Have you ever set foot in a casino? There’s a ton of psychology that goes into the whole experience of a casino, from the lights to the sounds to the carpet to what employees are wearing. EVERYTHING has been thought through to maximize profits for the ‘house’. Are they evil for doing so? No, they’re just smart. Any company that has the money to do some market research and implement the findings of found data should do so (unless, of course it’s immoral or illegal).

The well-known fact is that when you’re playing you drink for free. Obviously this cost to the ‘house’ is a wash when you take into account the bad decision making that alcohol has to offer. People lose money.

Try to find a clock in a casino. Just try. You won’t see one up on the wall, nor will you be able to see the face of a watch worn by a pit boss, dealer or waitress. It’s forbidden for one simple reason – they don’t want YOU to know what time it is. Once you realize that you’ve been sitting at the same blackjack table for 4 hours, even if you’re winning, that awareness of time creates panic in the player. So, no clocks.

In my opinion, the most fascinating thing about a casino is the sounds. Close your eyes and imagine you’re in a casino… OK, did you hear that? It’s the sound of happiness. There are laughing people, upbeat music in the distance, tiny little bells… and the slot machines. Oh, the slot machines.

Slot machines output 3 tones over and over for the 3 dials that are rotating. What do the 3 tones make when put together? A major chord – possibly the happiest chord known to man-kind. Once you have 300 slot machines in a room all playing that same happy chord in separate tones spastically, when you take a step back and listen to them all together it’s in my opinion one of the greatest sounds in the world, like a choir of machines.

So what?

Take a free lesson from the casinos – background noise does something to people. At a casino, the machines make sounds to conjure up positive emotions. At a football game the roar of the crowd makes us excited. Right now I’m clicking away on my keyboard with 40 other people and all I can hear is tap tap tap. It’s wonderful.

What’s the background noise where you are right now? Is it intentional? If you run an office, storefront or sitting in your basement set your background noise up for success.