The 2006 World Series of Poker has begun. You can follow the whole thing at PokerPages if you like. I went down to the Rio today and got the grand tour.

If you haven’t been there, the tournament takes place in a wing of Rio ballrooms. There are 208 tables, with tournament, satellite, and live action games going on. To give you some perspective, a largish poker room might have 50 or 60 tables. The average Strip casino has about 80-100 table games, period. It’s already bustling, with more sign-ups than table space. I can only imagine the pandemonium when the final tournament starts.

This is the first year I’ve seen corporate sponsorship really take off, with Milwaukee’s Best Light featured prominently throughout the room (bullpen? arena? neither seems right). If you don’t know, they’ve sewed up the “presented by” rights. Corum watches, who are the official watchmakers of the WSOP, are also well-represented in signage, along with PartyPoker.Net (on all the tables) and a few others.

The first series I went to was in 2002, which is pretty late in the game, but I’ve still seen some tremendous changes. The tournament has far outgrown “Benny’s Bullpen.” I don’t know if it would have been physically possible to have it at the former Horseshoe this year. I doubt it. Even the relatively spacious, high-ceilinged ballroom was feeling a little crowded, and it’s just th e first week.

Naturally, I collected a raft of materials to educate future generations–they’ll be placed alongside the existing Binion’s Horseshoe collection, which documents the Series through 2004.

A quick site note: I’ll be out of town through next Thursday, so don’t expect too much in the way of postings. Along the way, though, I’ll be checking out the Borgata expansion, the Pier at Caesars (if it’s open) and of course more pizza from the Baltimore Grill than is advisable for someone training for a marathon.

Harrah’s Entertainment just released its big survey of casino entertainment. Once, this was just a neat thing that a smallish company into progressive marketing did. Now, it’s the voice of the world’s largest casino operator. From biz.yahoo:

A new national survey demonstrates Americans’ enthusiasm for casino gambling and their desire to experience a broad array of entertainment choices offered by gambling venues in states throughout the country.

Profile of the American Casino Gambler: Harrah’s Survey 2006 reports that Americans made more than 322 million casino trips in 2005 and that 52.8 million Americans age 21 and older (25 percent of the U.S. adult population) visited casinos to gamble at least once during the same year.

On average, gamblers averaged just over six casino visits a year, the study found.
SURVEY HIGHLIGHTS

Casino Gambler Demographics

* The median household income of casino gamblers is $56,663 — nearly $8,000 higher than the U.S. household median of $48,997.
* The median age of casino gamblers (46) and gender profile (52 percent female) closely mirrors the profile for the U.S. adult population.
* Casino gamblers are 3 percent more likely than the national average to have pursued a post-high school education (56 percent vs. 53 percent) and 3 percent more likely to be white-collar workers (45 percent vs. 42 percent).

Where Casino Gamblers Live

* California generated the most casino visits (or trips) in 2005 (50,354,152), which represented 16 percent of the national total. The states generating the next highest number of trips were (in order): New York, Illinois, Nevada, Florida, New Jersey, Texas, Michigan, Missouri and Louisiana.
* The top eight states in terms of visitation generated more than 10 million casino trips each, and 31 states produced more than 2 million visits in 2005.
* All but five of the states in the West and North Central census regions of the country have casino participation rates exceeding the national average of 25 percent, but only six states in the North East and South were above the national average (participation rate is the percent of adults that gambled in a casino at least once in 2005).
* Sixty-two U.S. Designated Market Areas (DMAs) each generated more than 1 million casino trips in 2005.
* The top DMA for generating casino trips in 2005 was New York City (22,234,034) followed by (in order): Los Angeles, Chicago, Las Vegas, Phoenix, Philadelphia, Minneapolis-St. Paul, San Diego, Seattle and Sacramento.

Trendsetters

Technology

* More casino gamblers (79 percent) than non-gamblers (65 percent) have a home computer (PC or laptop). Casino gamblers are also more likely to have more than one computer in the home (21 percent vs. 16 percent for non-gamblers).
* Casino gamblers are more likely to own the latest consumer electronics. For example, 18 percent of casino gamblers own MP3 players vs. 10 percent for non-gamblers.
* In 2001, 13 percent of all survey respondents owned a DVD player. In 2005, that number had increased to 59 percent overall, and 71 percent for casino gamblers.

