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Crisis management practices in the managementCrisis

hospitality and gambling industry practices during

COVID-19
during COVID-19
Kasra Ghaharian 171
International Gaming Institute and William F. Harrah College of Hospitality,
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA Received 14 November 2020
Revised 8 January 2021
Brett Abarbanel 9 March 2021
Accepted 22 March 2021
International Gaming Institute, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA and
Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
Marta Soligo
International Gaming Institute and Department of Sociology, University of Nevada,
Las Vegas, Nevada, USA, and
Bo Bernhard
International Gaming Institute and William F. Harrah College of Hospitality,
University of Nevada, Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Abstract
Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine crisis management practices among gambling-related
hospitality business stakeholders (GBSs) during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach – An online survey was administered to a sample of GBSs resulting in 64
completed surveys. The survey explored the COVID-19 crisis using a three-phase framework: preparedness
(prior experience and response plans), response (level of importance and use of crisis practices) and future
(confidence in recovery, beliefs about consumer behavior and new strategies). Independent-samples t-tests
were conducted to investigate the influence of preparedness variables on crisis management capabilities.
Importance-Performance Analysis was used to evaluate GBSs’ crisis management capabilities and identify
where performance might be improved. Factor analyses were employed to explore groupings of response
practices as well as future strategies.
Findings – Prior experience had a significant impact on GBSs’ crisis management. IPA indicated gaps
between the importance GBSs assign to response practices and their corresponding level of use, specifically for
those related to marketing and government. Factor analysis revealed response practices did not group
according to the questionnaire’s four themes, instead, three themes of marketing, efficiency and expenses were
revealed. Prevention and hygiene emerged as dominant themes with respect to future strategies.
Originality/value – This is a timely study that investigates crisis management among GBSs during the
COVID-19 pandemic. It provides important methodological contributions as well as valuable practical
considerations for gambling-related hospitality businesses.
Keywords Crisis, Importance-performance analysis, COVID-19, Gambling, Hospitality, Resorts
Paper type Research paper

© Kasra Ghaharian, Brett Abarbanel, Marta Soligo and Bo Bernhard. Published in International
Hospitality Review. Published by Emerald Publishing Limited. This article is published under the
Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY 4.0) licence. Anyone may reproduce, distribute, translate and
create derivative works of this article (for both commercial and non-commercial purposes), subject to full
attribution to the original publication and authors. The full terms of this licence may be seen at http:// International Hospitality Review
Vol. 35 No. 2, 2021
creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0/legalcode pp. 171-194
Disclosure statements: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare for the publication of this Emerald Publishing Limited
2516-8142
work. DOI 10.1108/IHR-08-2020-0037
IHR 1. Introduction
35,2 The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic is challenging industries around the world.
Preventative measures to combat the spread of the virus, such as mandated business closures,
physical distancing, reduced community mobility and travel restrictions, have been especially
devastating to the hospitality industry (G€ossling et al., 2020). Perhaps one of the more
vulnerable subsectors has been gambling-related hospitality businesses, such as casino resorts.
These businesses often rely on tourism and international air travel and many of resorts’
172 verticals, such as casinos, are synonymous with gatherings of large groups of people in close
proximity (Shivdas, 2020). Unfortunately, these features, within which this industry thrives,
also abet the spread of the virus (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020a, b).
The disruption to the gambling industry is clear. In Macau, famed for its numerous casino
resorts and the world’s largest gambling market, authorities in February 2020 ordered
casinos to close for a 15-day period to curb the spread of the virus (Shriber, 2020) and gross
gaming revenue (GGR) for that period dropped 87.8% YoY (Gaming Inspection and
Coordination Bureau, 2020). But travel restrictions and quarantine orders in Macau’s key
feeder markets, such as mainland China, have had more lasting effects (Hong and Wei, 2020).
Revenues reached an all-time low in June 2020 and the region reported a 77.4% decline in June
year-to-date GGR (Gaming Inspection and Coordination Bureau, 2020). A similar scenario is
apparent elsewhere around the world, including Australia, parts of Europe, and the United
States, where casinos and other hospitality operations began closing their doors in March
2020 (Cherney, 2020). Establishments in some jurisdictions began to open midway through
the year, but as with Macau, signs of recovery are unpromising. In Las Vegas, for example,
casino resorts reopened for customers on June 4, 2020, albeit with hefty preventative practices
in place, including enhanced hygiene, limited seating capacity, personal protective
equipment, and increased use of technology-based services (Okada, 2020). Despite this re-
opening, the Las Vegas economy still suffered. For June 2020, air passenger traffic at the city’s
McCarran International Airport was down 77% year-over-year (Las Vegas Convention and
Visitors Authority, 2020a), and the city greeted just 1,065,100 visitors, representing a 71%
decline from the 3,607,400 during the same month a year prior (Las Vegas Convention and
Visitors Authority, 2020b). Furthermore, the Nevada Gaming Control Board (NGCB) reported
massive declines in year-over-year GGR in June 2020 for the Las Vegas Strip and state-wide;
-61.36% and -45.55%, respectively (NGCB, 2020). The path to recovery remains uncertain for
these casino resort businesses as operators wrestle with the impending crisis.
Uncertainty itself is not new; hospitality and gambling industries have faced crises in the
past and crisis events in these industries have been described as inevitable (Barton, 1994).
Natural disasters, for example, have had short-term direct impacts to specific locales. In
August 2019 casinos in Atlantic City, NJ were forced to close for three days when Category 1
Hurricane Irene stormed the city (Harper, 2019). Economic crises, meanwhile, have had
farther reaching impacts. As a result of the 2008 financial crisis, commercial casino sector
revenues in the United States dropped 4.7% year-over-year (Horvath and Paap, 2012), and a
2012 study conducted during the Spanish financial crisis revealed decreases in the frequency
of gambling activities, the number of gambling activities partaken in, and the amount of
money wagered (Science Daily, 2020). Notably, prior viral outbreaks have had significant
effects. The damage to the Mexican tourism industry as a result of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic
was valued at US$5bn and the 2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) outbreak was
calculated to negatively affect the entire global travel and tourism sector by an estimated
US$30–50bn (World Travel and Tourism Council, 2020). Despite these occurrences and the
industries’ inherent higher sensitivity to crises (Kim et al., 2005), research in the area of crisis
preparedness and management for hospitality and gambling spaces is still in its infancy
(Israeli et al., 2018). Furthermore, while a limited number of crisis management studies have
focused on destinations, hotels, and airlines as units of analysis, the authors did not uncover
any prior work purposefully exploring gambling-related hospitality businesses and this Crisis
research begins to fill this gap in the academic literature. management
Recommendations and identification of key strategies are desperately needed for gambling
industry management to better navigate the uncertain path ahead. Moreover, the hospitality
practices during
and gambling industries are important vehicles for COVID-19 crisis research. As part of the COVID-19
wider service sector, they make substantial contributions to Western economies, making the
minimization of impacts and timely recovery imperative (Smith, 2005). Accordingly, the purpose
of this study is to expand knowledge about crisis management in gambling-related hospitality 173
businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic. More specifically, the aims are threefold: (1) to
evaluate crisis management practices of gambling-related hospitality business stakeholders
(GBSs) in response to the pandemic, (2) to assess how their preparedness relates to their
response, and (3) to explore their beliefs and expectations as the pandemic recedes in the future.

