Articles co-authored by Andrew Cardno, BIS2 CTO
2009
"This is the first in a new series of articles on gaming floor analysis; in these articles we will first discuss the analytical building blocks that can be used to decode the interactions between gaming devices on the casino floor.These building blocks include fuzzy spatial association rules, gravity modeling, visual representation, experimental design,mini casino management and social network analysis.This first article covers fuzzy spatial association rules and gravity modeling." Read More.
"So far in this series, we have looked at how due-back can be applied to measure and predict customer behavior. It was originally supposed to be a three-part series, but after receiving several questions from readers and comments on a CEM blog entry relating to how to measure effectiveness of marketing programs (www.casinoenterprisemanagement.com/blog/theoretical-win-taking-closer-look-sacred-cow), we decided to expand the series to five parts." Read More.
"In Parts I and II of this “Who is Due Back?” series, we looked at clustering techniques and how they can be applied to predict when a customer is “due” to return to gamble at a casino property. The clustering techniques were designed to de-average the customers and create different groups of behaviors..." Read More.
"This is the second of a three-part series on predicting customers’ “due-back.”Reliable prediction of when customers are due to return to the casino allows the marketing department to correctly select who to include in the next marketing campaign and to decide upon the right level of incentives to offer.This relies largely on segmentation, which is a mathematical classification system..." Read More.
"In order to develop a predictive model, appropriate data first has to be collected. It would not be possible to collect data for modeling “customer due-back” without the loyalty cards now offered by grocery stores, DVD rental stores, movie theaters, and of course, casinos, to name a few..." Read More.
"Gaming companies have historically made a huge proportion of their revenue from only a small proportion of their customer base..." Read More.
"The growth of digitally stored data volume in the world is staggering—it is estimated that by 2010, the world will be storing more than 1021 (10 with 21 zeros) bytes of data, or 1 zettabyte (ZB) of data. This is roughly the number of stars in the universe..." Read More.
"Understanding a gaming floor is like trying to solve a 20 dimensional Rubik’s Cube. No matter how you twist the cube, there are always hidden dimensions that are the hidden drivers in analyzing the data..." Read More.
"Personal computers, introduced in 1976, cost thousands of dollars and had a few kilobytes of RAM, no hard drive, and process speeds reaching 1MHz. Today, desktops with 2 gigabytes of RAM, 250 gigabytes (GB) of hard disk drive space, and 2 GHz of processing speed cost around $500, and comparable laptops are available for about the same price..." Read More.
With the adoption of Internet protocol (IP) in gaming, the ubiquitous Internet connects everything to everything. In the past, the server could only talk to specifically wired hardware sitting next to it in the same room. Now a server can be anywhere in the world and every electronic gaming device can be linked to it..." Read More.
"It is commonly thought in the gaming industry that it is difficult to find a usable profile of a gambler. There is, however, some literature available on the subject..." Read More.
"Previously, we looked at a small data set from a small casino that had two categories of slot machines, a table game, and a hotel. Although some interesting conclusions could be drawn from the simple example, market basket analysis (MBA) really shines when dealing with data sets that have a large number of cases and variables..." Read More.
2008
"Imagine a customer pushing a steel grocery cart (with its frontwheel wobbling, of course) through any one of Las Vegas’ luxury casinos. But instead of filling it with frozen vegetables,milk and meats, casino customers fill it with sundries, gifts, restaurant foods and beverages, lodging, and wagering products..." Read More.
"It is common knowledge that the Theory of Probability is the basis of all casino games.Before any game can be put on a casino floor, the house advantage or the expected value (EV) of the gamemust be calculated..." Read More.
"People are curious about what the future looks like, and businesses want to predict it. Technology today has advanced so much that the products and services that were once considered magic are now in every adult and child’s hands..." Read More.
"The volume of data in the world is increasing at an extraordinary rate. This growth rate is so staggering that we now consider it possible only to estimate the total volume and the potential end point..." Read More.
"It is our hypothesis that the slot machine gaming market reaches saturation when the number of people per slot machine approaches 100 in the population..." Read More.
"The media has been huge on the topic of recession in Las Vegas recently, describing how the downturn may have affected local businesses..." Read More.