Survey of Table Games, by Casino Website

I have been trying to get a sense of the landscape of casino proprietary table games across the United States. I’ve examined CEC’s database of table games in this post. I’ve done a casino-by-casino survey of Las Vegas casinos in this article.  I researched the approved table games by state in this post.  But the question still remains of understanding the full range of proprietary games offered by U.S. land-based casinos. Today I approached the problem from a different direction: what proprietary table games do casinos advertise on their websites?

My methodology was as follows. First I did a Google search on this phrase: “casino table game promotions.” There was no necessity to add the word “promotions” to the search-term list. I added it simply because the search results came out more finely tuned to what I was after. Next, I went through the links one at a time and visited those that referenced specific casinos. After landing at the casino’s website, I navigated to the page on the website that listed the casino’s table game selection (if any). I recorded the name of the casino, the state in which it was located, and the full list of proprietary games and side bets listed on its website. I did not record the traditional games listed.

As I visited casino websites, I did not record data from those casinos that were non-US based, those that did not offer table games, and those that listed traditional games but no proprietary games.  I stopped after visiting and getting usable data from 50 casino websites. This article summarizes the data I recorded from these visits.

Here is the breakdown of casino websites visited by state:

• Arizona (3)
• California (13)
• Iowa (1)
• Indiana (2)
• Michigan (4)
• Missouri (1)
• Mississippi (2)
• Nevada (9)
• New Jersey (1)
• New York (1)
• Oklahoma (4)
• Oregon (1)
• Pennsylvania (4)
• Washington (3)

The average casino website listed 4.56 proprietary games. The following gives the top casinos by number of proprietary games listed on their website:

• MGM Grand Detroit, MI (12)
• Borgata, NJ (8)
• Pala, CA (8)
• Thunder Valley, CA (8)
• Turning Stone, NY (8)
• Blue Chip, IN (7)
• Palazzo, NV (7)
• Red Hawk, CA (7)
• Venetian, NV (7)

Here are the top five proprietary games listed on the casino websites. Note that these are all poker variants:

1. Three Card Poker (44)
2. Pai Gow Poker (29)
3. Let it Ride (26)
4. Ultimate Texas Hold’em (22)
5. Four Card Poker (15)

Here is the list of all blackjack variants listed on the casino websites:

1. Spanish 21 (21)
2. Blackjack Switch (7)
3. Blackjack, Double Exposure (1)
4. Super Fun 21 (1)

Here is the list of all blackjack side bets listed:

• Perfect Pairs (2)
• Lucky Ladies (2)
• 21 + 3 (2)
• Hit and Run (1)
• Lucky Lucky (1)
• Push your Luck (1)

Here is a breakdown of all the Pai Gow Poker variants. These are distinguished by their side bet. Some casinos listed Pai Gow Poker more than one time.

1. Pai Gow Poker, Generic (23)
2. Fortune Pai Gow Poker (13)
3. Pai Gow Poker Progressive (3)
4. Pai Gow Poker Emperor’s Challenge(2)

Baccarat is a traditional game so I did not record its hit frequency. According to the database, EZ Baccarat was listed on the websites of 6 casinos. The dragon bonus for baccarat was listed on the websites of 2 casinos. Here are the games whose vulnerability to hole-carding is addressed in this blog:

1. Three Card Poker (44)
2. Let it Ride (26)
3. Four Card Poker (15)
4. Mississippi Stud (9)
5. Caribbean Stud (7)
6. Crazy 4 Poker (3)
7. Flop Poker (1)

Most proprietary games listed on the web sites are licensed by Shuffle Master. Here are the games with two or more tables that are licensed by companies other than Shuffle Master.

1. Spanish 21 – Masque Publishing (10)
2. EZ Baccarat – DEQ (6)
3. Pai Gow Poker, Emperor’s Challenge – Galaxy Gaming (2)

There are also some rare games not mentioned above:

• 2-5-7 Poker (1)
• Dealer Bluff Poker (1)
• World Poker Tour 3x Raise Hold ‘EM (1)

Here is the complete list of surveyed casino websites:

By comparing the results of this survey with the survey of Caesars Entertainment Corporation, it’s clear that the CEC game selection model dominates the market nationwide. Just as Shuffle Master's games form the bulk of the CEC game selection model, their games also blanket the casinos in this survey. From the standpoint of game protection and advantage play, it appears that CEC and Shuffle Master must bear the brunt of responsibility for getting the job done.