Business Commons^™

Adapting To Win: Churchill Downs Inc. And The New Era Of Entertainment And Betting., Mahesh Gupta, William Ferko, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty Scholarship

This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of Churchill Downs Inc. (CDInc), a cornerstone of the Thoroughbred racing industry and the distinguished host of the Kentucky Derby. Situated at a critical juncture in the rapidly evolving spheres of gambling and entertainment, CDInc faces unique challenges and opportunities to maintain its preeminence and adapt to new market demands. Utilizing the Service Triangle framework, this study offers a deep dive into CDInc’s strategic operations, service delivery, and competitive positioning. The framework helps illuminate how shifts in consumer behavior, technological innovations, and regulatory changes are reshaping the industry. Despite facing challenges such as declining …

Measuring The Impact Of Reduced Free-Play Offers On Casino Loyalty Behavior, Anthony F. Lucas, Katherine A. Spilde

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Performance data from a tribal casino operating in the Western United States indicated a general insensitivity to free-play (FP) offer reductions. This finding addresses considerable industry-wide concerns regarding the potential for negative customer reactions to conspicuous offer reductions. Further, FP campaigns are costly annual investments representing the lion’s share of casino marketing budgets in many jurisdictions. A within-subjects design featured the random assignment of 100 loyalty program members from a common offer tier to each of four groups, with the experimental groups receiving different yet substantial reductions in FP during the post-demotion period. The results demonstrated a lack of significant …

Historical Horse Racing Dominates Gambling Expenditures In Kentucky—Even Outperforms The Lottery. But Why?, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty Scholarship

With sports gambling coming to the Commonwealth of Kentucky in September 2023, another competitor to various gaming activities in the state raises the question of how it is doing relative to the others, especially its major competition. As can be seen in the table below, for its first four months of operation, sports gambling in the state brings in almost $900 million and averages around $223 million per month. This average is better than typical monthly lottery sales which come in at around $161 million per month and is far above on and off-track (including simulcasting) racing betting which averages …

Horse Racing And Historical Horse Racing’S Impact On The Kentucky Economy: Possible Hhr Saturation?, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty Scholarship

The Commonwealth of Kentucky currently has 5 thoroughbred racing tracks and 3 harness racing tracks (Kentucky Horse Racing Commission 2023 and Mint Julep Louisville 2021). As Table 1 below shows, the industry employees roughly 7,000 people (direct jobs), and these jobs annually support another 2,000 jobs or so throughout the state. These 2,000 jobs are jobs that are provided by the suppliers to the horse race tracks (indirect jobs) and jobs that are created by the spending of the race track employees and the employees of suppliers on food, housing, transportation, and clothing by vendors and retailers throughout the state …

A Comparison Of Clustered And Isolated Casino Performance In Missouri, Douglas M. Walker, Todd M. Nesbit

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

This paper utilizes data on Missouri’s casino industry to examine how clustered casinos, such as those in Kansas City and St. Louis, perform compared to dispersed or isolated casinos, such as those in Boonville, Caruthersville, La Grange, and St. Joseph. Missouri limits the number of casino licenses allowed; however, it does not explicitly mandate casino locations. Missouri provides a unique natural experiment for comparing location model performance. Although there is no published research on which type of casino location model is more effective for generating industry revenues and associated taxes, state legislatures have nevertheless been following an isolated casino location …

Recent Impacts Of Penny And Fixed Odds Wagering: What Does The Future Hold?, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty Scholarship

In order hopefully to revive attendance at the tracks and/or fuel a resurgence in gambling (either in person or virtually), the last year has seen some recent wagering developments and changes at different horseracing tracks in the United States. At Ellis Park Racing and Gaming (Henderson, Kentucky) in the Evansville, Indiana metro area, penny wagering has been tried since the 2022 season to influence gambling revenues. Meanwhile, starting in 2022 Monmouth Park in New Jersey now offers “fixed odds” wagering as an alternative to parimutuel wagering for patrons who do not like the possible fluctuations in odds before a race …

Third-Party Responsible Gambling Accreditation Programs Are Related To Short-Term Improvements At Casinos But No Ongoing Gains: Evidence From Rg Check, Kahlil S. Philander

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

This study examines how casino operators’ responsible gambling program performance changes after entering a third-party assurance program. Using de-identified responsible gambling accreditation data from the 75 casinos employing the “RG Check” program from 2012 to April 2019, this study finds that casino scores improved in the first reaccreditation period (p < .001, d = 0.92), but failed to improve in the second reaccreditation (p < .78, d = 0.38). Much of the first reaccreditation changes appear to be a result of one-time improvement in the scores of lower performing venues. There also appears to be inconsistent improvements in tactical areas of RG …

