Casino operators can increase revenue by monitoring their competition, but they need to look beyond the gambling hall down the road, James Warden says.
“People are spending their money and (getting) entertainment on things that aren’t traditional gaming,” said Warden, a veteran retail professional who now is chief revenue officer of the real-money gaming investment segment of epay, a technology solution provider and digital content, payments, and prepaid distribution business.
“You have to look generationally at where people are spending their money and getting their entertainment,” he continued. “If you don’t follow that demographic of what the next set of customers is going to do, they won’t be there (for you) to get.”
epay is a division of Euronet Worldwide, an investor in and technical provider for Koin and Marker Trax, digital payment providers for the gaming industry.
Before joining epay, Warden worked at Microsoft, where he saw Amazon evolve from a “bit player” to the software company’s second biggest partner in less than a year. Rejecting the traditional retailer approach, Amazon empowered customers to shop whenever, wherever, and for whatever they wanted.
“That gave all of the power to the consumer,” Warden said, adding that he sees a comparable evolution underway in gaming.
To make the most of their opportunity, land-based casino operators should remove any barriers to the gaming experience, he suggested. “If a customer wants to use cash, let them. If they want to use digital currency or a wallet or crypto, let them,” he said. “Don’t force them or block them or charge them extra. You’ve got to allow them to transact the way they want to, how they want to, when they want to. If you create friction, they will go somewhere that doesn’t.”
The competition, especially for land-based casinos, extends far beyond nearby operators. In the United States, gross commercial igaming revenue totaled $6.07 billion in the first six months of 2026, the American Gaming Association reported. That’s up 18.5 percent from the same period last year. Gross commercial sports-betting revenue was up 4.1 percent, to $8.7 billion, the AGA said.
Warden advised operators to take a holistic look at where people spend their money for gambling-style entertainment, including non-casino formats where “you don’t know what you’re going to win. That is competitive (for casinos). … It’s just a different way to try to turn $1 into $2. How is that different than when I want to play roulette?”
He emphasized that operators cannot afford to ignore traditional competitors and focus solely on such emerging forms of gaming. “The day-to-day (operation) can’t change but you have this threat over here that you also now need to address. Casinos do a wonderful job at that first bit, which is ‘how do I make them walk into my casino, not somebody else’s?’ But there are other opportunities you can address, (and those customers) want different things.” Operators who understand the needs and wants of multiple generations of consumers can tailor their experiences to attract a broader audience, he said.
Perhaps ironically for a digital payments executive, Warden hates the term “cashless.” “(It) is saying there’s going to be a world without cash,” he explained. “If you want to gamble in cash, you should be able to do so. If somebody else wants to use a digital wallet, that’s also great. My view is: Don’t force consumers to do anything they don’t want to do.”
For casino operators to seize the opportunities to attract a broader audience, the first steps include comparing the various demographics, age profiles, and gender profiles already frequenting a physical casino with those driving iGaming, sports betting, and variations of traditional gambling.
“If you understand the consumer and you ground everything in consumer obsession, you can then tailor experiences and solutions around that,” he said. “You’ve got to continue tailoring for the demographic that is there today, and you’ve got to understand what’s happening in the future.”
