If you’ve ever thought of going to a casino. and winning enough money to retire to a tropical island where you would have someone attractive. stand over you and gently wave palm fronds to cool your body, while you lie on a beach chair and sip a fancy cocktail with the azure hued surf gently crashing into the white sandy. beach--- sorry to burst your bubble, but chances are that’s not gonna happen. Pure and simple, casinos are designed to strip. you of your money. Yes, they want you to have a fun time so you’ll. visit again, but not too fun of a time that you go home with a lot of prize money. Let’s look at some of the things casinos. do to get you to stay, hang out and lose your hard earned dough. From the moment you walk in, the tricks have. started, casinos are a sensory overload. Bright colors, flashing lights on electronic gaming machines and music stimulate your senses and invite excitement and a want to participate. However, if you keep looking around perhap. you notice something odd; there are no windows. In fact, minus the entrance to the casino-there. is no natural light. Often the casino doors are heavily tinted. to minimize the sunlight outside too. If you can’t look outside, you lack visual. awareness that time is passing. For the same reason, casinos don’t have, clocks. Time flies when you’re having fun, except. casinos would prefer that you forget that time is flying. Some casinos go as far as painting their ceilings to look like daytime skies further adding to the temporal discombobulation. They’re hoping to trick you into thinking that no matter what time it really is, it’s an appropriate time to be gambling. Upon further investigation of a casino’s decor, you might notice that the lighting is subdued. Soft, maybe even a little dim to create a cozy laid back ambiance. The background music is the same: soft, easy,. unobtrusive. The lighting and background music remain the same day or night--another time trick. Casinos want you to feel relaxed and like, you’re hanging out among friends. The mellow, pleasant background decor doesn’t, detract or draw your attention from roulette or the flashy gaming machines. The carpet in casinos tends to be vibrant, with gaudy patterns. In many cases, it’s designed not to be visually restful, meaning that you’ll keep your eyes off the floor and where they belong--on your, video poker game. It’s harder to drift off and get sleepy, looking at bright, busy patterns; this might give a tiny edge to you choosing to stay in, the casino instead of going home or to your hotel room. Also the ugly patterns are handy in helping to hide stains. In well run casinos, it’s always very tidy. If there’s ever a drink spill or any kind, of mess, staff quickly materializes to clean up and resolve the issue. Casinos never want to spoil the illusion that, this is a happy fantasy place where you can relax and let loose. Vomit, sticky soda spills and crumpled napkins belong in the real world, not here. Something else helping to keep you awake and on the gambling floor is the extra oxygen casinos pump into the air. High levels of oxygen keeps us feeling refreshed, and alert allowing us to gamble longer. Casinos have hvac systems with heavy duty. air filtering and purification technology to minimize the smells of cigarette smoke,, alcohol, human funk and maybe even the desperation and misery that may pervade the air. However, many casinos have taken it a step,
further and pipe vaporized aromatic oils and even pheremones into the air to invoke feelings, in guests. Many places have custom signature scents meant to mimic a particular thing such as a Polynesian island or a citrus grove. Scent is another simple thing to add to the, ambience and promote a subconscious sense of comfort and ease to once again cause you to stay longer and spend more money. Some researchers have wondered if a casino’s, scent creates a pavlovian response in regular customers. Since you subconsciously associate the scent. with the casino, when you come to the casino the smell primes you to gamble and just maybe, you end up spending more time than you had initially planned at the casino. As of yet, there’s no reliable method to study this theory, but it makes sense to us. If the smell of baking oatmeal cookies can make you nostalgic for rainy afternoons spent with grandma--miss you Nanna--then a scent, can subtly encourage you to gamble. Like a certain furniture/meatball store, casinos, tend to be maze-like, even disorienting. There are no straight asiles leading to exits. Instead you must trek curving pathways which, conveniently take you past strategically placed gaming sections to reach an exit. As you wander through the rows of flashing, slot machines on your quest for an exit, they hope to lure you into one last spin...or maybe several last spins. There’s always the chance you’ll turn back and spend a few more hours and therefore a lot more money in the casino. You might notice that the cashier’s booth. where you exchange chips and tickets for cash is usually deep in the casino. It’s a strategic design choice just like, the exits. Once again you are forced to walk by many, different types of gambling opportunities to your way to cash out. The same for the restrooms and eateries. Another tactic is that often the cashier’s booth is