New Acres Study Reveals $37 Billion in Annual Free Play Losses

In the latest in a series of loyalty research papers, Acres Manufacturing has released new findings that show how U.S. casinos are losing approximately $37 billion per year on outdated player loyalty programs.

New Acres Study Reveals $37 Billion in Annual Free Play Losses

Acres Manufacturing Company, a leading casino loyalty and technology developer, recently released a new position paper as part of its ongoing series exploring the expensive realities of current casino loyalty technology.

This new position paper details the $37 billion annual impact player loyalty reinvestment has on casinos’ profitability as a result of existing, antiquated legacy casino management system (CMS) technologies. With 166 patents issued and hundreds more pending, Acres created its Foundation hardware and Foundation HQ CMS specifically to address this opportunity. The new position paper, informed by a survey of nearly 200 U.S. casinos, is available HERE alongside earlier installments analyzing the state of current CMS offerings.

Key highlights of Acres’ CMS loyalty program reinvestment position paper include:

  • The casino survey found that many loyalty programs provide player reinvestment rates approaching or even exceeding 100% when exploited optimally, only maintaining profitability through breakage caused by unredeemed rewards or players that do not take full advantage of the program
  • Casinos’ net reinvestment in player loyalty conservatively hovers above 35% – or roughly $25 billion – with free play being the largest single cost contributor
  • Free play take up a significant portion of available play time, eviscerating profitability on novice or time-limited players
  • Including the time value of free play, net reinvestment balloons to over 50%, or more than $37 billion
  • If free play was eliminated without an impact to loyalty, profitability of slot machine operations would more than double

“The casino industry’s continued reliance on free play to incentivize player loyalty is impacting industry slot profitability by more than $37 billion every year, with smaller casinos typically bearing a larger relative percentage of this impact,” said Noah Acres.

“The industry’s strategy of using free play to buy loyalty is completely misaligned with player preferences, as the potential to win is what truly drives loyalty, not free play. By leveraging our Foundation HQ CMS to replace free play with a gamified loyalty experience delivered in real-time as players spend their own money, casinos can exponentially grow revenues and profitability by modernizing their loyalty programs to eliminate massively scale and entertain new players rather than giving away expensive and underappreciated free play entitlements.

“As our series of position papers highlights, Foundation HQ’s modern technology can empower casino operators of all sizes to significantly increase revenue and lower costs by helping to scale enrollment and rethink player reinvestment strategies, thereby making player loyalty significantly more profitable.”

Acres will highlight the capabilities and benefits of its Foundation HQ CMS technology at the 23rd annual Global Gaming Expo (G2E), to be held October 10-13, 2023, at the Venetian Expo in Las Vegas (Booth #4211).

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