Q4) Explore the Up-to-Date Trends and News about Development of Gaming Entertainment Industry

Gaming entertainment industry is evolving, either on the gaming or the non-gaming part. Some casino has noticed the non-profit part of their business has actually accounting for higher portion of their profit. Meanwhile, some casino has been actively developing on another way of gaming itself. Let's take a look of the recent trend of development on gaming entertainment industry.

Emphasized focus on non-gaming part of business

Since non-gaming part of their business was accounted for 60% of the total profit in 2014 for casinos on the Las Vegas Strip,up form 40% in 2005. Non-gaming part of gaming entertainment business is becoming more important in the industry. Operators on the Las Vegas Strip has been trying to revamp and upgrade their amenities in order to attract more customers and tourists.

For example, Hilton provides many different service for customers with different need, for example business needs, entertainment needs, or recreation needs. For instance, it has its own fitness center, pool, and providing services like spa and massage. 

We can see that the focus point of the gaming entertainment industry is actually not gaming, but mainly on entertainment. By improving the entertainment facilities and amenities, gaming industry operators are able to attract more customers and generate high profit than focusing on gaming itself.

Trend of online gaming

 We believe that online gaming is going to be the next big trend of the gaming entertainment industry. The proportion of overall entertainment and media expense on digital media of western casino has been increased from 26.0% in 2010 to 33.9% in 2015.

  There are few major difficulties in the development of online gaming, for example government regulation and taxation level.

  Although restriction on online gaming is less strict in some countries, which there have already had legal online gaming site, like the New Jersey Online Gambling. 

 In most other countries, like almost all countries in Asia Pacific, online gaming is simply illegal.

However, the taxation revenue of online gaming is an great incentive for the government to set up a set of rules and regulation to contribute to the development of online gaming. For example, legal online gaming market in Latin America is already at an embryonic stage in 2015. And there are already many successful online casino in the world. We expect successful example in some countries will be the guidelines for other countries to implement legal online gaming regulations.

Conclusion

After the research of this chapter, we learnt that even the non-gaming part is important in the gaming entertainment industry. Many customers go to the casinos only to visit the beautiful layout or the excellent services provided by the casino instead of  to gamble. And the convenience provided to the customers by going online business further proved that it is the service we provide that count, rather than the main business.

Reference

http://www.gbm.scotiabank.com/English/bns_econ/IT_gaming.pdf
https://www.pwc.com/gr/en/publications/assets/global-gaming-outlook-2011-2015.pdf

Q3) Non-Table Games in the Gaming Entertainment

We will talk about the non-table games you can played in the casino, slot machines, video lottery terminal, video poker, and keno. Give you some facts about the non-table games before we talk about the games. In Las Vegas, slots are responsible for generating more than 67% of the total casino win. All of the non-table games needs luck to play.

Slot Machines

It’s a 3-reel single-line or a 5-reel 25-line game. What you need to do it’s to press the spin button or pull the handle. The outcome will be determined by random numbers. The choices will keep changing until you press the spin button or pull the handle. The odds are the same for every spin on every machines.

Talking about the winnings, the score will be whatever the outcome is. The machine will calculate it within the system. And the money you can get is based on the rules stated in the machines. You may say it’s all about luck.

Video Lottery Terminal

Video lottery terminal is also called VLT. When playing, you need to press the button or pull the handle after putting one dollar or more to the machine. And again, it’s all about luck. The system is like that, there’s a chance to win the jackpot, one in a million. The probability will be the same in every draw because the system in the machine will reload after every play. To let you have more understandings on how this machine works, here is the scenario.

There’s a bag with 19 white marbles and 1 red marbles. So, the chances of you picking the red marble will be 1 in 20. Every play will be the same probability because you need to put it back into the bag and start again. And that’s how this machine works.

Remember to set your limit before playing this game. You may be addict to this game and wanting to win the jackpot so badly. So, do set limit before playing the game.

Video Poker

The game is simple. The machine will give you 5 cards randomly among 52 cards. Once the cards are given to you, what you need to do is to choose the cards you want to keep in this play. Then those you did not keep will be discarded and give you the new ones. After that, the machine will compare your cards with the wager to see whose marks are higher. The one who got the higher marks will win the game and get the winnings according to the pattern of your 5 cards. There are 9 patterns in this game, ‘royal flush’, ‘straight flush’, ‘4 of a kind’, ‘full house’, ‘flush’, ‘straight’, ‘3 of a kind’, ‘two pair’, ‘jacks or better’.

You can look at the instruction of this play in the machine or near the machine. So, you have more understanding on how to play this game.

Keno

Keno is also a lottery game. There are cards numbered 1 to 80. The player need to pick 10 numbers. Then, the cards will be registered and the game starts. The caller, which is the wager, will announce 22 randomly numbers. The more numbers the player matched among his selected cards, the higher winning paid. One thing different from the video lottery terminal is that you pick numbers but not pulling the handle or pressing the button.

Overall, if you are in the casino, let’s play these non-table games to see how lucky you are. After doing these researches, now I understand why slot management takes up 67% of the casino's revenue. It's all about luck.

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0N-cmH83ws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZYH9C5vSYm0

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZxMKhUMF-EE

http://wizardofodds.com/games/slots/

Q2) Research more about the successful strategies of operating gaming entertainment

         In lecture, comps, casino’s services cape, floor configuration, automated events, design of no clock and window are mentioned as some strategies adopted by casino to attract more customer and make their players to stay longer. There are some more strategy for casino to operate successfully.

