The ability to access data and “slice and dice” it, should be as easy as possible for casino marketers coming up with great casino marketing ideas. They need to be able to target the right people at the right time in order to be noticed in today’s crowded casino marketplace. Don’t just throw your dice and expect a slice of the pie. It’s time to grab a share of the market that belongs to those who target with insight.

Watch the video below on how TARGET is being used to implement casino marketing ideas and get people walking across your casino floor. Happy “Targeting with Insight” to all our users!

Intelligent casino marketing ideas are crucial in order to be noticed in today’s crowded casino marketplace. Here are 3 casino marketing ideas to empower your marketing department to market intelligently:

1. Make sure you have a system in place that can query your gaming data to segment customers you want to target
2. Send the segmented group appropriate content e.g. send last week’s high winners an email with WINNING printed loud and clear and how they can win again!
3. Make sure you have a system in place to measure each campaign. What you can’t measure, you can’t manage.

See how we’re helping casino marketing departments become expert email campaigners by following the 3 steps above:

Take your casino marketing to new levels of engagement and become the most valuable department in your casino!

My first question to the cellular company was why their system did not alert me to the significant increase in data usage? We provide trigger based monitoring across the CHEETEYE casino protection software suite and have just made a significant upgrade to the trigger service, so the benefits of trigger based monitoring were still fresh in mind. “Trigger based monitoring” is a term given to a feature in software that provides users with alerts in the form of an email, text or phone call if a risk has been identified. I know what’s available in today’s world of trigger based monitoring so I’m surprised to still be waiting for an answer from this cellular network giant. Maybe trigger based monitoring will reduce their giant profits?

We’re living in a digital age with access to vast amounts of information. Trigger based monitoring is essential in order to benefit from where we are in history. Below are some benefits identified from a poll on trigger based monitoring for casino protection:

• Administration automation – surveillance often requires feedback on standard operating procedures (SOP) that have been broken. Once the SOP has been identified and the applicable department notified, trigger based monitoring eliminates the need for surveillance to waste time following up if no feedback has been provided. Lack of feedback in casinos results in policies and procedures not being strictly followed, which leaves them unprotected from the damaging effects of negligence and fraud both by external sources and an organization’s own staff.
• Proactive observation – Gaming triggers such as potential collusion help surveillance be more proactive in their observation e.g. an alert notifying surveillance of the arrival of a guest involved in possible collusion helps surveillance focus on a “hot area” rather than relying on luck.
• Solved investigations – Incidents are often left in a “pending state” awaiting further investigation. Being able to alert managers of incidents in a “pending state” can help them follow up on investigators that could be dragging their heals.

Smart phones need smart networks. In the meantime we will focus on developing smart software to help casinos protect with insight.

I want to make particular mention of our recent key cabinet integration with Key Systems Inc in New York as they are a great team. The level of integration has been phenomenal and it’s exciting to see two companies work together so openly for the benefit of casino protection. Keys will always be an important inventory item within casinos and our goal was to improve the monitoring process when it comes to key usage. An important key in the wrong hands can be disastrous.

My two favorite features from the Key System integration, include:

• No need for additional access requirements. CHEETEYE already integrates into the HR system so there is no need to maintain a separate staff user profile in the Key System i.e key usage rights are added to the CHEETEYE staff profile.

• Improved surveillance monitoring. As a result of key usage being added to a CHEETEYE staff profile, discrepancies that often exist between security and surveillance are now eliminated e.g. When an important key is checked out, the key system creates an automatic surveillance log and notifies surveillance.

To see how we’re helping casinos integrate disparate systems to improve casino protection, visit us at booth 314 at NIGA next week.

I’ve heard of numerous cases at casinos where very important assets or inventory go missing which places the casino at huge risk e.g. keys, cards, chips, slots parts etc. Surveillance and security departments are tasked with the responsibility of protecting the assets of a casino, but when things go missing, it gives them a bad name. This need not be the case if technology providers to the casino industry collaborate to break down the technology walls that exist in casinos. Today at the ICE gaming in show in London we demonstrated how three technology providers can collaborate to make sure that incidents like the ones mentioned above never happen! What are you requiring from your partners that enables you to improve your casino protection strategies? How well are your casino’s processes being “watched over”?

My daughter on the London Eye

According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, employee dishonesty costs American business in excess of $50 billion annually and rising. Casinos are not immune to this fact and our simple 3 steps are helping casinos go on the offensive against table games collusion:

1. Denial
One of the many things I’ve learned from the book “Management lessons from the Mayo Clinic” is that denial is a coping mechanism that gives you time to adjust to distressing situations — but staying in denial can interfere with your ability to tackle the challenges of casino protection. The first and most important step in tackling collusion is to deal with any denial and acknowledge that collusion is taking place. “Transformational leaders don’t start by denying the world around them. Instead, they describe a future they’d like to create instead.” Seth Godin.

2. Communication
It’s important to create systems that foster communication e.g. We’ve helped casinos implement electronic schedules, break lists and analytical reporting so that managers have access to instantaneous evaluation, allowing them to provide ongoing feedback. Lack of feedback in casinos results in policies and procedures not being strictly followed. Lack of feedback also communicates a lack of interest at the top which sends a message to the troops on the ground. As one surveillance director said, “it’s vital that we communicate, that we are looking out for you and not over you in order to create a culture of trust”. The only way this can be done is by implementing systems and following processes.

