How the Casino Floor Is Tactically Set Up

The modern casinos of Las Vegas and Atlantic City are a far cry from those of yesteryear. Today’s casinos are massive in comparison, containing a multifaceted and streamlined entertainment platform designed to get every cent of your money once you’ve walked through the doors. The sights and sounds that greet your ears and eyes are all designed for one thing and one thing only: to entice you to take a chance on a few slot machines or a few hands at the blackjack tables, all while you’re trying to get from point A to point B across the lobby floor.

The design and layout of a modern casino is no accident and is in fact very carefully orchestrated to appeal to the broadest possible cross-section of the potential gambler, from the first-time visitor to Las Vegas or casual gambler right up to the high rollers. But how do the Las Vegas casino bosses go about this? How do they set up their tactical floor plan to suit today’s modern gambler and ensure that they achieve maximum profits, day in and day out?

The Evolution of the Modern Casino Floor Plan

Casinos are always evolving in an attempt to keep up with what people want in terms of entertainment as well as in gambling. How the casino bosses and managers decide on a particular layout is vital to controlling foot traffic and an even distribution of players throughout the casino.

Not everyone is there to play casino games; some are there to see a particular live show or to attend a conference. However, based on the tactical set-up of the casino floor, casino bosses find new ways to entice non-gamblers into dipping their toes in the water.

The easiest casino games to start off with are always slots since they require virtually no learning curve to play. These are often considered to be the gateway games that will lead a new player to try other casino games like video poker, roulette, blackjack, craps, and poker.

How Slots Are Typically Placed

In any casino (either land-based or virtual), slots make up at least 70% of the total floor space occupied. Thanks to the development of smartphone games, most of the new generation of gamblers prefer interacting with a screen rather than a real person.

This has also had a dramatic effect on the increase of machine-based casino games such as slots, progressives, and video poker games occupying far more floor space in the modern casino.

The common school of thought during the ‘80s and ‘90s was to have banks of slot machines all laid out in a maze-like pattern which was designed to ensure that players would spend more time walking and exploring the maze of slots while they were trying to find their way to the elevators or other entertainment areas of the casino.

Today’s slots feature the latest in cutting-edge technology, including touchscreen UIs and multiple screens where different bonus rounds can be accessed, along with other cool in-game features. This has allowed slots designers to come up with all sorts of new ideas in game development and themes. In turn, casino floor planners are moving in a new direction to suit a more tech-savvy public who are more interested in diverse variety than rows of replicated slot machines.

Now many casinos are moving away from rows or banks of slot machines and more toward smaller clusters made up of different slot types. These machines often consist of a group of 6 to 8 machines arranged in a circular cluster.

There may be several such clusters arranged across the casino lobby, which also has the effect of opening up new eye lines to other attractions in the casino, including the gaming tables, bingo or poker rooms, casino cage (cashier), and so forth.

It also has the added effect of creating a more social experience, where the buzz draws more potential players to try one of the mixed sets of slot machines within the cluster.

How Casino Table Games Are Typically Placed

Casino table games such as roulette, blackjack, or craps are often thought of as the heart and soul of a casino. While it is true that slots will take up around 70% of any casinos floor space, the casino tables are where most of the high-energy gambling action goes down. Whether someone is a semi-serious gambler or just an observer, the sound of players having fun and winning hands or rounds is very attractive indeed.

Casino floor space designers, therefore, need to decide more carefully where to place their table games. Almost everyone loves slots, and having plenty of pretty lights and exciting sounds is usually enough to keep potential players circulating through the casino to try different slots. However, not everyone is familiar with table games, and placing them in an accessible part of the casino floor is a sure way to lose valuable foot traffic.

Playing slots and being able to see others having fun at the roulette, blackjack, or craps table is a great way to arouse curiosity, drawing new players in.

Also, it makes sense for table games to be close enough to the cashier’s cage to persuade players to keep playing rather than cashing out or cutting their losses early. If the casino cashier cage is too far from the tables, players may decide not to go back to the tables after eventually finding the cage.

Whereas slots are generally a solo kind of affair, table games tend to create a more party-like atmosphere, particularly if someone happens to be on a winning streak. This has a subconscious knock-on effect that ripples throughout the casino, stimulating and encouraging players to keep playing in hopes of replicating the other player’s good fortune.

How Casinos Draw Players In

Casinos use a variety of clever techniques designed to draw in as many potential players as possible. They already know that not everyone is there to gamble. Some may just be staying in the casino hotel to attend a nearby conference (or a conference held in the hotel), while others may be there just to enjoy the casino resort’s other attractions, such as pools, restaurants, and bars. The challenge, then, is to get people not interested in gambling to spend a few bucks trying out various casino games.

Some casinos will place a variety of attractive games within easy reach of passing foot traffic – perhaps a few fun slots, some video poker games, and one or two progressive jackpot machines. Once players have decided to try one out, they may even move further into the casino floor to do a bit more exploring. A useful trick which many casinos use to boost foot traffic to quieter or less popular areas of the casino floor is to place “loose” slots, those that pay out easily, in those areas.

Winning slots or slots that are on the verge of producing a massive jackpot payday are often also placed at the end of an aisle or bank of slots to promote foot traffic through that area. Really popular progressive jackpots will often also be placed off the casino floor and more in the hotel lobby, or close to the elevators so that visitors can see them, thereby planting the seed for them to try their luck a bit later.

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Casinos will also often use non-game elements to increase the amount of time that visitors spend on the casino floor playing casino games. One of the oldest tricks in the book is to ensure that no clocks are on the walls, and in some of the older casinos, no windows are in place. However, this old practice is beginning to change in Las Vegas, especially at casinos like Wynn and Bellagio Casino.

Why Many Players Are Choosing to Play Online

Aside from the fact that visiting a brick-and-mortar casino is out of the realm of reality for most people, those that have experienced the traps and temptations of a typical Las Vegas casino now opt to play online instead.

Our Thoughts

There are a number of advantages to playing at an online casino. For one thing, serious gamblers that prefer to forgo the noise and overcrowding often associated with an online casino prefer the quiet and solitude of a more focused online playing environment.

Other advantages include not having to wear yourself out searching for a good slot or table game to play, and you can avoid all the additional upselling that inevitably comes with playing at a land-based casino.

Most online casinos now also feature a live dealer casino section, giving you the best of both worlds with the convenience of an online casino and the immediate excitement and atmosphere of a brick-and-mortar casino.