Record gross gaming revenue at casinos operated by the nation’s Indian tribes in 2016 has been an economic success story for tribes but has altered the landscape in Reno and Laughlin, two Nevada destinations most affected by the competition.

Learning about the operational side of the casino industry today goes beyond how to deal cards or having an understanding of how slot game math works. Gaming—and the hospitality infrastructure that frames it—is big business, and more institutions of higher learning are recognizing this.

Japan is counting on a big tourism bump from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but the government wants to keep the numbers growing even after the sporting bonanza is over. One possible solution, it hopes, is by opening so-called integrated resorts -- leisure facilities that combine casinos, hotels, shopping centers and more under one roof.

UNLV gaming students recently tipped their hand to Las Vegas casino companies on how they would pitch Japan in trying to win one of the two coveted integrated resort (IR) licenses expected to be issued next year.

It had to have been one of the most real-life college assignments students at UNLV’s International Gaming Institute have ever undertaken. Students of Professor Bo Bernhard were asked to write a proposal for an integrated resort to be built in Japan. They had to consider mission statements, design elements, marketing and branding strategies and to make them fit within Japanese cultural expectations. Students also had to consider an extremely important issue — how to minimize compulsive gambling.

From helping pass legislation prohibiting sports betting in all but a few states to threatening casinos for using the words “Super Bowl” to promote their, um, “big game” parties, the NFL has a long-contentious history with Las Vegas.

Dr. Bo Bernhard, one of the world’s leading figures in the study of gambling addiction and the executive director of the University of Nevada Las Vegas’s International Gaming Institute was recently in Sydney as part of a two-week trade mission to Australia.

Here's one thing millions of Americans can agree on: March Madness is fun, especially when there's a little money on the line. So fun, in fact, that more people will fill out NCAA Tournament brackets this week than voted for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton in last year's presidential election.