Consumer Purchases

* Casino gamblers tend to spend time researching brands before a major purchase (38 percent vs. 24 percent for non-gamblers) and are more likely to use the Internet as a source of information (casino gamblers 36 percent, non-gamblers 29 percent).
* When deciding on clothing, the “latest fashion” is more important to casino gamblers than non-gamblers (22 percent vs. 15 percent).
* As cars first come on the market, casino gamblers are more likely to be buyers (24 percent) than non-gamblers (18 percent).

Travel

* Casino gamblers are more often asked for advice on where to go on vacation (29 percent) than non-gamblers (21 percent).
* Gamblers are more likely to view the Internet as a good source for travel planning and information (32 percent) than non-gamblers (17 percent).

Food & Beverage/Eating Out

* Casino gamblers more frequently try trendy new foods and beverages (25 percent vs. 16 percent for non-gamblers).
* Gamblers are more likely to try new restaurants than non-gamblers (21 percent vs. 12 percent).
* Gamblers like to experiment with cooking (42 percent vs. 32 percent for non-gamblers).

Personal Finances and Money Management

* Non-gamblers are more likely to rate themselves as “beginners” when it comes to investment decisions (50 percent vs. 44 percent for casino gamblers), while casino gamblers are more likely to indicate that they have intermediate (35 percent vs. 27 percent for non-gamblers) or advanced investment skills (8 percent vs. 6 percent for non-gamblers).
* More casino gamblers said their personal debts were lower than the previous year (21 percent vs. 14 percent for non-gamblers). A greater number of casino gamblers also had higher savings than the previous year (23 percent vs. 16 percent for non-gamblers).

Planning for Retirement (among those not retired)

* More casino gamblers than non-gamblers said they will have enough money to live comfortably during their retirement (46 percent vs. 37 percent).
* Casino gamblers were also more inclined to be looking forward to their retirement years (42 percent vs. 36 percent for non-gamblers).

Using New Technology

* Casino gamblers are more enthusiastic about new technology (“find it exciting and use as much as I can”): 40 percent vs. 29 percent for non-gamblers.
* Casino gamblers are more likely to have used the Internet in the last 30 days for a variety of reasons: Staying in touch by email (51 percent vs. 44 percent for non-gamblers); education for themselves or their children (37 percent vs. 29 percent for non-gamblers); accessing news (40 percent vs. 28 percent for non-gamblers); and playing games alone or with others (28 percent vs. 19 percent non-gamblers).

Home Improvement

* Casino gamblers take great interest in improving their homes and living environments. Fifty-two percent of casino gamblers said they are very interested in furniture and home decoration vs. 41 percent of non-gamblers.
* Among casino gamblers, 47 percent had redecorated their home and 34 percent had remodeled their home in the last five years, versus 35 percent and 24 percent, respectively, for non-gamblers.

Automotive

* When asked about the car they drive most often, casino gamblers are more likely than non-gamblers to have bought the car new (50 percent vs. 44 percent for non-gamblers).
* Cars with model years between 2001 and 2005 are more likely to be a casino gambler’s primary car (50 percent) vs. non-gamblers (35 percent).

Food & Travel

* When asked about their last vacation, casino gamblers were more likely to have taken a domestic trip of 500+ miles (36 percent vs. 31 percent for non-gamblers) or a trip outside the country (20 percent vs. 13 percent for non-gamblers).
* Gamblers are more likely to enjoy regional/national foods, including: Italian (72 percent vs. 61 percent for non-gamblers); Chinese (65 percent vs. 45 percent); Mexican/Tex-Mex (58 percent vs. 54 percent); and Greek/Middle Eastern (25 percent vs. 17 percent).

Values

* Both casino gamblers and non-gamblers were similar in their volunteer participation with social issues, but casino gamblers were more likely to have donated money to a social issue (33 percent vs. 20 percent).
* Casino gamblers were more inclined to view work as a career (58 percent vs. 48 percent for non-gamblers).