3. Measure
If you can’t measure you can’t manage. Whatever systems you have in place, they must empower you to cut through the clutter and get to the important issues that need to be dealt with e.g. We’ve taken the popular Google alerts feature and applied the same feature to casino protection. Instead of wading through standard reports on a daily basis, we’ve built business rules into the report generators that highlight anomalies that need attention. The system then sends alerts in the form of emails that direct you to the evidence. Humans have a limited amount of attention each day and if that attention can be used for the important stuff, we can be more affective in our casino protection. Make sure your measuring tools are cutting through the clutter!

Great biceps require dedication and a disciplined lifestyle. As you focus on these 3 steps this year, I know your dedication will result in a well protected casino and possibly the acknowledgment of the most valuable department in your organization. We look forward to hearing about your great success stories!

As we plan for next year, what matters to our users will remain top priority at CHEETEYE. We will continue to make extensive site visits in order to get deep into the world of our users so that our software remains relevant. We will continue to innovate by remaining entirely focused on the gaming industry even though we get numerous requests from other industries to do for them what we’re doing for the gaming industry.

As we move into our 8th year of operation, we will continue to treat this journey as a marathon and not a sprint. Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to spend a few hours with Bruce Fordyce, one of the world’s greatest ultra-marathon runners and the greatest Comrades Marathon runner of all time. The Comrades is an ultra-marathon of approximately 89 km (approx. 56 miles) run between the cities of Durban and Pietermaritzburg in South Africa. Runners from all over the world descend upon Durban in May every year for this famous grueling event. I remember my dad taking me to watch the 1979 Comrades which was won by Piet Vorster with Johnny Halberstadt coming second. Bruce came from behind, which was his tactic – he was way back at half way and whipped through the field to finish third. He came second in 1980 and then from 1981 to 1990 he was unbeatable. I ran my first and only Comrades in 1992 and appreciate all the planning and preparation that precedes an ultra-marathon like the Comrades. I’ve applied my Comrades experience and marathon running to the world of casino protection software. Marathon running requires focus and stamina. Developing casino protection software requires us us to stay focused on the casino industry. It was a huge privilege to spend time with a Comrades legend and I came away inspired by his unbeatable spirit.

I’m extremely thankful to all our CHEETEYE clients who have been running this “business marathon” with us and our new clients who joined the race this year. To our teams in the USA, Europe, Africa and soon to be Asia, thanks for the dedication you’ve shown to our vision. Team work makes the dream work and we look forward to making many dreams come alive next year. Happy holidays and all the best for 2013!

Bruce Fordyce (left) and Graeme Powell

Graeme running 1992 Comrades

Zurich's most famous landmark, Grossmunster Church with its twin spires

Switzerland is the home of the Swiss army knife, a multi-tool that is recognized worldwide for its design and flexibility. The Swiss army knife made sure soldiers were not left stranded on the battlefield. Those involved in casino management often find the “always on” factor of a casino turns it into a business battlefield. CHEETEYE’s Knife will slice and dice your casino operations into graphical components which enable you to identify risk and act immediately. Our vision at CHEETEYE has always been to develop smart software that helps casinos consolidate their data to see anomalies that can’t be easily detected with visual observation e.g. incidents consistently taking place in specific areas, under performing slot machines due to bad lighting or ventilation etc.

Net win per machine & area per day

If you can’t measure, you can’t manage. However, measurement tools need to be easy to read due to the barrage of information we receive daily. Presenting the information correctly is often the key to great measuring. We’ve taken inspiration from books like “Information is beautiful” and talks by John Maeda to make sure we provide our clients with beauty and innovation. Stay beautiful Switzerland!

We’re identifying POS fraud by collecting transactional data from the POS system and running the data against our POS fraud algorithms. Some of the top POS scams that can be identified are:

• Working with an open till
• Line item voids
• Comparing average transaction revenues
• Staff using the POS longer than their shift requires or activity when not on duty
• Comparing discounts

I’m looking forward to reading “How to Burn Down the House”, to get further insight into the scams that are out there. One of the authors will also be speaking at the World Game Protection conference next year, so “things can only get better”!

Water is a basic need so we’ve made sure this solution is cost effective and makes you sleep better!

Without knowing while writing my blog last month, “don’t gamble with education”, a young lady would be fighting for her life a month later because she refused to gamble with her education. Malala Yousafzai, a school student from the town of Mingora in the Swat District of Pakistan was shot in the head by a Taliban gunman as a result of her campaigning for girls’ education. As a father of two girls and founder of non-profit organization, Beyond Education, we’re doing all that we can to support this young lady and her fight for education rights. Right now we’re all hoping for a smooth recovery as she gets expert medical treatment at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham.

Aung Sang Suu Kyi, famously said, “it is not power that corrupts but fear of losing power”. Education is so powerful that it causes a little girl to be such a threat to men with guns! I’ve been fortunate that most of the leaders in my life have never denied my pursuit for education in order to advance my career. Those that did are a distant memory.

If ever there was a campaigner for education in the world of casino protection, it’s Willy Allison. As the “Chief Education Officer” of World Game Protection, he’s once again preparing a five star program for the next World Game Protection Conference. If you have staff that could benefit from further education in the world of casino protection, the M Resort, Las Vegas is the place to be from 25-27th February 2013.

A well educated team is a powerful team. Keep protecting with insight.

My first WGPC in 2010 with Willy on the right