Business Commons^™

Introduction To “Las Vegas As Command Center” Special Section, Donald Snyder

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

No abstract provided.

Regulating Gaming In The New South Africa, Baby Tyawa

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

No abstract provided.

The Boomerang Effect: Asia's Casino Industry Growth Can "Fly Back" To Benefit Las Vegas, Jonathan Galaviz

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Boomerangs are an interesting invention. These remarkable devices can be thrown into the sky, for long distances, and then they do something amazing: they fly back to the thrower. Metaphorically speaking, the Las Vegas-based casino resort industry has thrown its "boomerang" to places like Singapore, Macau, and many other casino markets throughout the world over the last decade, with great success. Of course, many question whether this "boomerang" will indeed fly back to the thrower in the form of economic benefits. In this paper, I will lay out some key strategic concepts that argue that Las Vegas is indeed benefitting …

Cultural Indicators Of Internet Sports Betting Policy, Brett L. Abarbanel

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

No abstract provided.

The Evf Model: A Novel Framework For Understanding Gambling And, By Extension, Poker, Arthur S. Reber

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

There are several senses in which the term gambling is used. All have liabilities, problems that have muddied the waters in scientific research, generated conflicting legal decisions, compromised debates over ethical and moral issues, and have led to uneven legislation. Here, a novel framework for the term is offered, based on two continuous variables: a) the Expected Value (EV) of any arbitrary game and, b) the inherent Flexibility (F) of that game. This EVF model produces a classification system for all the enterprises that can or have been called gambling. It is one that allows for more measured decisions to …

Pennsylvania Casinos’ Cannibalization Of Regional Gambling Revenues, Simon Condliffe

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Gambling opportunities are expanding rapidly in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic area. Fifteen gambling venues have opened since 1996. The introduction of these venues has the potential to shift the balance of gambling activity away from New Jersey, which had enjoyed a monopoly position in the area for decades. Delaware and, more recently, Pennsylvania have entered the marketplace, raising the question of whether aggregate gambling activity has increased in the area, and whether all states have benefited. Contrary to previous research, a multivariate analysis reveals that aggregate gambling revenue among the three states has not increased with the introduction of Pennsylvania gambling …

Clustering High Dimensional Sparse Casino Player Tracking Datasets, Ross Iaci, Ashok K. Singh

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

In this article, we propose an iterative procedure for clustering sparse high dimensional transaction datasets, specifically two casino player tracking datasets. a common problem in clustering sparse datasets with very large dimensions is that in addition to classical techniques of clustering being unable to provide useful results, latent variable methods used for clustering often do not lead to sufficient data reduction to yield useful and informative results either. initially, we propose a straightforward resorting of the full dataset and then define an information based sparsity index to subset the sorted data. this new dimension reduced dataset is less sparse, and …

The Market For Online Poker, Ingo Fiedler, Ann-Christin Wilcke

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

The recent events of the “Black Friday” – the biggest online poker networks in the USA were shut down – demonstrated the necessity to make decisions about the regulation of online poker. But although online poker is a gold mine of data, until now nobody knows where the players and their money come from. It seems that the knowledge about the online poker market has not been able to keep up with the speed of its evolution in the past years. This paper is the first to shed light on this matter. We use data of 4,591,298 poker identities from …

The Effects Of Television Food Advertising On Childhood Obesity, Aleathia Cezar

Nevada Journal of Public Health

Children’s food choices are influenced by the media, television advertising, focusing directly at infants and toddlers. This literature review presents multiple studies that explain how TV advertising of fast food, sugary cereals and other foods high in calories, fat, sugar, sodium and low in nutrients are contributing to the increase rates of childhood obesity. It is concluded that children are exposed to high amounts of food advertisements which affect young children’s food choices and poor food consumption. Due to the growing numbers of hours that children sit in front of the television, less physical activity and the epidemic of childhood …

New Business Competition For A Different Generation Launches In Nevada, Nevada Institute For Renewable Energy Commercialization (Nirec)

Nevada Newsflash

On Nevada Day (October 26), a new competition was announced that is designed to stimulate business formation in the Silver State by offering the state’s largest-ever cash grand prize as an incentive.

The related tagline gets right to the point: “$100,000 cash. Your business idea. A room of investors. 5 minutes. One chance to prove you have what it takes.”

Sunvelope: A Nevada Company Revolutionizes Solar Hot Water Collectors, Nevada Institute For Renewable Energy Commercialization (Nirec)

Nevada Newsflash

Solar hot water is just not sexy to the general public—and that’s created a challenge for Pete Mokler, director of marketing at Sunvelope Solar. “Our technology can deliver more energy units per dollar invested—whether counted in therms, BTUs, or kilowatt hours—than photovoltaic, wind, geothermal and biomass,” says Mokler, “but you say ‘solar hot water’ and people yawn.”

Nevada's Top Energy Industry Representatives Call For More Collaboration And Education, Nevada Institute For Renewable Energy Commercialization (Nirec)

Nevada Newsflash

More than 75 representatives from every sector of Nevada’s energy industry gathered at Reno’s Desert Research Institute last week to discuss energy challenges facing the Silver State, opportunities available and actions needed to lead the West and the nation in renewable energy generation, transmission and delivery.

