University of Las Vegas (UNLV) Hospitality Professor Anthony Lucas and Katherine A. Spilde, Ph.D. of San Diego State University have found that reducing free-play rewards had little impact on casino visitor numbers, or how much visitors spent gambling for real money. The authors explored their findings in the most recent edition of the UNLV Gaming Research & Review Journal.

According to a new study from the University of Las Vegas, Nevada, free-play campaigns – or gambling money on the house – have become the dominant play incentive in the gaming industry, where the most money is spent to get players in the door and keep them coming back for more. However, the research suggests their effectiveness may be on the decline within certain groups of players.

A new study by a University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) researcher suggests that free-play gambling incentives may not be as effective as they used to be. According to researcher Anthony Lucas, the effectiveness of such promotions is gradually decreasing among certain players.

A recent study conducted by Anthony Lucas, a researcher at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV), indicates that the effectiveness of casino free-play promotions may be decreasing among certain player groups.

Free-play campaigns – or gambling money on the house – have gotten big. They are the dominant play incentive in the gaming industry, where the most money is spent to get players in the door and keep them coming back for more. But new research suggests their effectiveness may be on the decline within certain groups of players.

Nevada and Las Vegas have made gaming their main economic activity and a tourist attraction that has seen evolutions, but not declines. All this, certainly, did not happen and does not continue by chance, but also thanks to adequate training of managers. He is convinced of it, as we read in the special training published on May issue of Gioco News magazine, Anthony F. Lucas, professor of Casino management at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.

What was the name of that casino that shut its doors because it couldn’t pay off a huge jackpot? You know the one we’re talking about, right? It’s, oh yeah… NO CASINO EVER. The most commonly cited example of this myth is the Thunderbird Casino, which was located across the Las Vegas Strip from El Rancho Vegas.

The $780 million Durango Casino & Resort, opening Nov. 20 southwest of the Las Vegas Strip, is the first of a series of projects that could double Station Casinos' footprint in southern Nevada by 2030.