2. Literature review
2.1 Crisis management models
The shock of the COVID-19 pandemic and disruption to regular business function has
demanded action from leadership to mitigate the effects. The activities and practices
pertaining to this unprecedented situation are encompassed by the term crisis management.
As Kim et al. (2005) point out, these “. . .activities pertain not only to the hectic moments of
crisis decision-making but also to the managerial areas of long-range prevention, preparation
and mitigation, the response immediately following the crisis and the sensitive domain of
recovery and change” (p. 371).
Various models have been proposed to explain the phenomenon and help guide
management through crises (see, e.g. Caplan, 1970; Arnold, 1980; Slatter, 1984; Smith, 1990;
Booth, 1993; Smith and Sipika, 1993; Seymour and Moore, 2000; and Faulkner, 2001). These
models often depict crisis management as a sequence or cycle, with a number of events or
phases. For example, Faulkner’s (2001) Tourism Disaster Management Framework segments
crisis management into no more than six sequential phases. The framework begins with the
pre-event phase, in which contingency plans are developed. The prodromal phase follows, in
which previously developed plans are initiated. The emergency and intermediate phases
characterize actions and practices during the crisis. The recovery phase is associated with long-
term actions postcrisis, and the resolution phase sees management evaluate prior actions. In
reality, however, the phases may not be mutually exclusive and likely unfold in a more random
sequence (Faulkner, 2001). As with COVID-19, crises are often unexpected, offering leadership
little opportunity for formal planning and preparation (Pforr and Hosie, 2008). Indeed, the “re-
opening” of the US economy (after the initial COVID-19 surge in early 2020) has been less than
linear. Different states relaxed preventative restrictions at different timepoints, and with virus
trends varying across the nation some have reversed course (The Washington Post, 2020). For
example, in California restaurants closed on March 15th for in-person dining, then began to
open again in late May only to close again in July (Snyder and Harris, 2020).
A more appropriate framework to assess the management of the COVID-19 crisis may be a
more simplistic one. Periods of crises could be categorized into three straightforward stages:
before, during, and after. This is in accordance with Heath’s (1998) general aims of crisis
management for managers and executives, which are (1) to plan and provide for possible
crisis events (the pre-crisis stage), (2) to reduce or mitigate the impacts of a crisis by improving
the response management (the crisis stage), and (3) to swiftly and effectively determine the
damage caused by the crisis (the post-crisis stage). Similarly, Smith and Sipika (1993)
conceptualize three aspects of crisis management with a feedback loop to indicate the role of
organizational learning in recovery and a return to the status quo; (1) crisis of management
(pre-crisis period), (2) operational crisis (crisis period), and (3) crisis of legitimation (post-crisis
IHR period). Additionally, 4-stage crisis management models are commonly utilized by
35,2 organizations and can easily be applied to hospitality businesses; mitigation, preparation,
response, recovery (MPRR) and prevention, preparation, response, recovery (PPRR) (Pforr
and Hosie, 2008). These models represent a cycle of events that encourage learning. Yet, as
noted prior, crises often do not occur in a linear fashion and the preparation, response and
recovery are interconnected (Pforr and Hosie, 2008). Accordingly, this study explores the
COVID-19 crisis using a three-phase framework: preparedness, response and future.
174
2.2 Evaluating crisis management practices
Prior literature has investigated the response of particular industries or sectors to specific
crisis events; for example, terror events (e.g. 9/11), biological events (e.g. SARS), and airline
crash accidents. While there is no prior academic literature explicitly studying crisis
management practices in gambling-related hospitality businesses, the related tourism
applications of hotels (Israeli and Reichel, 2003; Henderson and Ng, 2004; Kim et al., 2005; Tse
et al., 2006; Israeli et al., 2011, 2018), restaurants (Green et al., 2004; Israeli, 2007a), travel
agencies (Lovelock, 2004; Perl and Israeli, 2011), and airlines (Aderighi and Cento, 2004;
Chang et al., 2018; Varma, 2020) are common case studies. Although gambling-related
operations are easily distinguished from their hospitality industry counterparts (via the
availability of gaming activities), the similarities are more pronounced. The non-gaming
amenities, such as hotel accommodations, restaurants, entertainment, and nightlife, provided
by gambling-related businesses often encompass the entire spectrum of hospitality offerings
(Min et al., 2019), making the aforementioned literature fitting frameworks for this study.
Meanwhile, a variety of methodologies have been employed to explore crisis management
practices, but there is no consensus on a universal approach (Chang et al., 2018).
The Importance-Performance Analysis (IPA) method, used as a theoretical framework
for this research, has been broadly applied to numerous different sectors and crises (Israeli
and Reichel, 2003; Israeli, 2007a; Israeli et al., 2011, 2018; Perl and Israeli, 2011; Lai and
Hitchcock, 2015; Chang et al., 2018). Initially developed to formulate customer service
marketing practices (Martilla and James, 1997), IPA assigns predetermined attributes
(defined in this study as practices) into four quadrants of a two-dimensional matrix based on
their level of importance and level of performance (defined in this study as usage). The
quadrants are categorized as (1) “concentrate here” (high importance and low use), (2) “keep
up the good work” (high importance and high use), (3) “low priority” (low importance and
low use), and (4) “possible overkill” (high importance and low use). Effective management is
characterized by a matching of practice importance and performance (Duke and Persia,
1996; Israeli, 2007b). In the context of this study, IPA allows for the evaluation of crisis
management practices that GBSs deem important and which practices they actually utilize
amid a crisis situation (defined in this study as the response phase). The IPA approach
begins with the selection of attributes; in this study, attributes are defined as crisis
management practices.
Israeli and Reichel (2003) constructed a comprehensive list of crisis management
practices to evaluate hotel managerial response to the Israeli hospitality industry crisis
(2000–2002) that stemmed from escalating terrorist activity. Twenty-one practices were
identified, from which four main themes emerged: human resources, marketing,
maintenance, and government. The practices were used to build the Hospitality Crisis
Management Questionnaire (HCMQ); a two part questionnaire in which respondents first
rate the level of importance of each practice on a 7-point Likert scale (1 5 least important,
7 5 most important) and then rate their level of use of each practice on a similar scale
(1 5 rarely used, 7 5 extensively used). Since this seminal study, the HCMQ has been
adapted to assess managerial response to different crises in a variety of industries around
the world, such as the Israeli restaurant industry (Israeli 2007a), Indian luxury hotels Crisis
(Israeli et al., 2011), the Israeli travel agency sector (Perl and Israeli, 2011), and Turkish hotel management
managers (Israeli et al., 2018).
practices during
COVID-19
2.3 Research questions and hypotheses
The study’s first two research questions concern the response phase and replicate
propositions made in prior studies employing the HCMQ (Israeli and Reichel, 2003; Israeli, 175
2007a; Israeli et al., 2011, 2018; Perl and Israeli, 2011):
(1) Research question 1 (RQ1): For GBSs, is there a relationship between the reported
importance of specific crisis management practices and their level of use?
RQ1 examines if GBSs engage in crisis management practices that they believe to be
important; a necessary condition for effective crisis management (Duke and Persia, 1996;
Israeli, 2007b). Based on prior literature, this study proposes the following hypothesis:
H1. There will be a significant positive association between the reported importance of
specific crisis management practices and their level of use.
(2) Research question 2 (RQ2): Do GBSs’ practices in response to COVID-19 conform to
established themes in crisis management literature?
RQ2 examines whether GBSs’ practices (for both level of importance and use) during the
COVID-19 pandemic conform to the original HCMQ’s constructs or do they reveal alternative
patterns pertinent to the industry and current crisis. Based on prior literature, this study
proposes the following hypothesis:
H2. Both importance and use will follow the four constructs of the HCMQ: human
resources, marketing, maintenance, and government.
RQ3 and RQ4 investigate the preparedness phase and will assess the relationship between
readiness and the crisis management response of GBSs:
(3) Research question 3 (RQ3): Is the existence of a formal crisis response plan related to
GBSs’ ability to utilize practices they believe to be important?
(4) Research question 4 (RQ4): Is prior crisis management experience related to GBSs’
ability to utilize practices they believe to be important?
RQ3 and RQ4 explore the future phase and GBSs’ confidence in recovery and expected
changes in consumer behavior:
(5) Research question 5 (RQ5): How confident are GBSs in the recovery of their operation
from the COVID-19 pandemic?
(6) Research question 6 (RQ6): To what extent do GBSs believe customers will reduce
their spending toward travel and leisure activities?
RQ7 aims to identify which future strategies group together and whether any consistent
themes are revealed that provide insight into future management practices with respect to the
COVID-19 pandemic.
(7) Research question 7 (RQ7): How do GBSs’ attitudes toward future strategies to
combat the COVID-19 pandemic group together?
Extant literature does not establish a priori knowledge to suggest predicted relationships for
RQ3 – RQ7, so hypotheses are not advanced for these questions.
IHR 3. Methodology
35,2 This study was preregistered online with the Center for Open Science prior to the collection of
any data. All analyses in the preregistered data analysis plan are presented in the Results
section, regardless of statistical significance of findings, in line with Open Science best
practices (Center for Open Science, 2020). Preregistration documentation can be found at
https://osf.io/hej3y.
176
3.1 Data collection and participants
An online survey was developed to assess GBSs’ experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic.
An email invitation with link to the Qualtrics-hosted survey was sent to a list of
approximately 200 faculty members and alumni of the Executive Development Program
(EDP), who participated in the program between 2013 and 2019. EDP is a 10-day development
program hosted annually by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas International Gaming
Institute and the University of Nevada, Reno College of Business and Extended Studies, as an
executive educational program for executives, owners, senior managers, and other leaders in
gambling-related hospitality businesses. EDP alumni work in jurisdictions around the world
and continue to participate in the EDP program via informal networking events throughout
the year. The survey was distributed during the first week of May 2020, with a follow-up
email invitation sent approximately one week after the initial invitation. Respondents were
not reimbursed for their participation. Ethics approval for this study was received from the
[University of Nevada, Las Vegas] Institutional Review Board.

