Casino Design Royale

Recently I found myself in Las Vegas. It wasn’t a trip TO Las Vegas but the city was a good central location for a number of excursions and visits to Red Rock Canyon, Hoover Dam, and Valley of Fire State Park, which are located west, east, and north, respectively, to Las Vegas.

However, there was one evening visit to Las Vegas Blvd, better known as the Strip. I didn’t gamble (too many courses in mathematics and probability under my belt for that) but, with a designer’s eye it was interesting to notice various things the casinos do to entice, attract, and ultimately persuade one to part with their money.

Casino Design: Gaming Chips or Token

This persuasion was underscored in a recently published book “Dollars and Sense” written by Dan Ariely and Jeff Kreisler, which starts off with a description of what casinos do to maximize their profits [1]. One of the most obvious design choices is that most casinos require people to play and gamble with chips or tokens. When we are betting with pieces of colored plastic, it doesn’t feel like real money and so we’re a little more careless with how we spend it. The casinos know this and make specific design choices so we feel like we’re playing a game and not really playing with (or losing) money (on average!).

Even if you aren’t a gambler, you’ve probably been a recipient of a gift card or even use a credit card. In both cases, the bank or restaurant, or store has removed you by one additional degree from the actual money. Many experiments have shown that we are less frugal with these forms of currency.  I have personally gone to a restaurant (I probably wouldn’t have normally) and ordered something (I probably wouldn’t have normally) but because of my gift card (of $25) I gave an additional $20 to this establishment (that is, the total bill was $45 with my wife’s meal), that really shouldn’t have obtained my money. It seemed easier to part with my real money because of this “token” or “chip” (in reality, the gift card).

On the other hand, we spend less and are more thoughtful about our purchases if we have to hand over multiple physical dollar bills to a cashier. Interestingly, the COVID pandemic has caused us to handle cash even more rarely, which means, on average we’re probably spending more, with everything else being equal. Don’t believe me? That one-click purchase button on Amazon is clicked much too often in our home. Maybe it is in yours too. But it has definitely been clicked throughout the world more in the last 12 months.

Chips, tokens, gift cards, and credit cards are all design choices that have a real impact and influence on our behavior. It may be okay to use them but we should be aware of what’s going on by adopting these designs.

Casino Design: The Gaming Environment

A casino, designed to maximize profit, won’t usually have clocks on the walls or windows to the outside world. The rationale is easy to explain. Biologically, our bodies respond to the setting sun and a darker environment releases melatonin preparing our body to shut down and rest for the night. Likewise, we might be reinforced to get ready for bed at a certain time on our clock or watch. Take away those external stimuli and we might stay up later than we should and spend more time at the blackjack table.

The flashing lights are always shining bright inside a casino. And outside too. There is no night or day there, just fun games for us to play around the clock (in the absence of a clock!). So, it’s good that people wear watches and carry smartphones so that we can check the time, right? But is it?

Likely, you’ve come across at least one article discussing the disruptive patterns of looking at smartphones before bed. There are lots of studies confirming how screen time right before bed can reduce the length or quality of sleep and may extend the amount of time it takes to fall asleep. The blue light emitted from our smartphones is apparently the worst kind of light resulting in this undesirable response. I don’t know if casinos leverage this blue light phenomenon, but from their perspective, it would be a good design. This light could help keep us awake, alert, and stimulated with less of a desire for sleep.

But even if we aren’t in Nevada, we should recognize that when we are designing our micro-environment before bed by scrolling forever on our news feed or social media, we should remind ourselves we’ve just entered, in a way, a casino and it might be a while before we fall asleep.

Casino Design: Entering (and Exiting?)

Another really interesting feature is that some Las Vegas casinos have moving sidewalks INTO their establishments but no moving sidewalks OUT of their casinos. It takes a lot more effort to leave a casino than to enter one. Likewise, there are more one-way doors INTO a casino, and more one-way escalators INTO a casino compared to the exits. Again, this is all by design. There are exits, of course, it’s just that they are difficult to see, some hidden behind slot machines, or require more walking or physical effort (like waking up or down real stairs that aren’t moving). Also, one can easily get lost in a casino, as there may be few signs and a designed layout that is not optimal for human throughput but instead optimized for slowing those same humans down so much that many of those humans contemplate sitting down at a slot machine.

Everyone, and everywhere, implement a similar strategy - not just casinos.  We don’t always take the road less traveled, but we do, almost invariably, take the easier road. We take it when we’re thinking, and we take it when we’re not thinking. We take shortcuts, apply discounts, and accept coupons. We’re always excited about saving time, doing more with less, or getting that deal. Marketers know this too and tout easy weight loss programs, small and simple payments for five years, and delayed interest payments for 6 months or more.

Whether we completely understand it or not, we all try to minimize our efforts to achieve our loftiest of goals. Few people are not trying to maximize their happiness (or bank account) with the least amount of effort. It’s hardwired into us and that’s not an inherently bad thing.

But, we should recognize this principle in our lives and ask ourselves more often than we do if the decisions we are making and the designs we are adopting have a long-term undesirable influence on us. The moving sidewalk into a casino is just a metaphor for ourselves. Before we take that first jarring step onto the conveyor belt, will we be content walking all the way back and exerting more effort in the long run?

[1] Ariely, D. (2017). Dollars and sense: money mishaps and how to avoid them. Boxtree.