A Las Vegas gaming entrepreneur has a simple message to casino companies to jump-start profitability — quit nickel-and-diming your gambling customers and come up with incentives for them to spend more when they visit.

Acres Technology founder and CEO John Acres, who has made a career of developing technological systems to encourage increased and responsible game play, told the Bob Maheu “First Wednesday” group meeting at the Ahern Hotel that the gaming industry must pivot from its current pricing trajectory if it wants to return to record profitability.

“Las Vegas needs to change, but also what we need to give our casino managers permission to change,” Acres said in his 30-minute address.

“Right now, most of our casinos are suffering for revenue and without fresh ideas, without fresh technology, they turn to what has been described as price gouging, surge pricing for bottles of water, expensive food, resort fees, parking fees, all the others that you’re all familiar with. But those are symptoms of our problem. Our real problem is we’ve lost our bravery. We’ve lost our courage. We’ve lost the willingness to take risk.”

Studies player psychology

Acres, who is credited as the inventor of player tracking, progressive jackpots and instant bonuses and has spent 50 years studying player psychology, illustrated executive risk-taking in a description of how he first approached former Wynn Resorts Chairman and CEO Steve Wynn in convincing his company to buy into a progressive jackpot system when Acres was 27.

“I was in his office and I made a proposal to him, a verbal proposal, nothing written. And he goes, ‘I think I like what you’re saying. What’s it going to take to make it happen?’ And I said, ‘Well, it’s going to cost about $100,000.’ And this would have been in 1981, so that’s like $300,000 now. ‘And I need about a third of it up front.’

“He didn’t say, ‘Well, can you do it cheaper?’ He did say, ‘How do I get you to do it better? Whatever you’re doing, I want you to do more. Whatever you’re thinking, I want you to think bigger. I want you to think audaciously. I want you to think past what’s possible into what could possibly come true. I want you to dream about what’s going to happen.’ And he picked up the phone on the intercom, called his secretary and says, ‘I need a check for $35,000.’ Ten minutes later, it’s in his office. Remember, we have zero documentation on this deal, zero.”

Acres said Wynn’s approach toward providing a better customer experience is what’s different from corporate ownership of casinos now from when one top boss or family could make a decision swiftly.

Dressed in a red University of Indiana T-shirt in support of a football program that’s also making an audacious run at a college football championship, Acres said casino companies have forgotten how to dream and how to take risks.

“Which is really weird,” he said. “You’d think that people that run casinos would be familiar with risk. But it’s really not their fault. It’s ours. Because we expect our publicly traded companies to produce consistent results.”

Acres said in “the old Vegas ways,” casino operators didn’t nickel-and-dime their customers, they created an environment in which the customer felt special.

“Those things offset the inevitable losses that you’re going to encounter when you gamble because the truth is, if players don’t lose, casinos can’t survive,” he said.

Players “gamble to escape everyday life, to be for a moment someone beyond what they are, to take a risk, to feel like a winner. Ultimately, what we sell, that we’ve forgotten we sell, is self-esteem. We make players feel better about themselves.”

Acres praised Nevada Gaming Control Board Chairman Mike Dreitzer as an innovator who can bring change to the gaming industry through simplifying, reforming or, in some cases, eliminating existing regulations.

Embracing experimentation

He said he expects Dreitzer will embrace experimentation instead of “protecting against anything bad happening” after taking office last summer.

Acres also addressed prediction markets that made headlines in 2025.

“I think that one of the first problems we have is that we as an industry see every new idea as a threat,” he said. “If I were Nevada and I was fighting against prediction markets, I would be preparing a way to tax the hell out of it if I can’t get rid of it, to make sure that we make our money, that we put them on equal footing with the casinos. At the end of the day, the prediction market is just another set of odds.”

The state is embroiled in lawsuits from companies offering prediction markets after attempting to ban them with cease-and-desist orders.

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