Comparing Loyalty Program Tiering Strategies: An investigation from the gaming industry

Loyalty programs are popular marketing strategies developed for the purpose of attracting, maintaining, and enhancing customer relationships. Due to the explosive worldwide growth of, and increased competition within, the casino industry has compelled contemporary casino marketers to rely more heavily on loyalty programs to increase guest allegiance and the frequency of repeat visits from their customers. Despite the widespread usage of loyalty programs across various gaming businesses in Las Vegas, its effectiveness has not quite been validated. The purpose of this study is to examine customers’ behavioral loyalty within the Las Vegas gaming industry and examine the effectiveness of a specific loyalty program using secondary data obtained from a Las Vegas casino hotel. Specifically, this study segmented loyalty program members to investigate the effectiveness of a casino loyalty program’s tiering strategy on members’ purchase behavior. Further, this study employed Recency-Frequency-Monetary (RFM) analysis to examine two different types of tiering strategies

Session 2-3-F: Gaming Applications of a Forgotten Distribution

Introduction The bonus game has become a very important part of the slot machine, as indicated by a large number of patent applications and patents (Bennett, 2000; Slomiany and Grupp, 2000; Vancurra, 2000; Baerlocher et al, 2002; Jaffe et al, 2002; Cannon and Donovan, 2003; Dickerson, 2005). Therefore, probability distributions suitable for developing games are very much in need. In this study, we illustrate how a forgotten discrete probability distribution, viz. the negative hypergeometric distribution, can be used to develop bonus games for slot machines, and also to analyze existing bonus games. The mean and the variance for this distribution were not readily available. However, these measures were recently computed using a new technique (Jones, 2013) and are available at present. The mean of the probability distribution is needed to compute to the house advantage or par of a slot game, and the variance is needed for calculating the variance of the slot game payout distribution. The variance of a slot game significantly impacts the ‘time on device’ that a player gets (Lucas et al, 2007; Lucas and Singh, 2008) from the slot game, and therefore is an important parameter of a slot game

Estimating the Ability of Gamblers to Detect Differences in the Payback Percentages of Reel Slot Machines: A Closer Look at the Slot Player Experience

The results of play on 60 different computer simulated reel slots challenge the widely held theory that frequent slot players are able to detect changes in a slot machine\u27s house advantage as slight as 1 to 2%. These findings affect the formulation of critical and capital-intensive customer retention strategies and brand positioning campaigns within the gaming industry. An overwhelming majority of 10,000 virtual players were not able to reject the hypothesis of equal payback percentages after playing both a 3% game and a 12% game (i.e., a 400% increase in the house advantage). This result held across three levels of pay table variance and five levels of trials or spins. The differences in house advantages examined herein ranged from 33% to 400%, across the various 2-game comparisons. The results also fail to support those who argue or fear that frequent slot players are able to detect changes in the house advantage over time. Profits from slot operations are critical to the success of most casino resorts, making this research into the slot player experience a valuable contribution to both the literature and casino management

Estimating the Indirect Effect of Sports Books on Other In-House Gaming Volumes

Using data from a repeater market hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada, the relationship between sports book and slot machine revenues is examined. Daily sports book write and daily slot handle are compared over a 250 day period. Though many industry leaders theorize that sports book gamblers also wager in slot banks, the results of this Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) analysis fail to demonstrate a statistically significant relationship between sports book write and slot coin-in at the 0.05 alpha cutoff. This study advances literature currently available by establishing the lack of such a relationship and disputing the generally accepted assumption that sports books produce a substantial indirect contribution to slot revenues. While the sports book does generate a fairly constant direct profit for the casino, the absolute value of that profit is minimal and the results of the study show there is no indirect profit contribution from sports books to slot machines. Given these results, casino management may want to consider that a sports book is not an optimal use of casino floor space

Duct Lifetimes at Mid Latitudes

The power spectrum analysis of the occurrence rate of whistlers observed at Varanasi (geom. lat. 14o 55' N) shows periodicity of the order 70-80 min which has been interpreted as the lifetimes of the ducts trapping and guiding the whistlers. This is also corroborated by the dispersion analysis of the recorded whistlers. The observations clearly favour the existence of large numbers of ducts simultaneously. The analysis shows that these whistlers had propagated in the magnetosphere along higher L-values (L = 2.1-2.7)

Performance evaluation of furrow openers for sugarcane planting in sub-tropical India

