Discovering Canada's Players

If the idea of a casino conjures up images of Las Vegas, Monte Carlo or Atlantic City or of Hollywood flicks with James Bond or Nicolas Cage, it is quite likely that you're a bit out of date on what casinos in 2013 look like or that you are not the target audience for this article.

While today's casinos certainly offer plenty of excitement, entertainment and activities, casinos at large have become much more mainstream and accessible to the public. Casinos now dot the Canadian landscape, with communities large and small offering venues that are not only open for gaming, but also offer a full range of experiences including dining and live entertainment. Casinos are no longer a playground strictly for the jetsetter or high roller type. In fact, there's a good chance there's a casino not far from where you are right now and there is just as good a chance that it is busy with everyday people seeking a bit of fun and escape from their everyday lives. Indeed, today's casinos are a serious business for many communities across Canada.

At Ipsos Reid, our Lottery and Gaming practice studies the habits, attitudes and desires of Canada's gaming population. We ask them what they are looking for in casino entertainment, what their expectations are, what they do inside the casino, how much they spend and how they rate the entire experience. In January of 2013, we fielded a study on the attitudes and behaviours of Canadian casino visitors to take a clear measure of the casino market in this country and to uncover opportunities to help casino operators better identify gaps in services with ways to improve their offer. We're pleased to present some of our findings here.

Inside Canada's Casinos

We wanted to get a look at the kind of people who frequent casinos, how often they go and what they do once they pass through the doors. We surveyed over 1000 casino goers across Canada and asked them a slew of questions pertaining to their activities and interests in the casino. Respondents had to have made one or move visits to a casino in the past year to be eligible for the survey.

On average, visitors who visited a casino in the past month did so twice. The regular casino visitor also averages between five and six visits per year. Our study did find that two-thirds of past year visitors only visited up to three times, meaning that most visitors are light visitors. But one-third of past year casino goers have been in the past month. Most casino visitors are infrequent, with more than half visiting only once or twice a year. Less than one-in-five said they visit monthly or more often.

Fun and Games

Not surprisingly, people primarily visit a casino to play games. Gaming activities dominated the list of things people do when visiting a casino and playing the slots was by far the most popular gaming activity. Half of all respondents (49%) said they always play the slots when they visit a casino.

But casino visitors are also partaking in other entertainment options that are non-gaming related. Some non-gaming activities, such as dining at the restaurant, watching live entertainment, or visiting the casino bar, proved to more popular than some gaming activities, such as playing blackjack, VLTs and table games such as roulette or craps.

Most casino visitors are quite content with the majority of offerings at their casinos. However, offering live entertainment or providing a hotel on site is something some wished was available at their most often visited casino.

Cashing In

Casinos are a big business in Canada so we wanted to know just how big of spenders Canadian casino visitors are. In our study of Canadian casino visitors, respondents said they spent just over $700 on average on gaming activities, with another $200 spent on non-gaming activities across their visits in the past year.

During their most recent visit, most visitors undertook a gaming activity, with most playing slots, spending just under $75 during the visit.

Although only one-in-ten casino visitors said they played a poker game during their last visit, it had the highest average spend of all the games - on average, poker players spent $140 on their last visit.

Despite the fact that fewer visitors say they play games such as blackjack or roulette than non-gaming activities such as dining at the restaurant, visiting the bar, or watching live entertainment, casino visitors are ultimately spending more on the gaming activities than on non-gaming activities.

Most of the money spent on gaming was spent on slots, with lottery tickets, blackjack and poker following. Non-gaming money was most likely to be spent dining at the restaurant. For each activity, the amount of dollars spent is significantly greater among those who have visited in the past month compared to those who have visited in the past year (not past month).

Almost all of our respondents stated that they set a budget, but only three-in-five actually stick to it, with a quarter of them spending more. Less frequent visitors (less than monthly visits) are more likely to have a budget.

While two-thirds of casino visitors are spending the same amount of money at casinos as they were a year ago, just under a quarter are spending less than last year. The economy, lack of winnings, and other entertainment options available were mentioned as the key reasons for spending less at casinos.

Visitor Satisfaction

Every casino wants to know how it is performing and what factors ultimately drive visitor satisfaction. To paraphrase an old axiom, a satisfied visitor is a return visitor. We used the Ipsos Bayes Net modelling approach to help uncover which factors are the biggest drivers of satisfaction for the casino experience.

We asked our survey respondents about the importance they place on a number of factors when they plan their visits to a casino. From the complete list, three key factors stood out above all else. These also have the highest impact on boosting satisfaction for visitors. First among these, the casino needs to provide an exciting atmosphere. People are looking to spend time and money in an environment where they can feel an escape from the everyday, with the hope that just maybe, luck will be on their side. The second top factor falls more on the practical side -- parking needs to be easy. And the third top factor -- again more pragmatic in nature -- the casino needs to be clean. Casino visitors may want excitement, but they still want it within their realm of comfort, with accessibility and cleanliness as high priorities. Being able to smoke at the casino, however, is a driver of dissatisfaction for some visitors as they would prefer a smoke-free environment.

