With seat cards, everyone at the table can see the table number on the card when the player arrives.

With your plan, it is going to be up to the dealer alone to stop the game and kick the seat-stealing player out of the seat. If the dealer is a friend of the player or is too lazy/passive to confront the player, no one else at the table will ever know.

The bolded is exactly why players who have expressed concern in this thread about players having to be the bad guy might prefer the Mlife route as opposed to the table card route.

Let’s see how it works. I feel that we will all be pleasantly surprised.

Handling 828 (46*18) seat cards at the front podium seems cumbersome.

Any progress on this?

You don't need actual seat cards you just need table cards, probably only a few cards per table.

Using Mlife cards to enforce seating policy is a great idea in theory, but it only works when there are no cracks in the system (employees failing to follow this procedure every time). Here are my concerns:

The brush stand MUST require you to swipe in in order to play or get on a list, no exceptions. As it stands now, they commonly just ask for your name. If the new policy is already in place, the brush department is off to a terrible start.

Many players won’t have a card or want one. Is the staff going to draw a hard line with these guests?

As DrChesspain said, enforcement of this policy ultimately falls on the dealers. Rapini’s right that it’s good to shift this burden away from the players, but as with everything else, the good dealers will do it well, but the dealers who are timid, lazy, aloof, or shady (friends with the new player) will do this so spottily that the integrity of the system won’t hold up. Also there’s not much transparency here. It will be tough for players to know whether the dealer is checking this or not, outside of matching up names on Bravo + Mlife card ourselves when the new player sits. One great aspect of using seat cards is that it’s the most transparent method.

But I’ll acknowledge that this proposed system is an improvement over what stood previously. It has a chance of working, but only if every staff member is on board 100% of the time. I hope you’ll reinforce the seriousness of this issue to your staff at every single opportunity until it truly becomes an ingrained part of the culture here.

Yeah. 138 table cards are so much easier to manage.

Also, while I get how this Mlife card system is supposed to prevent line-jumping for initial seating (the most serious issue), I fail to see how it addresses the transfer-stealing issue. Is the staff going to keep an electronic transfer list with Mlife cards? And will they be moving the player from one table to another in the Bravo before they move that player irl (thereby giving the dealer at the new table a name to check/match when that player shows up)? If not, transfer-stealing will remain rampant.

All posted with the exception of the 150K guaranteed.

From my understanding, the vast majority of the people who do this are doing it for pretty nifty reasons. These same people are going to be very “comp conscious”. They won’t be logged in to receive comp credit.... I would imagine they will want to....

omg it's so difficult

I wish MGM would just use the new system all the time. At Tampa, it seems to very smooth. In fact, being greeted with 'Welcome John' when you arrive at the table seems like better customer service. At Tampa, if you don't have the card, they allow initials to be used, but they use the same system. When you arrive at the table if you don't have a card, they will ask for the initials. On the other hand, the number of people without a card that refuse to get one seems like a small part of the issue and the casino is now obligated to 'know their customers' for anyone with a significant win, so there is a side benefit to forcing everyone to have a card.

I have seen this done before, and it works, and once the staff are used to it, it becomes pretty transparent. Table cards seem like they have more land mines. Also, I don't care what system they use. Its up to Johnny to figure out what works for him. What I care about is that we have a minimum of seat stealing and table jumping, and I suspect this will get us there over time. There is a cultural change with both players and staff to fully get there, but it seems like this is a step in the right direction. I just hope the floors follow through. That has been the biggest sticking issue to me.

As to the length of ban, if they keep a record, then a one day ban seems bad enough. The next time, I would expect the ban to be longer when its a proven habitual offender who by now clearly knows the rule. The goal should be to fix the problem over time, not overnight.

Our bans are typically progressive: A day, a week, a month, a year or a perma-ban

Not trying to be snarky - because I do appreciate you responding - but I honestly don’t comprehend what you’re saying here or how it relates to my quoted post.

My question wasn’t about players who want to avoid being swiped in (although that’s also a legit concern). It was about how the proposed system fails to address the transfer process, unless floors are moving people from one table to another in the Bravo before they move them irl (which seems incredibly unlikely).

People who get on the transfer list will need to swipe their Mlife card to get on the transfer list. When they are directed to move, the Mlife card would be in the system. If they failed to get on the transfer list, and moved from one table to the other, 2 things happen : 1 they show up with no one swiped in at the new table. If somehow they get. Past that step, their card would not be earning comps for their play (hence they would attempt to swipe in and get busted)

Realistically and as someone who has played in your room almost every day since it opened, I don't see this ever becoming standard procedure.