Problem Gambling And Cognitive Distortions Among Macao Vip Hosts: A Brief Report, Tiange Xu, Brett Abarbanel, Mehmet Erdem, Bo J. Bernhard, Shane W. Kraus

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

This report investigates the understudied group of VIP Hosts in Macao casinos, who cater to high rollers and may be more vulnerable to problem gambling due to their exposure to heavy betting. To comprehensively profile their gambling behaviors and cognitions, we conducted an anonymous online survey using the Chinese Version of South Oaks Gambling Screen (C-SOGS) and the Gambling Fallacies Measure (GFM). Given the difficulty of accessing this population, we employed the snowball sampling technique to recruit eligible participants. Our analysis included data from 41 participants, and the findings revealed high levels of gambling-related cognitive distortions among VIP Hosts. In …

Payments Transaction Data From Online Casino Players And Online Sports Bettors, Kasra Ghaharian, Piyush Puranik, Brett Abarbanel, Kazem Taghva, Shane W. Kraus, Ashok Singh, Alan Feldman, Bo Bernhard

International Gaming Institute Faculty Publications

Raw datasets were sourced from a U.S. based provider of digital gambling payments systems, who has demanded to remain anonymous. The raw datasets cover a time period of 6-years (2015-2021), representing over 300,000 customers and approximately 90 million transaction records. One of these raw datasets is a transaction log file representing customer payment transaction data across a variety of gambling merchants (e.g., online casinos, sportsbooks, and lottery providers). With this article we describe the transaction log file and provide two filtered subsets of the data. The subsets contain 1-year of customer payments transaction records for two gambling merchants: (1) a …

The Critical But Overlooked Player Protection Tool: Self Care For Customer Facing Staff, Stacy Shaw, Jay Robinson

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

BACKGROUND

Like many things, the need for self-care for staff came to light because of the pandemic. Every day, Oregon Lottery staff would go out and deal with angry, frightened, confused, frustrated, and sometimes aggressive players and retailers. People struggling with all kinds of stress, acting out and exhibiting behaviors that might normally suggest the need for an RG conversation. We started to hear that the staff was feeling overwhelmed, burned out, powerless, unheard, unappreciated, unable to connect. We were asking them to promote RG during this difficult time - but we had not given them the tools they needed …

Covid-19 In Casinos: Analysis Of Covid-19 Contamination And Spread With Economic Impact Assessment, Anastasia (Stasi) D. Baran, Jason D. Fiege

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Abstract:

The COVID-19 pandemic caused tremendous disruption for casinos, with the virus causing various lengths of shutdowns, capacity restrictions, and social distancing strategies such as machine removals or section closures. Although most of the world has now eased off these measures, it is important to review lessons learned to understand, and better prepare for similar circumstances in the future. We present Monte Carlo slot floor simulation software customized to simulate players spreading COVID-19 on the slot floor. We simulate the amount of touch surface contamination; the number of potential surface contact exposure events per day, and a proximity exposures statistic …

The Las Vegas Loyalty Battle Is Over. What’S Next?, Oliver Lovat

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

The strategic mission by Las Vegas casino operators to capture customer loyalty over the past decade has been a success. In 2021, 57% of visitors were generally loyal to a particular resort, compared to 32% in 2011. Only 7% of visitors were not a member of any rewards program in 2021, compared to 16% in 2011.

This has consequences for new market entrants who face a greater challenge to capture customers in a more mature, consolodated and strategic business environment.

Moreover, the drivers of loyalty remain different within the various customer segments, with the new generation of visitors responding less …

Payments Data In Gambling Research, Kasra Ghaharian, Mana Azizsoltani

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

A considerable body of gambling-related research has leveraged gamblers' behavioral tracking data to address a broad set of research questions. These data have typically comprised of gamblers' betting-related behaviors including, for example, the frequency and volume of betting. The analysis of gamblers' payment-related behavioral data is far less common, but provides a fruitful avenue gambling-related research.

In this presentation we discuss a selection of potential research opportunities that payments transaction data presents. We supplement this discussion with specific analyses that have been performed by our research group. We also discuss knowledge gaps and areas for future research.

