Jeff "King of the Castle"
When it comes to visiting a casino, it’s not only the games that make the experience, but the atmosphere experienced by the visitors, too. When visiting a casino, each sense is ignited, from the taste as you try an elaborate cocktail from the bar to smell, touch, hear, and see. These experiences work together inside the casino to provide the thrilling experience that we know and love, offering excitement and thrill.
The architecture and design of a casino are often elaborate but can also sometimes be subtle. Brick-and-mortar venues have come under increased pressure from virtual rivals. Players can play games at an online casino real money without needing to leave the house, so the pressure is on old-fashioned venues to impress the players and make the visit worth it. From the way sound travels across the rooms to the lighting used in each space and the effect it has on visitors’ moods, there is no accident when it comes to casino design, and everything is highly calculated.
Below, we’ll take a look at some of the most important design features in casino designs and look at how they influence the overall casino experience.
Lighting
Lighting is a very powerful tool when it comes to influencing people’s moods. We know from medical research that warm light from either the sun or an artificial source has the power to brighten people’s moods and make them feel more positive. However, in a casino, a mix of bright, ambient, and focused lighting is necessary to bring the experience to life.
Bright lights are important in areas where a sense of liveliness and energy should be felt. Such spaces include the entrance of a casino and hallways or gaming floors.
In contrast, ambient lighting is used to set a relaxing mood and invites a sense of mystery or even covertness to the area. This type of lighting is seen in lounges, restaurants, and other entertainment areas within the casino.
As for focused lighting, it is strategically placed to highlight specific areas of the gaming environment. For example, it is often placed above artwork or over high-stakes tables and intriguing sculptures to add intrigue, glamor, and visual interest.
All of these styles of lightning work together to influence how people feel in a space and help craft the overall casino experience.
Hostile design
Hostile design may seem like a strange concept; however, it is used around us in everyday settings without us even realizing it. For example, many public buildings have small entranceways to discourage people from crowding in the lobby area. In addition, public benches are made to feel rigid and uncomfortable to lie on, which deters people from sleeping on them.
Likewise, casino settings use hostile design concepts for gain. Ways they use this include locating the bathrooms in hard-to-find corners of the casino where visitors must walk through high-traffic areas where popular games are. This encourages them to stop and play another game or notice new games on their way to the bathroom.
These hostile designs are created to produce a desired outcome from visitors while not creating enough discomfort that the visitor does not want to come to the casino again. Such tactics can also be seen in the online space.
Many online casinos create tactics such as making the navigation of a site in their favor. For example, it may be difficult for the visitor to exit a game without seeing pop-ups for other games or bonus features first. In addition, the site navigation bar may be in such a hierarchical order that visitors are encouraged to visit the most high-stakes games first, with low-stakes games listed lower down the navigation bar.
Creating an immersive environment
Many attractions utilize an immersive environment, from movie theaters that create pitch black rooms to immerse viewers in the movie to VIP lounges that use immersive environments to create a sense of exclusivity.
Casinos also utilize an immersive environment to make visitors lose track of time in there and feel fully engrossed in the game. For example, many casinos do not have windows inside to make the visitor feel like they are in a whole different world of the casino, and they block out any light so visitors lose track of the time of day. This also helps with creating an exclusive experience in the daytime when the nighttime party environment can be created, no matter if the sun is still up.
Overall, casino architecture and design are vital parts of what makes the casino industry so successful. Whether it is a timeless classic like The Bellagio in Las Vegas, The Venetian Macao in Macau, or even an online casino site, architecture and design play a bigger role in creating the whole experience than what meets the eye.
