How Much Money Does Crown Casino Make A Day

• How Much Money Does Crown Casino Make A Day At A
• How Much Money Does Crown Casino Make A Day Trip
• How Much Money Does Crown Casino Make A Day For A

The casino has a house edge of 5.26% in this game. At the end of the game, the casino is likely to win 20% of the drop money. This means that for every $100 that is inserted in the drop box, $20 goes to the casino. The player is likely to make several bets during the game for them being against the house edge. Crown Resorts chairman Helen Coonan agrees the casino group’s risk management failings facilitated money laundering but says she wants to “stay the course” to drive the reform required for. Money casinos like any other business, maximizing the potential sales made is the main goal, but this is taken a step further the moment you walk into a casino. Every detail on the casino floor, even down to the layout is specifically designed to entice customers to make their next spend and is achieved through both data analysis and industry. And Crown's licence to operate the newly completed Barangaroo casino in Sydney is under threat following its admission it has allowed itself to be used as a vehicle for money laundering.

The field of casino marketing abounds with smart, resourceful mavens. I recently had the opportunity to ask a few of them for their go-to casino marketing strategies.

A 25-year veteran marketing strategist Mary Loftness has spent a career driving the measurability of marketing and the need to track everything. Mary is ever-focused on yesterday. That is, she looks to beat last year’s revenue each and every day. She suggests, “Compare the similar day and look to creatively improve the promotion, special event, or direct offer to increase revenue. Keep a detailed library of business drivers each day with notes for successes and failures. Continuous steady improvement wins!” This daily focus makes big goals achievable as you look to improve step by step rather than through leaps and bounds.

USE YOUR DATABASE

My Casino Marketing Boot Camp co-founder Nicole Barker is a database and loyalty specialist committed to improving the industry’s marketing skill set to court customers effectively. Her go-to strategy is to create a unique program for the customers that somehow seem to be off the competition’s radar. “Every database, be it large and small, has a gaming budget tipping point. $100 ADT is that tipping point. Programmatically, your competitors set their player development (PD) sights much higher. Mine the doldrums in between $100 ADT and your PD threshold for your greatest incremental revenue potential. The players will be delighted. Your reinvestment won’t be that much. Moreover, long-tailed loyalty will abound.”

Lynette O’Connell has been both a co-worker and a friend for years. She is a fan of the classic Recency, Frequency, Monetary Model, commonly referred to as RFM

“One of the first places to start when leveraging your database is the RFM model. Sometimes, I also include Locality. These figures are critical in ensuring you are reinvesting in your players accurately. I have been to locations where the sole focus is on Monetary (usually ADT)” which does not account for the multitude of influences on a visit.

How to start? O’Connell suggests, “My first recommendation is to add Frequency/Trip. Why? Let’s look at two players: Player A comes in twice a month and plays to an ADT level of $100. Player B comes in 20 times a month and also plays to a $100 ADT. Which player is more valuable?

Obviously, Player B. However, if ADT is the only criteria in a segmentation matrix, then they are both being treated the same. To resolve this, I suggest looking into the database to find the average number of trips for your active players. Often, this is around four trips. If you have a highly frequented property, then it could be higher. Once you know the number, anyone below the Average Trip gets segmented by ADT, anyone above the Average Trip gets segmented based on Average Monthly Theo (AMT). With this in mind, you can begin treating the more frequent loyal players based on their true value and spend at your property.”

This is only the beginning. In addition to reinvestment, you can also begin to look at the goals of each of these segments. For lower frequency players, you may try to increase trips. For the higher frequency players, you could attempt to extend their length of play (since you probably won’t get more trips out of them). Build your marketing offers around these goals to entice the behavior you are looking for from your customers.

“There are several more layers to segmentation, but this is a good place to start,” continues O’Connell. “I always suggest doing an A/B test when you are making strategic changes to validate what is (or isn’t) working. This will further aid in quantifying and reporting the ROI you see from the modifications.”

THERE IS GOLD IN YOUR DATABASE

Your decliners and inactive customers might be your best source of revenue. For whatever reason, you have a segment of customers that have chosen to visit less often or not to return. It’s fair to assume they experienced something unsatisfactory in their past visits. But, ask yourself, “How much revenue can I bring in if I get only 1% of those customers back for a visit?” What if you can get 2%? 5%? 10%? This will take time and will likely be a test of your general manager’s patience. To regain this customer, you may first need to do an internal audit of your offerings, services, facilities, and staff — an honest one. Then, audit your competitors. You must identify both the improvements you have made since their last visit(s) and the upgrades you can make now. This should be done before you drop an offer in the mail. Once you have a new story to tell, then bring in your direct mail team to understand what the optimal offer might be. Combine that with the right message to see an improvement in this segment.

