Millennials: The Disruptive Generation?

According the Pew Research Center, “The Millennial generation is forging a distinctive path into adulthood. Now ranging in age from 18 to 33, they are relatively unattached to organized politics and religion, linked by social media, burdened by debt, distrustful of people, in no rush to marry—and optimistic about the future.”

Casinos seem to know what Baby Boomers like, they’re familiar patrons and have been inhabiting the gaming floor for decades now. They know what Generation X likes, but aren’t too concerned about them because they’ve got families to support and bills to pay. The Millennials, though, have been much discussed but remain an alluring mystery.

The Millennials represent a bigger generation than the baby boomers. The largest wealth transfer ever, from Boomers to Millennials, will take place in the future. Millennials already will account for 1/3 of retail spending in the next 5 years. However, a Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority survey found that only 63 percent of millennials born after 1980 gambled while visiting Vegas last year, compared with 87 percent of visitors 70 to 90 years old, 78 percent of baby boomers (ages 51 to 69) and 68 percent of Generation X members (ages 35 to 50). So casinos are now placing tremendous focus on the Millennials – what they want and how to attract them to the gaming floor.

Millennials been called game changers and disruptors – indicating a cataclysmic paradigm shift in gaming tendencies that will force casinos to radically restructure. Is it true? Well, we say yes and no…

When you take a closer look at the numbers, it’s less a disruption and more simply a continuation of trends. In each category – politics, religion, marriage – it’s a continuation of a trend across generations.

What we do see, though, is rapid adaption of new technology that changes habits and expectations. We believe that, rather than a generational disruption, we should view it as more of a technological disruption with Millennials at the forefront. 

So rather than tearing down a gaming floor and starting from scratch, we see the need to introduce new elements to address these changes. And adding elements to meet these needs can be done gradually.

How specifically can we address these needs? We’ll delve into that in our next blog.