minimally staffed so there’s a long line to cash out. Would it be more fun to wait in line or to, pay a nearby slot machine and keep your eyes open for when the line gets shorter? Once you have your winnings, you might notice. that the cashier has given you the largest denomination of bills possible. So if you want to have one final crack at an electronic gaming machine on your way to the exit, you’ll have to bet with a $5 or. $10 and not a $1. Let’s talk about money for a second. In the majority of casinos, it’s easy not. to use money at all. Some games require chips, and electronic gaming, machines take digital credits. Many casinos let you load money onto a card, that is used for digital games. Sometimes they encourage you to do so by offering bonus credits depending on the amount loaded on to the card. When you’re spending digital credits or, playing with chips, it can be easy to lose track of how much money you’ve spent, lost. or won. When you leave or win at an electronic gaming, machine, it prints a ticket with your remaining balance. This is another way to dissociate gambling from spending real money. It becomes easier to feed the ticket into. another machine rather than go through the hassle of exchanging it for cash. Many casinos offer free or heavily discounted, drinks and snacks. Trust us, casinos aren’t doing this to be hospitable. Alcohol consumption creates loss of inhibitions. and compromised decision making. In the short term, it can also stimulate exhilaration and social outgoing. That means you’re more likely to be excited, enthusiastic, make poor bets and spend more money. Whatever the casino loses on liquor they make.
up on your poor decisions. Furthermore, if the casino provides you with. snacks, you won’t get hungry and leave. Some casinos offer free perks such as complimentary meals, hotel rooms, event tickets and access to exclusive lounges. However, make no mistake. Free perks are a careful calculation. The truth is that whatever casinos give away in perks, they make that back hundreds times over from the same people awarded the comps. Some casinos have hosts that roam the gaming floor on the lookout for patrons who are nearing their quitting point. For example, if a host sees a patron have. a big loss or maybe being rough with a video poker machine in frustration, they may zoom over and make encouraging chit chat, offering a voucher for a free meal or drink. Basically offering the patron just enough of a break to dispel tension; chances are the patron will resume gambling afterwards. Sometimes perks are earned through casino. loyalty programs where with every dollar played you earn points. Cool, you scored a free $50 surf and turf, dinner with your points, but if you were to add up how much money you lost earning the, points for the dinner, you spent $1,000. Sometimes receiving a free perk can subconsciously. invite you to gamble. Free items can ease the sting felt by losing. money, even making you feel like you’ve balanced the scale or even come out on top. and ‘beat’ the casino at their own game. Your perceived ‘win’ of perks can cause you to stay and gamble even more, because you have not walked away empty handed. The slot machines might be the most dangerous. section on the gambling floor. Everything about them is trying to captivate you. The flashing lights, ringing bells and cheerful,. celebratory music stimulates the reward center in your brain. Slot machines are powered by highly sophisticated computers driven by complex algorithms. Most have a feature called the ‘near miss’. This means the jackpot or any other big prize symbol appears to fail to line up by just one character on a carefully calculated certain percentage of spins. This gives you the impression that you almost. won and therefore you’re likely to play again. However, you are no closer to having won than if the desired symbol had not appeared on the reel at all. Ever so often, a slot machine will pay out a paltry sum of money in order to entice you to keep going. Most slot machines are multi‐line, players, can wager on more than one line per spin. Often players place the maximum number of bets on each spin. This strategy means a player can win on some lines while losing on others, gaining back less than their original wager. These events are known as “losses disguised, as wins.” You’re winning, the machine is cheering. you on, your brain's reward center is lighting up, but you don’t come out ahead. Nevertheless, studies have shown that most. players prefer the multi-line slot machines and often place the max bet because the chance, of winning something, even if it's a small return is so pleasurable. We’re not saying that you shouldn’t visit, casinos if that’s what you like to do. Go enjoy the experience for what it can be:, a fun social outing with friends where you test your luck and maybe your card playing skills and even win some dough. But be realistic about what’s happening--ultimately the house always wins. And now that you've reached the end of our. video, why not keep the watch party going?! Plan on winning the lottery sometime soon? Check out our tips on the best way to spend, your lottery winnings Or if you would like to learn more about gambling, and how casinos make money, take a chance on this video It’s a winner!,