Gaming and Casino Operations Management Commons^™

Las Vegas Casino Revenue In An Expanding Gambling Market, Kaden A. Villa-Real

Undergraduate Economics Working Paper Series

This study examines whether expanding gambling substitutes disrupt the Las Vegas gambling industry using quarterly data from 2014 through 2025. Las Vegas casino revenue is used as the benchmark to gauge the health of Las Vegas, adjusted to Quarter 1 2014 dollars and using an OLS regression model. The results imply that online sports betting is a poor substitute for Las Vegas revenue, while online gambling shows a positive and statistically significant relationship with revenue. The findings indicate that Las Vegas is resilient despite the introduction of more competition and gambling alternatives within an industry it has traditionally known to …

Gambling Behaviors: How Do Gambling Losses Affect Future Wagers?, Ashley Talavera, Hannah Lopez Ibarra, Roman Rozbitskyy

Undergraduate Economics Working Paper Series

This study looks at how previous gambling losses affect future betting behavior in online cryptocurrency gambling markets. Using roughly 50,000 real betting observations from Bustabit, the paper tests whether gamblers become more aggressive after losses or instead pull back and bet more cautiously. Using both OLS and Fixed Effects regression models, the results show that players generally reduce their wager sizes following losses rather than engage in strong loss-chasing behavior. After controlling for individual player tendencies, the Fixed Effects models show statistically significant decreases in future bet sizes after losses, suggesting that caution and loss aversion may play a larger …

When Price Varies Across Otas: How Room Rate Disparity Shapes Switching Behavior And Brand Trust, Ling Ling, Chich-Chien Chen, Zvi Schwartz

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

This study investigates how room rate disparity across Online Travel Agencies (OTAs) influences consumers’ switching behavior and perceptions of hotel brand integrity. Employing a scenario-based experimental design with a sample of 430 Chinese consumers, we explored price differences interact with loyalty status, price trajectory information, and brand consistency. Our findings reveal a complex non-linear inverse sigmoid relationship between rate disparity and channel switching. Contrary to expectations, loyalty membership did not reduce switching intent or increase discount thresholds. Moreover, rate disparity triggered brand integrity concerns, with brand doubt consistently exceeding switching intent. While price trajectory information did not change switching likelihood, …

Gambling Behaviors, Perceptions, And Risks Among Nevada Adults, Andrea Dassopoulos

International Gaming Institute Faculty Research

This study presents a statewide assessment of gambling behaviors, perceptions, and gambling-related risk among 1,078 Nevada adults. Using a mixed-source, population-calibrated survey developed by UNLV and NORC, the research measures gambling participation, motivations, venue exposure, and attitudes toward harm, treatment, and regulation. The Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI) identifies substantial levels of harm: nearly half of past-year gamblers show some degree of risk, with the highest rates among younger adults, racially diverse groups, gaming and hospitality workers, and those who gamble in neighborhood bars or slot parlors. The survey also documents public beliefs about gambling addiction, youth exposure, stigma, and …

Ai Governance In The Gaming Industry: A Proposal For A Use Case Registry, Cesar D. Lozoya Martinez

Student Research

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly integrated into everyday life. From customer service chatbots and marketing strategies to player protection tools and surveillance systems, casino operations are embracing the trend. However, without a systematic framework to track the current and emerging use cases across the industry, concerns about transparency, ethical use, and potential consumer harm continue to grow. Rather than aiming to establish binding regulatory practices for an industry and technology that are both quickly evolving, this policy brief advocates for the creation of an AI-use case registry. The registry would comprehensively track gaming companies that are using AI. The growing …

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

Faculty and Staff 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 …

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

Faculty and Staff 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 …

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

Faculty and Staff 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 …

Ua12/2/1 College Heights Herald: Your Vote Matters, Wku Student Affairs

WKU Administration Documents

Magazine edition of the College Heights Herald for the period October 4 - November 6, 2023.

• Anderson, Alexandria. Letter from the Editor – Elections
• Reed, Bailey. Every Vote in This County is Important – Daniel Cameron, Andy Beshear
• Phelps, Maggie. The Importance of Voter Registration
• Daniel Cameron on the Issues
• Andy Beshear on the Issues
• Di Palermo, Dominic. The Bowling Green Rock Band Academy – Musicians
• Costellow, Ali. Students & Campus Organizations Prepare for November Election
• Wilborn, Price. Wokeness Is Not a Bad Thing, and People Need to Stop Saying It Is
• Edmonds, Luke. A Kentuckian’s Guide to Legal Sports …

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

Faculty and Staff 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 …

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 Research

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 …

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 and Staff 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 and Staff 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 and Staff 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 …

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

Faculty and Staff 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.

