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Despite the fact that the casino industry came to a grinding halt for nearly three months due to the Covid-19 crisis, many casino-hotel design, construction and expansion projects soldiered on. Consequently, the vendors that supply those projects have had to adjust their game plans to deal with the new normal forced by the pandemic.

The pandemic has, in particular, affected the nuts and bolts of casino design, which is the FF&E plan—furniture, fixtures and equipment.

The fundamentals, of course, remain the same. “The main criterion for FF&E is really just going to be function,” says Carl Long, senior vice president of Purchasing Management International (PMI), one of the companies charged with gathering and managing FF&E for a number of large projects, including the new Circa in Downtown Las Vegas. “The furnishings in a casino environment are used and abused, and heavily used. So, you need to go with reputable manufacturers. You need to be able to stand up to the rigors of a casino environment.”

That applies to each individual part of the FF&E plan, down to the chairs in which the players will sit. “First and foremost is comfort,” says Joe Esposito, CEO of furniture supplier Gary Platt Manufacturing. “At Gary Platt, we have spent years researching player habits, and we have found that when players are comfortable, they stay and enjoy the game longer. That’s why we developed our proprietary blend of foam that operators and players worldwide consider to be the most comfortable in, sit test after sit test… Our design team is filled with experts who also employ the latest developments in ergonomics in every chair model they create.”

‘Theater of Clean’

But in what is increasingly being identified as the Covid-19 era, ergonomic considerations are necessarily blended with the need for furniture to be cleaned and sanitized regularly.

“Pre-Covid, everybody was just trying to get more excitement,” says Long. “We’re working on the Circa in Downtown Las Vegas. It was the first new-construction hotel or casino in Downtown Las Vegas, and that’s a big deal, given the focus, but that was pre-Covid; that was the new thing. It was exciting, and people want to be part of what’s new.

“And now, post-Covid, people want to be part of what’s clean. And so, we’ve started talking a lot around here about the ‘theater of clean.’ How do you communicate about your gaming facility, your slot chairs, your gaming chairs, your gaming tables—how are you clean? And how are you protecting your employees, your customers? So, the trend on furnishings is using cleanable fabrics.”

One of the models being followed in this effort is the health care setting. “Those fabrics can basically withstand anything,” Long says, “and they’re anti-microbial—they actually don’t promote the growth of things in them, whereas other fabrics do. So, we’re seeing more and more of a trend toward that type of fabric. But what makes it difficult is they’re not as pretty. Think of a hospital. When you go to a hospital and sit in the waiting room, it’s not the glitziest-looking fabric.”

Long says one of the biggest challenges for furniture manufacturers is to combine anti-microbial fabrics with the classy look required for casino usage. “There are companies that do accept the challenge, and the interior designers will work towards getting that type of spec, looking at those manufacturers, to be able to meet those standards. So, those are questions that we ask our fabric companies. What fabrics do you use that are used in health care settings? Can you make that fabric in this style? Can you get that design?”

Long says senior living facilities provide another model for this combination in seating materials. “If you look at senior living, you’ll see a shift to more hospitality design, more comfortable design. They had started that, but it had never been used in casinos. It’s the durability that’s needed in a casino. The rough and tumble, we’re going to sit there, we’re going to spill a drink on it every 10 minutes. We’re going to to abuse it, 24/7.”

Manufacturers like Gary Platt are meeting this challenge, which in today’s environment goes along with catering to casino properties with significantly trimmed capital budgets.

“In today’s challenging environment, casinos want to be careful with their capital spend and ensure they are getting value for their money,” notes Esposito. “To that end, durability becomes more important every day, because casinos want their chairs to last long into the future.

“Of course, in the current pandemic, safety is paramount. We are partnering with fabric suppliers to recommend the safest, easiest-to-clean fabrics for casinos. In addition, we have developed cleaning protocol to share with our customers to ensure our chairs are also the safest on the market.”

Another area of casino design that is affecting FF&E in the Covid-19 era is the outdoor venue. As more casinos turn to outdoor amenities for a safer alternative during the pandemic, planning for these areas continues to evolve.

