Gaming and Casino Operations Management Commons^™

Where Women Stand In Tribal Vs. Non-Tribal Gaming Leadership, Toni Repetti, Shekinah L. Hoffman

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Tribal casinos operate for the economic development and self-sufficiency of their members so additional profit generated directly benefits their communities. Gender diversity has been shown to increase firm performance across different types of business so if tribal casinos have gender diversity in management they may be able to increase their profits. This study evaluates casino management positions in 405 tribal and 567 non-tribal casinos in the United States. Results indicate that women in tribal gaming only make up 37.8% of all management positions and while they represent about half of managers, the percentage decreases as the position increases. When compared …

Value Relevance Of Financial And Non-Financial Information: Evidence From The Gaming Industry, Lisa Goh, Kevin Ck Lam, Hong Weng Lawrence Lei

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Using financial and non-financial data from casino gaming firms listed in the United States from 1999–2017, we explore two research questions: (1) Is financial information value relevant to financial markets in the casino gaming industry? (2) Does non-financial information have incremental explanatory power over financial information? In general, we find that accounting numbers can explain a firm’s market value and stock returns in the casino gaming industry, except for accounting accruals, which may behave differently compared to other industries. We also find that non-financial information, such as the number of table games, number of slot machines, and their relative proportion, …

Nipped In The Budd? Assessing The Wisdom Of The Gambling Review Body’S Recommendations In Relation To Problem Gambling, Daniel Waugh, Tom Grant

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

The convening of the Gambling Review Body (the ‘Review Body’), between 2000 and 2001 was the most recent attempt by the British Government to consider fully policy objectives for the operation of its licensed gambling market. It followed in a tradition of comprehensive Government-sponsored reviews of gambling (carried out in the twentieth century by Royal Commissions) approximately every 20 to 25 years. The publication of its report in 2001 had a strong influence on the drafting of the Gambling Act 2005 (the ‘2005 Act’), Britain’s principal piece of gambling legislation.

In 2019, Britain’s gambling laws are under review once more. …

Book Review: The Strip. Las Vegas And The Architecture Of The American Dream., Marta Soligo

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Book Review: The Strip. Las Vegas and the Architecture of the American Dream

Glass Ceilings & Leaky Pipelines: Gender Disparity In The Casino Industry, Toni Repetti, Shekinah L. Hoffman

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

While women account for over half the hospitality workforce there is a gap in leadership positions. This study evaluates 10,950 management positions in 972 United States commercial and Native American casinos, as of December 2016. The results show women hold 35.5% of manager and above positions. Women lead in departments such as human resources, public relations, and sales and events, but lag in casino operations management. This demonstrates horizontal occupational segregation. The results also indicate women represent 46.7% of managers, but significantly less of executive leadership. Women held only 19.4% of owner, president, and chief positions. This suggests vertical occupational …

An Exploratory Study In To The Money Laundering Threats, Vulnerabilities, And Controls Within The Uk Bookmaker Sector, With A Specific Focus On Fixed-Odds Betting Terminals, Kane Pepi

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

The purpose of this exploratory study was to generate an understanding in to the money laundering threats, vulnerabilities and controls found within UK betting shops, with a direct focus on the exponential growth of Fixed-Odd Betting Terminals. Qualitative research methods facilitated eight semi-structured interviews with key stakeholders linked to the gambling and/or money laundering sphere. This included the Gambling Commission, Campaign for Fairer Gambling, an ex-Head of Security and Safety at a major bookmaker, and five regular Fixed-Odd Betting Terminal users. The interviews were recorded, transcribed and coded for thematic analysis, subsequently resulting in the emergence of four interesting and …

Entry Fees As A Responsible Gambling Tool: An Economic Analysis, Kahlil Philander

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Entry fees or levies have received increased interest as a responsible gambling tool and have been implemented or proposed in an increasing number of jurisdictions. Using comparative statics, this study applies economic theory to understand the distributional consequences of entry fees on players with and without gambling related problems. Overall, it appears that there is relatively weak theoretical support for entry fees’ use as responsible gambling tool as they primarily distort the demand of more price sensitive recreational gamblers. This creates a potentially large dead weight loss in the economy, and likely increases the share of revenue from players with …

The Pr Of Csr For The Casino Industry: A Review Of Challenging Corporate Social Responsibility: Lessons For Public Relations From The Casino Industry, Andrew B. Gustafson

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

This is a review of Jessalynn Strauss' recent book, Challenging Corporate Social Responsibility: Lessons for Public Relations from the Casino Industry. Through an analysis of Casino’s CSR practices, Strauss raises some serious concerns about this alignment between CSR and PR, and provides reasons to doubt whether SCR done for strategic bottom line interests rather than purely ethical reasons will consistently accomplish what the casinos set out to achieve.

