When manufacturers shrink a product without decreasing the consumer’s price, it is called shrinkflation. But what about when service businesses change the quality of your experience?
Similar to the concept of shrinkflation, Las Vegas casinos changed many games to make them pay out worse than the original form. This includes 6/5 blackjack, triple zero roulette, and crapless craps. Offering these worse games at the same limits turned lower-limit players into the same value as high rollers.
Additionally, casino practices are speeding games up to increase hourly rates per available seat. Vegas Advantage is coining this practice “Speedflation.”
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Electronic table games
The most common way casinos speed up games is through electronic table games. These take several elements out that slow games down. Chips are replaced by betting screens. Cards become video replicas. Dice roll inside a bubble. The pill drops into a roulette wheel automatically. Bets are settled by a computer.
Heads-up games are the fastest forms of electronic table games. Players choose their speed. A heads-up craps machine can roll 15 times a minute. A multiplayer machine or stadium has two or three rolls per minute. On the other hand, a full live craps table might only roll once per minute.
Heads-up roulette games can be played almost as quickly as slot machines. Blackjack ones can deal a hand about every five seconds. Multiplayer versions of these electronic games play three to five times faster than live tables. Video baccarat games also double or triple the speed of the live version. Additionally, most stadium installations allow players to wager on up to four games simultaneously.
Hybrid table games
Hybrid table games have live dealers and cards, dice, or roulette wheels. Chips are missing from the games. Blackjack versions move slightly faster than their live counterparts. Hybrid roulette tables have two wheels, which at least doubles the speed. Hybrid craps games move faster than a live one, especially at full tables.
Baccarat
Many casinos moved low-limit baccarat tables to the no-commission version. That increases the banker bet’s house edge by about 0.4%. This adds a banker push hand, like a winning three-card seven, or a 50% payout one, like a winning six.
The increase in the house edge is not the only reason players lose faster. The game speed increases when dealers are not tracking and charging the 5% commission that comes on winning banker bets. Wizard of Odds predicts a no-commission game plays 50% faster than a traditional 5% table. That causes banker bets to lose almost double the amount per hour when compared to the original game when accounting for the increased speed and house advantage. This means bettors on the player hand also lose 50% faster.
Face Up Pai Gow Poker
Face Up Pai Gow Poker entered Las Vegas casinos in 2018. Today, every casino except one with pai gow poker deals the face-up version. Only three Las Vegas casinos offer the traditional 5% version as an alternative.
Face Up Pai Gow Poker takes all skill out of the game. The dealer sets the house hand before the players act. A hand of Face Up Pai Gow poker takes a little over a minute to play. The house edge is 1.81%. At a $25 table, the player theoretically loses about $0.45 per hand. Traditional pai gow poker holds 2.72%. This game takes a little over two minutes per hand to deal. A $25 player theoretically loses $0.68 per hand.
Face Up Pai Gow Poker deals about 45 hands per hour. A $25 player at that game loses $20.36 per hour, on average. The $25 traditional pai gow poker game deals about 25 hands per hour. The average loss is about $17 per hour. The faster game causes the version with the lower house edge to increase hourly player theoretical losses.
The theoretical loss on side bets is harder to compute as the hold depends on the size of the progressive meter. The Face Up Pai Gow player loses on those bets at nearly double the speed as the traditional game. If the side bet holds 10%, and the player bets $5, this adds $22.50 per hour to the expected loss at the face-up game and $12.50 to the traditional one. Few pai gow players skip side bets, especially on face-up versions since the game has become more like a lottery than a poker game.
Shuffling machines
Continuous shuffling machines have been used in blackjack games for decades. These devices are now found at nearly all Las Vegas 6/5 tables and many lower-limit 3/2 ones. Blackjack tables with shoes often use shuffling machines, especially six- and eight-deck ones. This adds several hands an hour as the dealer does not need to stop the action to hand shuffle.
Blackjack continuous shuffling machines add about 20 to 30 percent more hands per hour. Multiply this by six players per table at every table, and the house can drop several hundred more dollars per hour when compared to machines that shuffle cards for shoes.
Shuffling machines also speed up other card games and became more advanced over the years. This can make games play twice as quickly than if the dealer hand-shuffled and dealt the cards. Today, some machines read cards, helping dealers find and pay winning hands fast. Most sort cards for poker games, meaning in Let It Ride, three cards drop for every player at the table, speeding up the dealing process.
Faster games also keep limits lower
All poker pit games, except pai gow poker, have multiple Las Vegas installations with minimum bets of $5 and lower. This is made possible by technology that helps speed up games. It would be difficult for a casino to offer $5 Ultimate Texas Hold’em if the dealer had to reshuffle by hand every time.
Electronic table games, which can offer low-limit games and advantage play opportunities, would be mostly nonexistent without this technology and the need to increase game speeds. However, many of these electronic table game versions are offer inferior returns like 6/5 blackjack, crapless craps, and no commission baccarat. Some even have shortened pay tables, like straight an split bets in roulette. Like other products and services, players should educate themselves before wagering to get the best experience.
