Question about ASM's.

[kurt3892]

Why don't all casinos switch over to these exclusively? It would eliminate card counting and increase the number of hands per hour which is to their benefit? Are there drawbacks? Perhaps repair cost?

[21forme]

Why don't all casinos switch over to these exclusively? It would eliminate card counting and increase the number of hands per hour which is to their benefit? Are there drawbacks? Perhaps repair cost?

You mean CSMs, not ASMs. Because many gamblers refuse to play at tables with these machines. The casinos have tried to switch to all CSMs in the past and it backfired on them. Now, you'll typically find them on the lower limit tables only.

[Three]

There are two primary reasons. One, they have to rent those machines and the price is not trivial. The selling point for having them (CSMs) is the increase rounds per hour, card counting countermeasure is what I will call a side affect as the casino wants to maximize revenue. The game can only move as fast as the dealer and players allow it. You want to increase profit by speeding up the game, have some tables with no side bets and find a reason to get rid of the slow players or make sure they are at the side bet tables and get the dealers to deal as fast as the players will play. Train them in table management skills so they can help speed up the play of others.

Two, many players refuse to play them. The types that will refuse are superstitious players, The blamers that lose and blame their regular losses on anything. Once it is the CSM they blame their losses on they lose that customer. The biggest reason is they lose their biggest cash cow, the wanna be counter. There are only a very small number of counters that are a threat to the casinos bottom line. The vast majority are either underfunded, knows how to count well but can't manage a BR to sustain the swings of the game, lack the disposition it takes to play through the roller coaster ride your BR will take, doesn't have the discipline required to be successful or is just plain bad at counting. This huge group of players that are all likely to lose their entire BR or as much of it as they can stomach before the quit trying to count. The loss of this group costs far more than the cost of the what a counting threat can take before being backed off.

If you had to pay huge rental fees to cover your casino with CSMs and rather than save you money with increased rounds per hour it cost you some of your biggest cash cow customers for a huge net loss.