How Casinos Trick Gamblers

Casino is a place where champagne glasses clink and people dance to loud music while trying their hand at games like poker or roulette. The atmosphere is exciting, and there’s no telling when luck will strike – but one thing is for sure: The house always wins. So how do casinos trick otherwise rational people – those who work hard for their money and make reasoned financial decisions on a daily basis – into throwing hundreds or even thousands of dollars away at the roll of the dice or the spin of the wheel? The answer is a carefully designed environment that makes it difficult to walk away.

Lighting, sounds, and physical design are just a few of the many factors that shape the casino’s environment. Today, for example, casinos use scented oils in their ventilation systems to make people feel comfortable and create a manufactured blissful experience. Many casinos also have a large number of video screens that play various types of content to keep customers engaged and, in some cases, even fool them into thinking they are winning.

Another way that casinos manipulate their patrons is by keeping them heavily drunk. Booze lowers people’s inhibitions and clouds their judgment, so casinos serve it nonstop – in bars and around the tables at card games and slot machines. And since booze is cheap to produce, it’s the ultimate profit center for casinos. In fact, it’s not uncommon for a casino to make more in bar sales than from its gambling revenue.