The Impact of the Asian Financial Crisis on Asian Gaming Activities: An Examination of Las Vegas Strip Casino Drops

Abstract

Thisstudy examines the impact of the recent Asian financial crisis on Las Vegas casino drops of baccarat and pai gow, two games favoured and mainly played by Asians. The findings of the study lead to the conclusion that the crisis has had a severe impact on Asianplayers' gaming propensity for the two games. The negative impact of the financial crisis on baccarat, the more popular game for Asian players, was much greater than its impact on the relatively less popular pai gow game. The impact of the crisis on the two games' drops was much worse than it appeared to be in an over-time comparison of the actual drops. The unexpected lower baccarat drop, as indicated by the negative gap between its real drop and the predicted drop, reveals that the impact of the crisis on Las Vegas casinos was much worse than indicated by the revenue gap in a previous study. This study suggests that efficient marketing and promotion campaigns should be launched during Asia's recovery if Las Vegas strip casinos want to quickly bring the two games' drops back to normal.