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

Faculty and Staff 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 Keeneland Race Course On The Lexington Metro Area With Projections For This Year’S Breeders Cup, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty and Staff 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 and Staff 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 …

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

International Gaming Institute Faculty Research

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 …

Open Science Practices In Gambling Research Publications (2016–2019): A Scoping Review, Eric R. Louderback, Sally M. Gainsbury, Robert M. Heirene, Karen Amichia, Alessandra Grossman, Bo J. Bernhard, Debi A. Laplante

International Gaming Institute Faculty Research

The replication crisis has stimulated researchers around the world to adopt open science research practices intended to reduce publication bias and improve research quality. Open science practices include study pre-registration, open data, open access, and avoiding methods that can lead to publication bias and low replication rates. Although gambling studies uses similar research methods as behavioral research fields that have struggled with replication, we know little about the uptake of open science research practices in gambling-focused research. We conducted a scoping review of 500 recent (1/1/2016–12/1/2019) studies focused on gambling and problem gambling to examine the use of open science …

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

Faculty and Staff 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 …

Gambling Opinions And Participation In Kentucky Versus The Other 49 States, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Much has been written in the Kentucky press over the last few years about how the state is falling behind other states due to Kentucky’s absence of traditional casinos, sports gambling on the NFL, NCAA, etc., and other gambling forms. A major topic has been the potential tax revenues that would be collected if some forms of gambling are legalized in the state. Yet not much has been written about how Kentucky citizens differ from or are similar to citizens in other states with respect to opinions about gambling morality, gambling and spending preferences, and gambling policy. State laws are …

Association Between Casino Resort Employee Department And Responsible Gambling Program Perceptions: A Three-Year Follow-Up Study, Brett Abarbanel, Tiange Xu, Shane Kraus, Heather Gray, Eric Louderback, Debi Laplante, Bo Bernhard

Psychology Faculty Research

This study presents results from a third wave of data collection of a longitudinal project investigating implementation of an RG program, GameSense, at MGM Resorts International (MGM), and how casino employees perceive responsible gambling (RG) efforts. Survey data at three time periods – Year 1 (baseline, N = 2,192), Year 2 (one-year follow-up, N = 852) and Year 3 (two-year follow-up, N = 1,114) – measured MGM employees’ (1) perceptions of RG program effectiveness, (2) gambling misconceptions, and (3) perceived company support. We conducted a one-way MANCOVA on Year 3 data, with gambling industry tenure as the covariate, and a …

Do Simulcasting And Off-Track Betting Benefit Or Harm Kentucky On-Track Betting?, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Implications Of Online Gambling Legalization, William M. Schmidt

Student Publications

The tradition of gambling has been around for thousands of years, but has undergone a recent evolution into what it is perceived as today. This has turned it into an industry of its own, which will only continue to grow with the ongoing legalization of online gambling. Past trends in these legislations would project further economic growth tied to the gambling industry. However, the mental health implications that have been seen to stem from the practice of gambling are as present as ever. This problem associated with the industry will also be expected to climb as gambling becomes both more …

Historical Horse Racing Trends Over The Last Five Years: How Much Does Each Machine Earn?, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Did Covid Benefit Or Harm Horse Racing Wagering? A Comparison Of Trends, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Different media accounts during the recent Covid-19 pandemic have mentioned an upswing in horse racing gambling thanks to a decline in other forms of wagering at casinos and with sports gambling. This paper examines gambling trends across the US before and during the pandemic for these forms in gambling as well as lotteries. Horse racing wagering did see an increase, but not as dramatically as one would expect.

Sports Gaming, Casinos, And Horse Racing In New Jersey: The Record Before And During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Thomas E. Lambert

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

New Jersey was the first state to legalize sports gaming outside of Nevada after a landmark US Supreme Court decision in May 2018 struck down a federal law banning sports gambling in all other states and the District of Columbia (Liptak and Draper 2018). Some race tracks such as Monmouth Park race track began offering sports gambling as a way to bring back fans to parimutuel wagering which had been and still is in decline for several decades at tracks throughout the nation (Associated Press 2019). This brief paper examines trends in New Jersey on how sports gambling has grown …

Gambling Researchers’ Use And Views Of Open Science Principles And Practices: A Brief Report, Debi A. Laplante, Eric R. Louderback, Brett Abarbanel

International Gaming Institute Faculty Research

Scientists across disciplines have begun to implement ‘open science’ principles and practices, which are designed to enhance the quality, transparency, and replicability of scientific research. Yet, studies examining the use of open science practices in social science fields such as psychology and economics show that awareness and use of such practices often is low. In gambling studies research, no studies to date have empirically investigated knowledge of and use of open science practices. In the present study, we collected survey data about awareness and use of open science practices from 86 gambling studies research stakeholders who had attended a major …

Crisis Management Practices In The Hospitality And Gambling Industry During Covid-19, Kasra Ghaharian, Brett Abarbanel, Marta Soligo, Bo Bernhard

International Gaming Institute Faculty Research

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine crisis management practices among gambling-related hospitality business stakeholders (GBSs) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was administered to a sample of GBSs resulting in 64 completed surveys. The survey explored the COVID-19 crisis using a three-phase framework: preparedness (prior experience and response plans), response (level of importance and use of crisis practices) and future (confidence in recovery, beliefs about consumer behavior and new strategies). Independent-samples t-tests were conducted to investigate the influence of preparedness variables on crisis management capabilities. Importance-Performance Analysis was used to …