Changes [Mar 10, 2009]
The Sony Walkman - ...An important tool used in designing a casino’s layout is the adjustment of how easily or often a slot machine gives a payout. Machines with a relatively high payout rate are known as “loose,” while more conservative slot machines are called “tight.”
Casino planners know that slot players love to see and hear other people winning on nearby machines, because players hold it as evidence that money can be made on the machines. Thus casinos are designed to have the loosest machines in prominent areas deep within the gambling floor. Areas such as the ends of long rows or near walkways or elevated sections are generally where loose machines are placed. As people walk through the gambling floor, the sights and sounds of people playing on these more liberal machines draw other customers deeper into the slot machine block, where the machines are tighter.
The layout also takes advantage of the differences between slot and table players. In general, table players do not like the noise of slot machines because they find it distracting. In addition, they may sometimes play a few rounds on slot machines spontaneously, but obviously prefer table playing. At the same time, however, spouses or partners of table players will often wile away time playing at a nearby slot machine. Thus casinos are planned such that there are slot machines lining walkways around tables. However, these slots are always tight. This cuts down on the noise and distraction to table players, and makes sense because the majority of players on these machines are playing spontaneously, with little expectation of winning. This demonstrates to what degree casino layouts are optimized—in this case, to the point that a complex system is implemented simply to clean up loose change from spontaneous players.
In most Las Vegas casinos, there is a noticeable lack of natural light and of clocks. The gambling floor is always located away from the main entrance out onto the street to minimize the gamblers’ exposure to the outside world. Many casinos design their artificial lighting to simulate daylight. In extreme cases, such as the Venetian in Las Vegas, the entire casino may even attempt to simulate a natural, outside environment, with high ceilings painted to look like the sky, indoor lampposts, building facades, and other features. This design keeps casino patrons in a perpetual (and artificial) daytime, exterior environment, whether they are gambling or not. Thus, those who are already gambling find it easier to keep gambling, and those who are simply walking around the casino are more inclined to start using a machine, because their perceptions of time are manipulated by the design of the casino.
Other features of the casino, including the music, carpeting, and even the air conditioning system, are manipulated to the casino’s advantage. Studies have shown that carpeting is often purposefully jarring to the eyes, which draws customers’ gaze upwards toward the machines on the gambling floor. Music is usually mild and soothing, and plays on a continuous loop rather than individual songs, contributing to a trance-like feeling of warmth and comfort in the gamblers. It has even been reported that casinos have attempted to manipulate the air circulation in order to affect the behavior of gamblers. They may add extra oxygen to the circulation to keep gamblers more alert, or even add pheromones that make people feel more relaxed and at ease. Casinos vehemently deny these allegations; however, companies marketing these technologies do exist and do make sales to casinos. Enhanced Air Technologies, a Vancouver-based company that markets a pheromone air-circulation system, states that the technology was initially developed upon request from a Las Vegas casino. According to Nigel Malkin, EAT’s director of development, “The compound doesn't cause consumers to get into a spending frenzy so much as it causes them feel more at ease in an environment and more receptive to sales messages.”
Upon learning the multitude of deceitful strategies that casinos use to improve their business, it is nearly impossible not to feel as though one is being almost forced to spend money the moment one sets foot in a casino. Many would argue that casinos have gone too far, and should be regulated more strictly by the government in order to protect the consumer.
The fact that casinos have been allowed to expand into such deceptive and extortionist establishments is, in fact, a reflection of how our society and economy have evolved in recent history. In the following sections, we will delve into this topic in more detail.
Tracing Technology and its Effects on Slot Machines
The Psychology of the Slot Machine
Current page: Analysis of Casino Design
$pringfield: Gambling and Slot Machines in Popular Culture
Our Experience with an Online Slot Machine Simulator
The Slot Machine: Concluding Remarks
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