Casino Marketing Efforts Meant to Manipulate You

Introduction to Casino Marketing Efforts

The casino environment is an advertising marketer’s dream. Imagine casino marketing efforts where slots enthusiasts walking around with spare cash in their hands looking to spend it. Let’s understand about the fantasy versus the reality of manipulation by your casino.

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Holiday Marketing

Do you remember your last Thanksgiving holiday and what followed? In the U.S., the day after is Black Friday, a huge consumer shopping day, and the day after that is now Small Business Saturday Plus, let’s not forget Cyber Monday!

Crazy, right? You know all these labels are marketing, right? They’re descriptive labels meant to get you to spend money buying stuff. There’s nothing wrong with that but don’t you think it’s getting a bit excessive?

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And excessive marketing is when Halloween decorations haven’t yet been put away at stores, yet the Christmas sales have already started. The casino floor environment is also an advertising marketer’s dream, just like the last three months of every year outside of casinos.

Slots enthusiasts are walking around with spare cash in their hands looking for where to spend it. Not IF they’ll spend it, but WHERE they’ll spend it.

With a situation like this, casino marketers salivate over how best to manipulate slots players to give up their hard-won cash. They’re gotten quite good at making that happen.

As in my slots winning strategy Reliable Holiday Patterns, the early morning after a holiday takes advantage of casinos set up with a typical business practice which helps them handle busy nights on the day before. My strategy needs two things for it to work: A busy night on the day before and an accounting practice which some casinos use afterward to have a successful night.

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The similar strategy Special Event Promotions can also be attempted on the morning after big promotional events like Black Friday. Why? Because, from all the reports I’ve gotten from across the U.S. in 2021, Black Friday was crazy busy at casinos!

Casino Marketing isn’t Optional

Why was Black Friday so busy at casinos? Here’s the answer. It was one of those rare occurrences where marketing in the whole wide world intersected with marketing at casinos.

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Casinos didn’t have much of a choice about it. The world is one big marketing effort with Black Friday being its biggest day. That massive marketing effort couldn’t not spill over into casinos whether they liked it or not.

Consider Valentine’s Day. Does your casino celebrate Valentine’s Day? This “almost” holiday isn’t consistent across casinos like Black Friday is.

Last February, I went to two casinos on Valentine’s Day. One casino had red hearts everywhere and a big couples-only dinner planned to their main ballroom. The other casino had nothing planned and just a normal business-as-usual Sunday.

Some holidays are optional for casinos. Others “special” days are not optional. If you were at a U.S. casino last Black Friday, you know how incredibly busy it got.

Imagine if the casino didn’t plan for that many patrons pouring into the casino. What if they didn’t have enough employees working that day? Or enough alcohol? Or enough food prepared?

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Failure would have been a disaster for the casino! Not being prepared for this sort of thing is how a casino ruins its reputation. Some events or holidays MUST be planned for in advance by a casino or canceled outright.

A Plan for Being Manipulated

Why did you go to a casino the last time you went? Was there an interesting promotional event you found out about by email or from a mail flyer? Did the casino let you know you had some free slots play available to spend?

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Marketing emails or mail flyers usually push these two kinds of “comps” to get you to come to the casino. And most of them are day or time sensitive so that you come in when they’re ready for you.

It’s great for them to be prepared for your arrival but is it great for you? In my opinion, not normally, no. Without a plan, going when they want you there stacks the odds against you.

Yes, the casino will be staffed up for the locals they expect because of their marketing efforts. But how else will they be ready? In general, I try not to be suspicious without cause, but I’ve never liked being at a casino when they want me to be there.

Sure, I’ve gone to a car giveaway promotional event. But I went to win the car. That was my plan.

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And I did. So, I’m not saying not to go to promotional events. What I’m saying is, have a plan! What’s yours?

The Busy Casino Environment

A packed casino is a completely different experience from when that same casino has a normal-sized crowd. A casino goes through a lot of preparation for packed-house events.

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If you’ve put in the time figuring out how to win at your casino with normal crowds, like having found a slot machine set up to win because its facing in a direction advantageous to the casino making money, do you really expect to be able to get on that machine when the casino is packed with people?

Nope. On packed nights, you would be lucky to find an any available slot machine, much less one within sight of the slot machine you normally win on. But if you do, at least you can keep an eye on the winnings taking place on the machine you normally play, right?

And that’s also marketing. Think about how you’d feel if you were just standing there watching someone else win on that machine. You’d want to go play a slot machine, right?

And you’d want to play any slot machine? That feeling, that feeling right there, is casino marketing. We’ve all felt it.

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In general, what do casinos marketers want you to do? Well, yes, they want you to spend the bankroll you brought, go get more money, and spend that too. But that’s a result.

What are marketers hoping you’ll do for them to get that result? It’s something not left to chance. A casino’s marketing staff study you to know best how to get what they want.

There’s a marketing cliché from academia that been updated. The old saying used to be, “Someone who buys a 3/8th-inch drill bit wants a 3/8th-inch diameter hole in a wall.”

But with today’s vastly improved understanding of marketing, now the saying is, “Someone who buys a 3/8th-inch drill bit wants to mount a shelf in their kitchen.”

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Do you see the difference? Casinos aren’t saying, “Give us your money!” Instead, they’re saying, “Come in and enjoy yourself.” and then they wait for human nature to take its course.

The easiest way to get you to spend money at a casino after you arrive is get you to stop thinking. First, there’s the sights and sounds of an active casino environment. For most people, even those used to normal crowds at a casino, busy promotional events can be too, too much.

Second, does your casino offer free drinks? I mean, free drinks with alcohol? Because of the cost, this is becoming less common.

But free soft drinks are still available. All that sugar can get most people pretty worked up.

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I remember being at Disney World one time, waiting in line for a rollercoaster, and next to me with his parents was a boy eating an ice cream cone just chattering away. His mom turned to me and said, “The ice cream is talking to us.”

Do you enjoy lots of free soft drinks or free alcohol while at the casino? How well does your slots play go during those casino trips?

Prevent Being Emotionally Overwhelmed

So, casino marketers are after two changes: Diminish your thinking ability and overwhelm your emotions. That approach is comprehensive, wouldn’t you say? And the result is you lose more money than you might otherwise have.

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I’ll let you decide how to go about limiting your consumption of soft drinks and alcohol as a strategy to winning at slots more often. This isn’t a health-related article. But let’s talk about the other side of the coin: Being emotionally overwhelmed by your casino.

The easiest way to not be emotionally overwhelmed by your casino’s environment is to:

• Not go to busy promotional events
• Take breaks often, possibly to someplace quieter than the casino floor
• Wear hearing protection
• Practice remaining calm, like using a breathing exercise
• Understand the kind of environment you’re in and that it’s designed to do this to you
• Avoid playing slots next to someone who is emotional overwhelmed

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How do you avoid becoming emotional overwhelmed at a casino? Do you have difficulty leaving a casino after a fantastic slot machine win? For most, they don’t unless they have a plan.

Summary of Casino Marketing Efforts

Casino marketing efforts manipulate slots enthusiasts walking around with spare cash in their hands looking for where to spend it. It’s an advertising marketer’s dream environment. Counter it by having a plan.

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