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International Gaming Institute News

The UNLV International Gaming Institute (IGI) is committed to providing cutting-edge insights to the global gaming industry. IGI provides research and programs to more than 50 jurisdictions across the globe—to leaders in the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

Current International Gaming Institute News

Students on campus.
Campus News |

A selection of top news headlines featuring UNLV faculty and students.

Kasra Ghaharian and students involved in State of AI report
Research |

This latest initiative from the International Gaming Institute is setting the standard for ethical AI use in the industry.

Man in a dark blue pinstripe suit with black and gray hair and beard poses in a hotel bar with his left arm resting on the bar and the Bellagio hotel in the background
People |

A brief campus visit during a chance trip to Las Vegas set the Hospitality Alumnus of the Year on a journey to the top of the hotel-casino org chart.

First day of classes.
Campus News |

The top news stories starring university students and staff.

Campus beauty.
Campus News |

A collection of the most prominent news stories from last month featuring UNLV staff and students.

Spring flowers
Campus News |

The students and faculty of UNLV are springing into headlines around the country.

International Gaming Institute In The News

Nevada Current

The failure of Resorts World New York, a sister company of Resorts World Las Vegas, to disclose regulatory violations of money laundering in its New York casino application could jeopardize its effort to turn its electronic gaming establishment in Queens into a full-service casino.

Global Gaming Business Magazine

The 19th International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking will convene on May 26-29, 2026 at the Bellagio in Las Vegas. Also referred to as the Eadington Conference because it was founded by the late Dr. Bill Eadington in 1974. Eadington was the founding academic in gaming research and host this first-of-its-kind gathering, which has reconvened every three years. Since Eadington’s passing in 2013, UNLV’s International Gaming Institute has produced the conference. Brett Abarbanel, now in her third year as executive director of the IGI, is excited about the possibilities for next year’s event.

New York Times

Days after he was charged in one of the National Basketball Association’s biggest gambling scandals, a Mississippi man was back on social media, offering up betting advice to his tens of thousands of followers.

Nevada Independent

Is cashless gaming a boon for casinos? Could it result in more problem gambling? There is no clear answer to either question, but those in the responsible gaming community are still concerned as the technology expands.

KSNV-TV: News 3

Dynamic pricing, a strategy used by airlines and resorts, adjusts prices based on demand, offering cheaper rates during low-demand periods.

City Cast Las Vegas

A Las Vegas-based company recently unveiled new cashless gambling technology which would allow gamblers to connect slot machines directly to their bank account via QR code. So, ya know, what could possibly go wrong? Then again … is there an upside? Co-host Dayvid Figler is joined by gaming industry veteran and UNLV faculty member Alan Feldman and Josh Swissman, GMA Consulting Founding Partner and Gaming Industry Expert, for a spirited conversation about the pros and cons of making gambling easier than ever.

International Gaming Institute Experts

An expert in gambling and esports.
A global gaming expert specializing in online settings and AI applications, consumer protection, and payments modernization.
An expert on gaming and society, Bernhard has been featured on CNN, The Discovery Channel, the BBC, and The History Channel.
A longtime industry executive and leading international expert on responsible gaming. 
An expert in global gambling regulation, policy, legislation, licensing, compliance, and enforcement.

Recent International Gaming Institute Accomplishments

Tiange Xu (International Gaming Institute) published an op-ed titled, "I Study Gambling Addiction. I Still Got Hooked on Cryptocurrency." in The Brief Addiction Science Information Source (BASIS). The piece examines how personal experience with cryptocurrency trading revealed blind spots in understanding the risks and harms associated with…
Master's students Adrian Amezcua, Donavan Ross, and Ishan Balaji (Counselor Education, School Psychology, and Human Services) have received a $3,000 grant from the Nevada Problem Gambling Project at UNLV's International Gaming Institute for their project titled, "An Examination of Adults’ Exposure to Online Gambling and the Impact of…
Postdoctoral scholar Piyush Puranik and director of research Kasra Ghaharian (both International Gaming Institute) co-authored a recently published paper titled, "Length of continuous play sessions unrelated to problem gambling severity among regular electronic gaming machine players," in the journal International Gambling Studies. 
Brett Abarbanel (International Gaming Institute), Benjamin Burroughs (Journalism and Media Studies), and Mark Johnson from the University of Sydney have published an article titled, "A New History of Poker Spectatorship: Table Chat, Online Forums, Television Piracy, and Twitch" in the journal International Gambling Studies. Histories of poker…
Kasra Ghaharian (International Gaming Institute) has co-authored a newly published study in the Journal of Gambling Studies titled, "Across the Bettor-Verse: An Open Banking Perspective on Gambling in the United Kingdom." Co-authored with Jay Peterson (PhD Student, Hospitality), Mana Azizsoltani (recent PhD graduate, Hospitality), and Richard…
Tiange Xu (International Gaming Institute; Hospitality), Shane Kraus (Psychology), and colleagues recently published a paper, "A longitudinal investigation of sports betting legalization’s influence on problem gambling," in the Addictive Behaviors. This study tracked 112 American sports bettors over two years using a natural experimental design,…