I noticed they were swiping people in on the 100k Saturday. They haven't any day since. There are lots of situations not being considered like this one off the top of my head:

- When there are 3 open seats at every 2/5 game the brush isn't going to ever ask you for your players card then tell you to go to table X. They're going to do what they always have done and simply say "head to table X." One out of every three to four people sent will wander back to the 2/5 area and then choose which table they want to play at and ignore their table assignment. When caught, I'd say 9 out of 10 are politely asked to go back and are not kicked out.

Having them swipe you in and register it in the system is more cumbersome and ripe for errors than simply handing that person a piece of laminated paper that simply says "TABLE 6". I promise you there are only 2 options that will curb this problem:

1) Seat cards and a strict rule about not being dealt in without one.

2) Dedicated floor that walks each player to their seat and verbally confirms the move to the dealer. Unescorted players cannot be dealt in.

Everything else is a sloppy half-measure.

Very thoughtful and well-articulated post, keegan. And that's encouraging to hear that the system worked well at Tampa.

I have been the biggest proponent trying to encourage MGMNH to use seat cards as I think it's the most effective overall solution at preventing line jumping and illegal transfers. But if you really don't want to go that route, Johnny, then I agree it's possible the proposed new system of swiping people in at the brush stand and then having the dealer verify the matching card could work effectively.

But if and only if this is done every time a player requests a seat or transfer. And also only if every dealer verifies the new player whenever he or she arrives to the table.

It sounds so far like it's a policy that you have only used (in your words, Johnny) intermittently. I sometimes get the impression that you think seat-stealing is only a problem on a busy Saturday or something; it's actually a problem every day. If this new policy is to be effective, it's critical that you and the supervisors train the brush staff and dealers to do this and make sure they know to do it every time. Otherwise, I completely agree with and share Havax's pessimistic outlook, as quoted below from his recent post.

Was hoping to read something interesting or learn something new about MGM in this thread, but it looks like it's still wall-to-wall complaints and discussion about line jumpers (mostly at 2-5, apparently). So, why not, I'll add my thoughts on the subject:

1. Life is unfair lots of the time. Quit the constant whining and deal with it.

2. Things that don't affect the profitability of a business (as it seems line-jumping doesn't for a poker room) are usually not a big priority to the business.

3. If it keeps upsetting you, go play somewhere else. Constantly posting about it in the 2+2 MGM thread does not seem to be helping solve the problem and has gotten to be boring as hell to read about.

Sorry I didn't know the purpose of this thread was to entertain you. We will continue to provide Johnny honest feedback about his new policies and give our suggestions as the players in the trenches. Posts like yours saying "life is unfair" or "play somewhere else" are not only unproductive, but are 100x more repetitive and annoying than those of us genuinely trying to make the room a better place for everyone involved.

+1. I find posts about promotions to be boring, but I don’t tell people to stop making them because they have every right to discuss what they want as it relates to MGMNH. Big_Bad_Bill, you are a human adult with the ability to skip over individual posts that you suspect are on a topic of little interest to you. Nor does this thread have a “one topic at a time” rule. If there’s something else you’d like to see discussed, bring it up. In the meantime, Johnny specifically asked for feedback on this issue. We’re giving it to him.

To the point about taking our business elsewhere if we don’t like it, that absolutely remains an option down the line if these issues don’t get resolved. But a reasonable person’s plan A for solving an issue should usually be “try discussing it with the other party” (aka posting itt). Johnny has shown an interest in trying to address this problem. It would be foolish for those of us who cared enough to bring the issue up in the first place to suddenly stop offering our feedback while he’s testing out a new solution.

So it sounds like you *are* saying even the transfer list will be run the same way as initial seating, and that dealers should be verifying through the Bravo every time a player joins their table. I assumed that wouldn’t be the case, so I’m glad to hear this.

It does strain my faith to believe the dealing staff will stay vigilant about the Bravo thing, or that the floor will stay on top of moving transfers thru the Bravo before telling that player to move, but of course I hope I’m wrong about these things too.

The main thing is, I haven’t seen any of this in action yet (outside of the big promo day last Saturday), and they haven’t been asking for my Mlife card when I first walk in and ask to get on the list. If this policy is already in place, it’s not off to a promising start, though I understand there will be growing pains early on in the adoption of this approach.

Is this policy supposed to be in effect 24/7 (whether presently or in the future), or is this something you’re only planning on enforcing on your busiest days?

Table transfer have been very smooth that last few weeks. For me anyway.. I have zero complaints..

I just hope we continue to get $2 food comps and free parking going forward.

The process was used on our busiest day and was effective. It will be implemented fully in the near future.

Great! I can't wait 'til this becomes standard procedure from brush, dealers, etc.

Thank you for listening and trying to fix this issue, Johnny.