Arandeep Larson 
Most people picture casinos as lavish rooms filled with high-rollers and slot machines – however, most don’t realize that casinos have been carefully designed to ensure you spend money while gambling all night long.
Friedman aimed to eliminate all indicators of time, so players wouldn’t realize they had been playing for hours. Furthermore, he stressed the need for variety among slot machines so all customers can find something they enjoy playing on.
Lights and Sounds
As soon as you step foot inside a casino, your senses will be overwhelmed with lights and sounds designed to stimulate them. These stimulating stimuli create a thrilling environment which encourages people to gamble. Keep in mind that casinos are businesses, so their primary goal is for you to spend as much money as possible with them.
Casinos rely on psychological manipulation techniques to keep patrons gambling. While some techniques may be obvious, others often go unnoticed by most players – for instance casino lighting designed to adapt its color and tempo according to game state is designed specifically to create long-term engagement between customers and the casino through its various color schemes and keep customers gambling longer periods of time.
One trick casinos employ is to promote their jackpots. By showing large progressive jackpots that look close to being hit, casinos make players believe that time is running out and increase their chances of success in winning big.
Exciting Ambiance
Casinos use flashing lights and catchy jingles to distract and make you lose track of time, with psychological techniques working together to maximize engagement and extend playtime.
Environment of gambling can be exhilarating, giving players an empowering feeling they have control of their fortune. Players might believe their skills and knowledge have the ability to change odds in their favor; thus encouraging longer gambling sessions.
Casinos typically remove all indicators of time, making it impossible to check your clock or see when night falls outside. This prevents you from realizing you need to use the restroom or that it is past closing time – part of an effort to keep you playing longer and spend more money than originally planned; then hope for repeat visits later.
Loss Aversion
As soon as you walk through the doors of a casino, it becomes immediately evident that this is an environment in which money can easily be lost. This is done deliberately; casinos want you to lose track of time and spend more than intended.
Friedman realized this and removed clocks from his casino designs; so that players couldn’t gauge how long they have been playing and thus wouldn’t leave abruptly due to bathroom breaks or closing time.
An additional strategy for making gambling less risky is framing it as an investment rather than gambling. According to research, people tend to be less sensitive when making financial decisions framed as investments rather than risks; hence why many casinos feature playground-style environments and offer repeated small losses with hopes of one big pay-out; this helps people feel more at ease spending money at casinos while helping overcome any fear of loss.
Distractions
Casinos strive to create environments that are as captivating and inviting as possible to encourage customers to spend more money than planned. Lighting, colors, and music all help to set an uplifting atmosphere within their establishments.
Study results demonstrated that humans tend to react more negatively when faced with losses than similar gains, a phenomenon known as loss aversion. When combined with fast music and red lights, participants accelerated their playing faster because it “mimicked accurately gambling-related environments.”
Friedman advocates that players should be able to start gambling as soon as they step into a casino, and therefore it should feature playing stations instead of hotel-style lobby. This provides an intimate environment and makes it clear that this facility was created specifically for gambling.
Mr. Waddell also refrains from including clocks in his casino designs as it can be difficult for customers to keep an accurate timekeeping and make wise decisions, which could prove particularly risky for high-rollers who risk quickly spending up all of their capital.
