Japan can learn from Nevada’s experience, to ensure organized crime does not infiltrate the former’s nascent casino industry, and to make sure the social and economic effects of such gaming business benefit the tourism sector and society rather than harm the host community.

The tribe isn’t required to publicly disclose revenue at each casino, but the checks it sends to the state are public knowledge. Using effective revenue sharing rates and reviewing payments received, the Miami-Herald has assembled estimated data on the seven gambling venues.

Record gross gaming revenue at casinos operated by the nation’s Indian tribes in 2016 has been an economic success story for tribes but has altered the landscape in Reno and Laughlin, two Nevada destinations most affected by the competition.

Learning about the operational side of the casino industry today goes beyond how to deal cards or having an understanding of how slot game math works. Gaming—and the hospitality infrastructure that frames it—is big business, and more institutions of higher learning are recognizing this.

Japan is counting on a big tourism bump from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, but the government wants to keep the numbers growing even after the sporting bonanza is over. One possible solution, it hopes, is by opening so-called integrated resorts -- leisure facilities that combine casinos, hotels, shopping centers and more under one roof.

UNLV gaming students recently tipped their hand to Las Vegas casino companies on how they would pitch Japan in trying to win one of the two coveted integrated resort (IR) licenses expected to be issued next year.

It had to have been one of the most real-life college assignments students at UNLV’s International Gaming Institute have ever undertaken. Students of Professor Bo Bernhard were asked to write a proposal for an integrated resort to be built in Japan. They had to consider mission statements, design elements, marketing and branding strategies and to make them fit within Japanese cultural expectations. Students also had to consider an extremely important issue — how to minimize compulsive gambling.

From helping pass legislation prohibiting sports betting in all but a few states to threatening casinos for using the words “Super Bowl” to promote their, um, “big game” parties, the NFL has a long-contentious history with Las Vegas.