ReviewsUncategorized

Who Designed This Casino?-Big Mistake!

[easy-social-share buttons="facebook,twitter,google,more,pinterest,linkedin,reddit,digg,print,mail" morebutton="1" morebutton_icon="plus" counters=1 counter_pos="hidden" total_counter_pos="leftbig" style="button" nospace="no" facebook_text="Share" twitter_text="Tweet" google_text="Plus" pinterest_text="Pin" linkedin_text="Link" digg_text="Digg" print_text="Print" mail_text="Email" reddit_text="Link" template="metro-retina"]

shutterstock_143568190If you are not consciously aware of the fact, you probably sense the fact that casino design is critical. If the design is bad, the casino will make less money. That’s guaranteed.

The truth is that we are subtly and psychologically manipulated when we enter a casino. Do we ever stop to think why we walked to a certain area of the casino or to a specific slot machine? A lot of it has to do with casino design. And, you thought you have free will. Not in a casino.

Sometimes we forget that a casino’s sole purpose is to drain our pocketbooks, and casino design is part of that effort. Have you ever noticed that the carpet in a casino is usually very bright and busy. I especially remember the carpet at Ballys. You almost need sunglasses to keep off the glare. The purpose is to keep you looking around and ahead and not down. This is just one example.

Then the lighting, the soft glow that makes one feel comfortable and happy play its part in getting us to the games. Then the placement of the hundreds of slots and tables is crucial to the overall success of the casino.

There is a classic text book on the topic written by Bill Friedman. It is called Designing Casinos To Dominate the Competition. Even a used copy will usually cost over $100. You can read more about this book on Amazon here.

One customer review of Friedman’s book said this:

You will never realize how you are being manipulated on many, many levels from your entry to the casino, to the ambient music, temperature, etc, etc.
It’s all figured out. Some busboy doesn’t set the temperature or choose the music you can just barely hear (if you try).
The casino owners all base their strategies off this book.

The Luxor opened in 1993. It is one hotel that always draws attention with its pyramid shape and light beam on its top. It’s the strongest beam in the world, by the way. But, when it opened someone made a bad mistake in the design. I guess they didn’t read Friedman’s book.

I was there in the early days. When you walked in the front door, your attention was drawn to the left side where there was a Nile River Ride around the casino. This diverted people away from the casino floor where the money is made. So, they tore the ride out and redesigned the place. Good move!

The lesson to be learned for casino owners is to be sure that the internal design of their casino lures people in and keeps them there. One way they do keep people inside spending their money is to make it hard to  get out. I remember how hard it was, and is, to get outside of Caesars and Circus Circus to name two.

A good suggestion is to leave a trail of bread crumbs when you come in. Then, you may find your way back out. LOL.

 

 

[easy-social-share buttons="facebook,twitter,google,more,pinterest,linkedin,reddit,digg,print,mail" morebutton="1" morebutton_icon="plus" counters=1 counter_pos="hidden" total_counter_pos="leftbig" style="button" nospace="no" facebook_text="Share" twitter_text="Tweet" google_text="Plus" pinterest_text="Pin" linkedin_text="Link" digg_text="Digg" print_text="Print" mail_text="Email" reddit_text="Link" template="metro-retina"]

 

Join the conversation!

We have no tolerance for comments containing violence, racism, vulgarity, profanity, all caps, or discourteous behavior. Thank you for partnering with us to maintain a courteous and useful public environment where we can engage in reasonable discourse.