How giving crappy pen saves the casinos money by eliminating counters... Or not

[callipygian]

Originally Posted by FLASH1296

As there are ubiquitous multitudes of ploppy players, the % of players who are capable of taking any minimally significant amounts from the casinos, approximates zero.

But almost zero doesn't equal zero, and that's important because card counters can take a lot more than the average ploppy gives.

Remember that any ploppy that doesn't give their full 2% to the blackjack table hold is already an irritant to the casino; if 1% of their patrons played with 1% disadvantage, that's a 0.5% drop in revenue, and roughly a 3% drop in net income (based on MGM's 2007 gross revenues and net income reported). Assuming constant P/E, that's a 3% drop in stock price, which for Tracinda Corporation (149 million shares, 53% of MGM-Mirage) means a loss of $5.5 million.

I don't think you can blame the management types for being a little paranoid about those 200-300 counters in the world who can really hit them. Sure, it might be a drop in the bucket when you consider revenue, but it ends up being significant when you consider income.