3.2 Measurement
Variables are summarized here, and readers can refer to the full survey (https://osf.io/phkdn/)
and in the associated preregistration project folder on OSF.io. The online survey composed of
four parts. The first portion pertained to general demographic data and information about the
respondent and their organization. The subsequent sections pertained to three phases of the
COVID-19 crisis; preparedness, response, and future.
3.2.1 Preparedness. Drawing from Pforr and Hosie’s (2008) indicators of preparedness,
participants were asked two dichotomous questions, (1) “Does your operation have a formal
crisis response plan?” and (2) “Has your operation experienced a crisis before?”. Follow-up
questions inquired about the respondents’ role in their organization’s crisis response plan and
the nature of the past-experienced crisis/crises (e.g. natural disaster, economic crisis,
biological crisis, etc.).
3.2.2 Response. An adapted version of the HCMQ was used to evaluate GBSs’ crisis
management practices; their response. Given the global representation of the sample
population, practice 21 from the original questionnaire, “industry-wide demand for a grace
period on local tax payments”, was omitted. Additionally, the research team modified the
wording of some practices with more specific gambling-industry jargon and terms. For
example, “marketing to domestic tourists” was modified to “marketing to locals”, and the
word “hotel” was deleted from “cost cuts by limiting hotel services”. The subsequent tool
comprises 20 practices and two parts. Respondents first rated the importance of each practice
on a 7-point Likert scale where 1 5 least important and 7 5 most important. Respondents
then specified their level of actual use of each practice on a similar 7-point Likert scale where
1 5 rarely used and 7 5 extensively used. Table 1 lists the practices and corresponding
themes.
3.2.3 Future. Three questions were used to explore GBSs’ beliefs about the future of their
organization and the industry more broadly. The first question gauged respondents’
confidence in their operation’s recovery from COVID-19 on a 5-point Likert scale, where
1 5 Extremely doubtful and 5 5 Extremely confident. To investigate beliefs about changes
Theme Practice Description
Crisis
management
Human HR1 Laying off employees to reduce labor force practices during
resources HR2 Using unpaid vacation to reduce labor force
HR3 Reducing the number of workdays per week COVID-19
HR4 Freezing pay rates
HR5 Replacing highly paid employees with new low paid employees
HR6 Increased reliance on outsourcing 177
Marketing MK7 Marketing to locals in joint campaigns with local merchants
MK8 Marketing to locals with focus on specific attributes of the location
MK9 Price drop on special offers
MK10 Reduce prices
MK11 Marketing to nonlocals with specific focus on the location’s distinctive features
and relative safety
MK12 Marketing and promoting new products or services
MK13 Marketing to new segments
Maintenance MA14 Cost cuts by limiting services
MA15 Cost cuts by postponing maintenance of the building (cosmetics)
MA16 Cost cuts by postponing maintenance to the engineering systems
MA17 Extending credit or postponing scheduled payments
Government GV18 Organized protest against the lack of government support Table 1.
GV19 Industry-wide demand for governmental assistance with current expenses Crisis management
GV20 Industry-wide demand for a grace period on tax payments practices

in consumer behavior, respondents used a 5-point scale (1 5 not at all, 5 5 a great deal) to
indicate the extent to which they thought customers would reduce their spending toward
different hospitality activities (e.g. gambling, live entertainment). Finally, respondents were
asked to rate how likely they were to implement strategies with respect to the future of their
operation, using a 5-point Likert scale for which 1 5 Extremely unlikely and 5 5 Extremely
likely. This list of potential strategies was compiled using the Occupational Health and Safety
Administration’s (OSHA) workplace preparation guidelines for COVID-19 (OSHA, 2020), and
supplemented by major topics identified by participants at “EDP reconvenes”; virtual
meetings that were held throughout April 2020 that provided EDP faculty and members a
platform to share their experiences and knowledge pertaining to the pandemic.