How Much Money Does Crown Casino Make A Day At A

REACH OUT AND TOUCH SOMEONE

From “across the pond,” player development expert Jackie Parker recommends a warm welcome.

“We can all agree that a high-worth customer should be assigned a host and immediately go into the direct mail programs to keep them coming back,” starts Parker. However, should this be the first step in the relationship we are only just starting to build with them? “We’ve become very proud of our industry processes and procedures, but too much reliance on automation can overshadow the value of a friendly voice. The key term to remember is relationship. Frankly, that requires a human touch,” stresses Parker. “There is a big difference between a direct mail welcome and personal one.”

Parker continues, “A valuable new player should receive a phone call within 24 hours if they met the threshold theo on the day that they enrolled. These top players expect personal recognition and to feel special; it isn’t good enough to wait for the direct mail programs to catch up with them.”

These welcomes don’t just have to fall on the shoulders of your host team. You can probably set up an easy report that can be split up between the players club staff, or anyone who would love to be a part of the welcome wagon.

Parker offers a second strategy: keep in touch. She says, “You want your player development team to remind customers of your casino when they are missing events or you haven’t seen them in a while, but you can’t just call and ask, ‘Where y’at?’ Hosts need a reason to call (RTC) because otherwise, the phone call is just a begging request to come back and play. You can take a strategic approach and include outbound calls in your overall marketing plan. For example, if you upgrade or add an amenity, then give your hosts a list of coded players that have not been in for 90 days along with a script. ‘Hey, Julia! I know you haven’t been in for a while, so you haven’t see the new seafood buffet! It is really special. We even have fresh lobster on Thursday nights. We have a special for the opening week, and I would hate for you to miss it.'”
Another idea Parker offers is to double-down on your inactive offers to previously valuable players. “Give the hosts a list of names and phone numbers, and a script along these lines: ‘Hey Julia, I know you get a lot of mail, just like I do. I would hate for you to miss your exclusive $50 midweek hotel offer. Plus! We have added a new Seafood Buffet that is amazing! When could you come in this month? I’d love to get you booked in.'” encourages Parker.

ANOTHER CASINO MARKETING STRATEGY? TAKE A PAGE FROM THE BOOK OF MEZCKA.

It’s not enough to know WHO your customer is and what they are worth. You must understand their needs and desires to identify ways to keep them coming back time and time again. Mezcka Marketing Research Consulting President Michael A. Meczka has worked extensively with a variety of perspectives specific to the casino gaming industry, including those of patrons, governments, regulators, operators, and suppliers. The consistency in needs and desires expressed by patrons over many years has been astounding. They need to know there is a sliver of a chance of winning. Patrons repeatedly lament the inability to spend the same budget in the same way as they have in the past. I recognize there is a more significant discussion here regarding slot hold and pay tables, but the fact is casinos are in the entertainment business. Are we still entertaining customers or just providing quick ways for them to spend through their budgets?

“In a casino… The cardinal rule is to keep them playing, and keep them coming back! The longer they play, the more they lose. In the end, we get it all.”

GET FOUND ONLINE

With over 1500 casinos nationwide, standing out in a crowd is a daunting task. Alamaphetic President Matthew Capala recommends a results-focused online marketing strategy that incorporates digital marketing best practices combined with industry expertise to get noticed. “The gaming industry often doubles down on traditional marketing media channels when the real jackpot is online,” says Capala. “In a world where 80% of consumers search online before purchase, invisibility is a fate much worse than failure.” Having a website – even one with bells and whistles – is no longer enough. You must understand the target customers and begin crafting the keyword strategy that is relevant to them. Do you know the intent of a customer’s online search? Have you buried the exact content they are looking for? Capala recommends you give your visitors what they want on your website. Answer their questions. Develop a robust content strategy powered by SEO and data-driven audience profiling and a keyword strategy based on their needs, questions, and concerns.

