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Reimagining the Marker Marker Trax offers a timely solution for cashless wagering, while bringing the marker to the slot floor in a way that keeps credit money from walking out the door By Frank Legato
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redit markers have always been one of the most important tools in a casino’s money-making arsenal. Operators have always known that the longer players play, the more likely the inherent house edge will convert those wagers into house win. Casinos issue markers to keep their best players in the game, and players appreciate the convenience and security involved in getting credit approved and chips issued without leaving a table. Markers, though, have always carried an inherent risk—that of players simply cashing in markers and walking out the door, the money never used for its intended purpose of funding wagers on the casino floor. Gary Ellis, owner of Ellis Island Casino, Hotel & Brewery in Las Vegas, was quite familiar with the problem. “I was sitting in our casino one day, and we had a customer who (got a marker), drew that line of credit from the cage, and walked out the door,”
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Global Gaming Business SEPTEMBER 2020
Ellis recalls. “Of course, that’s not what a marker is intended for; they are gaming lines of credit.” The problem also has existed for years on the slot floor, not only in terms of credit lines, but in the cost of marketing to slot players. “Years ago, when promotional checks came along, we were target-marketing in a shotgun approach to customers,” Ellis says. “We’d send out an offer to a ZIP code for $5 or $10. A customer would come in and go to the cage, and we would literally give them a $5 bill or $10 bill, and that customer would hopefully stay in our place and play, and enjoy their time with us. “Fifty percent of those people would walk out the door with the money, and we’d never see them again.” Even with more modern methods like free play that requires the player to run through the promotional wagers, promotional money still walks out the door, he says.
