How Casinos Use Statistics to Analyze Games

Although it’s common for gamblers to use statistics to improve their play, they aren’t the only ones closely watching statistics. In fact, many casinos watch them closely—often more closely than players.

Casinos use statistics to analyze gameplay and to ensure that the game is returning the amount of money they set it to and that it is being played as often as expected. It isn’t uncommon for casinos to do away with games that don’t net them the profit they predicted. Read on to learn more about how casinos use statistics to analyze games.

1. Casinos Track How Often People Play

The most important statistic to casinos is how often a certain game is played. Space on the casino floor is valuable, and if a certain game isn’t played for several weeks on end, the casino will likely look into swapping it for a different one.

Online casinos are the same, with games taking up valuable server space. While the situation isn’t as dire as brick-and-mortar casinos, it isn’t uncommon for an online casino to retire a game that has gone several months without play.

2. Tracking Who Plays What Games

Now, this second one happens mostly at in-person casinos, though it can happen with online play based on the information the online casino asks from players. In brick-and-mortar casinos, most player tracking happens through player cards, but this doesn’t mean that by forgoing one, you aren’t tracked by a casino.

Of course, forgoing a player card gives the casino much less data—as they don’t know exactly what machines you played and for how many spins. But if you head to the cashier with a cash-out ticket, they will ask for proof of ID, giving them at least some semblance of what machine you won on and where. Even if you don’t win, there are cameras and constant security at casinos. This last method is much less exact than all the ones mentioned previously; however, it can still give casinos information about who plays what machines, especially in terms of demographics.

To make matters worse, many casinos now employ AI to run facial recognition and profiling on their camera feeds. While they say it is in the name of security, we know the truth—casinos care about their bottom line, which is money, and will do anything to preserve it.

In online casinos, the monitoring is much less cut and dry. There is no camera watching you play, but many online casinos do require some identity information to cash out a large win. While this identity information is generally minimal, some casinos do require identity verification by law. And since most casinos require accounts, once you verify your identity, it is easy for the casino to see what you played and when. In our opinion, this still isn’t as bad, as at least no one is watching you play or judging you based on what you wear, but we would be liars if we said there was truly an anonymous way to gamble. 

For those looking for as much anonymity as possible, we recommend cryptocurrency casinos, which typically don’t require identification prior to withdrawal.

3. Tracking Wins, and How Often They Happen

Now it is time to circle back to the obvious: casinos track their machines religiously to ensure they are only paying out the amount they are set to pay out. If a machine pays too often repeatedly, it will often be removed and replaced with something else.

Unlike the others on the list, there is no way to avoid this, as this tracking isn’t done through the players, but rather through the machine itself. While the methods may differ from machine to machine, they can generally be checked at any time and taken offline if they are paying out too much.

Even if you think table games are exempt, this is where those pesky cameras come back into play. Before the days of a certain card-counting MIT team, casinos were more willing to let random winning streaks slide. But now, all table games are watched by professionals, and if you are winning too much too often, security will show up to escort you out.

It is also worth noting that casinos don’t play. Even if you aren’t card counting, even if they suspect it, you may be booted from the game or the casino.

4. General Player Analysis

As times change and generations come and go, so do play styles and preferred games. In recent years, casinos have seen a notable shift away from slot machines, machines that were their bread and butter with the baby boomers. And as such casinos as a whole have shifted, with many now offering more experiences rather than just mindless spin games.

The problem is, it can be hard for the casino to predict these shifts. While they try their best with player statistics, they can still sometimes get it wrong. And even if they know what games players prefer, the gambling industry is often affected by other macroeconomic trends, like the current US recession.

With online casinos, these trends are much less common, though trust in online gambling was one a macro shift of its own. Shifts in preferred machines and graphics, however, give online casinos a leg up, as it is generally much easier for them to transform a game for an intended audience than for a brick-and-mortar casino. After all, switching the graphics is so much easier than moving a machine.

Overall, casinos use statistics for all kinds of player tracking—most of which help their bottom line of making money. While there are some ways to avoid obvious tracking, like players’ cards, it is almost impossible to avoid all tracking in online casinos, even in cryptocurrency-based ones—though these are the lesser of all the stated evils.