Lifescapes International has tailored the use of outdoor seating to Covid-19 distancing requirements

“With the impact on attendance at casino resorts due to Covid-19, design considerations have to include quantities of chaise lounges for the pool areas,” says Andrew Kreft, director of design for landscape architects Lifescapes International. “Reduction by 25-30 percent may be necessary for social distancing. However, if the need for outdoor patios at restaurants increases, there may be more attention spent on outdoor furniture, and also indoor furniture to accommodate customers that wish to be inside, but may require comfortable and socially distanced areas for small group interactions.”

These needs also may require rethinking the design of the chairs themselves. “Single chaise lounges that are light and stackable have always been important to allow for an easy transition to open up the decks for other uses in the off-season, but more and more operators prefer to have other seating configurations that can provide for tiered monetization,” says Kreft.

“Seating that holds two or even four people from the same social or family group on one larger chaise or bed allows for a tier of offerings above the single chaise, but below the full cabana. This opportunity will more than likely be even more advantageous with social distancing.”

2020 Reality

While there are projects like Circa, the Cordish Pennsylvania properties and others that have soldiered on through the Covid-19 shutdowns, this year’s new reality with respect to design projects and the furnishings at the heart of them all boils down to capital budgets.

Designers, FF&E planners and suppliers are dealing with budgets strained from consecutive zero-revenue months for the operators. The chain of this revenue strain travels to the contractors, suppliers and designers that depend on operators being able to wield those capital budgets.

“Long gone are the days of, ‘We’re going to make Revel,’ or ‘We’re going to build Borgata,’” says PMI’s Long. “The idea of working within a constrained budget to meet the goals is really at the forefront. Everybody right now is dealing with a mess of cash burn, but they still have to renovate. They still have to build.”

For FF&E aggregators like PMI, that means not only laying out plans to suit today’s budget, but providing backup plans to save money later. “We do a process called conceptual budgeting, where we work with the owner, work with the designer, and establish budget goals,” says Long. “We establish itemized budget allowances for everything on the project. It defines scope, it sets boundaries for the design team, and it lets the owner have a predictable anticipated cash flow. And you do that by being informed with current market prices, and changes in the supply chain.”

Long adds that keeping an eye on market prices can prevent surprises down the road, if the furniture purchase lags behind other elements of a design project. “If you didn’t plan for (the pricing) in the beginning, all of a sudden when you go to buy it you’re stuck, and you can’t actually afford it,” he says. “If the designer designed something that was out of your budget, you’ve wasted time on design. So, really collaborating early on in the process for budget guidance, and for schedule guidance, is critical, because with the starts and stops we’ve seen, and with some of the trade uncertainty that exists in our market currently, things take longer. Component parts take longer to find.”

Along with that goes a bit of future-proofing of the supply, so operators can be nimble when replacements are required. According to Long, the larger operators maintain an inventory of replacement chairs allowing quick on-site change-outs that minimize machine downtime.

Lifescapes’ Kreft says one key to surviving this year has been a constant effort to adapt to the new needs brought on not only by restrained budgets, but by the pandemic itself.

“This (effort) is ongoing, and our designers are constantly educating themselves about new products and technologies,” Kreft says. “We often bring in vendor representatives for ‘lunch and learn’ seminars to gain more insight into the uses of their products.”

Gary Platt Lugano

“Innovation is key to our success, and our design is constantly in a state of renewal,” says Esposito at Gary Platt. “As design tastes change and evolve, Gary Platt’s design team is perpetually changing and improving our line of chairs. We introduce several new models every year to our mix. Our greatest strength is our ability to adapt to changing market conditions, design trends, and casino requests, and still carefully handcraft the most comfortable, durable chairs on the market.

“Customization will continue to be a crucial aspect of the business. As casinos become more careful with their spends in today’s challenging environment, they want value and differentiation to separate them from their competition. Gary Platt will continue to work directly with each casino to develop the best solution for their future.”

Kreft says the coming months are likely to see a continuation of close attention to cost as operators carefully resume capital expenditures for property improvements, including new furnishings. “With cost considerations at the forefront of the market, we foresee a very cautious approach to purchasing any FF&E for existing projects unless it pertains to design changes resulting from the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic,” Kreft says.

