Schuetz: Regulators Need To Go Beyond Management By Prayer

“If Ignorance Is Bliss, We Should All Be Ecstatic”

— Title of a book by Fred Leavitt

I was recently staying in a wonderful hotel along the river in downtown Chicago. Since calories and bad eating habits do not count when a person is traveling, I grabbed a Ben & Jerry’s pint of ice cream from the lobby store as I was returning from a late-night dinner. The cashier handed me a thin wooden spoon sealed in a paper wrapper as she handled my purchase.

When I got to the room, I got comfortable and settled into getting ready to savor my Ben & Jerry’s. I was disappointed to find it frozen as frozen could be, absolutely hard as a rock. I let it sit for a bit and then returned to it. Still, it could stop a bullet. Had this chunk of ice cream fallen into a major seaway, it would have been a navigation hazard not unlike that which sank the Titanic.

I let it sit for some time and eventually finished it after returning to the lobby to grab a few additional wooden spoons, which had a very short life span in trying to conquer this berg. It also appears that I invented a new flavor: Chunky Monkey with Wooden Spoon Splinters.

This reminded me of my time managing hotel-casino facilities. I always wanted to know what we were delivering to the guest, for I was sure that no one who cared seemed to understand that at the hotel I was staying at in Chicago, the containers of Ben & Jerry’s they sold were harder than Chinese math. The freezer must have been set to a temperature approaching absolute zero.

An example of the Ben & Jerry’s phenomenon, where management fails to understand what they are delivering to the guest, is captured when I see the tiny print on the shampoo, conditioner, and body wash containers in hotel showers (also true in my Chicago hotel). I say “tiny” because I have poor eyesight, and without my glasses, I cannot read small labels. I would also argue that many people with poor vision who need corrective lenses often do not wear their glasses in the shower, and, as people age, they lose their nearsighted vision. I believe that there is a wide swath of people in my circumstance, standing in the shower without their glasses, trying to figure out what goes where. I believe that the management of the hotels that offer this shower challenge with the small print do not know what the guest is experiencing.

When I was running a casino, I would often walk through the food outlets, especially at night, and ask the guests how their stay was going and if they were happy with the meal and service. Sometimes a guest would point out something that made me a more insightful manager.

I would also call our hotel reservation center to see what that experience was like. I would occasionally do a walk-through on a hotel room in our inventory, and one of the things I learned from this experience was that I needed to stay in a room from time to time. This was because I would notice something while brushing my teeth (like the water draining very slowly) that I may never catch on a walk-through, or that the shower temperature adjustment was, for some curious reason, scalding parts of my body.

The point is, I believed that it was my job, along with every other manager’s, to test, test, test. Never assume that what you are in charge of is going smoothly or as intended. To believe that all is well in an organization is what I call “management by prayer.”

I believe that gaming regulators do a lot of management by prayer.

‘Limited’ understanding

For instance, because of who I am and the things I write about, a lot of folks contact me about bet-limiting by operators. Yet, I have heard of several regulators who were not aware it was taking place in their jurisdiction. I always felt that this was a disconnect.

In a recent study in the United Kingdom, it was noted that bet-limiting by operators is a thing. In looking at a sample of almost 15 million players, over 640,000 were limited. And a significant number of these accounts were winning bettors. While I understand that the U.S. and the U.K. are different markets, much of what happens in the U.S. was brought from across the pond, warts and all, and I would suggest that there are more similarities than differences. Moreover, the only regulatory agency that seems to have a curiosity coefficient large enough to worry about such things seems to be the folks at the Massachusetts Gaming Commission. They are ever so diligent to plod along the trail, looking into the reality of this whole bet-limiting thing.

I also suggest that regulators start testing their systems. Have a friend send a question or complaint by way of the “contact us” feature on the regulator’s website. See how that experience goes. I suggest this because over a year ago, I sent two separate emails to an address specified on the Nevada Gaming Control Board’s site and have not yet heard back. Those poor folks are apparently quite busy with all the money laundering and bookie things going on in Las Vegas.

It is like the time several years ago when I sent a note to the American Gaming Association with a question about one of their research projects. I’m still waiting for that response.

When I was managing facilities in Las Vegas and beyond, I would often hire and work with undercover shoppers. These individuals would act as customers in the facility, reporting back to me on the guest experience. They were my eyes and ears, teaching me a lot about my operations. What was interesting was that an employee who would be sweetness and light to me might be somewhat Attila the Hun-like to the shopper.

I would also hope that the regulators would take a firm stance and request players to provide feedback on something. Just send out an announcement asking players to comment on this or that. The regulators can request these comments through X, LinkedIn, or the website. Or even ask the gaming press to bounce that message. I am convinced it would get a lot of impressions. They can also offer a prize for the most creatively written complaint. It might be fun, and, after all, one cannot spend all of the time just talking to the operators. Perhaps it is time for regulators to consider the player as part of their constituency and work to understand their feelings.

The regulators could also disseminate this message at conferences and similar events. Hell, you could hold a town hall at a conference, and request people to tell you what they are doing wrong. That could be an absolute hoot. Players could come by and piss and moan, and the regulators may gain some insights as to what is going on in that industry they are regulating.

What I have observed since the overturning of PASPA is a great deal of regulation by prayer by the regulators. They have done nothing to let the player know they care. While I would never discount the power of prayer, it might be time to open up another channel, and that would be soliciting the input of players — for after all, without them, betting does not happen.

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Richard Schuetz entered the gaming industry working nights as a blackjack and dice dealer while attending college and has since served in many capacities within the industry, including operations, finance, and marketing. He has held senior executive positions up to and including CEO in jurisdictions across the United States, including the gaming markets of Las Vegas, Atlantic City, Reno/Tahoe, Laughlin, Minnesota, Mississippi, and Louisiana. In addition, he has consulted and taught around the globe and served as a member of the California Gambling Control Commission and executive director of the Bermuda Casino Gaming Commission. He also publishes extensively on gaming, gaming regulation, diversity, and gaming history. Schuetz is the CEO of American Bettors’ Voice, a non-profit organization dedicated to giving sports bettors a seat at the table.