The research was conducted to evaluate the effects of different types of furrow opener, depth and speed of operation on soil properties, draft force, soil disturbance and germination percentage and to select the best furrow openers for establishment of sugarcane crop. The experiment was conducted on a silt loam textured soil using three furrow openers viz. IISR furrower, IISR deep furrower and conventional type ridger operated at three average speeds of 0.96, 1.46 and 3.7 km h-1 and three depths of furrows 100, 150 and 250 mm. The parameters like draft force, soil penetration resistance, ridge height, volume of soil disturbed and germination percentage were determined. Soil penetration resistance decreased with increasing operational speeds of each furrow openers type and depth of furrow. Soil disturbance characteristics and draft force requirements increased with increase in the speeds and depth of operation. The mean germination percentage was 12.9% to 41.6% at 30 and 45 DAP based on type of furrow opener, speed and depth. The lowest soil penetration resistance, clear furrow and better germination were found with IISR deep furrower.

A geo-spatial approach to perceive the groundwater regime of hard rock terrain- a case study from Morappur area, Dharmapuri district, South India

The goal of the present study is to identify the groundwater regime of Morappur area at Dharmapuri district, India. The study area covers an area of 410 sqkm. The area belongs to a hard rock terrain where the primary porosity is feeble and the secondary porosity offered by fracture, joints and shear zones etc, contributes to the groundwater regime. The availability of surface water resources is sparse and hence the groundwater repositories are intensely utilized. In the current study area, the availability of groundwater is limited due to scanty rainfall and poor recharge. The entire study area underlain by hard crystalline rocks of Archaean age, Charnokite and Hornblende epidote gneiss are the main rock types encountered in the area. The over exploitation of these resources more than the adequate recharge has resulted to decrease in the groundwater level. In this context, it is very much important to identify and understand the groundwater regime of this area for the better groundwater monitoring and conservation of this precious resource. Remote Sensing and GIS are playing a vital role in the advancement of hydro-geological studies. The use of conventional methods alone has its own limitations in comprehending the groundwater regime of the area. The integrated study using remote sensing, field studies together with GIS has helped to understand the role of structural, lithological and geomorphic units in controlling the groundwater occurrence and movement in the present study area. Various thematic maps were prepared from the satellite images and they were integrated and incorporated in a GIS platform along with collateral information to study the groundwater regime of Morappur area. The outcome of this study clearly shows the importance of the geospatial studies in identifying the role of satellite imageries and geospatial techniques to understand the groundwater regime of a hard rock terrain

Differential activation of NF kappa B/RelA-p50 and NF kappa B/p50-p50 in control and alcohol-drinking rats subjected to carrageenin-induced pleurisy.

BACKGROUND: Carrageenin (CAR) injection into the pleural cavity causes local inflammation called carrageenin-induced pleurisy (CAR-IP). Inflammation onset is characterized by an activation of pro-inflammatory NFkappaB, RelA-p50, while inflammation resolution is characterized by an activation of an anti-inflammatory NFkappaB, p50-p50, that re-establishes homeostasis, an essential process for an organism's survival. Although chronic alcohol intake disrupts inflammation, the mechanism behind the development of inflammatory disorder in alcoholics is not yet known. Therefore, the aim of this investigation was to study the effects of ethanol intake on CAR-IP and NFkappaB activation in pleural fluid neutrophils in P rats. METHODS: Alcohol-preferring, P rats were given free choice of alcohol (15% ethanol) and water or water alone (for control) for 15 days. Then, each rat was injected with 0.2 ml of 2% CAR into the pleural cavity under light ether anesthesia. At different time intervals after the CAR injection, rats were anesthetized and their blood and pleural fluid samples were collected. Pleural fluid inflammatory cells were identified with Turk's or Wright-Giemsa staining. Different cell types were sorted using a fluorescence-activated cell sorter. Pleural fluid neutrophils were examined for apoptosis and activation of the two NFkappaB subspecies. RESULTS: In control rats, fluid began to accumulate in the pleural cavity 0.5 h after, which peaked 24 h after, CAR injection. Then, the values declined gradually. The increase in pleural fluid correlated with RelA-p50 activation, while the decline in pleural fluid correlated with p50-p50 activation and apoptosis in neutrophils. In alcohol-drinking rats, pleural fluid remained elevated for up to 6 days after CAR injection. Neutrophils from alcohol-drinking rats exhibited suppressed apoptosis, augmented RelA-p50 activation, and suppressed p50-p50 activation. CONCLUSIONS: Alcohol intake prolonged inflammation in P rats. An alcohol-induced upregulation of RelA-p50 activation and downregulation of p50-p50 activation may be causally related to the alcohol-induced inflammation dysregulation