UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal

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Editor's Introduction

Spring has sprung, and sprung new growth and leadership here at the IGI.

As commencement approaches here on campus, it is a time to reflect on those who have grown here, and those who now continue to grow elsewhere.

Our former IGI Research Director (and grad student) Dr. Kahlil Philander has taken a dream job heading up responsible gaming programs at the BCLC — and in recognition of his skills, the organization has already given him a promotion and new tasks. Such is the curse of competence — demonstrating it yields more, not less work. Speaking of more work: we’re on the lookout for a new IGI Research Director, and we will be searching throughout the summer season. Perhaps the next one will come from these pages!

Another bright soul who has grown here is our new Associate Director at the IGI, Katherine Jackson. Katherine’s arrival caps a fascinating journey: several years ago, she hopped on a plane from London to Las Vegas with a few girlfriends, and fell immediately for the major industry on Las Vegas Boulevard. She sold her house, sold her car, sold her belongings, and then sunk the profits into a UNLV gaming education. Having graduated this past December (summa cum laude!), she began her career in leadership at the IGI this spring — which has, if you’ll pardon the expression, sprung a new generation, as spring always seems to do.

And for that — for our sprung and springing family — we are all grateful.

It is a team like this – supported, of course, by peer reviewers who (almost!) always hear raves from our contributors — that builds a spirit of hospitality that guides the management and the DNA of this journal. One of the things we hear most often from our authors is an observation that dealing with this journal is, simply, more pleasant and pleasurable than the norm — and that observation is attributable entirely to the wisdom and deep kindness that our team exhibits in its everyday editorial work.

True to our multi-disciplinary intent, in this issue we welcome a wide variety of topics from numerous disciplines — including economics, policy, mathematics, psychology, philosophy, and more. Our lead article by Andrew Economopoulos and Uli Luxem touches on a familiar topic at the GRRJ: competition in increasingly saturated markets. The authors apply spatial econometric analysis to look at the intense competition in the Mid-Atlantic U.S. region and expect that another wave is on the horizon as New Jersey pushes forward with Internet gambling, Delaware looks to reduce tax rates on slots, and Pennsylvania recently approved a bill to allow small games of chance at bars.

Next, we turn to a more philosophical approach to gambling, with Cătălin Bărboianu’s epistemological taxonomy of mathematical models and an overview of how to use mathematics to minimize the potentially harmful effects of gambling. Bărboianu aims to call more attention to the use of mathematical models in problem gambling prevention and treatment, with the hope that researchers, treatment providers, operators, and players to consider applications of their use.

We then are treated to an exercise in highly applied mathematics, via a manuscript from Eunju Suh and Matt Alhaery that uses E-CHAID analysis to investigate the cross- gaming propensity of patrons at casinos. Suh and Alhaery expand on their extensive data mining research to offer means by which marketers can effectively allocate limited resources by determining which patrons are more likely to play multiple games.

Our research section concludes with an article from our own co-Executive Editor, Brett Abarbanel, and colleague Ardeshir Rahman. Abarbanel and Rahman delve into the crossover between social casino games and real money online gambling and discuss player behavior and the marketing potential for the industry in this cross-platform dynamic.

As has long been our approach, this issue also introduces two review articles with very different foci. We start with a traditional book review. Andrew Gustafson offers a glowing evaluation of Desmond Lam’s recent publication, Chopsticks and Gambling. Lam’s book offers an in-depth investigation into Chinese views and attitudes toward gambling, pulling background from the area’s history and culture. Gustafson encourages our readers to take a look and plans to use the book as required text for his own courses.

We close out this issue with a particularly special treat — one that we’ve never seen published, but that by all means should have been. World-renowned gaming lawyer Anthony Cabot has written up a checklist of items for new gaming jurisdictions to attend to when they are creating gambling laws. The result is just a taste of what’s to come at the IGI’s forthcoming International Center for Excellence in Gaming Regulation — which will be unveiled, for the first time, this coming fall!

Here’s hoping your seasons are similarly festive and event-filled.