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Archives
Full House: Engaging Today’s Player in Canadian Casinos
By Jason Allsopp, Rose Wong, and Paul Lauzon
July 22, 2015
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Casinos are a big deal in Canada. Throughout communities large and small, they cover our country, opening their doors every day to deliver an engaging and enjoyable experience to customers. As with most industries, it is being disrupted. Heightened competition south of the border, advances in technology and a growing younger demographic all mean that the industry has had to evolve in order to keep visitors satisfied and coming back for more. But are the efforts being made by Canadian casinos to engage their customers actually paying off?
At Ipsos, 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 2013, we fielded a study on the attitudes and behaviours of Canadian casino visitors to take a clear measure of the market in this country and to uncover opportunities to help casino operators better identify gaps in services with ways to improve their offer. And once again, we repeated the study this year, allowing us to assess whether the efforts being made by casinos to boost engagement are working. 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. Over the past year we surveyed 1,000 casino goers across Canada and asked them about their activities and interests in casinos. Respondents had to have made one or more visits to a casino in the past year to be eligible for the survey.
When we conducted this study in 2013, we found that on average, visitors who visited a casino in the past month did so twice. Looking at this year’s data, these levels of visitation remain stable. When it comes to visits per year, the regular casino visitor increased ever so slightly from 5.5 to 6.2 visits. Most casino visits are infrequent, with half visiting only one to two times per year. More than one in five visit monthly or more often.
These numbers indicate that casinos are successfully expanding their player base. In order to maintain this traffic, casinos need to continue with their advertising efforts and tailoring their offerings to customers’ needs.
Playing their cards right
As would be expected, people primarily visit a casino to play games. Of the gambling activities played, slots continue to dominate as the most popular. However, overall participation is decreasing. In 2013 almost half (49 per cent) played slots always, but that number drops to almost two in five (38 per cent) in 2015. This is likely a symptom of a growing younger cohort, one that prefers games that offer social interaction. Following that, slots, buying lottery tickets, VLTs and playing card games like blackjack and poker lead in popularity.
When it comes to most gambling, Canadians are partaking in more activities. This is especially the case for table games, poker and blackjack. Again, this is a positive trend for casinos as it suggests an increased enthusiasm among the younger demographic. As the typical player profile of these games tends to skew towards those of younger ages, social features may be an appealing draw. To continue this upward trend, casinos should include gambling activities that involve more social interaction and group play in their offering. It could also be beneficial to include more gambling activities integrated with digital technologies for innovative gameplay.
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Beyond games
Casino visitors are also partaking in other entertainment options that are non-gaming related. Our study found that participation of non-gambling activities during casino visits remained relatively consistent to 2013 levels. Dining, live entertainment, visiting a casino bar and staying at a hotel bar are undertaken more frequently than other gaming activities including playing VLTs, blackjack, poker and table games like roulette and craps. What’s the main takeaway here? In short, the efforts to attract and engage peripheral players who are interested in non-gaming amenities seem to be paying dividends for casinos.
Where’s the action?
During their most recent visit, slightly fewer of Canada’s casino visitors are playing slots. Games such as blackjack, VLTs, and table games remain stable, however. Although slot play is decreasing, it continues to dominate activities during most recent visits with players spending a median of $50 during the visit.
As with 2013, visitors continue to spend more on gaming activities than non-gaming activities. Visitors spent a median of $65 on gaming activities during their most recent visit, compared to $60 in 2013. When it comes to non-gaming activities, overall spending has also slightly increased to $50. These increases in spend mean that efforts to engage seem to be working as visitors are willing to shell out a bit more for both gaming and non-gaming activities.
Increasing your odds
As with all things, there’s always room for improvement in casinos. We were curious to know which amenities visitors wished casinos offered but didn’t. Non-gaming activities topped the list, including a hotel on site (12 per cent) and live entertainment (9 per cent).
Comparing the data between 2013 and 2015, we have seen slight but consistent increments to overall amenities, which suggests that people are getting more demanding in the offerings they desire. They want a wider range of variety of amenities, a “one-stop shop” or location that is able to meet all of their preferred requests. Still, the majority of visitors continue to be quite content with the services and amenities offered at casinos.
Hitting the jackpot
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, we see that they are spending slightly less on gaming activities in 2015. In 2013, the median past year spend for gaming activities was $200, but this declined to $180 in 2015. In line with participation, visitors continue to play table games at the same level, but spend less on slots.
Visitors are spending slightly more on non-gaming activities across their visits in the past year ($130 in 2015, compared to $100 in 2013), which is largely driven by dining. Restaurant dining continues to have the highest median spend for non-gaming activities at $100 spent in the past year. This suggests that casinos are doing a good job in attracting people to spend more on non-gaming activities, and indeed, these efforts are paying off. When the player base enlarges and we engage with more peripheral players, spend typically declines on average. This decline in median spend on gaming coupled with an uptick in non-gaming spend illustrates that the base is growing.
The majority of visitors (84 per cent) set a budget when they go to a casino. But do they follow it? Most do! Three in five (60 per cent) admit to staying within their budget, and a quarter (25 per cent) spend more than allocated. Only 15 per cent spend less than their allocated budget.
