Casino Psychological Tricks

Casinos use many different psychological tricks from the moment you walk through the door, to keep you playing for hours on end. They use bright lights, colours, enticing sounds, oxygen, and an illusion of control to make you spend more time on their gambling floors.

The longer you stay in the casino, the more money you will spend at the tables, and on the slots. Some casinos use free alcohol to intoxicate players so they can gamble and lose money recklessly. They also provide free meals, hotel rooms, loyalty perks, and even free chips to make you think that they care about you. It’s good for the casino’s business.

Here Are the Most Common Casino Psychology Tricks Today


Going Cashless: Forcing Players to Use Chips and Digital Cards Instead of Real Cash

Gamblers are likely to spend more money at the casino if they dissociate their betting from spending real money. That’s why casinos introduced those beautifully coloured chips. It’s easier to place big bets with chips than using real cash.

Casinos Are Windowless

Moreover, it doesn’t feel too bad when you lose if you use chips, as well. Most modern casinos allow you to load cash onto an electronic card that you can use in video poker, slot machines, and other digital games.

The card is also designed to make you think you’re not spending real money. It’s also why you are likely to spend more when shopping using a credit card rather than hard cash. This tactic works for casinos, too.

Casinos Have No Clocks

If you are a frequent casino visitor, you probably stay longer than you initially planned. That’s not an accident. Casinos have intentionally made it hard for you to tell what time it is. You’ll not see any clock ticking anywhere in the casino.

Casinos want you to lose track of time when you’re playing on the gambling floor.

After all, without knowing the time, you will not realize that you have been playing hand after hand for 10 hours straight at the blackjack tables. This tactic no longer works, of course, because most people take their smartphones everywhere.

Casino Gambling Floors Are Designed Like Mazes

Mazes are fun because they challenge your mind. You will have to use your memory and critical thinking to find your way out of it. But it’s not fun when you cannot find your way out of the casino, running into more tables, slot machines, and other distractions before you reach the door.

Casino Gambling Floors Are Designed Like Mazes

Casinos are designed in such a manner that there are no clear exits, pathways, or aisles that take you straight from one section to the next. Instead, casinos have curved pathways, and gaming machines are placed in a way that they will be in your path as you try to exit the casino gambling floor. The path to the restroom has many gambling machines.

Casinos Drown You in Flashing Lights and Sound

Every gambler knows the sound of someone winning a jackpot. You cannot mistake that familiar sound of a slot machine paying out a win. What about all the bright, flashy lights that show large jackpots?

Casinos are designed to be filled with familiar music, sounds, and spectacular lights. These light and sound effects are meant to make gamblers think a casino is a happy place full of joyful and partying people.

Casinos want everyone to know whenever someone wins money. It helps other gamblers think that their turn to win is just around the corner. This psychological trick is also used by online casinos through leaderboards and showing a list of recent winners.

Pumping More Oxygen into The Gambling Floors

Casinos know one secret. People tend to be happier, more joyful, and likely to stay longer in a place with a higher oxygen concentration. Casinos use air conditioning pumps to increase oxygen levels inside gambling halls.

The increased oxygen concentration in the air you breathe will make you feel more alert and awake. As such, you will spend more time on slot machines and gaming tables despite losing money.

Making You Drink Alcohol

Drinking too much alcohol is the last thing you want to do at a casino. Alcohol not only clouds your judgment but also lowers your inhibition. That is why casinos offer unlimited servings of free booze. The wait staff brings booze right to you at the slots, blackjack table, roulette tables, wheels, or craps tables.

Other Subtle Ways Casinos Trick You

The more intoxicated you are, the more likely you will gamble irresponsibly. The following morning you will wake up with a heavy hangover and empty pockets. And that’s how the casinos like it!

Giving Out Free Stuff

Almost every casino offers complimentary stuff, especially to frequent gamblers. In addition to the loyalty rewards cards and casino comps, you will probably get lots of other free complimentary items. These include:

  • Free entry to the buffet – Free meals, breakfast, etc.
  • Free accommodation – hotel room, suite, etc.
  • Free drinks – Both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks
  • Giveaways like t-shirts, keychain holders, etc.

With all these freebies, meals, and accommodation, you don’t have to leave the casino establishment so you can bet even more.

Near Misses

If you often leave the casino feeling that you were one spin from the jackpot, you are not hallucinating. Casino games are built to generate many near wins or near misses. Next time take a closer look at the slot machines.

It’s almost always one symbol missing from the winning combination. Unfortunately, getting two out of 3, three out of 4, or four out of 5 when it comes to video poker and slots doesn’t help you win. They just make you think the win is coming. The same is true of blackjack, roulette, and other casino card games.

Casinos Are Windowless

How many times have you ever realized that the sun is setting and walked out of the casino to enjoy the sunset? Probably, never. That is because casinos have no windows, so you don’t realize what you are missing outside.

Making The Cashier Hard to Find

In casinos, it is easier to exchange cash for chips than cash out the chips. That is because chips are bought at the table. However, you will have to go to the casino’s cashier at the cage to exchange your chips for real money.

Unfortunately, cashier cages at most casinos are located at the farthest corners. They are usually hidden in a maze of curved aisles. To make matters worse, the pathway to the cashier is blocked by a series of attractive machines and card tables. If you are not too careful, you will end up using all your chips before you reach the cashier.

Other Subtle Ways Casinos Trick You

Other Subtle Ways Casinos Trick You

Casinos manipulate you using some tricks and tactics that include:

  • Providing hard-to-win side bets on games with a low house edge, such as blackjack, baccarat, and video poker
  • Using ugly flooring, tiles, and carpets to make you focus your attention on attractive slot machines, card tables, and other casino games.
  • Changing dealers when you are winning to distract you
  • Using jackpot effect – The gigantic size of jackpot prizes is placed all over the casino to make you feel that you can win it.
  • Advertising big wins too many times – Some casinos advertise a jackpot win for a year or even longer to entice other gamblers
  • They provide you with a complimentary hotel room and meals so you can continue gambling uninterrupted
  • They give you a false sense of control. For example, they make players toss the dice in Craps, select a player to be the dealer in Texas Hold’em, and allow a player to cut the shuffled deck in blackjack.
  • They put ATMs inside gambling halls. This makes it easy to access your cash and therefore gamble more than you intended.
  • They give you casino comps or redeemable loyalty rewards, so you keep coming back to the same casino.
  • They keep the gambling floor cold. This will make you think outside is similarly cold.

Conclusion

Casinos employ several mental tricks to get anyone who sets foot in their hall to stay longer than intended. This is why you should try to be sober or at least alert whenever you play at a casino. Remember to always have a spending budget that you never go beyond. Know your limit regardless of the incentives at your disposal.

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