Anthony Lucas (Hospitality) and Jasmine Nemati, '19 BS Hospitality Management, recently published their paper "Free-play Impact by Customer Segment" in the International Journal of Hospitality Management. The study conducted an analysis of 365 days of performance data at a Las Vegas Strip casino to see how effective free-play incentives for players of electronic gaming devices (e.g., slots) are in driving how much players spend per visit. The results indicated a failure to recover the face value of the free-play incentives and found the considerable cost of casino loyalty programs difficult to justify.