CORRECTING and REPLACING More Than Quarter of U.S. Adults Visited a Casino At Least Once Last Year, Harrah’s Survey Finds: Financial News – Yahoo! Finance

That’s pretty comprehensive. You know, as a non-gambler, I feel like a lowlife–less education, less money, less technical savvy (on average) than my friends playing Megabucks.

There’s obviously a certain element of PR here–naturally, Harrah’s looks like a more responsible company if the people using its products are well-educated and financially secure–but these surveys are a goldmine of information for future historians. If only they’d done these 50 or 100 years ago. Of course, a lot of the questions wouldn’t have made sense then.

According to a new study, casino revenues are expected to rise over the next few years. From the AP via Washington Post:

Global revenue from gambling is expected to climb 8.8 percent annually from $82.2 billion last year to $125 billion by 2010, according to a new estimate by consultant PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP.

Fueled by new casinos in the Chinese gambling enclave of Macau, the Asia-Pacific region will grow the fastest at 14 percent annually, surpassing revenue from the region encompassing Europe, the Middle East and Africa when it hits $23 billion by 2010, the firm said.

The United States, which is predicted to remain the world’s largest gambling market, is expected to see gambling revenue grow 6.9 percent per year, from $53.4 billion in 2005 to $74.5 billion in 2010, it said.

Billions of dollars of investment in new casinos in Nevada are expected to give the state’s gambling revenue an annual 8.2 percent increase from $11.7 billion to $17.3 billion, boosting the state’s share from 21 percent to 23 percent of the U.S. gambling market.

Tribal casino operators are seen increasing their share of the U.S. market from 42 percent to 43 percent, growing from $22.7 billion to $32.5 billion by 2010.

Casinos in Atlantic City, N.J., are expected to see revenue inch higher from $5 billion to $5.8 billion, as its share falls from 9 percent to 7 percent of the U.S. market because of competition from new slot machine operators in surrounding areas.

Global Gambling Revenues Expected to Rise

This article is inaccurate, because what it calls “gambling” revenues are actually “casino revenues.” Small point, but this isn’t factoring in lotteries, pari-mutuel, or sportsbetting. I think actual total global GAMBLING revenues (i.e., everything) are in the neighborhood of $1 trillion/year.

I’ve posited before that humans may be genetically predisposed to gamble because, as hunter-gatherers, those who didn’t take risks starved to death and didn’t pass on their genes–or behaviors–to their offspring. Neuroscience is coming one step closer to proving this theory. From the Financial Times:

In an uncertain world, we are often pulled between sticking with what we know will reap rewards and exploring new options.

Now neuroscientists have discovered which parts of the brain are involved in exploration and which in exploiting the familiar.

By scanning the brains of volunteers as they gambled, Nathaniel Daw and colleagues at University College London found that trying out new things uses the frontopolar cortex and intraparietal sulcus – high-level regions of the brain – whereas falling back on familiar territory involves more primitive regions associated with reward and pleasure.

This brain activity may reflect the fact that exploring new options requires overriding the desire for immediate profit.

“Whether you are a stockbroker, a gambler choosing between slot machines or an animal trying to forage for food, the desire to select what seems the richest option is always balanced against the desire to choose a less familiar option that might turn out to serve better,” said Dr Daw. “This exploration is often critical to survival.”

The UCL researchers studied 14 people while they were playing for money on a range of computerised slot machines.

Players had to balance their desire to select the richest option, based on accumulated experience, against the desire to try another option that might have a bigger payoff.

To find out whether the subjects were using exploit- ative or exploratory gambling strategies, the scientists compared their human behaviour with the decisions made by intelligent robots; functional magnetic resonance imaging showed which brain areas were activated when exploring or exploiting.

The research is published in Nature.

www.nature.com

Seek new options and survive

This is great research–hopefully I can get the funding to launch my proposed lecture series on “Gambling and the Emerging Future” and have these researchers come to Las Vegas to talk about the significance of their study. All I need is the funding….