Aria – monitoring WOF High Roller

[Merle553Participant]

Recently at Aria and noticed one of the Wheel of Fortune Higher Roller machines was down and a staff member in a suit was running “Advantage Player Monitoring (or maybe “?detection”) software. Notably she was also hawking players on the machine next to it in a way that reminded me of being hawked at the blackjack tables.

Clearly they are watching this bank of machines for AP activity.  Can anyone provide insight into the software being used and thoughts on how you would approach this play?

[Ben RosenthalKeymaster]

At my local casino (Foxwoods in Connecticut), advantage players sit around a bank of those all day long. They don’t move; it’s insane. WOF HR is definitely one of the most popular machines to advantage play, and it sounds like Aria is connecting the dots.

I’m not sure which system they’re using, but I’d 100 percent not put in the players card for those. In general, I’d advocate for using it as little as possible at MGM properties. Phoenix Link, Buffalo Link…those sort of volatile, long-run games, sure.

Keep an eye out and let us know if you see more of that on other advantage machines at Aria and elsewhere. Maybe they’re starting with WOF HR because the edge is so high on primo boards.

[Merle553Participant]

Thank you for the response.  It’s curious to me (coming from table games advantage play) that they need software to detect AP activity. It seems to me surveillance would be able to easily pick people off that are circling these games. Presumably, that’s too much to monitor and/or they are looking to cutoff APs that are using players cards.

[Ben RosenthalKeymaster]

No problem. Yeah, they can see it in-person quite easily. I know exactly where those machines are, and they get checked constantly. I guess they feel it’s easier to ID advantage players through continual winning sessions on games like that than nab them one by one.

Maybe they also don’t want to run the risk of pinching some grandma who is harmlessly clicking around on the buttons. After all, security and slot attendants may not be well-versed enough to differentiate someone like that from a true advantage player. The numbers the player card spits out will tell them all they need to know.

[Max EVParticipant]

1. MGM does care about advantage players. They’re partnered with Tangam Systems to detect advantage play.
2. Just because it says Advantage Player Tracking (or whatever) doesn’t mean it’s tracking advantage players. ADVANTAGE is the name of one of the systems that one of the big software makers uses.

[Ben RosenthalKeymaster]

For sure. I’ve had friends get booted from MGM properties. They are without a doubt tracking. I’ve seen some interviews from one of the guys from Tangam, Ari Mizrachi. I tried reaching out to him a couple of times but never heard back.

I did not know that second point. Learn something new everyday.

[Merle553Participant]

Thank you for the additional context @MaxEV

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