Using chip instead of real money

            It is common to find that most casinos accept chip for gambling rather than letting the players to bet with real money. Using chips for operating gambling has two advantages. Different amount of money can be abstracted to chips for betting. This gives great convenience for customers to carry large amount of money around for gambling in casino, and the casino can also manage money flow in casino in and out of different table and machine easily. What more important is that players will be less concerned about the amount of money is used in gambling because even several thousands lost in table is just a chip in that moment. Thus, this encourages the players to keep playing in the casino which more bet bring more revenue for casino due to statistical advantage of their game design.

Luxuries Facilities and Comps

             Casino always includes luxuries to attract people to become one of the players in casino. They use colours such as gold and silver and place lavish decorations like chandelier, fountains, replicas, towels, etc. There are also luxury hotel rooms, restaurant and shopping malls provided near to or inside the casino. Like what have mentioned in class, free food and drink may be provided in casino to encourage players to stay longer and even put more chips on table if they are intoxicated. Comps like free shuttle services are also provided to attract more people to visit casino.

Putting ATMs at strategic places

              People need more money for gambling after they used up their chips in hand. Therefore, a lot of automatic teller machines are provided in side rooms near halls and washrooms. The reason that they do not put in obvious place is that it may embarrass players which discourage them from withdrawing money from ATMs and even stop gambling in casino. Players do not want their friends and other people to know they are in bad luck and lose money. The casino also allows their players to get money in discreet way like providing all-in-one machine for paying odd winning slot ticket in the casino so as to pretending they are not withdrawing money because they do not have enough money in hand for betting after several games.

Casino Security

             Security is also very important for successful operations in casino. As players may cheat on table or steal money from others in the casino, the front line staff like dealers and table managers in the casino has to keep an eye on every players. Casinos also have strict monitoring on front line staff by arranging a ‘higher-up’ person for each patron to track the money flow and watch their work. Surveillance cameras are also installed in different corners of the casino for the security staff to monitor the players all around the casino and operations of each table, changed window and doorway. They may focus and track on suspected players using the camera.  Besides, the surveillance camera videos are kept as record for investigating crimes or slip-and-fall incidents in casino if necessary. Some surveillance cameras with function of facial recognition could be used for detecting players on blacklist in their database and refuse them to enter the casino. The above security measures are common adopted for preventing unnecessary loss of revenue.

Evaluation:

       Through doing this research, I understand that casino pay much efforts in design, security, providing comps and choosing suitable tools to help them operate successfully. It is not easy to manage a place with huge amount of cash flow each day. Security and monitoring seems to be the most important issue in casino after I have read different online information. 

References:

1. http://entertainment.howstuffworks.com/casino.htm
2. https://www.quora.com/Why-are-ATMs-so-hard-to-find-in-Vegas-casinos
3. https://www.quora.com/What-are-the-most-advanced-features-of-security-cameras-in-Las-Vegas-Casinos
4. www.casino.org
5. globe-views.com
6. www.huffingtonpost.com
7. entertainment.howstuffworks.com
8. www.vegasglance.com

Q1) How Gaming Entertainment Converges with the Hospitality Industry in Terms of Its Economical and Social Impact

Background:

Gaming entertainment usually refers to gambling. Casino, a place for visitors to place bets, and either win, or lose money. Except for Blackjack, almost all the other games depend on luck. They are usually big in terms of the size of the building and attract white-collar customers mostly.

Economical impact:

1. Multiplier effect:

People who visit casinos, they will not only spending money in the casino, but also to the stores       and restaurants surround it. This concept matches with one of the principals of tourism exactly. For example, many casinos also offer accommodation, restaurants, spas and many other facilities for guests. Having Macau as example specifically, restaurants over there are another famous attractions for tourists apart from the gaming entertainment. Residents there have once said that their business survived because of the rise of casinos.

2.  Job opportunities

It is not hard to imagine that many people have to be hired in order to run such a large business. Having The Venetian as example, there are more than 3000 hotel rooms, 870 tables for gambling, and more than 3700 slot machines. This creates numerous job opportunities for the local citizens.

3. Increase in government revenue

Gambling is one of the most money-involving industries in the world. According to Bloomberg, tax generated from gambling formed 70% of the Macau government income in 2007. This huge amount of money allows the government to adopt and execute more beneficial policies to the citizen like medical services.

Social Impact:

1. Cultural diversity

Usually if the city is famous for its gambling industry, it would attract people from all over the world to visit. This creates the cultural diversity and makes opportunities for the other cultures to blend into the local culture. And sometimes the government uses this advantage to promote its image to the foreigners. 

2. Stability of society

Gambling is always a two-edged sword. On one hand, it offers great revenue to businessman and the government, but it also worsen the stability of the society. It is not hard to find someone who loses all his money and begs to borrow and keep on betting for luck. These people may commit crimes. Also, alcohol appears in every casino in the world, and usually nothing good will be done by someone who is drunk.

Conclusion:

After conducting research about the Gaming Entertainment, it does not only bring benefits, but together with negative impacts to the city. However, it is deeply believe that it would not be given up by the government due to the large amount of profit it provides.