ISSN 1940-204X

TallTree2 Hotel Casino
John R. Mills University of Nevada at Reno Jeffrey Wong University of Nevada, Reno

Background
The TallTree2 Hotel Casino is a 640-room resort complex featuring a full range of Nevada-style gaming: slot machines, table games (twenty-one, craps, poker, roulette, baccarat, and keno). Besides the hotel and casino, it also has four separate restaurants, two entertainment showrooms, and three gift shops. It is located in the extremely competitive Reno, Nevada, market that includes 25 other hotel casino properties within a 10-mile radius. Given the competitive market, the casino management uses a wide range of marketing promotions to attract customers to the casino facilities where, it is hoped, they will try their luck at the slots or table games. Casinos are designed in such a way that customers must walk through or past the gaming area to get to the restaurants or the hotel registration area. The primary objective of a hotel casino property is to keep a gaming customer in the complex. The casino industry is a unique service industry that has created gaming odds that over a period of time will result in the casino generating revenues from its customers. For example, in northern Nevada, the house normally keeps 2.1% of every dollar that a player puts into a slot machine. Other states and Indian properties can retain up to 12% of each dollar played. For table games the normal return is 12% of drop (money lost by players). To maximize the casino profits, the key is to provide services within the property in order to keep the player gambling in the property. Thus, if players are in need of a drink, get them one. If players are hungry, make sure that they eat at one of the casino restaurants. If players want a rest, give them a room. Each of these services is provided at a minimal cost to guests compared with the revenues that
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