3.3 Data analysis

Statistical analysis was conducted using SPSS 26. Missing data were excluded on a list-wise
basis. To empirically test whether GBSs practiced effective crisis management (RQ1),
Spearman correlation tests were applied to all HCMQ responses to determine the association
between the level of importance and level of use assigned to each practice (Israeli and Reichel,
2003). H1 will be affirmed if a strong positive correlation between each practices’ importance
and level of use is detected. Spearman correlations were used as they are nonparametric;
HCMQ items are measured on ordinal scales and may be non-normally distributed (Kendall,
1938; Spearman, 1904). While the correlation analysis indicates whether management is
acting effectively at a basic level, it does not provide deeper insight with respect to individual
practice discrepancies between beliefs and actions. Therefore, the original protocol developed
by Israeli and Reichel (2003) was supplemented with gap analysis. With IPA, a performance
gap exists when there is a significant difference between an attribute’s importance and
performance ratings (O’Neill and Palmer, 2004). In this study, the gap is defined as importance
minus use. Individual paired sample t tests were conducted on the means of each practices’
importance and use, to detect whether differences were meaningful. A positive gap (lower use
than importance) indicates potential areas for improvement and the magnitude of the gap can
IHR assist management in prioritizing improvement efforts. However, results can elicit the same
35,2 or similar sized gap for multiple practices, leading to a conundrum. To resolve this, an
importance-weighted gap method was applied to help prioritize practices that show similar
performance gaps (Chang et al., 2018). The priority value of a practice was calculated by
multiplying the gap of a practice by the corresponding mean of the level of importance.
Practices with statistically significant gaps were listed from highest to lowest according to
their corresponding priority value to facilitate comparison.
178 To empirically test whether GBSs’ practices in response to COVID-19 conform to the
constructs of the HCMQ (RQ2) this study employed the analysis protocol utilized by prior
work (Israeli and Reichel, 2003; Israeli, 2007; Israeli et al., 2011, 2018; Perl and Israeli, 2011). A
principal component analysis (PCA) with a varimax rotation method with Kaiser
normalization was deployed to determine which practices cluster and correspond to the
four original constructs; human resources, marketing, maintenance, and government. A
loading cut-off value of 0.45 was used for item inclusion (Tabachnick and Fidell, 2013). The
PCA was applied to three categories of scale measures: (1) Response-level of importance
measures, (2) Response-level of use measures, and (3) Response-effectiveness (calculated as
the product of the importance and use of each practice). H2 is affirmed if the practices group
according to the original constructs.
To assess whether GBSs who indicate better readiness display more effective crisis
management (RQ3 and RQ4), 2 two-sample t-tests with checks for equality of variance were
performed. For the first test, the independent variable was called CRISP, binary coded as
1 5 a formal plan was in place prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and 0 5 no formal plan
existed. The second test examined a variable called CRISE, binary coded as 1 5 the
respondent’s operation had experienced a crisis before, and 0 5 the operation had not
experienced a crisis before. The dependent variable for both tests was effectiveness (the
product of importance and use). Cohen’s d was used to assess the effect size for mean
comparisons.
Frequency counts and percentages were calculated for responses to questions regarding
confidence in recovery (RQ5) and beliefs with respect to changes in consumer spending on
hospitality activities (RQ6). Means were calculated for responses to the question “Reflecting
upon the COVID-19 pandemic, please rate how likely you are to implement the following
strategies with respect to the future of your operation”. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA)
was performed to identify the main themes with respect to respondents’ likelihood to
implement future strategies to combat the crisis (RQ7). Oblimin (oblique) rotation was used to
permit for potential correlation between factors, as this analysis was exploratory. A loading
cut-off value of 0.45 was used for item inclusion (Tabachnick and Fidell, 2013), with both
eigenvalue criterion and scree test used to identify the number of dimensions.
For all factor analyses, Kaiser–Meyer–Olkin measure of sampling adequacy was
calculated to determine if the analysis was appropriate for the data set, with a minimum
acceptance level set at 0.50 (Field, 2013). Bartlett’s test of sphericity was reviewed, with
rejection criterion set at 0.05. The reliabilities of dimensions were assessed using Cronbach’s
alpha (α ≥ 0.65; Vaske, 2008).

4. Results
83 responses were collected, comprising a response rate of roughly 40%. Of these, 64
responses were useable for analysis. However, six responses for the HCMQ items were
incomplete and removed from the sample for that portion of the analysis. The relevant sample
size for each analytical step is indicated in table footnotes. Descriptive statistics, including the
mean, median, SD, and range were calculated for all variables. Table 2 presents the sample
descriptive statistics.
Variables N %
Crisis
management
Gender practices during
Male 50 78.1
Female 13 20.3 COVID-19
Self-identify 1 1.6
Age 179
20–29 years 2 3.1
30–39 years 16 25.0
40–49 years 28 43.8
50–59 years 17 26.6
>60 years 1 1.6
Employment status changed
Yes 14 21.9
No 50 78.1
Current employment status
Employed full-time 44 68.8
Employed part-time 7 10.9
Unemployed 2 3.1
Other 11 17.2
Location
Australia 5 7.8
Canada 4 6.3
China 1 1.6
Colombia 1 1.6
Finland 1 1.6
Malta 1 1.6
Mexico 2 3.1
Monaco 1 1.6
New Zealand 1 1.6
Singapore 2 3.1
Sweden 2 3.1
United Kingdom 1 1.6
United States of America 39 60.9 Table 2.
Unknown 2 3.1 Sample descriptive
Vietnam 1 1.6 statistics

Respondents were predominantly male (n 5 50, 78.1%), and the average age was 45 years. 14
respondents’ employment status had changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but the
majority of respondents were employed full-time (n 5 44, 68.8%). Most of the respondents’
operations were located in the USA (n 5 39, 60.9%). Five respondents were located in
Australia, 4 in Canada, 2 locations were unknown, and the remainder represented various
countries throughout South America, Europe, and Asia.

4.1 Spearman correlations and gap analysis

The mean, SD, and gap for each practice is listed in Table 3. All Spearman correlations
(Table 4) were positive and statistically significant (at p < 0.01), indicating that at a basic level
GBSs have managed effectively. MK12 – marketing and promoting new products or services
correlated the highest (0.71) and ranked second for both importance and use (4.83 and 4.43
respectively). Three practices from the maintenance construct (MA15, MA16, and MA17) also
correlated highly (0.66, 0.65 and 0.65 respectively). MA17 – extending credit or postponing
IHR Importance Use
35,2 Practice Rank Mean SD Rank Mean SD Gap p value

HR1 12 3.81 1.99 7 3.71 2.58 0.103 0.706

HR2 13 3.79 1.84 11 3.47 2.40 0.328 0.287
HR3 10 3.98 1.95 8 3.64 2.50 0.345 0.214
HR4 5 4.36 1.96 3 4.21 2.43 0.155 0.560
180 HR5 20 2.00 1.51 19 2.09 1.76 -0.086 0.633
HR6 17 2.40 1.54 18 2.17 1.52 0.224 0.359
MK7 14 3.74 1.95 17 2.67 1.79 1.069 0.000
MK8 8 4.12 2.12 14 3.10 2.07 1.017 0.000
MK9 9 4.12 1.86 12 3.40 2.09 0.724 0.002
MK10 10 3.97 1.75 13 3.24 1.99 0.724 0.005
MK11 15 3.53 2.04 15 2.83 1.96 0.707 0.008
MK12 2 4.83 1.87 2 4.43 2.10 0.397 0.043
MK13 4 4.67 1.90 6 3.93 2.17 0.741 0.003
MA14 6 4.31 1.84 4 4.21 2.20 0.103 0.674
MA15 11 3.93 2.07 9 3.64 2.35 0.293 0.217
MA16 16 2.76 1.82 16 2.74 2.03 0.017 0.933
MA17 3 4.79 1.91 1 4.62 2.15 0.172 0.445
Table 3.
Practices’ rank, mean, GV18 19 2.21 1.64 20 1.62 1.35 0.586 0.000
standard deviation, GV19 7 4.28 1.99 10 3.53 2.18 0.741 0.003
and gap analysis GV20 1 4.86 1.94 5 4.05 2.27 0.810 0.002
results Note(s): N 5 58

Practice Description Correlation*

MK12 Marketing and promoting new products or services 0.712

MA15 Cost cuts by postponing maintenance of the building (cosmetics) 0.663
MA17 Extending credit or postponing scheduled payments 0.650
MA16 Cost cuts by postponing maintenance to the engineering systems 0.647
MK8 Marketing to locals with focus on specific attributes of the location 0.642
MK7 Marketing to locals in joint campaigns with local merchants 0.630
MK9 Price drop on special offers 0.629
HR1 Laying off employees to reduce labor force 0.629
HR5 Replacing highly paid employees with new low paid employees 0.619
GV19 Industry-wide demand for governmental assistance with current expenses 0.619
MK13 Marketing to new segments 0.601
GV18 Organized protest against the lack of government support 0.598
GV20 Industry-wide demand for a grace period on tax payments 0.593
HR4 Freezing pay rates 0.571
HR3 Reducing the number of workdays per week 0.570
MA14 Cost cuts by limiting services 0.543
MK10 Reduce prices 0.530
MK11 Marketing to non-locals with specific focus on the location’s distinctive features and 0.502
relative safety
HR2 Using unpaid vacation to reduce labor force 0.439
Table 4. HR6 Increased reliance on outsourcing 0.408
Spearman correlations Note(s): N 5 58
for importance and use *all correlations are significant at 0.01

