Almost nobody will ever step inside a physical casino and only gamble for a few minutes. It would be incredible if we all respect our time limits, but this is not actually how it works. Today, we will discuss why gamblers seem to forget that time passes even inside the casino.
There are a lot of strategies aiming to manipulate human perception behind this general loss of time perception in casinos. So, if you ever felt like time was flying while gambling, here is why:
How Humans Perceive Time
The way we track time in present times is much easier and more effective thanks to modern clocks, but our brain doesn’t have any kind of tool to do it by itself. So, when we find ourselves inside the casino with absolutely no clock or time-tracking devices to keep us aware, the brain has to estimate time using its own mechanisms.
● Sensorial information: Daylight, sounds and routines help our brain anchor our sense of passing time. If you hear the school bus, if you see the sun going down, if you hear little birds in the morning. All these are signals that tell our brain what the time is. This is why casinos will block all the sunlight from slipping inside, always have music on and never give you any clue of the outside world status.
● Focus: If we are immersed in intense activities like slot gambling, the more attention we devote to them, the more compressed time will feel. This could be one of the reasons why we feel like time is passing so fast while spinning those reels.
● Dopamine: The human brain is constantly changing its chemical composition depending on external stimuli. Exciting activities, such as gambling, alter the neurochemical balances, making the information process slower and, most importantly, making time feel shorter.
Casinos are intentionally disrupting these processes to keep players in a state of timeless immersion. If your brain forgets that you are on a schedule, why should it bother reminding you to pull out your phone and check the time.
How Casinos Manipulate Your Perception of Time
You cannot have a correct perception of time if time does not exist. Casinos will always try to remove both artificial and natural time cues by doing these three things:
- Physical casinos have no windows because natural light changes throughout the day, helping our brains track time. Simple as that, casinos will remove them and cover them with opaque walls, ensuring that whether it’s noon or midnight, the lighting remains unchanged.
- You will not see any clocks on the walls: They will remove any modern digital or physical clocks and even instruct their staff not to show their phones so players can lose reference points for how long they’ve been playing.
- Casinos never close. Unlike most businesses, a casino will remain open 24/7, eliminating the sense of an “end of the night” landmark. Basically, what this does is create an illusion of continuous, never-ending time.
How does this affect you? With zero external time cues, your brain will struggle to estimate time accurately or not even try to estimate it at all.
Now that time is out of the way and minutes can easily turn into hours, casinos have to focus on keeping you entertained and captivated and overwhelming your senses. They will welcome you with free meals, free drinks, and all sorts of amenities and benefits. Similar to how digital platforms offer no deposit bonus casino bonuses to new players.
On top of that, the environment on the inside is flashy, with bright lights, and the walls are covered in animated displays aiming to distract you from thoughts of time.
Engaging Soundscapes
You only have to look at slots to realize how playing constant winning sounds reinforces the excitement of potential rewards. Theodore J Noseworthy and Karen Finlay published an entire study comparing ambient casino sounds and music, together with their effects on dissociation and perception of elapsed time while playing slot machines.
Apparently, the tempo and volume of both the ambient music and the game sounds were varied to manipulate temporal engagement and introspection.
Comfort and Luxury
Last but not least, casinos want you to settle and feel comfortable for long periods. It would be a shame for a customer to leave because the chairs are not comfortable enough. Plush seating and sound-absorbing carpets make the environment welcoming and relaxing.
Everything is shiny, with golden accents and wood elements at every corner. Only walking inside a casino and paying attention to these details is a unique experience. All these elements work together to fully immerse players, removing mental space for time awareness.
Psychological Time Manipulation
This is a good one because not only do you spend way more time inside than initially intended, but your brain also tells you that you haven’t played enough.
If it doesnt make sense, it’s because casinos are doing an excellent job at psychologically manipulating the way you perceive time. For instance, have you noticed how fast-paced all games are? A single-slot spin takes up to three seconds. The same rules apply to all the table games as well. This is how casinos keep players engaged in rapid cycles, not giving them any chances to reflect on how much time has passed.
The Near-Miss effect that slots create when generating paylines just often enough to keep them hooked further distorts time by encouraging them to overestimate their chances of winning. It is enough for a payline to give you two 7s instead of three just to keep you playing. All these, together with all the micro-rewards and engagement triggers, casinos ensure that player stay locked in longer.
It’s Not Even About Money Anymore
Your perception of time is so altered that you dont even think of money that much. You are just caught up in a loop, continuing to bet, play with no self-control. Tell us if you have ever experienced the true physical casino experience and how did you feel when you got back in contact with the real world.
