According to this Wikipedia article , MGM Resorts International (MGM) is the second largest gaming company in the world.It owns and operates 15 properties in Nevada, Mississippi, and Michigan, and has 50% investments in four other properties in Nevada, Illinois and Macau.There is little doubt that the MGM casinos offer a wide variety of proprietary games consistent with the CEC model. The question of which games they choose to post on their casino websites is the subject matter of this post.
To complete this survey I visited the website for each of the 16 MGM casinos in North America. I then navigated to the page dedicated to table games on each website and recorded the proprietary games listed on that page. I compiled the data into an Excel spread sheet. The full spreadsheet is here:
Table_Game_Survey_MGM (Excel 2003)
The average number of proprietary games listed per website is 4.1. For MGM’s Nevada casinos, an average of 3.4 proprietary games per property was given. This is significantly less than the overall average of 4.6 proprietary games per website given.
Here is the list of all MGM casinos, by number of proprietary games listed. Surprisingly, some very large MGM casinos list no proprietary games on their websites:
- MGM Grand, Detroit (14)
- Aria, Las Vegas (7)
- Luxor, Las Vegas (6)
- MGM Grand, Las Vegas (6)
- Mirage, Las Vegas (6)
- Beau Rivage, Biloxi (5)
- Gold Strike, Tunica (5)
- Monte Carlo, Las Vegas (4)
- New York, New York, Las Vegas (4)
- Bellagio, Las Vegas (3)
- Circus Circus, Reno (3)
- Circus Circus, Las Vegas (1)
- Excalibur, Las Vegas (1)
- Gold Strike, Jean (0)
- Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas (0)
- Railroad Pass, Las Vegas (0)
Here are the top 5 proprietary table games listed on the MGM websites. Note they are all poker variants:
- Three Card Poker (11)
- Let it Ride (10)
- Pai Gow Poker, Generic (9)
- Crazy 4 Poker (6)
- Ultimate Texas Hold’ Em (5)
Here is the list of proprietary table games licensed by companies other than Shuffle Master:
- 2-5-7 Poker (1)
- Double Exposure Blackjack (1)
- Spanish 21 (1)
- Two-Way Monte (1)
The blackjacks variant listed are each vulnerable to card counting. They are:
- Blackjack Switch (3)
- Double Exposure Blackjack (1)
- Spanish 21 (1)
Only MGM Grand, Detroit listed blackjack side bets. This is their list:
- High Tie
- Perfect Pairs
The only Pai Gow Poker variant was Shuffle Master's Fortune side bet. Here is a list of games whose vulnerability to hole-carding is addressed in this blog:
- Three Card Poker (11)
- Let it Ride (10)
- Crazy 4 Poker (6)
- Mississippi Stud (3)
- Four Card Poker (2)
In my opinion, MGM Grand, Detroit, is the only casino that is correctly marketing their proprietary games on their website. They give a complete list in a way that is easy to read and understand, and gives the prospective visitor full information on what they can expect. The following image is taken from their website,
By comparison, here is an image taken from Excalibur's website:
MGM has a relatively consistent model for the websites for its casinos. The disparity in its listing of proprietary games is an issue that could be addressed at a corporate level. It makes no sense that Excalibur should list one proprietary game on its website, while MGM Grand, Detroit gives 14 games. The CEC model of listing the table games available at each of their casinos in an accessible database is an easy option to implement. Alternatively, each casino website could follow the format of MGM Grand, Detroit. No matter their choice, MGM has a lot of room for improvement in their presentation of this critical information.
