casino floor layout

PAG helps casino redesign its floor layout using machine and traffic data

Case Studies

Company: Small Footprint Casino

Challenge:
Casino was struggling with revenue generation from its Slot and Video Gaming machines. They recently went through a renovation and had organized their machines into 3 clustered areas within the main casino floor. They noticed their revenue significantly drop (12%) in the following three months of production. Its management team had full access to detailed data on a machine basis, including historical performance. They were looking to identify where they were seeing opportunity to improve floor layout plans or simple placement of machines.

PAG Solution:
PAG worked with the client to review the existing & historical data. We then spent two days onsite with several floor supervisors to walk through the current layout and review the previous layout.

Stage 1 consisted of PAG evaluating the individual machine production and profitability, including constructing a generic floor layout with a heat map of the machine production. We then compared each machine’s recent performance to their historical trends.

Stage 2 included observing traffic flow of the customers during high traffic times on the Casino Floor. We also evaluated traffic flow during the slower times. We then created Business Intelligence (BI) reporting to show performance by machine by different casino floor traffic times.

Stage 3 allowed PAG to work with the Casino Management team to evaluate shifts in performance pre and post renovation and movement of machines. In addition, we were able to show them detailed statistics on their individual machine profitability and optimal location. Lastly, we were able to show the unreasonable lack of traffic flow that occurred in their clustering of machines, which caused many to go untouched.

Final recommendations included maintaining current renovation major changes while updating machine placement according to machine learning algorithms we created from the historical data (which occurred under 2 different floor plans and product placements). This allowed us to optimize customer flow from areas such as restrooms, restaurants, Poker Room, shops and other attractions. Here is a revised example of the heat map created, with removal of identifying marks, and slight movement of pieces to anonymize the Client:

Client Benefits:

  1. The new design and machine placement realized an improvement of 16.2% in revenue generation, after removing seasonality (improvement was 19.8%, which included seasonality over the summer months).
  2. Average time per session improved by 5%, while time away from machine improved by 7.1%. Data for this was based on individual customer’s who had their player cards inserted into machines only.
  3. PAG worked with the client to build ongoing automated reporting through our custom portals to continually track performance on a set of 10 metrics we established to assist the casino in optimizing profitability long-term.
  4. PAG has been engaged by the Casino for two subsequent projects since the implementation of the changes

Managing Partner of U.S. Operations

Mr. LaRoche is a resourceful, results-oriented Executive with over 25 years of financial services experience; emphasizing collections risk management, dialer operations, MIS and reporting analytics, acquisition strategies, loss forecasting, credit policy, account management strategies, portfolio conversions, due diligence, and collections operations management. He also has over 15 years of direct risk management experience, with 3 years of collections line management experience possessing excellent analytical skills and the ability to manage diverse groups in strategies, modeling, collections, dialer operations, loss forecasting/loan loss reserve modeling, financial analysis, operations and loss avoidance.

David started his career in 1997 as a customer service representative for Travelers Bank. Since then, he has held the following senior positions:

  • Director, US Operations for Bridgeforce Consulting
  • Sr. Director and Call Center Leader for American Express
  • SVP. Collections Strategy and IT leader for Washington Mutual

Chief Risk Officer

Dale Hoops has over 25 years of experience within the financial services industry, with a focus on Risk Management, Collections, Fraud, Account Management Strategies, Loss Forecasting, stress testing, and economic analysis.

Dale started her financial services career in 1996 as a part time customer service representative and teller in a small financial center while attending the University of Richmond. Her career has included senior roles at Bank of America, Citi, and MBNA America. She has experience with multiple retail products, including consumer and commercial cards, private label and co-brand, deposits, vehicle lending, mortgage, and home equity. Her key strengths have been identifying opportunities for improvement through business analysis, strategy development, and risk governance.

In addition to her professional career, Dale has extensive leadership experience with non-profits with event planning, policy, budget, and audit management. She is a member of the Board of Directors for the Girl Scouts of the Chesapeake Bay, which serves 8,000 girls in Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia. She is the former President, Vice President, and Treasurer at a local Parent-Teacher Association, former community pillar chair for Bank of America’s LEAD for Women Delaware network, and served on the leadership team for the Field of Dreams Relay for Life event to raise funds for the American Cancer Society.

Chief Data and Analytics Officer

Mr. Ridgeway has over 30 years of experience within the financial services industry, including Risk Management, Finance, Project Management, Compliance, MIS, IT & Operations. He has held senior roles at several of the top 5 Banks, including MBNA, Wells Fargo & Citibank. Dee has expertise in Risk oversight and a wealth of knowledge in the regulatory footprint (CFPB / OCC / FRB) in financial services. He has hands-on knowledge in the strategy world with numerous credit products including: credit cards, auto lending, mortgage and home equity, and unsecured lending. Dee is a co-founder of Predictive Analytics Group, worked as a Senior Consultant for Hoops Consulting, LLC., and owned & operated Mayflower Analytics LLC.

From a Risk Management perspective, Dee has experience in portfolio management in credit underwriting and loss mitigation during several growth cycles and economic contraction periods. He understands the needs and partners well with operational risk, modeling, and loss forecasting risk functions.

Dee is a SME on risk data strategy (data architecture, data management, and systems integration) and often creates a "passable bridge" between Risk and IT that translates business needs into executable business plans.

From an MIS, reporting, and portfolio analytics perspective, Dee has a proven track record of designing portfolio reporting that meets executive and end user needs that often have been labeled the "gold standard."

CEO and Chief Strategy Officer

Mr. Hoops has over 25 years of experience within the financial services industry, including Credit Collections & Fraud Risk Management, Business Operations, Control &Compliance, Strategic Planning, Forecasting, and Marketing Analytics. He has served as a Chief Risk Officer for Barclaycard US Partnerships, a Global Scoring Head at Citibank, and a Site President for Wells Fargo Financial. Steve is a co-founder of Predictive Analytics Group and has owned & operated Hoops Consulting, LLC for the past 4 years.

Steve started his financial services career in 1993 as a part-time telemarketer while attending the University of Delaware for his Business Administration degree. Mr. Hoops has spent his 25-plus years within the industry building best-in-class operations with each company he has supported. His career has been highlighted by leading several large functions for several Tier 1 and Tier 2International Banks, including:

  • Credit Policy (CRO for $20B co-branded portfolio, Barclaycard US partnership)
  • Credit Policy (SVP for $28B retail Co-brand & Private Label portfolio, Citibank)
  • Loss Forecasting / Loan Loss Reserves ($30B Consumer portfolio, Citi-Financial)
  • Collections Risk Management ($70B Co-brand & Private label portfolios, Citibank)
  • Modeling ($30B Consumer Loan & sub-prime Mortgage portfolio, Citi-Financial)
  • Collection Operations (Head of 410 person operations center, $17B Auto, Personal Loan & Mortgage portfolio, Wells Fargo)
  • Credit Analytics (MBNA/Bank of America, Wells Fargo, Citibank)