AI Comes to UK’s Hippodrome Casino through SenSen Networks

Posted on: December 10, 2021, 10:25h. 

Last updated on: December 10, 2021, 01:27h.

Erik Gibbs Read More
Expertise: Asia Pacific Gaming, Gaming Business, Global Gaming.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is coming to the UK’s Hippodrome Casino. The gaming property is bringing in SenSen Networks, marking the Australian company’s entry into the European market.

Hippodrome Casino
Looking down at one of Hippodrome Casino’s gaming floors. The London casino will soon include artificial intelligence at its gaming tables. (Image: Hippodrome Casino)

SenSen will bring its Sensor AI solutions to the Hippodrome, the five-story gaming property in London. The solutions detect and recognize bets on gaming tables. They also extract critical operational data, like the number and average value of each player’s bets, game pace, side-bet analysis, and more. This information is available in real time.

The data is then used for a variety of applications to improve the customer service in casinos.

Currently, we are part of multiple trials for our AI solutions with several casinos globally, and with COVID-19 restrictions easing, we are confident many of these trials will move to production roll-outs in 2022,” SenSen CEO Subhash Challa states.

The Hippodrome and SenSen have signed a three-year contract, building on trial runs conducted at the casino. Installation of the equipment is now set to get started, and is expected to be completed before February. That would coincide with the ICE London 2022 International Gaming Conference on the first three days of the month.

SenSen hopes to eventually be a standard fixture in casinos across Europe and the rest of the world.

SenSen Changes the Land-Based Gaming Experience

It’s common for AI to be used in online gaming, but it isn’t regularly seen at land-based gaming tables.

Chip sensors have started to be used, along with AI-based cashless systems, but SenSen takes casino AI to a new level. Its system can accurately count game start and end times, as well as the total value of all chips. This is even if they are stacked in random order.

This can be done in any part of a card table without having to change chips, layouts, or amend dealing procedures or policies. It’s also done discreetly and efficiently. The device is the same size as a pinhole camera or smartphone and is attached to the scoreboard or a pole at the table.

All information is sent live to a dashboard, which is integrated into any CRM system or casino management system. The casino manager can assess the value of side wagers and adjust the main game in real-time. SenSen’s solution can adjust advertising and marketing messages to be screened to players to affect the flow of wagers between the main game and side bets based on player demographics.

The casino can also use the real-time data to identify side bets that are not of value and return them when customers’ conditions are better.

More Than Just Casino AI

SenSen has already made a splash in areas outside of casinos and has a presence in Las Vegas. Its AI is used for license plate recognition in the city, as well as in Chicago, IL. In April of last year, it was awarded a multi-year contract in Sin City to enhance parking enforcement automation. It has also been helping reduce traffic congestion in Singapore since February 2020.

The new contract with the Hippodrome said to be worth $430,000, will build on the success of those other agreements. SenSen is traded on the Australian Securities Exchange and should find more support for its stock as a result.

It has already seen some positive movement the past couple of days, although this followed a downturn. In January, the stock was trading at AU$0.24 (US$0.17) but was at $0.10 (US$0.072) on Dec. 8. As of Friday afternoon, it was up to $0.12 (US$0.086).