Casinos can use seasonal trends to plan when to increase room rates and offer high-profile entertainment, and identify optimal times for staff scheduling.
Seasonality may resemble trends, yet differs in that it occurs over a set period. Trends occur continuously.
Winter
Winter brings about the desire to stay home and play online casino games, which means casinos are seeing attendance decline. However, casino operatorss have found ways to counter this lackluster performance by offering great room deals or holding major events – thus protecting revenue during an otherwise slow period.
Winter, which typically spans from December to March in the Northern Hemisphere, is characterized by short days and cooler temperatures; its presence also brings snowfall.
Landers (2008a) has developed statistically significant income elasticity estimates for Indiana riverboat casinos using quarterly win and attendance data along with personal income estimates from quarterly personal income surveys. Based on these estimates, his model predicts that an increase in income leads to proportional increases in aggregate quarterly win; it fits well to historical time series data of both win and attendance and can predict that annual growth has significantly slowed since its dramatic surge in the 1990s.
Spring
As casinos transition from winter to spring, their operators’s will face increasing difficulty meeting demand for services. This is especially true in northern locations where sudden warmer temperatures often bring only short-lived respite before another powerful storm rolls through.
As such, attendance at casinos tends to be more unpredictable and subject to sudden swings than other seasons. For example, growth of casino attendance and win was strong during the 1990s, yet has steadily decreased since 2004.
Attendance growth is affected by both supply of gamblers and changes in their incomes. Annual casino attendance and win growth rates averaged 9.2 percent from 1997 to 2002, but have since declined to under 1.9 percent on average annually; these fluctuations reflect slower economic growth as well as more sophisticated gambling marketplace. Furthermore, dockside gaming in Indiana has changed both casino winnings and its associated tax revenue.
Summer
Summer is an excellent opportunity for people to get out and enjoy some warmer temperatures, leading casino revenues to soar during this season.
In the U.S., the season typically kicks off Memorial Day weekend and runs through Labor Day; Canada begins theirs one week earlier on Victoria Day and finishes up one month later, on September 1.
Casinos worldwide can also experience month-to-month fluctuations, making identifying these ebbs and flows key for developing strategies to draw customers in during slower periods. Offering room discounts or scheduling big name entertainment are effective strategies, whereas tools like Casino Schedule Ease make monitoring these trends easy for monitoring purposes as well as making any necessary adjustments – especially crucial in northern cities where wintery conditions can hamper gaming businesses; furthermore these tools also assist in identifying peak times for business growth purposes.
Fall
Gaming industry businesses tend to follow seasonal cycles with winter and summer being busier months. Sometimes recessions or hurricanes may disrupt revenue flows temporarily; but on average this pattern remains the same.
Although overall casino recovery remains strong, some regions may be seeing a slowdown in foot traffic. Atlantic City experienced a significant drop compared to May in June compared to previous months; although too early to tell whether this represents a reversal in recovery or just temporary dip, close observation should occur.
Las Vegas and other southern casinos may not experience the same seasonal ebbs and flows experienced in Atlantic City casinos, yet understanding seasonal patterns can still provide invaluable insight for improving revenue during slow periods. Lower room rates or offering big name entertainment may draw more visitors and mitigate revenue lulls; using tools such as Casino Schedule Ease they can better anticipate changes in foot traffic to drive scheduling improvements and optimize operational efficiencies.