Walking Box Ranch Planning And Design Quarterly Progress Report: Period Ending October 10, 2012, Margaret N. Rees

Walking Box Ranch

• BLM and UNLV met with AECOM on 7/12/12 to review Walking Box Ranch (WBR) project progress, timing of posting of project bid documents, and the anticipated project calendar through December 2012.
• BLM and UNLV met on 9/25/12 to update Mark Spencer, BLM’s new Field Manager for the Red Rock/Sloan Field Office, to brief him on UNLV participation at WBR, and to discuss the status of the operating agreement and major concerns that include timely completion of the operating agreement, which will allow completion of business plan and release of $500K for IT and security by UNLV’s president.
• UNLV is continuing …

Premier, Bo Bernhard, Afsha Bawany, Bobbie Barnes, Elle House, John Fitts, Elijah Tredup, Gael Hancock

Premier: The Magazine of the UNLV Harrah Hotel College

No abstract provided.

A Business Plan For A Successful Family-Run Restaurant In Heber City, Utah, Brittany M. Bringhurst

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Business plans are considered to be an important, “even crucial,” part of opening any business (Lange, Mollov, Pearlmutter, Singh, & Bygrave, 2007). Because of a gap in the literature directed toward successful business plan strategies specific to the family-run restaurant sector, this paper is going to consider the available information regarding family-run businesses in general and apply them to the restaurant industry.

Social Media Helps Small Businesses, Nicholas J. Oxborrow

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Beemer and Shook (2009) explain that developing customers one at a time is the only way. There are no short cuts to this. Traditionally, a small business would develop their relationships by going from door-to-door to raise awareness and grow their brand. How fast they achieved this depended on the budget and time available to their business. Traditionally, large businesses had the power of reaching their markets through huge advertising budget, which small companies could not match.

In today’s business environment, social media has become a new marketing tool that is available to all businesses, that instantly develops relationships with …

Leaving Tray Line Behind: A Proposal For Hybrid Hospital Foodservice, Christopher Connolly

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

At Valley Hospital in Las Vegas, Nevada, the economic recession is as visible as anywhere else in the United States. A lack of paying patients equates to forced reductions in labor and increased productivity metric mandates. In the foodservice area, antiquated technology limits productivity in conducting tray line food service delivery. A new tray line system would need to be considerably faster while using less employees and moving parts to maximize efficiency, effectively doing much more with far less. There are two main systems of food service as part of the patient experience; tray line and room service. Both systems …

Sustainability Program For Rio Secco Golf Club And Cascata, Jay Chiders

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Caesars Entertainment is focused on building loyalty and value with its guests through a unique combination of great service, excellent products, operational excellence, and technology leadership. Caesars is committed to environmental sustainability and energy conservation and recognizes the importance of being a responsible steward to the environment. Sustainability at Caesars Entertainment integrates strategic direction with the energy, innovation, and passion of its 70,000 employees. These employees are what drive Caesars Entertainment’s comprehensive sustainability strategy, CodeGreen (CodeGreen factsheet, 2012).

Caesars Entertainment Corporation owns two golf courses in Nevada. Rio Secco Golf Club opened in 1997 in Henderson and Cascata opened in …

Luxury As Culture: A Leader’S Guide To Luxury Service, Aldo Contreras Alba

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The luxury guest is a sophisticated world traveler, loaded with high expectations, hungry for the next must-see hot spot for business or leisure. As such, international hotel companies are on a quest to find unforgettable locations worldwide in order to provide their loyal followers an unrivaled experience, and stay one-step ahead of the competition. Orchestrated of high-end tangible comforts, beautiful structures, and elegantly appointed décor, the luxury segment may be defined by the words “Five-Star” and “Five-Diamond” – as these are the global synonyms to luxury that creates the ultimate upgrade to travel and leisure. However, the most commonly known …

Hotel Laguna: Marketing The Restoration Of A Historic Hotel In Southern California, Hannie Darrwazeh

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The renovation of a historic, boutique hotel should be marketed in such a manner to ensure profitability and maintain the history and nostalgic feelings associated with the property. Situated in the heart of downtown Laguna Beach, California, Hotel Laguna has provided over 80 years of continuous service while maintaining the true essence of the community: a beachside, artistically-driven, relaxing city. Since the original structure was built in 1888 it has been demolished, rebuilt, and remodeled (Farnham, 1981). Today, the property has one restaurant, OceanView Bar and Grill, banquet facilities, an exclusive Beach Club, and boasts 65-quaint guestrooms. Upon purchase of …

Search Engine Optimization: Best Practices For Google, Tucker Johnson

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The internet is a major delivery system of hotel reservations. Approximately 25% of all reservations made at a hotel come directly through the hotel’s website (Douglas, 2012). Another 11% of total reservations are booked online through online travel agent websites, or OTAs, such as Priceline.com or Expedia.com (Douglas, 2012). These additional reservations booked through the OTAs come at a cost to the hotel, however. Typical commissions for OTAs are approximately 25 % of a total booking (Sanders, 2012). In 2010, it was estimated that the commissions associated with these OTA bookings cost hoteliers 2.5 billion dollars (Douglas, 2012). Because of …

