Award Date

5-2017

Degree Type

Professional Paper

Degree Name

Master of Science in Hotel Administration

Department

Hotel Administration

First Committee Member

Billy Bai

Number of Pages

51

Abstract

The Las Vegas gaming and hospitality industry has seen many changes over the last two decades. For the longest time, casinos were illegal everywhere except in Nevada, and gambling was viewed as a vice. It was not until the 1970s when attitudes started to shift. The Nevada Gaming Control Board was established to oversee and govern many aspects of the business, in order to promote the industry and reduce the perceived negative social impacts. LVCVA (Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority) also strategically promotes the city as the ideal tourist destination. Las Vegas has now become a highly competitive tourist destination.

Due to the increased competition, casinos operators need to constantly optimize their operations in order to stay ahead. It is imperative for them to find the best talent for their show stages, design and build bigger and better amenities for guests, and come up with innovative gaming products and services. At the same time, these casino operators also need to ask themselves how to focus their marketing efforts. Casinos generally segment their business into several distinct groups. Guests can be gaming or non-gaming. Gaming guests can be slot players, table games players, or poker players. They can be local, domestic, or international. They can be further separated into mass or high-end guests. Each segment is different in terms of the amount and type of business they bring as well as the marketing efforts required.

High-end gaming has long been a focus of casinos. Historically, it has been a large source of bottom-line profit. Indeed, whales and premium players may represent only a small fraction of gamblers while accounting for a large share, if not a majority, of gross gaming revenues. As long as casinos can narrow their focus and attend to these key players, they can expect to make profit from them. The problem is that like most customers, high-end players also know how to shop around for the best deals. Given the highly competitive market in Las Vegas, casinos will undercut one another to attract these players. In the end, maybe it is the player who ends up with the edge.

Keywords

Las Vegas, NV; Casino operations

Disciplines

Business | Business Administration, Management, and Operations | Gaming and Casino Operations Management

File Format

pdf

File Size

127 Kb

Degree Grantor

University of Nevada, Las Vegas

Language

English

Rights

IN COPYRIGHT. For more information about this rights statement, please visit http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/


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