NATIONAL GAMBLING IMPACT STUDY COMMISSION

MR. SCHILDHAUS: Thank you very much. This patron survey has three decision points. The first one, the development of a design, and that's been done. The Research Committee this morning approved that and we'll go ahead. The second piece is a pilot study which will be conducted at four facilities. After that we will come back to the committee and they will decide whether we should go ahead with the full study which will be at 32 facilities.

The basic steps will be to contact the associations, particularly the American Gaming Association; the American Indian Gaming Association to ask for their cooperation, and some of that has been done. No final decision has been made. We will then attempt to gain cooperation of individual casino and riverboat management. We will then visit the facility, learn more about the logistics of doing this and the access points and the ability to measure the flow of clients.

The next is specify the sampling procedures, and last of all conduct a set of interviews. We have also developed a series of criteria to see how successful the pilot is. And those are will the casinos participate; can the access points be enumerated and patron flows counted in a cost effective manner; what percentage of patrons will consent to be interviewed; will high rollers be available; and to what extent do we consider the response to be valid. I thank you.