Nearly half of our respondents (48%) are satisfied with their last visit to a casino, with very few dissatisfied with the experience (only 5%). There is a healthy number in the middle, however, who are only moderately satisfied with their casino experiences, leaving ample room for casino operators to examine ways of improving the experience for this segment of visitors.

Where There's Smoke...

Casinos remain one of the last indoor public spaces where it is permissible to smoke. Although this applies to only a minority of gaming facilities in Canada, that in and of itself can be a burning issue. As mentioned above, smoking is a driver of dissatisfaction for some visitors, but our research also shows that allowing smoking inside is a drawing card for others. The ability to smoke inside the casino is more important among core players - those that have at least visited in the past month - and for the heavier spenders. Poker players also indicate that they, too, place a high value on being permitted to smoke while they play - even more so than non-poker players. The study also shows that smoking is more appealing to younger visitors (ages 18-54) than older visitors and that those in the lower income brackets (less than $40,000 per annum) also put a higher premium on the ability to smoke inside the casino.

On the flip side, less frequent players find a smoking environment to be a hindrance to their enjoyment.

What's the take away here? If you are looking to convert less frequent players into more frequent players, make room for non-smoking sections. And if you are keen to keep the higher revenue generating poker players happy, seal off their area and let them savour that full house with a fine Cohiba in hand.

Visitor Profile

Visiting a casino is mostly seen as a social outing. Most of our respondents stated that when they visit a casino, they do so with a friend or spouse, or with a group of friends. Very few will visit by themselves with any frequency (always/most of the time) and it is rare that they will visit with co-workers.

Most casino visitors say they do not set a time limit (62%) on their visits. For the one-third (34%) that plan to set a time limit for their casino visits, slightly less than two-thirds (62%) will actually stick to it. Two-in-ten will go over their time limit and a near equal proportion will spend less time than planned.

Visitors are more likely to go on weekend, or share their visitation both during the week and on the weekend. Those who visit casinos monthly or more are often more likely to typically go during the week when compared to less frequent visitors.

And when it comes to possessing a player's card, slightly more visitors say they don't have a card than have a card, with those who have a card far more likely to be a frequent visitor (visiting monthly or more often).

Steak vs. Sizzle?

Like most smart businesses, casino operators are constantly looking to innovate and improve their offer to keep visitors satisfied and eager to come back, as well as to attract new visitors. Many have done so by adding extra value options such as restaurants, entertainment and bar services. But what do visitors make of it?

Although many of the visitors in our study said they have dined at the restaurants in their favourite casinos, adding new or a greater variety of restaurants is not going to drastically impact their decision to visit a casino. In fact, most said it wouldn't change their visiting frequency at all. That's not to say they don't enjoy having a restaurant or dining options, it simply means that it won't make them visit more often.

Many casinos also offer a live entertainment venue on site, adding a bit of music or comedy into the mix. Having a live big name entertainer as a draw card has the potential for encouraging more frequent visitation, but lesser known acts will only be moderately received. Similar to their response to restaurant and dining options, respondents aren't saying no, but they aren't doing cartwheels either.

A beverage between games may seem like a good idea, and most casinos do offer an on site bar. Our research shows that much like restaurants, having a bar offers more positive responses than negative responses, but just like restaurants, when it comes to visiting a casino, the bar is not a game changer.

Concluding Remarks

As casinos continue to become more popular and common across Canada, the stakes remain quite high. After all, a casino is a significant investment of resources and a significant source of revenue and employment in many jurisdictions across the country. Understanding what makes the casino visitor tick and the kinds of experiences they enjoy, and gauging their satisfaction with existing offers and their thirst for new experiences is the key to ensuring your casino will make the right decisions to attract visitors and keep them coming back time and time again.

Methodology

These are findings from an Ipsos Reid Lottery & Gaming study conducted from January 23 to 25, 2013. For the survey, a sample of 1,018 Canadians was interviewed online. The precision of online polls is measured using a credibility interval. In this case, the poll has a credibility interval of plus or minus 3.1 percentage points. For more information about credibility intervals, please visit the Ipsos Public Affairs section of our website at www.ipsos-na.com. The data were weighted to the casino going population of Canada by region, gender, and age. Statistical margins of error are not applicable to online polls. All sample surveys and polls may be subject to other sources of error, including, but not limited to coverage error and measurement error. Where figures do not sum to 100, this is due to the effects of rounding.

- Article originally published in the Spring 2013 issue of Canadian Gaming Business magazine.