scheduled payments ranked highest for use and third for importance. HR6 – increased
reliance on outsourcing received the lowest correlation (0.41) and was third lowest for average
importance and use (2.40 and 2.17 respectively). HR5 – replacing highly paid employees with Crisis
low paid employees and GV18 – organized protest against lack of government support were management
among the lowest for average importance and usage but were mid-table in terms of
correlation (0.62 and 0.60, respectively).
practices during
Gap analysis revealed statistically significant positive differences (at p < 0.05) for all COVID-19
marketing and government practices; indicating each practices’ mean level of use was lower
than the mean rating of importance. Gaps in the human resources and maintenance categories
were lower in magnitude and not statistically significant. Table 5 lists the marketing and 181
government practices in order of priority value. MK8 – marketing to locals with focus on
specific attributes of the location, which ranked 8th for importance and 14th for use generated
the highest priority of value (4.19). MK7 – marketing to locals in joint campaigns with local
merchants and GV20 – industry-wide demand for a grace period on tax payments also
produced high priority values; 4.00 and 3.94, respectively. The lowest priority value (1.30) was
attributed to GV18 – organized protest against the lack of government support which ranked
19th for importance and 20th for use.

4.2 HCMQ construct validity

4.2.1 Principal component analysis of practice importance. Table 6 presents the results of the
PCA of practice importance, including factor loading, eigenvalues, variance explained, and
reliability measures. Four components accounted for 61.92% of the variance. The reliabilities
for all components indicated acceptable levels of internal consistency (α 5 0.76–0.87). The
grouping of practices within each component suggests themes consistent with: (1) marketing
and labor efficiency, (2) efficiency and government protest, (3) expenses, and (4) new marketing.
The marketing and labor efficiency factor included marketing practices related to price
reductions, as well as campaigns geared toward locals and nonlocals. The component also
composed of practices concerned with reducing labor costs. The efficiency and government
protest factor included human resources and maintenance practices related to reducing
overheads, as well as GV18 – organized protest against the lack of government support. The
expenses factor included government and maintenance practices pertaining to managing
cash flow and expenses. The new marketing factor composed of marketing practices related
to new segments and promotion of new products or services. MA15 – cost cuts by postponing
maintenance of the building (cosmetics) was removed from the new marketing factor due to an
inadequate contribution to internal reliability (Cronbach’s α).

Priority
Practice Description Importance Gap value

MK8 Marketing to locals with focus on specific attributes of the 4.12 1.017 4.190
location
MK7 Marketing to locals in joint campaigns with local merchants 3.74 1.069 3.998
GV20 Industry-wide demand for a grace period on tax payments 4.86 0.810 3.937
MK13 Marketing to new segments 4.67 0.741 3.460
GV19 Industry-wide demand for governmental assistance with 4.28 0.741 3.171
current expenses
MK9 Price drop on special offers 4.12 0.724 2.983
MK10 Reduce prices 3.97 0.724 2.874
Table 5.
MK11 Marketing to nonlocals with specific focus on the location’s 3.53 0.707 2.496 Priority ranking for
distinctive features and relative safety crisis management
MK12 Marketing and promoting new products or services 4.83 0.397 1.918 practices with
GV18 Organized protest against the lack of government support 2.21 0.586 1.295 statistically significant
Note(s): N 5 58 gap values
IHR Confirmed factor components and corresponding Factor Variance Cronbach’s
35,2 practices loading Eigenvalue (%) a

Factor 1: Marketing and labor efficiency 5.763 30.331 0.874

MK9 Price drop on special offers 0.837
MK8 Marketing to locals with focus on specific 0.807
attributes of the location
182 MK7 Marketing to locals in joint campaigns with 0.793
local merchants
MK10 Reduce prices 0.752
MK11 Marketing to nonlocals with specific focus 0.691
on the location’s distinctive features and
relative safety
HR2 Using unpaid vacation to reduce labor force 0.578
HR4 Freezing pay rates 0.543
HR3 Reducing the number of workdays per 0.493
week
Factor 2: Efficiency and government protest 2.651 13.952 0.755
HR5 Replacing highly paid employees with new 0.783
low paid employees
GV18 Organized protest against the lack of 0.749
government support
MA16 Cost cuts by postponing maintenance to the 0.687
engineering systems
HR1 Laying off employees to reduce labor force 0.609
HR6 Increased reliance on outsourcing 0.527
MA14 Cost cuts by limiting services 0.514
Factor 3: Expenses 1.768 9.304 0.811
GV20 Industry-wide demand for a grace period 0.886
on tax payments
GV19 Industry-wide demand for governmental 0.823
assistance with current expenses
MA17 Extending credit or postponing scheduled 0.708
payments
Factor 4: New marketing 1.584 8.336 0.853
MK12 Marketing and promoting new products or 0.885
services
MK13 Marketing to new segments 0.865
Table 6. Total variance extracted (%) 61.923
Principal component Note(s): N 5 58
analysis of practice Extraction method: Principal component analysis. Rotation method: Varimax with Kaiser normalization
importance 4 components extracted. Rotation converged in 6 iterations. The minimum loading was 0.45

4.2.2 Principal component analysis of practice use. Results of the PCA of practice use are
presented in Table 7. Four components accounted for 58.62% of the variance. The reliabilities
for all components indicated reasonable levels of internal consistency (α 5 0.65–0.83). The
grouping of practices within each component suggests themes consistent with: (1) marketing,
(2) efficiency and government protest, (3) labor efficiency and price reductions, and (4) expenses.
The marketing factor included all practices under the original HCMQ marketing construct,
except MK10 – reduce prices. The efficiency and government protest factor included the same
practices (those related to reducing overheads) as the corresponding factor for the PCA of
practice importance with the addition of practice MA15 – cost cuts by postponing
maintenance to building (cosmetics). The labor efficiency and price reductions factor
comprised the same three practices concerned with reducing labor costs included in the
Confirmed factor components and corresponding Factor Variance Cronbach’s
Crisis
practices loading Eigenvalue (%) a management
practices during
Factor 1: Marketing 4.770 23.851 0.827
MK7 Marketing to locals in joint campaigns with 0.812 COVID-19
local merchants
MK8 Marketing to locals with focus on specific 0.795
attributes of the location 183
MK11 Marketing to nonlocals with specific focus 0.724
on the location’s distinctive features and
relative safety
MK13 Marketing to new segments 0.654
MK12 Marketing and promoting new products or 0.653
services
MK9 Price drop on special offers 0.592
Factor 2: Efficiency and government protest 3.167 15.835 0.787
MA16 Cost cuts by postponing maintenance to the 0.751
engineering systems
HR1 Laying off employees to reduce labor force 0.745
HR6 Increased reliance on outsourcing 0.667
MA15 Cost cuts by postponing maintenance of the 0.643
building (cosmetics)
HR5 Replacing highly paid employees with new 0.614
low paid employees
MA14 Cost cuts by limiting services 0.563
GV18 Organized protest against the lack of 0.510
government support
Factor 3: Labor efficiency and price reductions 2.243 11.216 0.645
HR3 Reducing the number of workdays per 0.720
week
HR4 Freezing pay rates 0.701
MK10 Reduce prices 0.637
HR2 Using unpaid vacation to reduce labor force 0.451
Factor 4: Expenses 1.543 7.713 0.797
GV20 Industry-wide demand for a grace period 0.904
on tax payments
GV19 Industry-wide demand for governmental 0.900
assistance with current expenses
MA17 Extending credit or postponing scheduled 0.574
payments
Total variance extracted (%) 58.615
Note(s): N 5 58 Table 7.
Extraction method: Principal component analysis. Rotation method: Varimax with Kaiser normalization Principal component
4 components extracted. Rotation converged in 6 iterations. The minimum loading was 0.45 analysis of practice use

marketing and labor efficiency factor from the PCA of practice importance in addition to
marketing practice MK10 – reduce prices. The expenses factor paralleled the third factor of
the PCA of practice importance, consisting of factors related to cash flow management.
4.2.3 Principal component analysis of practice effectiveness. Table 8 presents results of the
PCA of practice effectiveness. 56.85% of the variance was explained by four components
representing themes of: (1) marketing, (2) holistic, (3) expenses, and (4) labor efficiency and
limiting services. Marketing practices related to price reductions and targeted campaigns for
locals and nonlocals characterized the marketing factor, which also had strong internal
consistency (α 5 0.84). The holistic factor resembled no apparent theme and included
practices from all four original HCMQ constructs. It also lacked internal consistency
IHR Confirmed factor components and corresponding Factor Variance Cronbach’s
35,2 practices loading Eigenvalue (%) a

