Does electric current through gases emit light?

Neon tubes, as well as more advanced systems, such as Helium-Neon laser are expressly built in order to produce light in gas filled tubes, as a result of kinetic energy of accelarated ions being transferred into electronic exitations of these or other ions, and then re-emitted as light. The classical experiment in thsi respect (although not necessarily with emission of light) is that of Frank-Hertz.