UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

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Editor's Introduction - Brett Abarbanel

It is with great excitement that I write my first editor’s introduction for the GRRJ. This issue comes at a turning point in my career. As this issue goes to press, I am departing the comfortable world of the graduate student and entering the real academic world, where one must forge their own path with increased responsibility and without the safety net of student status.

Academic gaming research has reached a similar fork in the road. For decades, the field had Bill Eadington – the man who created understanding and acceptance of gambling as a legitimate topic for academic study – as a constant advisor. And what an advisor he was! We filled our entire October 2012 issue with essays on Bill and his impact on the field, individual careers, and personal lives. This issue contains another dedication to Bill, though we could easily have filled another full journal. The field experienced a major loss with his passing in February of this year.

My career and the field of gaming research move forward together. I can still turn to my former advisors when in need of assistance, and we all can still turn to Bill’s words, immortalized in his many publications. We honor his memory by continuing to have his voice impact how we think about gambling, and continuing his trend of expanding gambling research.

And so we continue that trend here:

We open this issue with Toni Repetti’s look at the role of promotional allowances as a potential driver of revenues and profits for Atlantic City casinos. Dr. Repetti tests the assertion made by many casino management and marketing personnel that customers could not be maintained without the infamous property comps. These claims are put to the empirical test in this issue!

Next, we turn to tribal gaming, a topic not recently discussed in the GRRJ. In this issue, we publish Katherine Spilde and Jonathan Taylor’s investigation of the economic effects of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act on tribal and neighboring communities.

The third peer-reviewed article in this issue, we head across the Pacific for a look at Macanese and Singaporean casinos and their human capital. Sudhir Kale and Sangita De investigate challenges surrounding labor shortage issues and internal marketing practices as the explosive growth of Asian gambling continues.

Our last research article continues a theme familiar to GRRJ readers: an analysis of the impacts of poker rooms on slots and table games activity. Here, Tony Lucas builds on previous publications in our journal – ranging from bingo rooms to restaurants to night clubs to sports books. Much like Dr. Repetti, Dr. Lucas challenges popular management notions with empirical analysis by examining time series models to demonstrate how poker rooms contribute (or not!) indirectly to slots and table games.

We close out this issue with a heartfelt essay from our own David Schwartz, describing the impact Bill Eadington has had on all our lives. This collection of anecdotes from Dr. Schwartz, Mark Liparelli, Peter Collins, Annie Chen, Steven Myers, Lee Skelley, Wendell Long, Ken Adams, and Richard Schuetz will bring a tear to your eye and will certainly inspire. You will come away from this essay with a newfound appreciation for Bill’s presence in gaming academe.

I conclude here with our exciting news of the past few issues: we will be hosting the 15th International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking from May 27-31, 2013 at Caesars Palace here in Las Vegas. Please visit our website at http://igi.unlv.edu/ conference for registration and travel information. We hope that you will join us next month at the largest, most prominent academic conference in gambling research as we continue to move our field forward.