One time, Bo Bernhard admitted, he didn’t do his research.
Bernhard, who has authored hundreds of studies and research papers on all facets of the casino gaming industry, was in South Korea helping one of his mentors, the late clinical psychologist and gambling addiction specialist Robert Hunter, set up a hotline for people seeking help with problem gambling issues.
After six months, not one person called the hotline.
The reason? In the Asian culture, Koreans would never seek help for a problem of that nature. “It would bring shame to the family,” Bernhard recalled.
Gaming research, he learned, needs to include multiple countries and cultures.
He sought to impart that idea last week on those attending the annual Robert D. Faiss Lecture on Gaming Law & Policy at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Boyd School of Law.
Bernhard discussed a 2010 behavioral science study that documented how research often focused on regions that are only western, educated, industrialized, rich, and Democratic, or the acronym, “W.E.I.R.D.”
As executive director of UNLV’s International Gaming Institute, he and the institute’s research team went back and looked at more than 1,000 studies that had covered casino gaming matters and problem gambling issues.
The result? The subjects who participated in the gaming studies represented just 12 percent of the world’s population. Only 10 percent of the total studies accounted for Asian casino markets.
“Last I checked, there is a pretty healthy gaming industry in Asia,” Bernhard said, alluding to Macau, which is the world’s largest gaming jurisdiction, producing revenues of $33 billion in 2017.
Bernhard’s 45-minute lecture was titled “On the Shoulders of Giants,” which he took from a quote attributed to 17th century English scientist Sir Isaac Newton.
“The common theme, of course, is that we owe much to those whose work came before ours,” Bernhard said. “As younger scholars, we are smarter because of them.”
Bernhard discussed several “giants” that he learned from, including an older “non-traditional UNLV student,” who died a few weeks ago in a car accident; a late problem gambling specialist from the east coast; Hunter, and Faiss – the lecture’s namesake and a Las Vegas attorney who was considered the foremost legal authority on gaming before his passing in 2014.
Bernhard also cited with work of another mentor, the late University of Nevada, Reno economics professor Bill Eadington, who is considered the founding figure in the academic study of gambling.
Poignantly, before the lecture, Bernhard was installed as the new Philip G. Satre Chair for Gaming Studies, which is widely recognized as the most prestigious chair in gaming research. Eadington was the last academic to hold the chair, which is now jointly administered by both UNR and UNLV.
Daniel Hamilton, dean of the Boyd School of Law, said it was fitting Bernhard hold the first chair that covers both Nevada universities. Bernard was born and raised in Las Vegas and earned his doctorate from UNLV after graduating with a sociology degree from Harvard. He became a close associate of Eadington. His father Peter Bernhard is a long-time Nevada attorney who spent 13 years as chairman of the Nevada Gaming Commission.
In a 2012 interview with the Las Vegas Review-Journal – shortly after being named the institute’s executive director – Bo Bernhard said he couldn’t think of a better place than Las Vegas for a person who has made a career out of watching people and trying to understand the habits of gamblers.
Over the years, Bernhard has advised the gaming industry and other businesses on ways to expand their reach and grow business. In 2012, he authored a paper that endorsed Las Vegas-based companies exporting their intellectual capital to other markets.
Last week, in an ESPN article, it was revealed Bernhard met secretly in February 2015 at the institute with Oakland Raiders owner Mark Davis to explain Nevada’s regulated sports betting industry. He eased Davis’ fears about sports gambling at a time when he was in the infant stages of exploring a move of the team to Las Vegas.
Davis asked that the information be compiled into an academic report – which ultimately took Bernhard and others a year to produce. The 113-page report was presented to NFL owners before a vote was held a year ago to move the team to Las Vegas.
Bernhard’s other message to the lecture audience came from Faiss, who was a family friend. One of the many lessons Faiss taught him – “often times at the big table at the Las Vegas Country Club” – was simple.
“Be nice,” Bernhard said.
Howard Stutz oversees corporate communications for Golden Entertainment. Follow @howardstutz on Twitter.
