Tiange Xu (Hospitality), Andrea Dassopoulos (International Gaming Institute), and UNLV alumnus Dante Miller (Ph.D. Sociology, 2026) recently published a paper, "Classification-Behavior Discordance and Problem Gambling: Differential Patterns for Fantasy Sports and Loot Boxes Among College Students," in the Journal of Gambling Studies. The study…

Andrea Dassopoulos (International Gaming Institute) presented her research, "Digital Self-Exclusion as Harm Reduction: Engagement, Compliance, and Everyday Use Among BetBlocker Users," at the European Association for the Study of Gambling (EASG) conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, on September 10, 2026. Her work explores how gamblers utilize…

Ph.D. student and graduate research assistant Melissa Swinehart (Computer Science; International Gaming Institute) presented her research, "Detecting Unusual Gambling Transaction Patterns," at the European Association for the Study of Gambling (EASG) conference in Copenhagen, Denmark, on Sept. 9, 2026. Her presentation highlighted advanced methods…

Brett Abarbanel (International Gaming Institute; Hospitality) presented on the opportunities and obligations present in sports betting for professional sports organizations at the annual Pro Sports Assembly leadership retreat. The audience included executives from major pro sports and adjacent organizations, including NFL Corporate, Arizona…

Piyush Puranik, Ph. D., (Postdoctoral Scholar at the International Gaming Institute) presented a poster on "Exploring the relationship between gambling involvement and financial health" at the National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) Annual Conference 2026.

UNLV's International Gaming Institute (IGI) hosted the 19th International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking May 26-28, 2026, at Bellagio. This triennial event is the world’s largest research conference in the gambling field and welcomed over 500 attendees from 26 countries, comprised of academics and researchers, industry…

Mana Azizsoltani, Ismael Gómez-Talal, Piyush Puranik, and Kasra Ghaharian (all International Gaming Institute) presented a conference paper titled "Quantifying Luck: Determining the probability of baccarat losses given player bet mix" at the 19th International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking in Las Vegas, Nevada. This…

Mana Azizsoltani, Kasra Ghaharian, and Ismael Gómez-Talal (all International Gaming Institute) published an open access article in the Acta Psychologica titled: "Interpretable behavioral clusters of gamblers through unsupervised learning." This paper identifies various heterogeneous profiles of highly involved gamblers.

Mana Azizsoltani (Hospitality) & Ismael Gomez-Talal (International Gaming Institute) published an article titled 'Building a brief multidomain questionnaire for gambling dual disorder: Psychometric validation and RDoC-based dimensional structure' in the International Journal of Methods in Psychiatric Research. This study yielded a…

Tiange Xu (International Gaming Institute) was featured in a G3 Newswire interview, "When Gambling Becomes Content," previewing his presentation at the 19th International Conference on Gambling & Risk Taking. The Q&A draws on his dissertation research on slot machine vlogs to discuss why responsible gambling messaging in this content…

Sam Leif, Michael McCreery, P.G. Schrader (all Teaching and Learning), Kathleen Krach (Counselor Education, School Psychology, and Human Services), and Brett Abarbanel (International Gaming Institute) published an open-access research article, "Differentiating Video Game Expertise Using the Model of Domain Learning," in Frontiers in Education. The…

Tiange Xu (International Gaming Institute), Mehmet Erdem (Hospitality), Brett Abarbanel (International Gaming Institute; Hospitality), and Shane Kraus (Psychology) recently published a paper, "A Methodological Scoping Review for Video Analysis in Hospitality Research," in the Journal of Hospitality and Tourism Insights. This study reviewed 37…