At any casino you’re going to see a mix of gamblers who are playing while using their players card, which we nearly always recommend, and those who choose to play without one. A recent question from a player raises concerns:
I had one of my hosts tell me that their casino has to pay jackpots to a set percentage of non card playing players. That percentage changes but if they can do that then they can do any other manipulation; like make certain players win/lose.
Carlene H.
First off, we can confirm that casinos cannot control who wins the jackpots – that’s outside their control and governed solely by the random number generator inside the machine and the moment the player places their wager. So fear not – casinos don’t have that level of control.
Casinos do track all play, whether someone is using a players card or not. And they have the ability therefore to see what percentage of play is by those who have their cards in machines, and what percentage is by those who don’t.
Casinos are incentivized in many ways to increase carded play, also known as rated play. The more players with cards, the more they can learn about the patterns of various players, and extend offers that will be more enticing to get players of various types to return. When the play isn’t rated, they don’t know who or what to send that message to – it’s an opportunity lost to the lack of a card.
We suspect this was just lost in translation a bit – we know of casinos that incentivize their teams to get carded play percentages higher, and they’ll do various programs to encourage this.
At the Venetian in Las Vegas, for instance, they have the ability to issue a temporary card to a player on the spot on the casino floor, and then reward them with free play to go to the desk and finish the registration process. This allows players to avoid standing in a long players club line when they encounter one just to get a card.
So we’re guessing the percentage of non card playing players is a metric they’re aware of to try to work on how to get the carded percentage up, not how to award jackpots to those with or without cards.
Trust us – casinos aren’t going to put the power of who wins what into the hands of various staff, even if they had that control – the opportunity for abuse is simply too high. That’s why these options don’t exist to begin with – it’s another way to ensure fairness and protect us as players.
Have a question? Submit yours here!