Factor 1: Marketing 4.621 23.106 0.838

MK9 Price drop on special offers 0.795
MK11 Marketing to nonlocals with specific focus 0.785
on the location’s distinctive features and
184 relative safety
MK7 Marketing to locals in joint campaigns with 0.783
local merchants
MK8 Marketing to locals with focus on specific 0.754
attributes of the location
MK10 Reduce prices 0.676
Factor 2: Holistic 2.994 14.970 0.425
MA16 Cost cuts by postponing maintenance to the 0.783
engineering systems
MA15 Cost cuts by postponing maintenance of the 0.702
building (cosmetics)
HR5 Replacing highly paid employees with new 0.655
low paid employees
GV18 Organized protest against the lack of 0.634
government support
MK12 Marketing and promoting new products or
0.574
services
MK13 Marketing to new segments
0.451
Factor 3: Expenses 2.288 11.442 0.818
GV20 Industry-wide demand for a grace period 0.884
on tax payments
GV19 Industry-wide demand for governmental 0.869
assistance with current expenses
MA17 Extending credit or postponing scheduled 0.703
payments
Factor 4: Labor efficiency and limiting services 1.466 7.329 0.643
HR2 Using unpaid vacation to reduce labor force 0.768
MA14 Cost cuts by limiting services 0.657
HR3 Reducing the number of workdays per 0.643
week
HR1 Laying off employees to reduce labor force 0.523
Table 8. Total variance extracted (%) 56.847
Principal component Note(s): N 5 58
analysis of practice Extraction method: Principal component analysis. Rotation method: Varimax with Kaiser normalization
effectiveness 4 components extracted. Rotation converged in 5 iterations. The minimum loading was 0.45

(α 5 0.43), so further assessment using this factor may be unreliable. The expenses factor
consisted of the same practices as the corresponding expenses factors of the PCAs of practice
importance and use, with the reliability measure indicating strong internal consistency
(α 5 0.82). The labor efficiency and limiting services factor included practices related to cutting
costs by reducing the labor force and the number of hours worked, as well as limiting
services. The factor produced a reasonable level of internal consistency (α 5 0.64). Two
practices (HR6 – increased reliance on outsourcing and HR4 – freezing pay rates) did not meet
the loading cut-off value (0.45) and were excluded from final analysis.

4.3 Two-sample t-tests

Of the 58 respondents, 35 indicated that their operation had a formal crisis response plan in
place prior to the COVID-19 pandemic. The difference between the mean effectiveness of
those that had a plan (CRISP 5 1) and those that did not (CRISP 5 0) was marginal (311.17 Crisis
and 323.00 respectively), and the difference was not statistically significant (p 5 0.74); 34 of management
the 58 respondents stated that their operation had experienced a crisis before. The difference
between the mean effectiveness of those that had previously experienced a crisis (CRISE 5 1)
practices during
and those that had not (CRISE 5 0) was 66.36 (343.32–276.96), and the difference was COVID-19
statistically significant at p < 0.05 (0.04). Cohen’s d was 0.55, indicating a medium effect size
(Cohen, 1988).
185
4.4 Future
For responses to the question “How confident are you that your operation will recover from
COVID-19?”, 58 respondents (90.63%) were either “Extremely confident” (n 5 30) or
“Moderately confident” (n 5 28). Table 9 presents counts and percentages for respondents’
beliefs regarding customers’ future expenditures on travel and leisure activities. Most
respondents indicated that they believed customer spending will be reduced to some extent
for all categories, with only a small number of respondents indicating that customers would
not reduce their spending at all. International travel and live entertainment were most
concerning among respondents, with 39.06% and 25%, respectively indicating that they
believed customers would reduce their spending “a great deal” in these categories.
Table 10 ranks future strategies (by mean) for the question “Reflecting upon the COVID-19
pandemic, please rate how likely you are to implement the following strategies with respect to
the future of your operation”. The strategy that respondents indicated that they would most
likely implement was F3 – Revise facility hygiene standards and practices (mean 5 4.75),
followed by F4 – Revise employee hygiene standards and practices. The strategy that ranked
lowest was F7 – Enforce a smoke-free policy throughout the facility/place of work
(mean 5 3.02).
Table 11 presents the principal component analysis of future strategies, including
reliability measures. The EFA produced three components accounting for 81.21% of the
variance. Groupings of the strategies within factors suggested they represent: (1) prevention,
(2) hygiene, and (3) use public assisted funds. The prevention factor displayed strong internal
consistency (α 5 0.86) and comprises strategies addressing crisis preparedness (creation of a
crisis management team and creation/revision of a plan), the implementation of a tool to
monitor customer satisfaction with respect to COVID-19, and enforcement of employee PPE
ensembles. The hygiene factor also exhibited strong internal consistency (α 5 0.83) and
included strategies related to enhancing hygiene. The use of public assisted funds measure
(F12) loaded individually, and was kept as part of analysis due to both theoretical value and
quantitative value, in its relevant contribution to variance explained.

A moderate
None at all A little amount A lot A great deal
Travel/Leisure category % N % N % N % N % N

Gambling 7.81 5 35.94 23 42.19 27 10.94 7 3.13 2

Visitation 7.81 5 23.44 15 43.75 28 23.44 15 1.56 1
Dining 10.94 7 23.44 15 45.31 29 17.19 11 3.13 2
Live entertainment 6.25 4 14.06 9 23.44 15 31.25 20 25.00 16 Table 9.
Response data for “As
Sports 18.75 12 25.00 16 34.38 22 10.94 7 10.94 7 the pandemic recedes,
Hotel stays 9.38 6 25.00 16 39.06 25 25.00 16 1.56 1 to what extent do you
Domestic travel 9.52 6 25.40 16 42.86 27 22.22 14 0.00 0 think customers will
International travel 1.56 1 10.94 7 14.06 9 34.38 22 39.06 25 reduce their spending
Note(s): N 5 64 toward. . .”
IHR Strategy Description Mean
35,2
F3 Revise facility hygiene standards and practices 4.75
F4 Revise employee hygiene standards and practices 4.70
F9 Enforce PPE ensembles for employees (e.g. some combination of gloves, a gown, a face 4.34
mask and/or a face shield, or goggles)
F1 Create/Revise Crisis Management Plan 4.28
186 F6 Invest in new technologies to enhance hygiene 4.28
F5 Invest more in employee health and wellness strategies 4.02
F11 Implement a tool to assess customer’s satisfaction with response to COVID-19 4.00
F2 Create a Crisis Management Team 3.89
F10 Invest/bolster online gambling positioning (if permitted in your jurisdiction) 3.50
F12 Use public assisted funds (e.g. bailout, tax breaks) 3.34
Table 10. F8 Install physical barriers, such as clear plastic sneeze guards, where feasible 3.27
Ranking of future F7 Enforce a smoke-free policy throughout the facility/place of work 3.02
strategies by mean Note(s): N 5 64

