It’s happened to all of us: You stride into the Luxor, Mohegan Sun or Tropicana brimming with confidence and your wallet filled with cash, all for a bit of enjoyable, sensible gaming and maybe two rounds of cocktails. Hours later you have no idea what time it is, how many drinks you’ve had or where your money went. That’s because casinos are designed to lure you into spending more and more money. They use sounds, lights and physical design to make you lose track of time and keep coming back for more.
The Casino Industry
In his 1995 movie Casino, Paul Verhoeven depicts a world of seedy gambling and corruption that would be familiar to anyone who’s ever wandered through Sin City. Labyrinthine floor plans that make you feel lost and helpless, free drinks that intoxicate people into taking more risks, and pandering service from dealers and waitresses all play a role in creating an environment that is hard to walk away from.
Every casino game has a house edge, which is a mathematical expectation of gross profit that the casino can expect to make on the average patron’s bet. To compensate for this built-in advantage, casinos offer big bettors extravagant inducements such as free spectacular entertainment and transportation to their hotel rooms.
To attract more players, casinos need to double down on marketing strategies that are based on emotions. They must be able to demonstrate that they are the best place to visit for events and group business and have an expert team in place to deliver these results. This requires a level of detail that goes well beyond the gaming floor and into areas such as event planning, group bookings and restaurant marketing.