Examining Expanded Differences in Slot Machine Pars: An Analysis of Revenue Impacts and Player Sensitivity to “Price”

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1-14-2020

Publication Title

International Journal of Hospitality Management

Volume

86

First page number:

1

Last page number:

9

Abstract

This work addressed critical questions related to the optimization of all-important slot revenues, as they are critical to the success of most of the world’s casinos. Using data collected from a live gaming floor, the obfuscated pars of otherwise identical reel slot machines were manipulated to determine whether differences in game-level performance and/or player detection would occur. The results indicated significant and substantial increases in revenue for the high-par games, with no clear signs of play migration toward their paired low-par counterparts. These results were produced in spite of the clear disincentive to play the high-par games. This work extended the extant literature by increasing the time to discover the difference in pars to a full year, and by expanding the difference in the pars of the paired games. Additionally, this was the first study to examine the impacts of par differences on actual casino win.

Keywords

Casino management; Cognitive bias; Slot operations; Slot machine pars; Pricing; Casino operations analysis

Disciplines

Gaming and Casino Operations Management

Language

English

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