UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

Nipped in the Budd? Assessing the wisdom of the Gambling Review Body’s recommendations in relation to problem gambling

Daniel Waugh et al. — Sun, 21 Jul 2019 09:28:17 PDT

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. The Labour Party (at the date of writing, the principal political party of Opposition) has set out plans for “a new Gambling Act that is fit for the digital age” ; while the House of Lords has approved a special inquiry committee on the “”Social and Economic consequences of the gambling industry ”.

Against this backdrop, there may be merit in revisiting Budd.

This essay considers two of the Budd Report’s key aims – the protection of vulnerable people and the protection of children[1]. It reviews those recommendations that were explicitly directed towards harm prevention; as well as a number of broader proposals which have clear relevance to the subject. This essay reviews Budd’s recommendations from 2001 against subsequent events – and in particular asks the question of whether the report contributed to the development of future regulatory problems and political controversies.

Optimal Conditional Expectation at the Video Poker Game Jacks or Better

Stewart N. Ethier et al. — Sun, 17 Mar 2019 16:10:20 PDT

There are 134,459 distinct initial hands at the video poker game Jacks or Better, taking suit exchangeability into account. A computer program can determine the optimal strategy (i.e., which cards to hold) for each such hand, but a complete list of these strategies would require a book-length manuscript. Instead, a hand-rank table, which fits on a single page and reproduces the optimal strategy perfectly, was found for Jacks or Better as early as the mid 1990s. Is there a systematic way to derive such a hand-rank table? We show that there is indeed, and it involves finding the exact optimal conditional expected return, given the initial hand. In the case of Jacks or Better (paying 800, 50, 25, 9, 6, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0), this is a random variable with 1,153 distinct values, of which 766 correspond to garbage hands for which it is optimal to draw five new cards. We describe the hands corresponding to each of the remaining 387 values of the optimal conditional expected return (sorted from largest to smallest) and show how this leads readily to an optimal strategy hand-rank table for Jacks or Better. Of course, the method applies to other video poker games as well.

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

Marta Soligo — Tue, 20 Nov 2018 17:03:08 PST

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 et al. — Thu, 26 Jul 2018 14:29:31 PDT

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 segregation or a potential glass ceiling. Gaps in vertical leadership occur across individual departments as well.

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 — Sat, 12 May 2018 07:48:59 PDT

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 meaningful themes. These were (1) Ineffective CDD enforcement facilitating anonymity (2) Weak anti-money laundering safeguards unable to mitigate known threats (3) A lack of anti-money laundering training, awareness, and resources (4) The Gambling Commission’s attempt for increased anti-money laundering regulation unsuccessful. By allowing a phenomenological framework to guide the data collection process, the interpreted subjective views and experiences of the participants involved, although somewhat limited, indicate that money laundering threats within the bookmaker sector are inherently high, with a lack of effective safeguards in place to mitigate the identified vulnerabilities.

Golden Arm: A Probabilistic Study of Dice Control in Craps

Donald R. Smith et al. — Thu, 03 May 2018 02:48:05 PDT

This paper calculates how much control a craps shooter must possess on dice outcomes to eliminate the house advantage. A golden arm is someone who has dice control (or a rhythm roller or dice influencer). There are various strategies for dice control in craps. We discuss several possibilities of dice control that would result in several different mathematical models of control. We do not assert whether dice control is possible or not (there is a lack of published evidence). However, after studying casino-legal methods described by dice-control advocates, we can see only one realistic mathematical model that describes the resulting possible dice control, that in which the four faces on a rotating (horizontal) axis are favored. This is the model that we analyze in this paper.

Regulating a “Pariah” Industry: The Need for a Responsive Approach in Gambling Markets

Melissa Rorie — Wed, 18 Oct 2017 09:36:05 PDT

Gaming regulators are uniquely positioned state agents, who must consider contradictory goals in their day-to-day actions. They must protect the public (and maintain the legitimacy of government) but are also responsible for ensuring that the gaming industry provides needed revenue to the state. To that end, regulators are not only responsible for promoting the legitimacy of the government but also, to some extent, must consider how they can encourage the legitimization of a previously illegal behavior. Prior research has examined regulators’ attempts to balance such “structural contradictions” through their licensing process, but little research has been done on regulatory responses to licensee violations. The present review suggests that a transparent and “responsive” regulatory response to such violations would benefit regulators, the industry, and the public. I review the contradictions inherent in regulating the gaming industry, describe the “Responsive Regulation” approach, and then detail how “Responsive Regulation” could uniquely benefit gaming. I conclude with a call for more collaboration between regulators, practitioners (including industry participants), and academics.

All In - and More! Gambling in the James Bond Films

Pauliina Raento — Thu, 12 Oct 2017 18:13:06 PDT

Scholarly analysis of gambling in the James Bond films is rare, despite the multitude of topics in Bondology and the fictional agent’s global fame. The odd commentary in gambling scholarship criticizes the franchise from the perspective of harm prevention. This article counters both groups of scholars with a qualitative interpretation of Bond’s gambling habits and the role of gambling and risk taking in the film series. A basic toolkit of visual methodologies is applied to the 24 EON-produced Bond films released in 1962–2015. The examination shows the critical importance of gambling to character identity, power hierarchies and communication, atmosphere, and sense of risk and danger. The study shows that not only gamblers and gambling, but also individual games and settings have narrative agency in the films. The results expand understanding about gambling in cinema and ways of studying it, and the existing readings in Bondology of the 2006 prequel Casino Royale. The findings encourage open-minded inquiries into diverse audiences and their responses. The findings call for, and exemplify the value of, deeper interdisciplinary understanding of popular culture in gambling research.