American Generation Y And The Hotel Of 2030, Brian Kelley

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Baby Boomer generation, once the largest, most important consumer base and leader in purchasing power, is entering retirement (Sherman, 2008). Now an aging generation, the Boomers, are slowly losing their hold on the attention of the hospitality industry. The Boomers are quickly being eclipsed by their children and grandchildren as the largest market population and the biggest spenders within America with over 73 million or 26% of the total US population belonging to this demographic (Nusair, Parsa, & Cobanoglu, 2011). Much like the Baby Boomers, this demographic, known as primarily as Generation Y (Gen Y) or “Echo-Boomers” due to …

Business Plan For A U.S. Based Healthy And Organic Ethnic Korean Quick-Service Restaurant, Daniel W. Kim

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The increased globalization of ethnic cuisine has become a reality in the past decade due to the rise in food and beverage popular culture. The celebrity chefs on such television networks such as the Food Network and the Travel Channel has led to many persons becoming more interested in a variety of ethnic, fusion, healthy and organic dining options. For the past few decades, the most popular ethnic cuisines in the U.S. have been and still are Italian, Chinese, and Mexican foods (Leahy, 2007). However, with the increased interest in food and beverage culture and desire for variety, there are …

Training And Development Guide For A Culinary Department In A Private University, Kimberly Rosenbaum

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

In an online study of the Council of Hotel and Restaurant Trainers (CHART), 53% of respondents reported their budgets for training were being carefully looked at. From this scrutiny, training budgets in the past 18 months have significantly decreased (Bertra, 2009, p. 1). Slashed training budgets have become another sign of the recessionary times, forcing operators to direct their funds to customer service, hoping to set them apart in the competitive environment known as hospitality (Bertra, 2009, p. 1).

Sustainable Tourism Marketing Strategies At Unesco World Heritage Sites, Fouad A. Sadiki

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Designation as a United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage site has a significant impact on the tourism development and sustainability of a site, city, region or country. World Heritage sites bring a certain level of prestige and international recognition, but they also have an impact on the local communities as they impact day to day life and rituals of the residents. Several paradigms exist in evaluating the success of a UNESCO World Heritage site. This paper specifically examines how marketing strategies bolster sustainable tourism efforts.

The Pros And Cons Of Outsourcing, Angela Smith

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Outsourcing has become increasingly popular to the public since the mid-20th century and has become more controversial in the last decade. The United States economy has been under the microscope for the last 4 years due to an economic recession. Outsourcing has been a subject of interest that has been brought up numerous times by economists. Offshore outsourcing is the main type of outsourcing that is of concern in relation to the United States economy. This topic is highly debated because of the unemployment rate in America.

Medical Tourism: Trends And Opportunities, Krista Wendt

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Medical tourism involves travel for the purpose of receiving medical, dental, or surgical care (Medical Tourism Association), and represents a rapidly growing niche market within the healthcare, tourism, and hospitality industries. Medical travelers are motivated to seek care outside of their area of residence by many factors, including more advanced technology, quicker access, higher quality of care, or lower costs for care in the destination locality (Ehrbeck, Guevara, & Mango, 2008). Multiple factors contribute to the growth of the medical tourism industry and suggest a continuing trend toward growth in the future. This nascent industry represents a significant market opportunity …

Capturing The Chinese Outbound Tourism Market: Lessons For Las Vegas Casino Operators, Wilson Wan

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

China has become a fast rising economic power and its GDP is expected to overtake America's in about 6 years (How to get a date, 2011). As a result of the increase in wealth, the Chinese middle class has been expanding rapidly and now has access to more resources than ever before. With a higher disposable income, the Chinese now have an increased desire, and capability, to travel the world. In preparation for the increase in outbound Chinese travelers, it would be wise for tourist destinations to be prepared to attract this market and thus capture a part of this …

A Positive Approach: Training Coaches To Build A Positive Motivational Climate, J. Spencer John

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The purpose of this paper is to develop a training program for youth sport coaches focusing on a positive motivational climate, with an intended outcome to increase intrinsic motivation in youth sport participants. The coaching workshops that are available today tend to focus on teaching the fundamentals of the sport; while largely ignoring the motivational side of coaching. Pop Warner Football is the largest youth football league in the country, they have a large coach training program that focuses on drills and skill development, but fails to address positive motivation. Providing youth sport organizations with a training program that adds …

The Family And Medical Leave Act’S Impact On The Hospitality Industry: Implementing Policies To Ensure Continued Productivity, Katie O'Brien Coon

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

The Family and Medical Leave Act, (FMLA), allows women and men to take up to 12 weeks leave to care for a newborn child (maternity leave) and/or care for sick family members. The Department of Labor states that:

FMLA entitles eligible employees of covered employers to take unpaid, job-protected leave for specified family and medical reasons with continuation of group health insurance coverage under the same terms and conditions as if the employee had not taken leave (Family and Medical Leave Act - Wage and Hour Division (WHD) - U.S. Department of Labor, 2012).

When an employee decides to take …