The number of registered casinos in the US exceeds 1,500 casinos, not including other gambling outlets such as dog and horse tracks, resorts, and cruise ships. As expected, the state of Nevada has the highest number of casinos at 363 followed by California with 194 casinos, Florida- 155, Montana-143, Oklahoma- 134 and Washington at 123, closing the top six states with more than 100 casinos. States with the least number of casinos include states of Virginia, Delaware, Rhodes Island, Arkansas and North Carolina have the least number of casinos all of which have less than five casinos (Casino City, 2016). Today, gambling and casinos in the US are big lucrative industry commanding more than $ 90-billion per year. Through a demographic investigation of America’s casino target market, this essay is going to identify the industry’s clients.
According to a survey conducted by the American Gaming Association in 2011 on casinos across different states, the association reported that most of the casino visitors were people from middle and upper classes. Most of those people who visited the casinos had a household income of between $35000 and $100000. Most of the patrons to these casinos were men who were a bit older, 45 years and above. Despite not having enough money to go to the casinos, people from poor background have been to join the gambling activity through their participation in the national lottery. Relevant data on average annual lottery spending show the amount of money spent by the three social classes i.e. the low, middle and high income earners is equal. This show, in relative terms, the poor or the low income earners spend a large proportion of their income of lottery gambling (Stermberger, 2011). Lottery data In Virginia revealed that, out of the heavy lottery players, one in every six had a household income of less than $15000. Also, west of Rock Creek Park, in Washington, a neighborhood of elite and affluent people had the reported least activities in dealing with lotteries.
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Out of economic advancement, need to maximize profit and changing customer tastes and preference, casinos have been forced to change and adjust from being just an area offering a legal gambling area to an entertainment sport accommodating youths and even children. With the development of luxurious hotels and other top entertaining facilities, casinos have attracted another class or group of people, the youths aged between 21years and 34 years (Akinste, 2010). The casinos have positioned themselves as the places to have fun, attracting birthday parties, weddings, reality shows amongst other indulges. These people have come to the casinos not to gamble but experience the night life and enjoying facilities of the luxuries night clubs.
Today, according to the latest data by the American Gaming Association, casino’s customer or client base has to a very large extent shifted as more and more youth are frequenting the joints out numbering the older patrons. The highest age group frequenting the casinos is youths of between the ages of 21 years and 35 years from either gender. This change has been brought by two factors one of them being that the youth have completely changed their perception of casinos, seeing them as more of an entertainment sport rather than a gambling sport. The other reason is that the casinos have also positively adjusted to provide wide and varied experiences for their clients across different ages (Gerhard, 2013). Casinos are today offering resort-style amenities such as dining, shopping parlors, spas and live entertainments which attract more young and non-gambling youths.
Just like any other profit oriented organization, the casinos are in the business of making money. Out of economic growth and technological advancement, casinos have shifted from being simply a gambling area attracting the few rich people to an entertainment spot capable of accommodating everyone. However, their target clients have been the youth, who they are attracting by offering special resort style facilities to attract even the non-gambling youths. This group of the society forms a crucial customer base set to replace the aging baby boom generation. Deliberate efforts are being by the casino to update their digital services and interaction platforms in readiness for the tech-savvy millennial ( Gerhard, 2013) . Though the today’s casino clients are the youths and the older mid to upper class American citizens, casinos have already started to tailor services and amenities which will accommodate their future customers the millennial.
References
Akinsete, J (2010) ‘Las Vegas visitor demographics: Be careful what you wish for.’ UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones , (594) Retrieved from http://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1595&context=thesesdissertations
Casino City (2016). American Casinos and Gambling in the United States. Retrieved from http://us.casinocity.com/
Gerhard, D (2013) Casinos target younger gamblers with resort-style amenities. Retrieved from http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/news/press/atlantic/casinos-target-younger-gamblers-with-resort-style-amenities/article_bcbfd0d0-3f3f-51fc-8432-6d72207028b5.html
Stemberger, J (2011). The largest numbers of gamblers come from the poorest segment of the population, says Florida Family Policy Council. Retrieved from http://www.politifact.com/florida/statements/2011/nov/18/john-stemberger/largest-numbers-gamblers-come-poor/