Confirmed factor components and corresponding Factor Variance Cronbach’s

practices loading Eigenvalue (%) a

Factor 1: Prevention 4.265 53.312 0.864

F2 Create a Crisis Management Team 0.993
F1 Create/Revise Crisis Management Plan 0.848
F11 Implement a tool to assess customers 0.632
satisfaction with respect to COVID-19
F9 Enforce PPE ensembles for employees 0.486
Factor 2: Hygiene 1.209 15.113 0.828
F4 Revise employee hygiene standards and
0.997
practices
F3 Revise facility hygiene standards and
0.950
practices
F6 Invest in new technologies to enhance
0.508
hygiene
Factor 3: Use public assisted funds 1.022 12.780 -
F12 Use public assisted funds (e.g. bailout, tax 1.002
breaks)
Table 11. Total variance extracted (%) 81.206
Principal component Note(s): N 5 64
analysis of future Extraction method: Principal component analysis. Rotation method: Oblimin with Kaiser normalization
strategies 3 components extracted. Rotation converged in 15 iterations. The minimum loading was 0.45

5. Discussion
This study is extremely timely given the disruption to the gambling industry and wider
hospitality sector as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings reveal important
considerations with respect to crisis management for GBSs as they navigate the current
environment and the path ahead as the pandemic abates. The results from the Spearman
correlations imply GBSs have acted coherently; utilizing the practices they believe to be
important. This finding is in accordance with prior studies employing the HCMQ (Israeli and
Reichel, 2003; Israeli 2007; Israeli et al., 2011, 2018; Perl and Israeli, 2011). In attempts to
provide further insight, prior works compared the ranks of each practice’s mean importance
and use. While this study also presents rankings, the methodology is advanced by the
introduction of gap analysis. Gap analysis provided an efficient way to identify discrepancies Crisis
between each practices’ importance and use. It is of note that all marketing and government management
practices had meaningful positive gaps, suggesting some obstacle or aversion to the
utilization of practices up to their corresponding level of importance. Marketing practices
practices during
may seem less valuable to gambling businesses, given travel restrictions, physical distancing COVID-19
and, other COVID-19 preventative measures, and GBSs might view governmental assistance
as something that is out of their control. The human resources and maintenance practices,
meanwhile, may be more easily manipulated and provide immediate cash flow relief. 187
The calculation of priority values provides methodological and practical benefits allowing
for the prioritization of under-utilized crisis management practices (RQ1). Consider practice
MK7 (Marketing to locals in joint campaigns with local merchants): its correlation is high and
statistically significant, and it ranks low for importance and use (14th and 17th, respectively).
Given MK7’s low rank for importance, it could easily be overlooked. However, its priority
value is the second highest (3.99), indicating the practice might not be utilized to its full
potential. With respect to the COVID-19 pandemic and the practices identified in Table 5,
GBSs might consider re-evaluating their domestic marketing strategies and bolster
collaborative efforts with respect to lobbying for governmental assistance. Given
restrictions related to international and even domestic travel, marketing to locals (MK7
and MK8) and identifying new segments (MK13) could help operators weather the storm. In
light of COVID-19, more risk-tolerant younger generations appear as an opportunity segment
that could provide near term value but could also be nurtured into a longer-term strategic
advantage (Arpin et al., 2020). In the US, airlines, and to some extent hotels, have emerged as
winners in their pursuit for bailout funds (Woodyard, 2020), but some gambling operators
have been left behind. For example, small casinos with under 500 employees have been
ineligible for aid under the US Paycheck Protection Program (Stradbrooke, 2020).
With regard to RQ2, the results from the PCAs of practice importance, use, and
effectiveness revealed factors that only partially adhere to the original constructs of the
HCMQ. For each of these three areas, marketing was a consistent theme. The marketing factor
for both the PCAs of practice use and effectiveness comprises marketing practices entirely
with strong reliabilities (αs > 0.80). Additionally, the PCA of practice importance revealed two
factors with marketing themes, both with strong internal consistency (αs > 0.80). The
marketing and labor efficiency factor was predominantly marketing orientated (5 out of the 8
items were marketing practices), and the new marketing factor comprised of two marketing
practices. While the marketing practices appeared to cluster and reveal a consistent theme,
results from the gap analysis suggest marketing as an area GBSs may be able to optimize
once they have exhausted more immediately impactful strategies.
Efficiency emerged as the primary theme in the efficiency and government protest factor
for the PCAs of practice importance and use. GBSs recognize the importance of cash flow
management and seek out cost efficiencies during this time of crisis. Efficiency also emerged
as a theme in the holistic factor of PCA of practice effectiveness, including cost reduction
measures by postponing maintenance (MA15 and MA16) and replacing highly paid
employees with new low paid employees (HR5). Notably, the factor contained two negatively
loaded marketing practices, suggesting marketing practices may serve as an alternative
approach to cost reduction measures.
The original HCMQ “government” construct also materialized as a somewhat consistent
theme in this study. The expenses factor comprised two of the three government practices
(GV19 – Industry-wide demand for governmental assistance with current expenses and
GV20 – Industry-wide demand for a Grace period on tax payments) and included MA17 –
Extending credit or postponing scheduled payments. The expenses factor exhibited strong
internal consistency (α 5 0.80–0.82) and appeared as the third factor for the PCAs of practice
importance and effectiveness, and fourth factor for the PCA of practice use. The replacement
IHR of GV18 – Organized protest against the lack of government support with MA17 is somewhat
35,2 logical, and implies GBSs acknowledge ways to reduce or gain assistance with expenses.
This study concludes that the original HCMQ’s constructs are not supported in totality.
Here, three themes of marketing, efficiency, and expenses emerge across all three PCAs.
Human resources and maintenance practices clustered together, but not distinctly, and here
GBSs seemed to group practices around a broader theme of efficiency. Two of the three
practices from the government construct were recognized consistently, although these were
188 accompanied by a maintenance practice that depicted a theme more aligned with expenses in
general. Marketing and the broader theme of efficiency, as opposed to more distinct human
resources and maintenance themes, were also identified in prior works employing the HCMQ
in the Israeli and Indian hospitality sectors (Israeli and Reichel, 2003; Israeli et al., 2011).
Marketing efforts can help bolster both short- and long-term business volumes. Moreover,
cost cutting and cost management strategies can provide immediate cash flow relief.
The influence of crisis preparedness showed contrary outcomes. While the existence of a
formal crisis response plan had no bearing on effectiveness (RQ3), those GBSs with prior crisis
experience exhibited significantly higher scores (RQ4). At face value, these results might
suggest formal contingency plans provide no managerial advantage. Alternatively, the
extraordinary nature of the COVID-19 pandemic may have made the application of any plan
obsolete. Here, prior crisis experiences equipped managers with an enhanced ability to put
their beliefs into action. Furthermore, just 6% of respondents (2/34) specified the type of their
prior crisis experience as “biological”, suggesting that lessons are learned irrespective of the
nature of the crisis. As gambling and hospitality operators continue to navigate COVID-19,
potential strategies to consider may be (1) identifying internal personnel with prior crisis
experience and (2) communicate, collaborate, and share knowledge with industry peers who
have prior crisis management experience.
With regard to RQ5 and respondents’ views of recovery from COVID-19, the large
majority of GBSs were confident that their operation would recover. There were, however,
concerns about changes in consumer spending patterns (RQ6). These concerns support the
promotion of the same kind of initiatives identified in the gap analysis and factor analyses.
Namely, as the pandemic recedes, GBSs are concerned that spending on international travel
will be reduced a great deal. This emphasizes the importance of outreach to local markets and
the identification of new potential target markets, particularly for the myriad gambling
operators within destination markets, such as Las Vegas and Macau, who have been
innocently reliant on tourism (Travel Weekly Asia, 2019). Moreover, in recent years,
gambling-related hospitality has seen a shift away from a singular focus on gambling, and an
increased presence of integrated resorts with a wide range of offerings (Eadington, 1999).
However, should this hypothesized shift in consumer spending materialize, operators may
need to transform and allocate resources to areas that show the greatest potential for returns.
A recent survey assessing consumer attitudes with respect to casino visitation during
COVID-19 suggests that customers may feel more comfortable on the casino floor, in hotel
rooms, and in restaurants, but less comfortable in spas, nightclubs, and other entertainment
venues (Arpin et al., 2020). Gambling-related hospitality businesses should strive to
communicate the relative safety of these more favorable environments. Moreover, given the
higher comfort level among younger generations to revisit casino resorts amidst the
pandemic, operators must find ways to make these offerings more relevant to this
bourgeoning audience.
In addressing RQ7, the factor analysis of future strategies revealed findings reflective of
the quickly evolving understanding of the virus over time. At the time the survey was
administered (early May 2020) there were significant concerns regarding fomite transmission
(via surface touching), and this is reflected in the hygiene factor. Additionally, the hygiene
strategy of Install physical barriers, such as clear plastic sneeze guards, where feasible, was
ranked 11th out of the total 12 strategies and did not meet the cut-off value for inclusion in the Crisis
factor analysis. At the time of this writing, aerosol transmission has gained substantial management
attention, with mask wearing and physical barriers becoming highly recommended or even
mandatory in many jurisdictions (Al Jazeera, 2020). The formation of COVID-19 task forces
practices during
will help GBSs’ keep abreast of information regarding preventative measures. But internal COVID-19
and external communication should not be overlooked. For example, in casinos and other
gambling-related hospitality businesses, regular training periods could be scheduled to
ensure personnel in both front-of-house and back-of-house departments are implementing 189
and adhering to the most up-to-date policies. For other GBSs’, such as slot machine
manufacturers and other suppliers, collaboration with local regulators could help ensure
compliance with fast-evolving preventative measures and support innovation of new
products and services to address pandemic-induced challenges. Moreover, strategies F1 –
Create/Revise Crisis Management Plan (that ranked 4th) and F2 – Create a Crisis
Management Team (that ranked 8th) were included in the prevention factor. Given that
prior crisis experience appears to indicate more effective crisis management, however,
management finding themselves with limited resources due to the pandemic should consider
prioritizing the creation of a crisis management team over the creation/revision of a
formal plan.