EXPERIENCE FIRST

Try this fun audit. Think about your customers and the experience you WANT them to have. Ask yourself how often a top tier customer should be able to eat in the buffet or the coffee shop/cafe or steakhouse without opening their wallets, in other words by using comps, points or offers. Now, ask yourself what about the experience a $75 customer should have. What about a $25 customer? Then, look at all of your amenities. How are they being utilized? Who is using them? An exercise like this will help you identify motivators and detractors. They will help you identify the opportunities to create a great, well-balanced experience for both your operation and the customer.

OPERATIONALIZE YOUR BRAND

Most casino marketing plans include a section on “the Brand.” This section might consist of a plan to tweak the logo or the tagline. Seldom does it involve making the brand consistent from the back of the house to the sign out front. Quite often the culture of the organization never makes it into marketing communications, and when customers visit, they may experience a pleasant surprise or a complete disconnect. Your external and internal messaging and experiences should be mutually reinforcing. Development of your brand should be an inclusive process rather than one reserved for the executive suite. When MGM Resorts adopted a strategy to reposition itself, it was more than an ad campaign. It was a story the company could tell consistently to all of its stakeholders. They transformed the culture first and then reinforced it with the messaging to external audiences.

There you have it ten easy, low-cost strategies to start driving revenue. Try one. Try them all. Let us know how they work out for you. Moreover, if you have your own favorite go-to strategies, let us know.

It was the kind of news that should have spelt big trouble for James Packer's Crown casino empire.

In September 2014, was bringing in high rollers from mainland China using junket operators with links to organised crime — triad gangs notorious for laundering drug money and the proceeds of sex trafficking, as well as for violent debt collection.

The junket operators included Suncity, long identified by law enforcement agencies around the world as having Triad ties.

Four Corners revealed it was 'not just running some of Melco Crown's VIP rooms in Macau — it's bringing Chinese high rollers to James Packer's Crown Casinos in Australia'.

The fallout from these bombshell revelations? At the time, nothing.

There was barely a response from the major political parties to these news reports about this powerful and politically connected company.

Nor was there much reaction from the key regulator in Australia, the Victorian Commission for Gambling and Liquor Regulation (VCGLR), which oversees the giant casino complex at Southbank on the Yarra, the jewel in the Crown empire.

A year earlier, in 2013, the Victorian regulator had conducted its fifth periodic review of Crown's licence to operate the Melbourne casino, and passed it with flying colours.

History repeated itself last year, with a carbon-copy failure by the regulator to root out criminal activity that was later exposed by the media.

In June 2018, the VCGLR again reviewed Crown's operating licence and found it a 'suitable' operator, which, at law, required it to assess whether the casino's operations were free from criminal influence.

A year later, Nine newspapers and 60 Minutes unearthed compelling evidence that, for years, Crown had been relying on business partners with ties to Asian crime gangs engaged in sex trafficking and drug trafficking.

Its reports showed criminals were laundering money through Crown's casino operations and the giant Casino operator was helping to bring criminals into the country.

This time there was fallout.

The revelations prompted the NSW Independent Liquor and Gaming Authority to establish an inquiry with the powers of a royal commission.

Headed by former NSW Supreme Court judge Patricia Bergin, it has exposed huge failings at Crown.

And Crown's licence to operate the newly completed Barangaroo casino in Sydney is under threat following its admission it has allowed itself to be used as a vehicle for money laundering.

All this raises the question: Why did it take revelations in the media to expose Crown's failings, and why were the regulators in the dark?

Victorian regulator 'asleep at the wheel'

Former Victorian gaming minister Tony Robinson's response is: 'The best you can say about the Victorian regulator is that it appears that over a period of years it was asleep at the wheel.'

He points out the first purpose of the state's Casino Control Act is to 'establish a system for the licensing, supervision and control of casinos with the aims of ensuring that the management and operation of casinos remain free from criminal influence or exploitation.'

'And that's the heart of this,' he said.

'You don't need to be presented with an overwhelming case that there is criminal influence there.

'The purpose of the legislation is to ensure that there is no criminal influence, so even the suggestion that there is something untoward should have the regulator down there, demanding answers — and that hasn't happened.'

Tim Costello, a former Baptist minister, brother of the former federal Treasurer, and advocate for the Alliance for Gambling reform, said the Victorian regulator had 'stunningly and manifestly failed, and failed the Victorian public'.

'We all know that casinos around the world are the target for high-level money laundering and crime, drugs, trafficking of women, and this has all happened in Victoria under the regulator's nose and they haven't raised the alarm.'

