Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Business Commons

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Articles 1 - 7 of 7

Full-Text Articles in Business

Pyramids To Players Clubs: The Battle For Competitive Advantage In Las Vegas, Oliver Lovat Jul 2012

Pyramids To Players Clubs: The Battle For Competitive Advantage In Las Vegas, Oliver Lovat

Occasional Papers

The evolution of the Las Vegas casinos from owner operator to the institutionally financed and corporately managed casino-resort has been the predominant feature of the evolution of the US Gaming market in the past 30 years. This paper examines the strategic frameworks used by Las Vegas casino resorts and identifies the drivers for competitive advantage moving forward.


From The Last Frontier To The New Cosmopolitan A History Of Casino Public Relations In Las Vegas, Jessalynn Strauss Jun 2012

From The Last Frontier To The New Cosmopolitan A History Of Casino Public Relations In Las Vegas, Jessalynn Strauss

Occasional Papers

This research chronicles the history of public relations by the gaming industry in Las Vegas. Reflecting larger trends in the field, public relations efforts by the casinos and hotels in this popular tourist destination have used a variety of communication tactics over time to promote themselves to potential Las Vegas tourists. Based on archival materials from over 30 casinos and gaming corporations, this paper identifies four ways in which public relations is practiced in the gaming industry and four macro-level trends in the evolution of casino public relations in Las Vegas.


The Fiscal Forensics Of The Las Vegas Strip Lessons From The Financial Crisis, Dean M. Macomber May 2012

The Fiscal Forensics Of The Las Vegas Strip Lessons From The Financial Crisis, Dean M. Macomber

Occasional Papers

Hitting with the force of a 100-year storm, the first two years of the financial crisis caused a $5.2 billion swing from profitability to loss for the top 22 performing Las Vegas Strip properties between peak fiscal year 2007 and 2009. By fiscal year 2011 visitor count had almost climbed back to peak levels but the aggregate loss is still stubbornly high at $ -1.6 billion. Other signs of recovery trickle in but are sporadic and volatile. This article is an attempt to disaggregate the variance and look at where Las Vegas has been, where it is now and how …


Halos, Alibis And Community Development: A Cross National Comparison Of How Governments Spend Revenue From Gambling, Lynn Gidluck Apr 2012

Halos, Alibis And Community Development: A Cross National Comparison Of How Governments Spend Revenue From Gambling, Lynn Gidluck

Occasional Papers

This paper provides a cross-national comparison of how governments around the world distribute revenues from state-directed gambling and how these choices have been justified by proponents and vilified by critics. Case studies where governments have popularized gambling expansion by “earmarking” revenues for particular good causes and where the state has collaborated with the voluntary sector to deliver programs from this revenue stream are examined. Lessons learned from challenges of various approaches are considered.


Computerizing Chance: The Digitization Of The Slot Machine (1960-1985), Cristina Turdean Mar 2012

Computerizing Chance: The Digitization Of The Slot Machine (1960-1985), Cristina Turdean

Occasional Papers

The digital slot machine entered the gambling floor in the mid-1970s and, within a decade, it became gamblers’ favorite and the main contributor to casinos’ gross revenue. This paper traces the main developments of this transition, particularly the role of the inventors, entrepreneurs, and the business context that made it possible. Decisively shaped by the culture of the casino floor and advancements in computer technology, the emergence of the microprocessor slot machine involved the gradual replacement of mechanical parts with digital components and created new opportunities for casino managers.


Containment And Virtualization Slot Technology And The Remaking Of The Casino Industry, Kah-Wee Lee Feb 2012

Containment And Virtualization Slot Technology And The Remaking Of The Casino Industry, Kah-Wee Lee

Occasional Papers

This paper examines how the casino industry was transformed by slot technology between 1950 and 1990. The criminalization of slot machines in the 1950s led to their massive evacuation into Las Vegas casinos. In this concentrated environment, slot machines revealed to casino operators an automated surveillance technology that could disassemble the player into streams of virtual data, not through any overt means, but through the very activity of play itself. Slot managers and gaming technologists found themselves empowered professionally as they experimented with ways to transform data into profits. From the 1970s to the 90s, this technological development effectively linked …


Souls/Soles Of Signs Tell Totems And The Sphinx Wager, Darryl A. Smith M.Div., Ph.D. Jan 2012

Souls/Soles Of Signs Tell Totems And The Sphinx Wager, Darryl A. Smith M.Div., Ph.D.

Occasional Papers

This paper develops a philosophy of play through an analysis of the foot wager of the Sphinx. Applying a construction of the cosmology of Plato along with a Socratic etymology of her riddle’s answer, it provides a reading of Sphingian contestation consistent with contemporary practices of deception found in modern games like poker. I argue that such deception is constitutive of the excessive illumination of signaling tells in games and that such excess, in turn, is indicative in allied political contexts of a covetous and acquisitive obsession with light. This theory makes use also of Ralph Ellison’s refiguring of Oedipal …