Visitors who visit casinos less frequently (less than monthly visits) are more likely to set a budget, which is also consistent with 2013. Interestingly, those who budget a certain amount are more likely to have a higher overall satisfaction level with their last visitation to a casino.
Winning big
As we’ve seen, overall spending has gone up, which could be linked to the casino’s efforts. We asked respondents whether they are spending more, the same or less money when visiting casinos than they were a year ago. We found that 13 per cent spend more, 70 per cent spend the same, and only 17 per cent shell out less. Not bad numbers at all. Clearly people are seeing the value in the offerings, encouraging them to spend more on gaming and non-gaming activities.
When we look close at the reasons for spending less, lack of money and not winning enough score high, but they have both dropped significantly in importance since 2013. This could point to the fact that the casino’s perception as an entertainment destination is improving. People may be more selective in where they use their discretionary income for entertainment and expect more from their gambling dollars. But because they see the value gained through non-gaming amenities, they continue to spend their time and resources at the casino.
As with 2013, proximity to the casino is not a huge factor. If visitors perceive that the offerings hold enough value or appeal, it seems they will make the trip to spend time or resources in the casino.
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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 a group of friends. Very few visit by themselves always or most of the time, but this is slightly increasing, indicating that visitors are slowly becoming more comfortable with the notion of visiting by themselves.
Those who visit with a spouse are more likely to have a higher overall satisfaction level with their last visitation to a casino. And those who visit with a group of friends are likely to be Millennials, which is in line with the social factor we are seeing, and yet another indicator of why it is important for the casino to continue to market the social aspect of their offerings.
Casino visitors are becoming increasingly time conscious lately. Visitors want a wider variety of amenities, and with that, they want it to be delivered within their timeframe. Of the 41 per cent who budget their time during visitations, two-thirds (65 per cent) of them stay within that time frame, while a quarter will spend more than the budgeted time.
Visitors are visiting casinos the same time of the week as they did in 2013. They are more likely to go on the weekend, or share their visitation between during the week and on the weekend. However there is a slight transition of those who visited during the week and on the weekend, to visiting during the week. This suggests that people are considering the casino as a conventional activity they can partake in on a more regular basis (i.e. shopping, or going to the movies) and not just an event for the weekend.
And when it comes to possessing a player’s card, we’re seeing a slight decrease in those who own one. There are more infrequent players in 2015, and we know that those who visit less frequently (less than monthly) do not have a player card, which is to be expected. However the highlight is that the player base is expanding – which is a huge plus.
Satisfaction in spades
To help uncover which factors are the biggest drivers of satisfaction for the casino experience, we turned to the Ipsos Bayes Net modelling approach. We asked our survey respondents about the importance they place on a number of factors when they plan their visits to a casino. Two key aspects stood out in driving satisfaction: an exciting atmosphere and food and beverage services. People are looking to spend time and money in an environment that is both fun and exciting, because if it is, they’ll stay longer and bet more. And the longer they stay, the more likely it is that they will start to develop an appetite. As patrons are forking out more and more on dining services, they want the quality to be worth the price.
We also found that satisfaction levels remained consistent with 2013. Half were satisfied with the experience of their last visit, with very few dissatisfied. The lack of change suggests that the casinos have delivered on what the customers want. They are, however, still difficult to please, as seen by the number of people who are moderately satisfied and continue to want the experience to be enhanced and improved.
Conclusion
Casinos are a lucrative market in Canada, and the results of our study illustrate that efforts to engage customers are paying off. In order to keep visitors coming through their doors, establishments need to up the ante with more social offerings, especially aimed at the younger consumer. Slots continue to dominate as the most popular activity in terms of participation and spend, but it is decreasing in both areas, while table games are gaining in popularity. Clearly Canadian casino visitors desire activities which are exciting and offer social interaction. While most visitors are satisfied with their experience, there’s still room for improvement. That will come by developing a deep understanding of consumers – what they want, where they spend their dollars and what they value. Armed with such information, casinos will be able to tailor their offerings to match these desires and improve their odds of success.
Methodology
These are findings from an Ipsos Lottery & Gaming study conducted from April 8 to May 11 2015. For the survey, a sample of 1,010 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 [http://www.ipsos-na.com/dl/pdf/research/public-affairs/IpsosPA_CredibilityIntervals.pdf] 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.
About the authors:
Jason Allsopp is a Vice President with Ipsos’ Lottery & Gaming practice. Based in Vancouver, Jason is part of a team of research experts dedicated to serving the market research needs of lottery and gaming organizations across Canada and the United States. Jason can be contacted at jason.allsopp@ipsos.com or 778.373.5035.
Rose Wong is a Research Analyst with Ipsos’ Lottery & Gaming practice. Based in Calgary, Rose aids in supporting the team of research experts dedicated to serving the market research needs of lottery and gaming organizations across Canada and the United States. She can be contacted at rose.s.wong@ipsos.com or 587.952.4873.
Paul Lauzon is Senior Vice President and Managing Director with Ipsos Reid and head of the firm’s Lottery & Gaming practice. Based in Calgary, Paul leads the team of research experts dedicated to serving the market research needs of lottery and gaming organizations across Canada and the United States. Paul can be contacted at paul.lauzon@ipsos.com or 403.294.7386.
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