The Locals Casino As A Social Network – Can An Interconnected Community Of Players Detect Differences In Hold?, Jason D. Fiege, Anastasia (Stasi) D. Baran

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Abstract

It is difficult for individual players to detect differences in theoretical hold between slot machines without playing an unrealistically large number of games. This difficulty occurs because the fractional loss incurred by a player converges only slowly to the theoretical hold in the presence of volatility designed into slot pay tables. Nevertheless, many operators believe that players can detect changes in hold or differences compared to competition, especially in a locals casino market, and therefore resist increasing holds. Instead of investigating whether individual players can detect differences in hold, we ask whether a population of casino regulars who share …

Analysis Of The Changing Behaviours Of Chinese Genz Towards Casino Tourism: Implications To The Asian Markets, Linqian Huang

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

Abstract

While the Chinese GenX spend largely in gambling activities during their visits to the destinations which are famous for their casino tourism industry, the GenY have shown less enthusiasm to be the high rollers. Regarding the Chinese GenZ, their spending behaviours in casino tourism will continue to exhibit changes and differences comparing to the GenX and GenY, especially for the non-gaming expenditure. Considering the potential purchasing power of GenZ, it is important for integrated resorts operators to understand the changing consumption behaviour of this new generation. For this, online questionnaire survey and analysis of narratives are employed to explore …

The House Doesn't Always Win, Jennifer Owen

International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking

In June 2015, fourteen South Korean casino executives were arrested on charges of soliciting Chinese players to gamble in their casinos. This single event foreshadowed a seismic change in the Australian casino market that few would have anticipated. The events which unfolded led to the two largest casino operators in Australia being found unsuitable to operate their casinos, and unable to hold their licenses. Collectively, these two casino groups reported revenues of $5.0bn in 2019, accounting for 92% of the total Australian casino market.

Both are now operating under various forms of special supervision until it can be demonstrated that …

Regulating A Fantasy For A Billion: Playing On A Smartphone In India, Angshuman Hazarika

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

The fantasy gaming industry in India has moved forward at an unprecedented pace with limited oversight primarily based on 'self-regulation'. The absence of a clear regulatory mechanism for this industry has been highlighted in previous work, but no clear determination has been provided on how to deal with this issue. The current contribution seeks to provide a path ahead by suggesting that the government regulate the industry directly instead of an industry-operated self-regulatory framework which has had limited effectiveness till now. This suggestion has been made considering the significant size of the industry and the target demographic of the fantasy …

Horse Sense Or Horse Hype? Estimating The True Economic Impact Of Churchill Downs And The Kentucky Derby On The Louisville Metro Area, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty Scholarship

In trying to assess the true economic impact of the Kentucky Derby on the Louisville region (north central Kentucky and south central Indiana counties), one can find two different estimates appear in doing a quick search on the internet. Some sources, such as the Kentucky Derby Museum, indicate that the economic impact of the Derby is around $217 million (Kentucky Derby Museum 2023) but never mention a source or study for this conjecture. In doing some research, this amount is determined to come from a 2001 study by the marketing research firm Wilkerson and Associates (LaMarra 2001), and therefore this …

Kentucky Downs And The Mint—A Huge “Exporter” For Kentucky?, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty Scholarship

Kentucky Downs is a thoroughbred racetrack located in Franklin, Kentucky near the Kentucky-Tennessee border and close to Interstate 65 which features European-style (all turf track) racing. (The Mint and Kentucky Downs n.d.). It is also part of an entertainment complex that features a gaming center called The Mint, which has over 1000 historical horse racing (HHR) machines, machines that are somewhat similar to but not exactly the same as casino slot machines (The Mint n.d.). The Mint has another location around 20-30 minutes away by car in Bowling Green, Kentucky, and combined these two operations have around 125 employees according …

Mergers In The Us Gambling And Horse Racing Industries: What It Means For Local Economic Development And Taxation, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty Scholarship

Even before the Covid-19 pandemic, most sectors of the various gambling industries in the United States were showing signs of stagnation. Over the last few years, these industries have seen mergers between horse racing tracks, between horse racing tracks and casinos to form “racinos”, and between casino companies. Many gambling facilities and racetracks have closed and have been sold to developers to be used for other purposes. An industry “shakeout” is occurring, and there appears to be a trend toward greater industry concentration as consumers are showing less and less interest in gambling in general. This has been partially fueled …

Hotel Industry Performance In 2021-2022 And The Jhfm Index, Atul Sheel

Journal of Hospitality Financial Management

No abstract provided.

Hospitality Sector Revenues And Employment In The Eagle Ford Shale, 2010-2019, Javier Oyakawa

Journal of Hospitality Financial Management

By taking advantage of proprietary data from input- output tables’ time series and by using econometric methods, this study estimated job and output multipliers affecting the hospitality sector in Eagle Ford Shale (EFS) between 2010 and 2019. In 2019, in the EFS area, the hospitality sector, including the hotel and food subsectors, received 32.5% of its increased revenues from oil and gas activities when comparing the years 2019 and 2010. For each new job in the energy industry, the hospitality sector received between $10,185 and $12,744. In the same year, hotel subsector revenues due to oil and gas activities explained …

A Comparison Of The Economic Impact Of Horse Racing Tracks In Kentucky Versus Neighboring Indiana, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty Scholarship

The Louisville metro area is one that spans two states—Kentucky and Indiana. Since the University of Louisville has many students and employees who come from the Hoosier State, it would be interesting to see how the two states compare when it comes to what has been labeled a “signature” industry for the Commonwealth of Kentucky—horse racing.

