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How Music Sets the Scene in Casino Gaming

Close your eyes and think about being in a casino. Think about the hustle and bustle around you, the sound of clinking glasses, the chime of the slot machines, the hitting together of casino chips and the ruffling of cards. All these sounds are at the heart of the casino experience, which can sometimes be a sensory overload, but nothing in the design of a casino, both in its physical form and layout to the sounds and music you hear around you and in the games themselves are random. Careful and meticulous planning goes into everything. Let’s have a look at some of these elements now and focus on the sounds and music of the casino.

The Intention of Design

Before we look at the music and how it’s used in casino gaming, let’s set the scene by spending some time understanding some of the ways that casinos use incorporate certain things to influence us.

In the average casino, the casino design will always start with the floor plan. This plan will incorporate some sneaky tricks to increase the chances of you spending more time there than you planned. You’ve probably heard people tell you about how casinos don’t include windows or clocks in their design so that you lose track of time, and purposefully make the layout confusing and maze-like to make you walk around to find your way to the bar, the bathrooms or even the exit, but there’s much more to it than that. Even the walkways are of a specific width because if they’re narrow, they make even a large casino floor feel smaller and more intimate and gets you closer to those screens that might be flashing big jackpots to be won.

There is thought and psychology in everything inside the casino. There are entire university courses dedicated to the psychology of how to use external factors to influence us and how we behave, and this knowledge and understanding of how we can be influenced is hard at work in all aspects of the casino.

It’s All Psychological

Now think about music and the effect it can have on you. Isn’t it amazing how music can influence your mood or trigger memories for you? Music is a very powerful emotional tool, and we find its use wherever we go. In shopping centres, upbeat and happy music you know and love will almost always be playing to improve your mood and open your purse strings. Television adverts use music effectively to set the tone and mood of the advert – sad music will denote a sad advert that is meant to tear at your heart, while happy and upbeat music will do the opposite. The same can be seen in the use of music in casinos.

While many of the traditional sounds of the hustle and bustle of the physical casino might be absent from your online casino sessions, they might often also feature music designed to transport you to the casino floor. So, if you want that experience in the comfort of your own home, visit Online Casinos to find a full list of sites available to you. They’ve reviewed and listed only the most secure and reliable sites.

The Aural Experience

So, we understand that there are reasons that casinos choose the music they choose, but what are these reasons and how can they affect you? Just like the television advert, the music playing in the casino can very much influence your mood and the way you interact with the casino games. Soft, slow music might lull you into a sense of complacency, letting your mind wander while you play that slots game over and over, while faster more upbeat music might increase your focus, and cause you to invest in bigger odds or bet more money. This music choice can vary throughout an evening or play session, so that both types of gamblers can be influenced by it.

Ultimately the influence is subtle and subconscious, so you’ll likely never consciously realise it unless you’re specifically looking out for it and even then, it might be difficult to really spot. Music can change to match the intensity of the situation in the game you’re playing too. In poker, the bigger the pot gets the more tense the music might be, changing to reflect this. If the slots jackpot is high or the player is playing high value lines or games, it might change to be exciting, adding to the emotion of playing the game. Let’s also not forget the sound of victory, often marked with fanfare and trumpets, to mark a successful game and reward the player for their win.

Setting the Scene with Sound

It’s not just the music that sets the scene in a casino. Perhaps the most quintessential use of sound in a modern casino, particularly in the slot machine area, is to simulate the casinos of old. Long ago did many casinos abandon coins and switched over to digital currency, but many gamblers still long for the sounds that make the games feel authentic. These sounds that are synonymous with a casino, like the sounds of coins dropping into the output tray of a machine, or the grinding of gears as you pull the one arm bandit are all faithfully recreated in these machines and are dutifully played throughout the session, adding that authenticity to both physical and online gambling, with that music track playing behind it.

By now you can tell that, in many ways, you’re being manipulated when you set foot inside a casino, with the house using all your senses to enhance the experience for you. It’s important not to read too much into it though, because it’s all part of the experience that has been crafted for you. Without these psychological trickeries, particularly those that you experience through your ears, the casino wouldn’t hold the same draw, appeal, and adrenaline rush that you know and love it for. Music in the casino games is a big part of that, and we can thank the study of industrial psychology for it.

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