The Free-Play Tax Deduction Debate: How Academic Research Can Help, Anthony F. Lucas, Katherine Spilde

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Free-play is the primary play incentive for slot players in many jurisdictions, with some campaigns eclipsing $50 million in annual redemptions. The efficacy of these incentives remains questionable at best, creating some contentious tax policy issues. Operators want to deduct the face value of these offers from taxable gaming win, based in part on the assumption that they expand the tax base; however, many regulators and taxing authorities question this claim. Any failure to fully recover redeemed free-play creates a deduction that is partially funded by tax payers. Arguments on both sides of this complex tax policy issue are thoroughly …

Foreign Exchange Rate Effect On International Gaming Demand: An Examination From An Upscale Las Vegas Casino, Myongjee Yoo, Ashok K. Singh, Kasra Ghaharian

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Las Vegas has developed into one of the world’s top tourist destinations, and the international market has become a vital stream of the city’s revenue. The objective of this study was to understand the foreign exchange rate as a determinant for international gaming demand in the Las Vegas gaming industry. This study applied the econometric modeling method of panel data analysis to secondary data originated from a Las Vegas Strip casino property. This study attempted to validate the foreign exchange effect through empirical investigation. Results of this study showed that foreign exchange rate has an impact on international gaming demand.

Budd Revisited - Gambling In Great Britain 15 Years On, Daniel Waugh Mr

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

In 2000, Sir Alan Budd, the noted economist was asked by the British Government to chair a review of the nation’s gambling laws. The resulting ‘The Report of the Gambling Review Body’ (referred to here as ‘The Budd Report’ or ‘Budd’) was published a year later and provided a blueprint for how gaming and betting would subsequently be regulated under a major new piece of legislation - the Gambling Act 2005 (the ‘2005 Act’ or the ‘Gambling Act’).

The work of the Gambling Review Body (the ‘Review Body’) was undertaken at considerable expense and effort – more than 200 submissions …

Forecasting Casino Gaming Traffic With A Data Mining Alternative To Croston’S Method, Barry E. King

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Other researchers have used Croston’s method to forecast traffic at casino game tables. Our data mining alternative to Croston’s method more accurately forecasts gaming traffic using the rich databases that are frequently available at casinos. A more accurate forecast will allow for better planning of staffing on the casino floor.

Customer Retention: Reducing Online Casino Player Churn Through The Application Of Predictive Modeling, Eunju Suh, Matt Alhaery

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

With the potential expansion of legalized online gaming in the United States as well as in the global market, customer retention is critical to the continued growth and success of an online casino. While customer churn prediction can be an essential part of customer retention efforts, it has received very little attention in the gaming literature. Using historical online gaming data, this study examines whether player churn (attrition) can be predicted through an application of a decision tree data mining algorithm called Exhaustive CHAID (E-CHAID). The results of this empirical study suggest that the predictive model based on the E-CHAID …

Identifying Opportunities To Inform And Inspire: Tribal Casino Employee Perceptions Of Tribal Self Sufficiency And Philanthropy, Sandra Sun-Ah Ponting Dr, Jess Ponting, Katherine Spilde

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

While the business case for employee engagement and satisfaction is well documented in the service profit chain and the cost savings of employee retention are easily quantified, the means to achieving these related goals in the casino industry is not well known. The pathway to employee engagement and satisfaction is even less well known in the tribal government gaming industry. This paper finds that employees in casinos that are owned by tribal governments in the United States find particular pride in sharing the tribal government’s self-sufficiency, community engagement, and philanthropic activities with casino guests, who often wonder “where the money …

How The Great Recession Affected Casino Staffing In Nevada Casinos, Toni Repetti

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

In service based industries, as revenue increases so does the need for employees to provide that service, but no known academic research has been conducted on what the most efficient level of that service should be for casinos. In Nevada casinos, significant results show that for each 1% increase in gaming revenue, casino employees increase 0.80%, salaries and wages increase 0.91%, and total payroll increases 0.95%. During fiscal years 2008 – 2010, what many consider the most significant recession to date for Nevada casinos, gaming divisions significantly decreased employees 11.6%, salaries and wages 8.7%, and total payroll 8.8% beyond that …

