The Venetian is one of the most popular luxury casino-resorts in Las Vegas. It isn’t rare to walk through the casino and see the majority of blackjack tables with a minimum wager $25 or more. The lowest minimum wager is often $15, especially on weekends. As you’d imagine lower minimum bets are less profitable for a casino. The Venetian is looking to close the gap between high roller and low roller.
Late in 2016, The Venetian began offering Stadium Blackjack for its low rolling customers. The modular blackjack game allows the casino to save money on staffing when dealing a low limits game. This Stadium blackjack has seating for up to 44 players (these can have over 100 seats). This blackjack games at The Venetian have a minimum wager of only $5. This is cheaper than you’ll find at traditional table games.
Stadium Blackjack is one of many new forms of electronic table games that you will see more often in casinos. The cost savings is obvious. A traditional blackjack game would need about 8 dealers to deal as many hands as a full stadium. Unfortunately, the savings by The Venetian isn’t passed onto the player.
Like all games under $50 at The Venetian, Stadium Blackjack pays 6:5 when a player is dealt a natural blackjack. Despite the bad rules, there can still be some excitement when a player is dealt blackjack. Everyone is dealt the same two cards. This means that 44 people can get blackjack at the same time. Traditional blackjack tables erupt when one person is dealt blackjack, so you can imagine the excitement of 44 people being dealt blackjack.
Each player has their own betting terminal. After depositing money, the player will choose how much to wager. Then the player will have the option of placing a wager one of three side bets. The same first cards are dealt to every player. Next, each player will choose whether to hit, stand, split, or double on their own terminal.
Discussions about Electronic Table Games have been a big part of the past few Global Gaming Expos (G2E). The games were slow to take off but they’re slowly catching on in popularity for both players and casino operators. The games can be attractive to new gamblers and machine players because there’s less human interaction. New gamblers may be intimidated by other players while machine players might simply enjoy the solitude of playing machines.
The savings on staffing isn’t the only benefit for casino operators. Stadium Blackjack can increase how many hands are dealt. The extra hands help the casino operator generate more revenue. This can make a big difference when dealing a blackjack game with a higher house edge than traditional games.
Casinos can also monitor table games players more accurately. Video poker and slot machine players are easier to cater to than table games players since every dollar they spend is tracked. Electronic Table Games may not be the future for all casino gambling but they will have their place.
These games offer casino operators a way to offer low limits games while keeping costs to a minimum. Better odds would be nice but at least there will be low limits games available in the nicest casinos. You can learn more about this unique Stadium Blackjack setup at Venetian.com.