The media revelations about Crown should have been no surprise to the regulator, according to Charles Livingstone, an associate professor at Monash University who researches gambling policy, politics and regulation.

'The VCGLR and other gambling regulators have been, well, abysmally incapable of regulating this business properly,' he said.

'Everything that we thought was going on appears to have been going on and the regulators were unable to discover it, which is a major failure.'

The VCGLR's chief executive, Catherine Myers, declined a request for an interview, but in written responses to questions from the ABC, the regulator rejected these criticisms.

It argued its sixth review of Crown Melbourne's operations and licence, completed in July 2018, 'thoroughly considered the operations of the casino over the entire five-year review period'.

It maintains that it liaised with the anti-money laundering agency, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission (AUSTRAC), and the Australian Federal Police, and received information from Crown Melbourne regarding its compliance with its anti-money laundering/counterterrorism finance obligations.

'Consultation with these agencies indicated that Crown was generally compliant,' the VCGLR wrote, while compliance with the anti-money laundering laws was 'a matter for AUSTRAC'.

Yet the fact is, at the time of what the VCGLR says was a 'thorough' review, junket operators with links to organised crime were working in partnership with Crown and bringing billions of dollars of gambling revenue through the door of its Melbourne casino.

Concerns had been publicly raised by credible sources about these criminal associates at least as far back as 2014, and there was a wealth of material the regulator could have accessed easily which would have raised red flags.

VCGLR says police provided no information raising concerns about Crown

Why didn't the regulator demand a list of all junket operators working with Crown and conduct its own, independent review of whether they had criminal associations and were headed by people of good repute?

The VCGLR's argument it received no information from law enforcement agencies that raised concerns about Crown and its associates poses questions about a breakdown in communication between police and the gambling regulator — or suggests the regulator wasn't asking the right questions.

It's a matter of public record that law enforcement agencies did have serious concerns about Crown's business partners and their criminal associations.

'Crown's behaviour is detailed in confidential law enforcement and regulatory briefings from police across Australasia,' Nine newspapers reported in its Crown Unplugged investigation.

'Starting a decade ago, these briefings have got progressively more damning, raising questions about the gaming regulators, and state and federal security agencies which are accused of being asleep at the wheel.'

Four Corners also reported in 2014 that the head of security for the Hong Kong Jockey Club, Martin Purbrick, that year gave a confidential presentation to police from across Australia at a seminar organised by the Victorian Police.

How Much Money Does Crown Casino Make A Day Trip

The former Hong Kong detective alerted those present to Macau's junkets and their links to organised crime and he sounded a particular alarm about some individuals associated with Suncity, warning one of its owners and some of its key personnel were 'followers of Wan Kuok-koi, Macau 14K triad, imprisoned in 1998 for 14 years'.

At the time of the VCGLR's sixth annual casino review, which cleared Crown Melbourne as free of criminal influence and found it had no associates of ill repute, Suncity was ensconced in Crown's Melbourne casino, running its own VIP room for high rollers.

This is despite the regulator boasting it has 'a dedicated team operating from within Crown seven days a week [and] a dedicated audit and investigations team that reviews and assesses Crown's casino activities'.

'I think the hallmark of that report was a lack of curiosity, lack of initiative,' Mr Robinson said.

'It seems to me that when you are given the task of regulating an entity it's because Parliament has decided that there is a public interest that needs to be defended and you have to go about that task with insatiable curiosity and you have to look out for those things you don't know. Don't be satisfied with the stuff that's presented to you by the party that you are regulating.

'You've got to have ways of getting around them and getting to find information in other ways. And what's disturbing is that some of that information in terms of claims and allegations was presented to the Victorian regulator and it appears to have fallen on deaf ears.'

It didn't even look at concerns raised four years earlier about the presence of junket operators linked to criminal gangs in casinos operated by Melco Crown, a joint venture with Lawrence Ho, the son of the notorious Stanley Ho, who was banned by NSW gaming authorities from owning casinos in the state as far back as the 1980s, as well as by Canadian and US authorities for alleged ties to triads and organised crime.

Stanley Ho, who died in May, always denied the allegations of criminal ties and his son has steadfastly denied any criminal influence over his business interests.

Gambling is illegal in China, as is the practice of soliciting 'high rollers' to gamble overseas.

Mr Packer and Crown abandoned the Macau joint venture with the Ho family in 2017 amid a Chinese crackdown on illegal gambling which led to 19 Crown staff in China being arrested and many jailed, with Crown paying fines imposed on its staffing totalling nearly $1.7 million.

