'Player Tracking' closely regulated
By Rick Ask, Administrator,
Gambling Control Division
In-house player promotion or tracking systems are a way for Montana operators to attract and maintain gambling machine players and, as a result, they appear to have gained wide usage.
From the Gambling Control Division's perspective, there are three general areas of concern with player tracking systems.
The first is to make certain the system does not award promotional points to a player based upon wins on a machine. Section 23-5-608, MCA, prohibits awarding prizes in excess of those provided for by law.
Adding promotional awards to a prize payout creates the potential to exceed payout limits. Promotional prizes can be awarded based on the gross play on a machine or time spent, but those prizes may not be based upon a player's wins.
Second, where prizes are awarded based on a player's gross play or time of play, the Division is concerned with where the operator gets the gross play or meter information.
Player tracking systems are specifically mentioned only once in the gambling code. That reference is a prohibition against using information acquired from an Automated Accounting and Reporting System in a player tracking system. Any play or meter data derived from a Tier I or Tier II automated accounting and reporting system, cannot be used in a player promotion or tracking system.
Section 23-5-621(1)(e), MCA, in part “allow[s], on an individual license basis, licensed machine owners and operators of machines that utilize an approved automated accounting and reporting system to:
... electronically acquire and use for an individual licensed premises the information and data collected for business management, accounting, and payroll purposes; however, the rules must specify that the data made available as a result of an approved automated accounting and reporting system may not be used by licensees for player tracking purposes.”
Finally, the Division is concerned with where promotional points, earned in a player club, for example, can be redeemed. Points earned and maintained on account for a player in a licensed location can only be redeemed in that location where the points were earned.
This is because the promotional points are a form of liability, and the definition of ownership for both liquor and gambling licensees includes responsibility for liabilities of the location. To share liabilities is to share ownership. Therefore, to prevent any unapproved ownership in a licensed entity, points can only be redeemed in the location in which the points were earned.
So, player tracking systems are legal but points or awards cannot be granted based on machine wins; the information used to determine how many promotional points to a player cannot come from an automated accounting and reporting system; and points earned in a location must be redeemed in that location.