When I got back from my Vegas trip, and after my fingers stopped bleeding (that dry August Vegas air was murder on my fingertips), I was asked to complete a survey for a casino I visited on the strip while my wife and daughter did a Mystery Shop (makes the trip a business deduction). Solicited surveys are a great time to help a business improve. All of us should use the customer survey to help a casino understand that there is such a thing as a professional class craps table.

I worked in Fortune 100 companies most of my career, in Information Technology. As an IT guy, I got a good look at how these huge companies conducted business in almost every facet. And I can tell you this: no two companies did anything the same way – not their finances, accounting, banking, manufacturing, employee relationships- nothing. That’s not a negative. It’s a big strength of a free market system.

Just like every other business in America, casinos are all different even in the same state operating under the same laws. The only similarity are casinos of the same name, but even those differ from state to state.

Regarding our beloved game of craps, I’m sure you all have experienced, as have I, the huge variety of craps from one casino to another – the size, height, chip rails, layout material, stuff between the layout and the wood, dice color, dice size, dice material, the bonus bets – on and on. (But where are the cup holders? Come on guys!)

Many of you will disagree, but the variety of tables and table construction has nothing to do with a casino trying to thwart Advantage Players. Any money we make is a small, unnoticeable blip in their financials. Sure, the dealers and pit boss notice. But keep in mind, the dealers and pit boss don’t decide how the tables are made. Who does? Upper management does. Do you think the Vice President cares what mid level management (pit boss) thinks? Never. The VP and President listen to the Marketing and Advertising Departments – after the President and VP says, “I want my casino to be classy, beautiful, and different from every other casino.” Then they scale it back when they get costs estimates from construction.

No, the craps table construction is mostly an afterthought- except the layout, which is designed by people far removed from the floor. Microfiber is used because it lasts longer than felt and allows colors and art not possible with felt. If anything is put under the layout, it’s original intent was to make the table more durable, and more quickly cleaned from the occasional spill. Wet wood causes rot and termites.

The one exception are the raised ridges that a very, very few casinos have under their layouts to prevent the very illegal dice “sliding”. Talk about Dice jumping weirdly. It’s so over the top, that 99% of the casinos rightly consider jail time the cure for dice sliding, instead of messing up a perfectly good craps table.

I said all of that to encourage you to start filling out customer surveys after you visit a casino. When you do, say things like:
– “Great environment, good clientele. But your craps tables have something nonstandard under the table cover (layout). Whatever it is, it makes the dice act and jump around very oddly. Because of that, your craps tables are not professional class craps tables. Otherwise, you have a great casino. But my friends and I won’t be playing craps there until you fix your craps tables.”

On your survey, mark your overall experience as a 6, from 1 to 10. That means you’re reachable, that one change and you’ll be a happy customer. If you give anything below a 5, you’ll be considered a lost cause and ignored.

Make the same comments in the TripAdvisor website. Every casino’s marketing department watches TripAdvisor like a hawk.

Now, I know Dom and anyone else who has been walked out of a casino will likely consider this a waste of time. But you guys are an exception. For most of us, this will be a worthwhile effort to make casinos aware of how undesirable their wacky craps tables are. Casinos want to cater to the discerning customer. It’s good business. We need to be the discerning customers.

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