How casinos distract

Also, when you go to a Casino that is on the ground level, there will be more escalators going down than going up.

The music they incessantly play in the background has sounds vaguely like a slot machine paying out.

Casinos are among the worst examples of an artificial environment to control behavior. It really is like a zoo. Makes museums that force exiting through the gift shop look benign.

As someone with an addictive personality, I find it shocking how casinos are so inclusive when it comes to sucking people in. All races, all ages (especially seniors). All focused on their game with an intensity that I wonder if they exhibit in their regular lives.

While I've been lucky enough (once or twice) to experience the rush of winning several hundred dollars at blackjack in the space of 20 minutes (it really is a surreal/joyous experience - you feel like everyone is cheering you on - like a celebrity almost), I'd rather avoid casinos than to get sucked into the vortex.

This is interesting… but I admit I found it a bit odd that point 1 was about "how round everything is on the casino floor", directly followed by an example of the Venetian's color scheme complete with a photo example showing not a single round feature...

This is a very interesting subject, perhaps worthy of a more scientific study.

The sensory overload both attracts an audience to the spectacle, and interrupts normal rational thinking. A double win!

But, interestingly, you can see the place differently if you change the 'soundtrack'. If you're in Las Vegas and have a good set of ear-sealing headphones – for example rubber earbuds – try listening to your own choice of music while strolling around. It creates sufficient detachment to let you view things as if with new eyes, and a slightly clearer mind. It's not quite the glasses from 'They Live' – but close.

I went to Vegas in November last year, it was my first time and I am too young to gamble -- doesn't interest me anyway and I was there for work -- so although casinos were an interesting experience they had no real value to me. Anyway, on my last day I had some time to spend before my flight home so I (with 2 others) went to meet a friend who was staying in a different hotel on the other side of the strip. The instructions we had were simple, take one shuttle then another and you'll be there, sounds fine to me... but it wasn't. We spent at least 30 minutes walking through casino after casino, instead of there being a straight path from casino entrance to casino exit we had to snake our way through a maze of slot machines and attractions, it was probably the most agitating experience of my life. We had a clear goal, get from one hotel to the other, but the entire journey was one big upsell: "look at this machine wouldn't you like to put a dollar in, maybe you'll get two back!" and that drove me crazy. As someone who can only cope with structure and logic and things being well defined it was a horrible experience, having a vague idea of where I'm going with things constantly trying to grab my attention sucked. Worthless story but stuck with me and vaguely related to the article.

The worst part is that no matter how much you know that this is the case, it can be exceptionally hard not to be taken in by that "man, I was thiiiis close" feeling. I'd throw the famous Wargames quote in here, and not playing is, for me, definitely the only time I "win", but instead I'll quote everyone's favorite philosophical physicists:

"So I started betting, and right away I lost five dollars in succession — one, two, three, four, five. I was supposed to be out only seven cents; instead, I was five dollars behind! I've never gambled since then (with my own money, that is). I'm very lucky that I started off losing."

Back to the idea of near misses, I spent an afternoon reading webpages like this one...

http://wizardofodds.com/games/slots/appendix/2/

...which show with charts how the "near miss" effect works. I then went ahead and blew the $20 that was in my pocket the next time I was in a casino for a buffet dinner. I play games that I enjoy, with the licenses, all the lights and sounds and big numbers and terrible payouts. I have some fun losing, but never as much fun as I'd have with 1/4th the money if I just took it down the street to the Pinball Hall of Fame arcade.