The Gambling industry appears to be obsessed by the YOLO generation, the acronym for “you only live once” which depicts the Net generation, also called the Me, Me, Me Generation, in a famous article by Joel Stein (Time, May 20, 2013) The gambling industry is sustained by technology. Apparently, it is extremely difficult to attract people addicted to smartphones, Facebook, Snapchat, video games and selfies to casinos. The industry had deployed marketing agencies to come up with a solution. We all know marketing is about segmentation, prescription and modifying social behavior, to sell useless things, and, in this case, nothing more than a dream. Here are some of the strategies deployed :
- 1. “You are not gambling!” Millennials don’t want to be a gambler, they are persuaded be traders. At the ICE dozens of companies were selling “financial” products which appeared to be lottery in disguise.
- 2. “Play on your phone! Well suited to Millenials glued to their phones and social network. The correlation of that being the hundreds Apps they share with their friends when they win.
- 3. “Play video games!” If slot machines are definitively the “has been” for Millenials, than put first person shooters games in your casinos instead of a one-armed bandit!
- 4. “Casino is entertainment and amusement!” According to Travis Hoium (The Mootley Fool, 2014), entertainment and distraction generated 70% of the revenue in Las Vegas casinos. Nobody knows if the casinos will survive or not, but one thing is sure, is that Millenials, consciously or not, will definitively gamble, because, as they say, you only live once!
1 Corentin SEGALEN, MSc Criminal Justice Policy, London School of Economics, Public Affairs Manager, ARJEL (French Gambling Commission) @CSegalen
2 The latest exhibition was hosted from February 2-4 this year.