6. Limitations and future research

This research is not without limitation. Due to the cross-sectional design of the study, data
were collected at a single point in time and therefore no inference to causality can be made.
However, an attempt was made to evaluate pre- and post-crisis phases with the research
instrument. The sampling procedure garnered a specific population of GBSs (members and
faculty of the EDP), with approximately 30% of the sampled population being represented by
this research. While globally diverse, the findings come from a relatively small sample in a
niche population, and cannot be generalized to the worldwide population of GBSs or
management in other hospitality sectors. Moreover, the pandemic has reached varying
degrees of severity at different times, in different locales, which may have created
unexplained variation in our globally collected response data.
The 20 crisis management practices included in the adapted version of the HCMQ used in
this study were drawn from prior literature. This could explain why construct validity within
the original HCMQ themes was not supported. Borrowing from prior literature may have also
prevented the identification of specific COVID-19 crisis management themes, by overlooking
practices that could be common among GBSs in this unique hospitality setting. In prior works
employing IPA, some researchers develop a specific set of attributes, while others reuse
attributes from previous studies (Lai and Hitchcock, 2015). Here, reapplication of the HCMQ
attributes was favorable, allowing for (1) timely implementation and execution of the study,
(2) a contribution to literature in potential validation of the tool, and (3) promotion of the future
application of the tool to other crises and businesses. Future research on COVID-19 crisis
management in gambling-related hospitality businesses should consider constructing
attributes based on prior interviews with knowledgeable stakeholders and then validating
these with a small sample before distributing to a wider population. Furthermore, in terms of
data collection, administration of the HCMQ at a single time-point produces risk of a
consistency motif (in which respondents tend to provide consistent answers across items) (Lai
and Hitchcock, 2015). Therefore, researchers should explore a two-phase administration of
the HCMQ to avoid influence from the rating of importance on the rating of use and bolster
reliability of the data.
There are ongoing debates and differences concerning data collection methods and
analytical procedures with respect to IPA. For example, the use of I-P mapping and whether
IHR or not factor analysis should be employed are among several queries that have emerged from
35,2 reviews of the literature (see, e.g. Lai and Hitchcock, 2015). In the present study, the
methodology and analysis protocol proposed by the HCMQ developers was followed to
facilitate comparison with prior HCMQ work, and was deemed appropriate given the
intentional design of the HCMQ to assess crisis management in situations similar to the
current pandemic environment. Future research can further the additional methodological
contributions made in this work, applying gap analysis to the HCMQ data.
190 Finally, it is unknown what influence GBSs’ crisis management capabilities have on
longer term firm performance and positioning. As identified in the study preregistration
(https://osf.io/hej3y), the current study did attempt to investigate this relationship by
employing regression analysis with confidence in recovery as the dependent variable,
however, attenuated ranges in the confidence in recovery variable rendered the analysis
impossible. More widespread data collection may gather more varied responses.

Funding statements
During the past five years, International Gaming Institute has received research funding from
MGM Resorts International, Wynn Resorts Ltd, Las Vegas Sands Corporation, Caesars
Entertainment Corporation, Ainsworth Game Technology, US–Japan Business Council, State
of Nevada, Knowledge Fund and State of Nevada Department of Health and Human Services.
IGI runs the triennial research-focused International Conference on Gambling and Risk
Taking, whose sponsors include industry, academic and legal/regulatory stakeholders in
gambling. A full list of sponsors for the most recent conference can be found at https://www.
unlv.edu/igi/conference/17th/sponsors.
During the past five years, Kasra Ghaharian has received funding from the Nevada
Department of Health and Human Services for research on problem gambling.
During the past five years, Brett Abarbanel has received funding from the Manitoba
Gambling Research Program, GP Consulting, US–Japan Business Council, Wynn Las Vegas,
Victoria Responsible Gambling Foundation, Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling,
Bermuda Casino Gambling Commission, the States of Nevada and California, Canadian
Partnership for Responsible Gambling, iDevelopment and Economic Association, GLG
Consulting, Majestic Star Casinos, MGM Resorts International, ProPress Germany and
Caesars Entertainment. Dr Abarbanel has received reimbursement for travel from
Association Cluster Sport International, Kansspelautoriteit, Gamification Group (Finland),
British Columbia Lottery Corporation, International Association of Gaming Advisors,
GambleAware, Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, Ultimate Media Ventures,
Canadian Partnership for Responsible Gambling, IGT Latin America, University of Salford
and National Collegiate Athletic Association (USA). During the time period, Dr Abarbanel
was a member of the Singapore National Council on Problem Gambling International
Advisory Panel, for which she was reimbursed for her time.
Marta Soligo has no outside funding to report.
During the past five years, Dr Bernhard has been funded by the US–Japan Business Council,
Wynn Resorts, Atomic 47/ePlata Banking, Las Vegas Sands, the Nevada Department of Health
and Human Services Governor’s Advisory Panel on Problem Gambling, the State of Nevada
Knowledge Fund and MGM Resorts International. He has received travel and/or honoraria for
presenting his research in more than two dozen countries.

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Corresponding author
Kasra Ghaharian can be contacted at: [email protected]

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