Casinos rely on many tricks to keep people gambling and spending their money. They use sounds, lights, and even the physical design of their buildings to create an environment that’s at once welcoming yet hard to step away from. Business Insider recently compiled a list of nine of the most effective tactics casinos use to make it hard for players to walk away.
The first trick is to distract you from your wallet. Once you enter a casino, you’ll be given chips that represent real money—but they don’t feel the same as cash. This helps to disassociate your gambling from the actual expenditure of money and makes it less painful to lose if you do happen to lose. Many casinos also offer cards you can load with money to play digital games, further separating gambling from spending your real dollars.
Next, casinos try to sway you by offering free stuff. They call these comps, and they’re usually based on how much you spend and the amount of time you play. For example, you might get free meals, hotel rooms, shows, or limo service if you’re a big enough spender at the blackjack table or slot machines.
Security is another key aspect of the casino experience, and it starts on the gaming floor. Dealers have an intimate knowledge of the rules and can spot blatant cheating like palming or marking cards. They also have a more limited view of patrons and can’t see everything that happens at each table, so they have “higher-up” employees watching the larger picture on monitors in a control room.
Finally, casino staff are trained to recognize the signs of addiction and to take the appropriate action. Besides the obvious, such as keeping a player isolated from other tables or the casino floor, they’re trained to spot subtle signals that a person is becoming more and more desperate for a win. This can include a player staring at the table and repeatedly tapping the chip pile, or it could be a player yelling out “I’m a winner!” as they hit a winning combination on a slot machine.
As the market for casino entertainment shifts from boomers and gen Xers to millennials, marketers must rethink how they reach these audiences. A focus on demographics can help, but the most effective marketing strategies for casinos will consider elevated entertainment and food options, increased online components to floor games, and an emphasis on mobile marketing. With these tools, casinos can increase their appeal to younger audiences and encourage them to gamble responsibly. This will keep the house edge in check and protect their bottom line. Good luck!