Bethlehem Sands in Pennsylvania began the trend, but several Vegas casinos and the Connecticut tribal casinos now have stadium blackjack.
Foxwoods is the latest casino to install electronic table games, often called “Stadium Blackjack”. Foxwoods calls its new stadium blackjack studio the Rainmaker Stadium.
The Foxwoods casinos consist of six gaming venues on the single property. One of those properties, Rainmaker Casino, now contains the Rainmaker Stadium hybrid electronic gaming set-up. The studio features 30 play terminals and three live dealers. The electronic games stadium provides access to both blackjack and mini-baccarat games simultaneously.
The Foxwoods Casino turned to Novomatic’s US division to provide the technology behind the Rainmaker venue. Foxwoods announced plans to install the same sort of stadium set-up in 2018 to Fox Tower. The Fox Tower Stadium will feature 24 play terminals and three additional games.
Eventually, Foxwoods plans to link up the two systems. This would allow linked play from one venue to the next. Last year, nearby Mohegan Sun teamed up with Shufflemaster to install its own electronic table games studio. Around the same time, Bethlehem Sands Resort & Casino in Pennsylvania installed a stadium blackjack studio, at a cost of $5 million.
Asian Stadium Blackjack Studios
All such gaming stadiums are designed for Asian gamblers, because the style of play first became popular in Macao casinos. Foxwoods stadium blackjack has two language options: English and Mandarin Chinese.
The live dealer deals a single hand of blackjack, along with a dealer’s up card. Like in a standard hand of blackjack, each player then decides what they would like to do with the hand dealt: stand, hit, split, double down or surrender as some casinos allow you to do. The main difference is the player uses their personal touch-screen buttons to make their decisions.
Next, the dealer fills all hands via electronic means, then reveals his or her own cards. These cards are used to complete hands for the players, whether they choose to hit, double down or split, the cards are all used for the dealer’s hand against each player. All manner of side bets are optional. After all the individual hands are reconciled from each player against the dealer’s hand for their specific situation, the system will then automatically “collect” all losing bets and “pay” all winning bets.
Advantages of Stadium Blackjack for Casinos
Casinos love stadium blackjack, because it offers power of automation. Labor costs are cheaper, because you only need one live dealer for up to 300 hundred players (max number of players allowed per server). Most casinos have around 30-80 players at once. This allows for lower overhead costs.
The upfront investment is great but the potential for fast and frequent incoming bets as well as not having to put up funds for multiple dealers the casino should make the investment back quickly.
High Roller Blackjack Gaming
The higher limit games can be kept for the players that prefer the live tables while the casino can offer low limit bets for the blackjack games. Most stadium games allow $5 minimums whereas live tables typically have a $15-$25 minimum.
The system keeps track of the player’s actions and wager amounts. Keeping an accurate account of each individual player unlike a live dealer would be able to.
Also, the casino has total control and flexibility of the game and what its parameters are. The casino determines the blackjack payout, the dealer drawing rules, the amount of card decks used, as well as the minimums and maximums of each side bet offered. Along with many other things they can change or adjust. Automation provides a fast game, which provides more players flowing in and out quickly as well as more hands dealt per hour. It also brings more player excitement to the casino floor, players bond building a community feel, especially when good starting hands are dealt.
Advantages of Stadium Blackjack for Players
Players do not have to worry about other players judging them, who may know the game better. They are not intimidated by others when they make their playing decisions.
Stadium blackjack supplies a great setting for couples or groups. It provides camaraderie and amps up the experience when strong starting hands are dealt and when groups win together.
Also, different players in the group can play different games simultaneously. Depending on the games that are available at that casino, you can easily switch from game to game without leaving your seat.
Hand History and Electronic Chips
The system will automatically keep track of each player’s personal total, what they have done each hand and how their decisions each hand have affected their personal game. And there is no miscounting of totals possible.
Players are able to take breaks anytime they need and then get right back in and continue playing whenever they’re ready. They can print tickets instead of having to leave a stack of chips on the felt.
The same basic playing strategy can be used to play as they would at a traditional live table blackjack game. Nothing about classic blackjack differs, but everything happens quicker.
Stadium Table Games in Asian Casinos
Stadium-style electronic table games all started in Asian casinos. Electronic table games first became popular in Macau, where they were seen as a way to cheat the system that the government placed on casinos. Macau officials placed on the number of live gaming tables in Macau, but one bank of electronic blackjack machines was counted as one table game. This allowed for the casino to expand their effective number of table games.
Las Vegas Sands soon after brought the idea to its Sands Bethlehem casino located in Pennsylvania, during the summer of 2016. Since then, many other US casinos have followed right along.
Foxwoods’ Asian market is huge — mostly from New York City or Boston — so the Connecticut casino has put a lot of focus towards the Asian population specifically. Their marketing material for their new Rainmaker Stadium set up even includes text in both English and Mandarin. As well as shows four happy young Asian faces, displaying the importance of their Asian audience.
Other US Casinos with Stadium Blackjack
Several other casinos in the US have brought in the Stadium-style play to their venues. Some of the participating casinos are the Venetian/Palazzo in Las Vegas, Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, Parx and Bethlehem Sands in Pennsylvania, as well as both Cache Creek and Barona in California.
Venues say that people of all types are enjoying the games for different reasons. Players who are new to the game or may not be as confident in it like it for the privacy versus being at an open table. Millennials seem to like it for the visual aspect as well as the social part of it, as casino executives have noticed that millennial gamers prefer to play games among a group of friends, instead of the solitary style of slot machine gambling that Baby Boomers prefer.