Play The Cards, Roll The Dice – The Integration Of Casinos Within Asian Tourism Destination Development Strategy, Glenn Mccartney

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

New Asian casino destinations continue to emerge and expand their gambling options. The historical rhetoric of being a panacea to economic and tourism woes continues to dominant decades later. Yet the excessive regulatory environments and taxation regimes by authorities on the casino industry are unlike those applied to other destination tourism products. Once the domain of the United States in the 1990s with entertainment capitals such as Las Vegas and Atlantic City, the proliferation of legalised casino gaming is now accentuated in Asia in destinations such as Macao, Korea, Singapore and the Philippines. As a tourism product, this article highlights …

Comparing Loyalty Program Tiering Strategies: An Investigation From The Gaming Industry, Myongjee Yoo, Ashok K. Singh

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Loyalty programs are popular marketing strategies developed for the purpose of attracting, maintaining, and enhancing customer relationships. Due to the explosive worldwide growth of, and increased competition within, the casino industry has compelled contemporary casino marketers to rely more heavily on loyalty programs to increase guest allegiance and the frequency of repeat visits from their customers. Despite the widespread usage of loyalty programs across various gaming businesses in Las Vegas, its effectiveness has not quite been validated. The purpose of this study is to examine customers’ behavioral loyalty within the Las Vegas gaming industry and examine the effectiveness of a …

Conjoining The Concepts Of Visitor Attitude And Place Image To Better Understand Casino Patrons' Behavioral Intentions, Suosheng Wang

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

The importance of visitor attitude and place image in understanding individual’s visit behavioral intention has both been emphasized in tourism literature. However, the two concepts seem to have been amalgamated; their distinctive and interactive roles are rarely discussed. To fill this gap, this study investigated visitor attitude from two different aspects in the context of casino gaming – one’s generic attitude versus specific attitude. A conjoined conceptual model based on the theories of planned behavior and place image is developed and empirically tested in the context of casinos in Central Indiana. The results indicate that ‘generic attitude,’ ‘specific attitude’ and …

Doubling Down On Goffman: A Commentary On Dmitri Shalin’S ‘Erving Goffman, Fateful Action, And The Las Vegas Gambling Scene’, James Cosgrave

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Erving Goffman “was not a sociologist of any particular area” (Scheff 2006: 20). He was, in fact, a sociologist of many areas: the interaction order, stigma, “total institutions,” gender, “forms of talk,” public behaviour – and gambling certainly belongs to the list. He may be better known for these other topics, but his contributions to the sociological analysis of gambling are canonical. Thus, another sociological hat can be worn. A unique, inventive social scientist, Goffman could pull off the donning of many such hats. Bucking the standard presentation of social scientific research in journal articles, Goffman was the “master of …

The Evolution Of The Concept Of Social Action: Parsons And Goffman, Philip Manning

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Goffman’s analysis of gambling is very important for our overall understanding of his work. This is because Goffman’s sociology is driven by both theoretical and ethnographic impulses, and his gambling project is the third of his three major ethnographic investigations. Goffman’s study of gambling is a key component in his sociology because it (a) develops a conceptual approach to the study of the interaction order, (b) extends Parsons’ and Merton’s analysis of social action and social control, and (c) links the microeconomic analysis of the social world that he associated with Thomas Schelling that has become the mainstay of the …

Can We Scale Up Goffman? From Vegas To The World Stage, Jeffrey J. Sallaz

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

It is an all-too-common lament among sociologists that Erving Goffman, though his writings remain widely read and respected today, failed to spawn an ongoing and cohesive research tradition. His idiosyncratic methods of data collection, the uniqueness of his biographical trajectory, and even his prickly personality have all been invoked to explain the lack of a distinctly Goffmanian school of research (Gamson 1985; Scheff, Phillips, and Kincaid 2006; Smith 2006; Shalin 2014). It is also the case that micro-oriented sociologies, such as symbolic interactionism and especially ethnomethodology, have been pushed to the margins of sociology as a consequence of the ascendency …

Goffman, Action, And Risk Society: Aesthetic Reflexivity In Late Modernity, Stephen Lyng

