From Juice to KPIs: Institutional Change and Occupational Identity in Las Vegas Casino Management

Journal article, 2026

This study offers a historically grounded analysis of how Las Vegas table games managers constructed occupational identity and navigated institutional change during a period of significant transformation in the casino industry. Drawing on fifteen oral history interviews conducted between 2014 and 2016, the research examines how managers made sense of the shift from informal, relationship-driven management to corporatized, metrics-oriented systems. Thematic analysis reveals three interrelated themes: the transformation of occupational identity and loss of autonomy; the persistence and adaptation of informal power structures (“juice”); and generational tensions in the interpretation of managerial legitimacy. By foregrounding managers’ narratives as situated historical accounts, the study demonstrates that institutional change is experienced not only as a structural process but as a lived negotiation of meaning, authority, and professional identity. The findings contribute to scholarship on organizational change, occupational identity, and the culture of work, highlighting the value of retrospective, narrative approaches for understanding how frontline actors interpret and enact transformation in complex service organizations.