How do you design a casino game?

[Akzhel]

Hi I am making an essay about casino gambling and I am wondering if there are any books or articles (online?) about how casino games should be designed to appeal to different audiences. Like why is the craps table looking as it does? If someone would have a dice game and say "Bet 1 dollar win 5$ on 6" there wouldnt be to many gambling would there? So are there any litterature on this subject?

Thanks!

[jba]

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If someone would have a dice game and say "Bet 1 dollar win 5$ on 6" there wouldnt be to many gambling would there?

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are there hot waitresses bringing me free drinks? if so gimme the dice, big papa's feelin it tonight

[TStoneMBD]

a major key to building a good casino game is concealing the house edge so that people dont even realize that it exists. games like roulette have an obvious house edge, but that game has existed for so long. in games like craps, blackjack, and other tables games, many gambler's might know that the house has an edge against them, but they dont understand how. its almost like that edge ceases to exist so gamblers can go on fooling themselves about how the system works.

you also want to build games that will naturally be enticing to the human psyche.

another system to build casino games is to create games that may exploit a degenerate gambler's mindset in giving him ways to devise faulty systems to beat you. for instance, showing the past numbers on a roulette table made the casinos a fortune upon its introduction. blackjack is still a very popular game because many people believe they can count cards when they in fact cannot. a reason why roulette is popular is because some people think they can predict where the ball will land. it may also be one of the easier games to attempt a martingale strategy which many people foolishly believe works.

[AvivaSimplex]

The people who design slot machines have done extensive work studying optimal reward schedules (e.g. should people win mostly small amounts every few spins or bigger amounts every dozen spins or jackpots every 10,000 spins?) Probably the majority of this is not publicly available, but an enormous amount of thought goes into it.

[Akzhel]

Thanks for answers even though I had hopes of some sources that I could use in the essay. Like the stuff Aviva talked about. There must be tons of different aspects when designing a casino game (and the environment) that attracts different kinds of gambling personalities. Like how long will a gamblers money last on average? How much will he win when he wins? WIll there be only luck or some elements of skill? How can we hide the casino edge? I liked the thing TStone said about showing "passed" numbers of the rouellette. People are so dumb when it comes to gambling.

[AvivaSimplex]

I don't know of any sources other than google, but I'm sure the casinos have those statistics. Every aspect of a casino is designed to keep you in as long as possible and to take as much money as possible. Some obvious things are that there are no clocks and no windows, so there's no external cue that you've been there all day or all night. The casinos are designed to be confusingly laid out, so you'll have trouble finding the exit. You bet with chips instead of cash, so it doesn't seem like real money. I've heard that they choose the ceiling and carpet to be as boring as possible, so your eyes will be drawn to the slot machines.

"The guy who invented gambling was smart, but the guy who invented chips was a genius."

[SheetWise]

Try The Theory of Gambling and Statistical Logic by Richard Epstein. Look to the chapter titled Fallacies and Sophistries.

Other References -

Edmund Bergler -- "The Psychology of Gambling"

John Cohen -- "The Psychology of Luck", and many other works.

[Akzhel]

Thanks sheet! Very valuable information. I have borrowed them all from the library. The mentioned books are all abit old. You know if there has been any new findings in this area the last 15 years considering behavioural economics is very hyped right now. Seems to be a very close link between these subjects.

[SheetWise]

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The mentioned books are all a bit old. You know if there has been any new findings in this area the last 15 years considering behavioural economics is very hyped right now.

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They're not that old! 50's to 70's ... /images/graemlins/wink.gif

I'm sure there have been a lot of new findings, but none I've seen have really got my attention. My primary interest and study has been behavior in a gaming environment.

There has been definite change over the last 20 years -- the new customers grew up on video games. The pace of the games has changed, and some slower games haven't survived -- but other than that, I would say all of the fallacies remain unaltered.

[smoore]

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I've heard that they choose the ceiling and carpet to be as boring as possible, so your eyes will be drawn to the slot machines.


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Dunno about the ceiling, but the carpet is insane. I've laid quite a bit of carpet and you don't find them more confusing than in a casino. I don't have any proof, but I believe they do this because when a person gets a few drinks in them they tend to look at the floor. If the carpet is nutty it disagrees with the intoxicated person, making them look back up at all the gambling. Even sober, I have a hard time looking down at the floor while walking in most casinos. I'm constantly looking at the floor in businesses, picking out mistakes and generally judging the quality of the work.