. They know the casino is accurately recording their bets, and that they will get the comped meals and rooms they deserve. And we know we are distributing those comps equitably."
Distinguishing characteristics
Despite these advantages and the inroads made by Bally and PGI, bet recognition adoption rates remain low. Indeed, little more than 1 percent of the world's estimated 32,000 table games currently utilize bet recognition technology.
One reason for this slow rate: casinos may be unfamiliar with, and hesitant to rely on, the cutting edge RFID or optical scanning technologies that make bet recognition possible.
The PGI system includes an RFID reader at each table, an antenna under each of the seven playing positions at the table and playing chips with RFID tags. Sometime during the time a player is at a table, a floor supervisor takes the player's playing card and inputs the player's identifying information into a tablet PC at the gaming table. After players put down their bets, the dealer pushes a button and the RFID reader reads and records each bet. That data is sent to the tablet PC which uploads it to the customer management server which crunches the numbers, spitting out, real time, such things as average bets, high and low wagers and gives the casino an idea of the player's bet spread.
These kinds of calculations, in a non-RFID environment, are generated, for the most part, manually at the table where the dealer passes on a sheet to a pit clerk, who uploads the data to the customer relations computer.
The Bally system, on the other hand, uses an optical reader-a camera, in effect-which takes pictures of the players' chips (and cards, if that add-on capability is leased) via its patented VisonCore™ imbedded image processing and uploads the information to a PC.
The decision to go with either an RFID- or optical reader-based system is not an easy one for gaming operators to make. Carol Pride, chief information officer for Caesars Entertainment said her company tested TableLink before settling on MindPlay. "The problem with the RFID system was that the reader would also read any chips that a player had in his lap, or in his pocket," she explained. "Maybe the system is too accomplished."
Expanding on Pride's point, Rich Soltys, senior vice president of Bally Systems MindPlay product group, states, "The MindPlay optical bet recognition exceeded 99.98 percent accuracy and 99.9 percent uptime in this long-term live test. We think this test clearly demonstrates the competitive advantages our customers will experience through proven results from a live pit."
Chipping away
In response, Progressive Gaming makes its own claims about the superiority of TableLink. "Our argument would be that our technology is more accurate, reliable, and flexible going forward," said Tim Richards, executive director of global marketing at PGI.
Indeed, the company believes enough in its product to place an order for an additional 10,000 RFID-equipped gaming chips last November and expects to order approximately 500,000 additional chips for deployment sometime in 2005. That would be enough chips to supply approximately 250 gaming tables. Progressive hopes to push that number to 10,000 over the next five years.
But the success of Progressive's strategy will depend on enhancements to its gaming chip, which is produced by Gaming Partners. The Gaming Partners chip contains a 56- or 96-bit characters on the Philips Electronics semiconductor used in the RFID inlay. That identification number, which denotes the dollar value of the chip, is placed in a database in the semiconductor's memory. New chips, however, do not rely on a database, so its RFID inlay is read much faster. Gaming Partners is working to adapt to the new label technology.
Cost wars
In addition to touting technology differences, PGI and Bally are fighting for customers through a more old-fashioned method: underselling. "Each of us is desperately trying to put the other out of business, and we're both losing our ass," said PGI's Richards.
Indeed, PGI and MindPlay have been cutting prices viciously in 2005 in an effort to gain new casino customers. For example, Bally's Soltys said his company recently restructured the pricing for MindPlay. Casinos that want full MindPlay capability, including bet and card recognition, pay a monthly lease fee of $695.
Even with the pricing changes, some in the industry still believe bet recognition technology is still too expensive for many gaming properties. Brian Casey, director, marketing for Reno, Nev.-based IGT Systems, said the cost of MindPlay may restrict its marketing reach. "Smaller casinos won't be able to afford it," he said. "Everyone loves idea of bet recognition. So do we. You just won't see the penetration of those products."
That is doubly true right now since both PGI and Bally sell their systems for use with card games only. Richards said TableLink will become available for other games such as roulette and craps once Progressive develops a faster RFID semiconductor for its product line.
SIDEBAR
Count them in
Despite patent concerns, Shuffle Master is developing an RFID-based bet recognition system of its own
Last December, Shuffle Master, an $85 million a year supplier of automatic card shufflers and proprietary table games, purchased two RFID patents from a Florida law firm. Shuffle Master turned around and sold a license for one of those patents to Progressive Gaming International, even though Shuffle Master expects to market a rival RFID-gaming table system called the Intelligent Table System. PGI has a non-exclusive license from Shuffle Master for that patent, according to Tim Richards, executive director of global marketing at PGI.
Shuffle Master extended a license for the second patent to Gaming Partners, PGI's gaming chip supplier. However, apparently unbeknownst to Shuffle Master and Gaming Partners, a little company called CHIPCO International, a small family-run firm in Raymond, Maine, had already secured a patent for the use of RFID inlays in gaming chips, although CHIPCO uses a different bit labeling scheme than Gaming Partners.
"It takes us three-quarters of a second to read a stack of 20 chips at all seven betting stations on a poker table," said John Kendall, president of CHIPCO.
Kendall believes the first purchasers of commercial quantities of his playing chips will be casinos now being built in the Chinese province of Macau. "There is significant interest there because those casinos are just opening, and they are buying equipment and supplies for the first time," he said.
Mark Yoseloff, CEO and chairman of the board of Shuffle Master, declines to discuss the patent situation. But he contends that none of the vendors have a leg up on the others because none of the products are yet ready for prime time.
"A lot of this early stage stuff is not designed for continuous use in a casino," he said. "It is designed for a science lab."
Richards disagrees with this observation. "This is well beyond the lab," he said, noting that TableLink is installed and running on table games at several casinos nationwide.
-Stephen Barlas