Entry Fees as a Responsible Gambling Tool: An Economic Analysis

Kahlil Philander — Mon, 25 Sep 2017 15:33:42 PDT

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 a gambling disorder.

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 — Thu, 18 May 2017 08:55:38 PDT

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 et al. — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 16:39:44 PDT

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 covered. An extensive review of academic research suggests that most campaigns are not fully recovering redeemed free-play credits. Recommendations include the use of extant time series models to measure returns on free-play campaigns. These models will help operators improve returns and address regulator concerns regarding unwarranted tax deductions. The wide range of different tax treatments across jurisdictions suggests regulatory uncertainty and a need for policy guidance. The data-driven policy reform advanced herein offers an equitable win-win scenario. Anything short of this is likely to fuel continued speculation by both sides, further straining the relationship between regulators and operators.

Foreign Exchange Rate Effect on International Gaming Demand: An examination from an Upscale Las Vegas Casino

Myongjee Yoo et al. — Mon, 13 Feb 2017 16:30:44 PST

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 — Thu, 24 Nov 2016 06:38:35 PST

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 were evaluated, 20 evidence gathering sessions were held, a number of overseas jurisdictions were visited. In the end, a 201-page report was produced. The Review Body’s 176 recommendations for how gambling ought to be regulated were based upon a set of explicitly stated policy objectives designed to further the interests of the British consumer - balancing extended choice with enhanced protections.

It was the last time that gambling was subjected to such intense scrutiny in Great Britain; the last time that such a wide variety of regulatory options were weighed with such consideration. It is to be lamented that in the 15 years since the publication of the Budd Report – a period of profound change in the British gambling market – there has been no systematic attempt to assess whether the ambitions of the Review Body have been achieved.

The aim of this essay is to do precisely that – to examine how gambling in Great Britain has developed through the prism of Budd’s aspirations.

Forecasting Casino Gaming Traffic with a Data Mining Alternative to Croston’s Method

Barry E. King — Sun, 20 Nov 2016 10:44:38 PST

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 et al. — Wed, 02 Nov 2016 10:40:22 PDT

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 method can be a valuable tool for identifying potential churners and understanding their churn behavior. Additionally, this study shows how the classification rules and propensity scores extracted from a decision tree churn model can be used to identify players at risk of churn. The patron play and visitation parameters that are closely associated with churn are also discussed. This study contributes to the gaming literature by focusing on online players’ churn prediction through a data-driven approach. Finally, it discusses proactive approaches for churn prevention.

Identifying Opportunities To Inform And Inspire: Tribal Casino Employee Perceptions Of Tribal Self Sufficiency And Philanthropy

Sandra Sun-Ah Ponting Dr et al. — Mon, 17 Oct 2016 17:55:48 PDT

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 goes.” The paper supports our case with data collected from tribal casino employees in four Southern California casinos that demonstrate that employees are a good source to share crafted messages with casino guests. We put these philanthropic and charitable contributions in the larger context of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) strategies that commercial casino companies have implemented through their trade association, the American Gaming Association, in order to manage perceptions of the gambling industry in the United States.

How the Great Recession Affected Casino Staffing in Nevada Casinos

Toni Repetti — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 12:26:55 PDT

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 needed due to the decrease in revenue. In addition following this recession, gaming divisions continued to make decreases with 15.2% fewer employees, 11% less in salaries and wages, and 12.7% less in total payroll than prior to the recession. Since managers during and past the recession were able to decrease payroll beyond that demanded for the change in business volumes, they were either overstaffed prior or not maintaining labor efficiencies during non-recessionary periods.

Play the cards, roll the dice – the integration of casinos within Asian tourism destination development strategy

Glenn McCartney — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 14:15:24 PDT

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 that the arguments for and against casinos are narrowly embedded in social and economic influences, with a limited emphasis on a broader holistic approach on the implications on overall tourism management and development. Observations to date suggest greater prominence and participation by Asia’s NTOs (National Tourism Offices) and DMOs (Destination Management Companies) are needed on the future of the casino’s role within the tourism system and destination master plan and vision.

Comparing Loyalty Program Tiering Strategies: An investigation from the gaming industry

Myongjee Yoo et al. — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 14:15:20 PDT

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 specific loyalty program using secondary data obtained from a Las Vegas casino hotel. Specifically, this study segmented loyalty program members to investigate the effectiveness of a casino loyalty program’s tiering strategy on members’ purchase behavior. Further, this study employed Recency-Frequency-Monetary (RFM) analysis to examine two different types of tiering strategies.

Conjoining the Concepts of Visitor Attitude and Place Image to Better Understand Casino Patrons' Behavioral Intentions

Suosheng Wang — Wed, 07 Sep 2016 14:15:17 PDT

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 ‘cognitive image’ all play significant and distinctive roles in the process of formulating visitor’s behavioral intention. The theoretical and practical implications of this study are discussed.