Gaming Floor Layouts
At our club, the gaming area is filled with 300 machines, all grouped into banks of roughly six, in a complex arrangement. This post will look at what factors go into the design of the layout and how the use of space and light is utilized to optimal effect.
Floor Layout
Gaming floors with large numbers of machines need to fulfil a couple of somewhat contradictory purposes. First, they need to encourage easy access to the food and drink areas to promote the sales of refreshments, and second, they need to be complicated enough that people can get lost inside them. As an example, I've noticed on occasion when one person was trying to find another person (usually their partner), and decided to give up moving around and instead play a machine whilst the other party came and found them. This encouraged revenue that otherwise would not have been earned. For gaming lounges with a large number of machines, this is much easier to achieve. I've received comments multiple times that our gaming floor was like a labyrinth, and am often asked for directions on how to leave.
Machines are grouped in similar-looking banks to help coax this illusion of an infinite number of gaming machines that seem to stretch out in all directions to no end. The entrances and exits to our gaming lounge are relatively small by comparison and only accessible from one side of the room.
Machine Layout
Our club has a person employed full-time to analyze the metering statistics of all the machines. On occasion, machines are relocated around the floor to maximize their visibility. I know for a fact that the high roller machines are in the far back corner and the lesser known, less popular ones are near the entrances or the gaming service bar. Machines that are lacking in revenue are moved to promote them more and are always the first to be replaced by new ones. Lightning Link machines are enormously popular, and we have at least 60 of them.
Lighting and Ambience
The lights in our gaming room are often quite dim and soft. Most are used for illuminating aesthetic features and a majority of the light comes from the machines themselves. This is intentional, because as stated in the previous post I made, the visual aspect of the machine is crucial to hooking the player and the dimmer the extraneous lighting is, the more intense the machine's lighting becomes.
Lighting specifically seems to simulate a period of the day that resembles dusk, and the gaming lounge at our club has no windows, so it is very easy to lose track of time and feel relaxed in the soft evening mood that the gaming lounge seems to exude. All machines are required to state the time of day on the game screen, but this often has little bearing on how long a committed player will remain (they will generally stay until they have run out of money).
Proximity to other areas
Our club has its primary restaurant situated at the back of the premises, and conveniently enough, to reach it, guests must walk straight through a central walkway that backs onto the gaming lounge. Excluding the sports betting area, every other service that the club provides can only be reached by passing through or near the gaming lounge at least once. There is also easy access to designated outdoor smoking areas that are connected to the gaming area for patrons to smoke in. The main bar also faces the gaming floor directly, allowing very convenient access to beer, wine and snack foods.