The Victorian regulator was aware of this issue but chose not to consider it as part of its licence review in 2018 because Crown had delayed sending it all relevant documents.

Charles Livingstone condemned the relationship between Crown and its key regulator as 'a classic case of regulatory capture'.

'They are too close to the people they are supposed to be regulating, they lack the wherewithal to deal with them appropriately and, importantly, I think, they also lack the political backing to go after them in the way that they should,' he said.

Mr Costello said: 'Culture is invisible and unseen and in Victoria it's been a culture of Crown's political dominance and dominance of the regulator. The regulator has shown almost deferential, submissive, acquiescence to Crown.'

The VCGLR flatly rejects this.

In its response to the ABC, it pointed to, among other things, a 'record 20 recommendations to Crown to improve its operations in the key areas of corporate governance and risk, regulatory compliance, money laundering and responsible gambling'.

Only one of these recommendations related to money laundering.

Most related to responsible gambling or problem gambling, and the remainder to largely technical issues about corporate governance.

None went to the exploitation of Crown by organised crime figures.

The Victorian regulator also pointed to fines it had imposed on the casino operator, including a record $300,000 fine for altering poker machines to limit betting options, and a $150,000 fine in 2017 'for failing to ensure that the approved system of internal controls' had been implemented for junket operators.

Yet, compared to the billions that Crown has raked in from Chinese high rollers introduced by junket operators, such fines are small change.

'The fines are nothing to Crown,' Mr Costello said.

'They are not a disincentive at all.'

Livingstone said it would be 'hard to imagine the type of fine that would deter them from behaviour that is making them millions if not billions of dollars, so properly regulation would involve the capacity to inflict serious penalties and that might mean a suspension or loss of the licence to operate'.

Yet that course of action in Victoria has already been categorically rejected.

Victorian Premier says there's no possibility Crown could lose Melbourne license

Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews is a former gaming minister.

Weeks ago, in the midst of scandalous revelations from the NSW inquiry, he stated publicly there was no possibility Crown could lose its licence to operate the Melbourne casino.

After Crown admitted at the NSW hearings that money laundering had occurred at its Melbourne and Perth casinos, he was asked if there was now a prospect that Crown's licence could be revoked or suspended.

The Premier answered in one word: 'No.'

On October 9, the VCGLR released a statement saying it had 'requested' Crown Melbourne Limited 'provide an explanation of its conduct regarding its engagement with junket participants'.

It said potential disciplinary action may include 'the imposition of a fine, the issuing of a letter of censure, or direct Crown to take corrective action', with the most serious sanctions of suspension or loss of licence ruled out.

One reason for the reluctance to consider revoking or suspending Crown's licence is that it is such an imposing presence in the economy of Victoria and the City of Melbourne.

Crown is the largest single-site employer in the state, and possibly the entire country, providing thousands of jobs and huge revenue to the Government from gambling taxes.

'Crown, when it runs well, contributes mightily to the state of Victoria,' Mr Robinson said.

'The taxes it pays probably exceed any other business in the state. It's a vital part of the state's major events strategy.

'The dilemma of Crown is that it is so important to the City of Melbourne, the state of Victoria and to thousands and thousands of Victorians whose livelihoods depend on the business continuing.'

Crown's board and management boasts a number of people drawn from the world of politics with strong political connections, including long-time former Liberal senator Helen Coonan who chairs the board, Labor powerbroker Carl Bitar and Daniel Andrews's former right-hand man, Chris Reilly. Mark Arbib, the former federal Labor senator, left just days ago.

But Crown's board and executive leadership is almost certainly in for a shake-up.

'I would think that the only way that Crown could continue as the licence holder is through wholesale change, and that would have to be the clearing out of all of the board and all of the senior management,' Mr Robinson said.

How Much Money Does Crown Casino Make A Day For A

'The board and the senior management were part of the business when criminal influence was exerted through the money laundering, which they have admitted to. You could not have that acknowledged and then have those people pass the suitability test which is also part of the legislation.'

He also believes the era of state-based casino regulation may be drawing to an end, and that the nation needs a national casino-control body, perhaps linked to AUSTRAC and the AFP, with tough investigative powers.

'The real risk with casinos is money laundering, which of course is the other end of the drug trade,' he said.

Combating this 'is something AUSTRAC and other federal agencies are far better equipped to do.'