Casino Tricks To Keep You Gambling.

Perhaps many of you do not realise this fact, but casinos leave nothing to chance when it comes to decor and design, and even their ambiance is artificially constructed to generate specific feelings in their customers, feelings that are designed to ensure that their customers spend money.

 

Given this, what are the kinds of tactics that casinos use to induce frivolous moods in their clientele? With the recent speculations surrounding the advent of the super-casino in the UK, will these psychological tricks still be allowed?

 

Competition to be the first town to boast a super casino is fierce, they will, after all, bring in masses of revenue to the surrounding area- especially attractive during the current economic crisis.

 

If you have ever visited Las Vegas, you will already be familiar with the strange, artificial, atmosphere that you encounter the moment you step inside one of the casinos. Kati St Clair, a psychologist of business, has argued that casinos attempt to provoke trance-like states in their gamblers in order to garner more custom.

 

"Casinos make you feel intimate, enclosed, euphoric; you're in a suggestible state in which you want to stay where you are, continuing to do what you are doing," says Kati.

 

Don’t think that you can fall for these tricks of the mind? Don’t even believe they exist? Read on...

 

 

JEDI MIND TRICK 1- casinos distort your sense of time:

If you ever find yourself in a casino, look around the walls for a clock, the majority of the time you won’t find one: “oh well” you might say “I can always look out of the window and work out whether it’s night or day”,  think again, super casinos don’t have windows, and some even go so far as to create the feeling that it’s day when in fact it’s night, so people have no physical perception of the passage of day to night, making it appear that you spend less time playing than you actually do. All this ensures that you spend longer at their tables, and in doing so, spend more money.

 

Good news for UK gamblers, the British government is trying to put through parliament a bill stating that casinos should not encourage the distortion of the perception of time- no such luck for the USA though.

 

JEDI MIND TRICK 2- the influence of music:

If you’ve ever been to a supermarket, then you’ll already be familiar with the sound that accompanies a jaunt in a casino, and the effects are the same.

 

"Casinos are rather womb-like," says business psychologist Kati St Clair, "Almost always the colour is red and the music is mild and on a continuous loop, rather than individual songs. All of this contributes to the trance-like state of a gambler. Nightclubs use the same sort of tactics."

 

Bad news for UK gamblers, there are, as yet, no rules governing the use of music to induce trance-like states in customers, and no changes on the table.

 

JEDI MIND TRICK 3- appealing to your tummy:

Many of the large American casinos offer free food and drink to their customers as a tactic to keep them betting, but remember, ‘there’s no such thing as a free-lunch!’- these snacks that casinos give complementary have two underlying reasons, one the alcohol gets punters drunk, therefore less inhibited and more likely to part with their cash, and two the free food and drink means that gamblers don’t have to get up from the table to buy snacks when they’re hungry, meaning they stay at the table and part with even more cash.

 

In the UK this kind of inducement will be considered with a critical eye and not likely to be allowed for long, if at all. Alcohol will not be allowed as a means to encourage gamblers to spend more money- but watch out for the energy drinks that are likely to become free, they will cause punters to get over excited and lose a little forethought.

 

 

JEDI MIND TRICK 4- oxygen:

In many of the large American casinos extra oxygen is often pumped into the casino to make gamblers feel more alert and refreshed. Manufacturers of oxygen boxes from the US are likely to be used by UK super casinos too.

 

Not only this, some rumours have recently surfaced that some of the US casinos have even been pumping in synthetic pheromones into the air conditioning systems leading to more aggressive gambling styles. Pheromones are a natural human hormone that causes stimulation.

 

In the United Kingdom, the Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has stated that such psychological tactics are likely to be banned in the UK, "We'll simply not allow any tricks which people are subjected to unawares and which increase the risk of problem gambling," she says.

 

 

JEDI MIND TRICK 5- close shaves:

Nothing encouragers a gambler to carry on betting more than a close shave, you know, when you keep hitting the button and you’re always one away from the jackpot.

 

Many machines can be pre-set to provide a specified number of near-misses within a set period of time. With recent technological developments, new means of making these near-misses even more attractive are being created every day, and again, it is all tailored to make the average gambler part with more money than they normally would.

 

"A near-miss causes a gambler to over-estimate their chances of winning," Cambridge University psychologist, Dr Luke Clark says "If their horse finishes second, or in a casino they watch two cherries come up on a slot machine and then see the third almost click into place, they'll keep playing. A problem gambler will keep playing for a third as long again."

 

When a person feels that the outcome of their wager is down to their individual prowess, choosing numbers for the lottery for example, their perception becomes one of control and once a gambler feels they are in control, they carry on gambling for even longer.  

 

"There are subtle ways that casinos and slot machines can introduce near misses and perceived skill that encourage people to gamble," says psychologist Dr Clark.

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