There’s something very luxuriating about walking into a casino, being greeted with that sweet aroma of excitement and those bright lights that promise you a slice of heaven if you play your cards right. However, that opulence isn’t by accident. It is a calculated design that plays on your weaknesses to make sure you stay there as long as possible.

This type of design is known as “Playground Design” and it was popularized by Roger Thomas. He threw typical goals of design out the window in favor of creating open, easy-to-navigate spaces that encouraged players to keep gambling. Things like eliminating natural light and making it hard to see where you are going go against traditional goals of design but are used to ensure that you continue gambling and don’t get up to take a break or use the restroom.

In the film, Casino, Martin Scorsese reunites Robert DeNiro and Joe Pesci and both deliver their best performances to date. The story is about an organized crime mobster who has been tasked with taking over a casino and turning it into his personal playground. The film does a great job of showing the darker side of Vegas and is also very exciting to watch.

There’s a more subtle aspect of casino security as well, in that the routines and patterns of different games follow certain expectations. This makes it much easier for casino security personnel to spot anything that is out of the ordinary. This is why it’s important for casinos to work with professional AVL designers to create the right atmosphere and keep their security systems working at full capacity.