Professor Richard Keating teaches Casino Operation and Management, a course offered by the Tisch Center of Hospitality. Professor Keating tells us more about his background and the course subject below.
What is your background?
I graduated from the Carroll School of Management, Boston College, with a BS in Marketing and Operations Management. Most of my career has been spent in NYC working in leadership positions: Director of Sales and Marketing, Area Director, VP Sales and Marketing for the major brands of Starwood, Millennium, IHG, Trump and Boyd Gaming, Atlantic City. I have headed up sales and marketing teams from big boxes like Sheraton New York, Millennium Broadway, Sheraton Boston, Crown Plaza Times Square, to luxury hotels like The Essex House and The Plaza. Overall, my experience has given me a wonderful education in hospitality and in the NYC market.
My biggest excitement was joining Boyd Gaming as Executive Director of Sales and Marketing, where our primary market was NYC. It brought my career full circle and complemented my career in Casino Operations Management. I learned how the casino is a unique business model— a revenue management machine. I am so happy to share my experience and knowledge within casino operations through teaching at NYU.
At the Tisch Center, you teach the Casino Operation and Management course. What are the objectives of the course?
The topics we cover in the course include the history of casino gaming, the economics of gaming, the management structure of casinos, and government regulations that affect day-to-day operations. The chapter on Casino Marketing (on how casinos build market share through innovative marketing strategies to acquire, maintain, and grow share) often has students very engaged. We certainly cover a lot of material packed into one semester but use a variety of ways that engage students into participating throughout the course. We have everything from guest speakers to case studies to group presentations covering a variety of gaming-related topics.
After successfully completing this course, students can talk about the inner operations behind all the fun, excitement, and energy existing on the Casino Floor and throughout the entire facility.
Why is this an important and interesting subject area in our fields?
Students studying in the field of Hospitality will come to see how Casino and Gaming Operations are structured and managed differently from other hospitality operations. Because of these key differences, students will see the additional management challenges of operating a gaming business and the primary role a hotel plays in that operation. This exposure will provide students with a more comprehensive background in the Hospitality Field.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
I hope to emphasize the global impact of the casino and online industry. In 2021, the market size of the casino and online gambling industry reached 231 billion U.S. dollars. In that year, there were over one million workers employed at 5.3 thousand casino establishments worldwide.