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

When I decided to write about edgework over twenty-five years ago, I had no idea that I had put myself on a pathway of sustained engagement with one of the most important sociologists of the twentieth century. As an academic sociologist in the early stages of my career, I felt that I had a good general understanding of Erving Goffman’s most important ideas and a proper appreciation of his unique contributions to my discipline. Although I had a certain affinity for Goffman’s brand of sociology, I deliberately avoided pressure from close friends and colleagues to become a “Goffmaniac,” the kind …

Las Vegas As A Symbol: Goffman And Competing Narratives Of Sin City, Michael Green

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Dmitri Shalin has demonstrated the importance of Erving Goffman to the field of sociology, and in this case to the sociology of Las Vegas as a gambling, resort, and urban center. But Goffman also was part of a trend, or more accurately what became a trend, and he played an important role in it. When Goffman came to Las Vegas in the late 1950s and early 1960s in connection with his field work as a downtown casino dealer, “the city of non-homes,” as he called it, was at a turning point in a variety of ways. When he published his …

Erving Goffman’S Las Vegas: From Jungle To Boardroom, David G. Schwartz

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Sociologist Erving Goffman’s presence in Las Vegas never yielded a definitive publication. Though it informed his work about action and interaction, his time in Las Vegas—both as a blackjack dealer and a player—remains one of the great what-ifs of gambling academia. This is regrettable, not only because the field would have benefited immeasurably from the analysis of a figure of Goffman’s talent and repute, but because Goffman was in Las Vegas exactly as the city’s casino business was undergoing its most significant shift, from small-scale, syndicate-owned ventures with links to former and current illegal enterprises elsewhere to massive, publicly-traded, mainstream-financed …

Erving Goffman, Fateful Action, And The Las Vegas Gambling Scene, Dmitri N. Shalin

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

This paper explores Erving Goffman’s research on gambling, the historical context within which he articulated his views on risk taking, and the contribution he made to our understanding of gambling as a stigmatized social activity. Drawing on the large database assembled in the Erving Goffman Archives, the article traces Goffman’s footprint in Las Vegas and shows the personal as well as scholarly dimensions of his interest in betting practices in entertainment venues and risk taking in society at large. The argument is made that the theory of fateful action presented in the seminal study “Where the Action Is” remains a …

A Brave New World Of Ambient Intelligence In The Casinos Of Macau: Reality Or Fiction?, Hugo Luz Dos Santos Mr.

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

The article scrutinizes the brave new world of ambient intelligence in the casinos of the Macau, Special Administrative Region of People´s Republic of China, chiefly in regards to the (candent) issue of privacy of the casino patrons.

Moreover, this scientific article provides an overview about the secondary use of big data of the casino patrons for law enforcement purposes.

Becoming Respectable: A History Of Early Social Responsibility In The Las Vegas Casino Industry, Jessalynn R. Strauss

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Today’s gaming corporations actively engage with their communities by supporting nonprofit organizations and adopting environmentally friendly practices among other socially responsible actions. This research considers precursors to modern corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the gaming industry by examining the philanthropic activities of the casino owners in Las Vegas in the early days of its development. This historical look at early philanthropy in the gaming industry provides a contextual background for considering contemporary corporate social responsibility. While the gaming industry has clearly come a long way from its early ties to organized crime, an understanding of this context helps further discussion …

The Perceptions Of Macao Undergraduates Regarding Help Websites For Problem Gambling, Chang Boon Patrick Lee, Heng Tang, Wing Han Brenda Chan

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

This study conducted a web-surfing exercise and a questionnaire survey among a group of Macao undergraduate students regarding the websites that offered help with problem gambling. The results of this study found that most help websites in Macao and Hong Kong provided basic information-sharing service. The students indicated that they would choose their preferred help organization based on factors such as trust, familiarity, and the characteristics of the websites. They also gave comments/suggestions related to the publicity, design, contents, and focus of the websites. This study discussed the results and their implications for future research and practice.

A Checklist: Questions That New Gaming Jurisdictions Need To Consider In Adopting Gaming Laws And Regulations, Anthony Cabot

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Review Article: This checklist sets out the major items that should be considered in crafting a regulatory system.

Book Review: Chopsticks And Gambling, By Desmond Lam, Ph.D., Andrew Gustafson

UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Book Review:

Desmond Lam. Chopsticks and Gambling. Transaction Publishers, 2014. 172pp. (Cloth) ISBN 978-4128-5393-4