The Economic Impact Of The Red Mile On The Lexington Metro Area, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty Scholarship

The Red Mile Racetrack and Red Mile Gaming Center in Lexington, Kentucky have a harness racetrack, and the track has had a solid tradition for quality harness racing going back to its start in 1875 (Red Mile 2022). This paper examines what economic impact the racetrack and gaming center have on the Lexington metro area (Bourbon, Clark, Fayette, Jessamine, Scott, and Woodford counties in Kentucky) on a yearly basis.

The Economic Impact Of Keeneland Race Course On The Lexington Metro Area With Projections For This Year’S Breeders Cup, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty Scholarship

Keeneland Race Course in Lexington, Kentucky has had a long tradition for quality horse racing going back to its inception in 1936 (Keeneland 2022). With the 2022 Breeders’ Cup World Championships coming to the race track this November, this paper examines what economic impact the race track has on the Lexington metro area (Bourbon, Clark, Fayette, Jessamine, Scott, and Woodford counties in Kentucky) on an annual basis and how the 2022 Breeders’ Cup will boost the impact of the race track when compared to a typical year.

The Economic Impact Of Buying And Redeveloping Ellis Park By Churchill Downs, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty Scholarship

Churchill Downs’ acquisition of Ellis Park Racing and Gaming in Henderson, Kentucky reflects the growing number of mergers across the US among racetracks, racetracks and casinos, and casinos with other casinos. Some years back, Ellis racetrack closed for one year due to declining profitability, yet after new ownership took over and a gaming center was added, it began a rebound in earnings (Courier and Press 2008). The $75 million that Churchill Downs plans to spend to transform Ellis Park (Schulz 2022) will have a much bigger impact than the construction, revamping, and expansion of park facilities. This is in addition …

How Much Of ‘Home Field Advantage’ Comes From The Fans? A Natural Experiment From The Covid-19 Pandemic, Kevin Krieger, Justin L. Davis

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Home field advantage has been a commonly discussed and researched topic in sports. How much of this advantage is due to the home team’s supporters’ physical attendance at the game where they might encourage their team, intimidate the opponent, and influence game officials? We utilize the unique natural experiment of the COVID-19 pandemic and consider the case of American professional (NFL) and collegiate (NCAA) football to examine this question. We measure how typical spreads, relative to home teams, changed in the 2020 season compared to their historical levels, and we determine that roughly half of what football fans and analysts …

Estimating The Effect Of Poker Room Promotions On Player Traffic, Michael T. Paz, Mikhail M. Sher, B D. Mccullough, Shabnam Zarin

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

This paper examines the impact of poker room promotions on player traffic in casino-based poker rooms. Casinos regularly spend significant portions of their marketing budget on promotions, including free-play, item-based offers, complementary hotel rooms, and travel reimbursements (among others), in an effort to drive casino traffic. Poker room promotions, by contrast, are unique within the context of casino promotions because they are both player-funded and paid in cash. Despite these significant differences between poker room and other casino promotions, prior research has not provided empirical evidence on the effectiveness of poker room promotions. Using collected data on casino-based poker games …

Monetized Competitive Peer-To-Peer Skill-Based Game Play–An Introduction, Becky Harris, Bill Coley, Peter Gan, Anh-Vu Nguyen

International Gaming Institute Faculty Publications

The COVID pandemic has changed the world in ways, both large and small, forever. One unexpected way the world changed was when live sports suddenly went dark and esports began experiencing attention from betting audiences that were suddenly starving for content.¹ Esports also received a second glance from gaming regulators. And, though not exactly suddenly (even though it felt like it), approvals for wagering on esports were granted in a variety of jurisdictions, most notably Colorado and Nevada.²

A subset of the larger esports environment, peer-to-peer (P2P) skill-based play is hardly a new concept. You can find it …

The Economic Impact Of Horse Racing Tracks And Historical Horse Racing In Kentucky, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty Scholarship

The Commonwealth of Kentucky currently has 5 thoroughbred racing tracks and 3 harness racing tracks (Mint Julep Louisville 2021). As Table 1 below shows[1], the industry employees roughly 6,000 people (direct jobs), and these jobs annually support another 1,500 jobs or so throughout the state. These 1,500 jobs are jobs that are provided by the suppliers to the horse race tracks (indirect jobs) and jobs that are created by the spending of the race track employees and the employees of suppliers on food, housing, transportation, and clothing by vendors and retailers throughout the state (induced jobs). The direct …