“For new projects, there will be further discussions about the type of furnishings and space planning required for customers still concerned about the pandemic and its psychological and physical implications on their customers.

“Outdoor furniture design itself will have to come under scrutiny to see how its material makeup and design can be cleaned and disinfected easily, if not inhibit germs, between guests. Common use items like waste/recycling containers, towels bins, etc., will also need to transition to a touchless arrangement with automatically closing covers so guests do not have to come in contact with doors.”

PMI’s Long adds that the pandemic, and the need to return to full operations safely, will actually have a positive effect on the overall future of the industry. “It’s going to drive the older facilities to need to renovate,” he says. “Whether or not the current owners can do that remains to be seen. But that will create opportunity for either acquisition or reuse by another operator or owner.

“The arrangement of the product—meaning the gaming floor and F&B venues—will change. But it’s going to come back on an individual, drivable place. Where we see the biggest challenge is going to be conventions. And the large convention center facilities, where you have to have 8,000 or 10,000 people come through to make it work, those are going to take a little bit longer. Because you can’t get through those volumes of people presently. People are anxious.

“That is really going to drive, operationally, how a hotel, how a casino interacts with their guest. Make them feel safe, make them feel clean. Make it obvious that it’s clean. And translating that into furnishings, is it cleanable? Can it stand up to chemicals? Can it stand up to a deeper scrub than normal? Will a metal finish wear off?”

It’s all addressed at the beginning of each project, and the key to success is finding the right vendors to address each element, right down to how comfortable a chair is.

“We help players feel comfortable in the casino, whether that’s at the slot or the table,” says Gary Platt’s Esposito. “That may sound simplistic; however, it is perhaps the most important service we provide. The research is very clear that when players are comfortable, they play longer. That makes what we do at Gary Platt extremely important.

“Operators rely on us to help them increase their bottom line, and we take that responsibility seriously. We are continually researching new developments in design and ergonomics that help players feel comfortable wherever they decide to play.”

“As landscape architects, we are focused on guest experience on the exterior as well as interior environments,” says Kreft at Lifescapes International. “Restaurants will continue to expand their space to exterior patios largely to accommodate social distancing and to provide a sense of comfort and safety to customers.

“These spaces not only help guests feel more relaxed, they create unique and special environments which are appreciated by casino customers/visitors. It is also important that we consider creating flexible-use areas that can be used for pool, entertainment and food/beverage so that spaces can be easily put to a new use depending on the time of day, season or social distancing need.”

PMI’s Long sees a light at the end of the pandemic tunnel. “I think that the gaming side is going to come back strong, because people want to do stuff; people are tired of being cooped up,” he says. “And so the gaming operators that are able to space correctly, use the theater of clean, and actually have new product—they’re going to be attractive.”

There are places in the United States where one can judge a book by its cover. And its parlays, teases, odds boosts and bonuses that eliminate the vig.

Welcome to the sports-betting surge, a sizzling commodity encompassing roughly half the country. States race to legalize and prioritize this market niche, mimicking the sprawling surge of gaming itself 30 years ago.

The books themselves are not colossal profit centers. But the combined effect of books with bars, gamblers with apps and big-screen sports glorification creates an industry winner. A venue can be tailored to its gambling audience. Big wagers can originate from a small geographic area or a massive open-air room.

Operators consider the upside limitless and the downside limited. Casino Style canvassed leading designers and architects regarding the impact of sports betting on their projects.

Planning for the Mobile Entry

“As the industry continues to embrace the activity in creative ways other than just betting online, we’ll see some very innovative applications at casinos,” says HBG Design principal Dike Bacon. “Who knows? A new-generation sports betting customer could be a new customer that the casino doesn’t currently have.”

Bacon believes the package of mobile and brick-and-mortar components can be lucrative for operators.

“Many industry observers think another 15-20 states may pass legislation in 2021, so it’s clearly a rapidly emerging national trend to be capitalized upon,” he says. “What Penn National, Rush Street, and a number of Indian gaming tribes are doing are diverse examples.

“If mobile sports betting is allowed, how can casinos take advantage beyond a traditional sportsbook area? Mobile sports betting at a brick-and-mortar facility has the potential to be a social or party-type event (post-Covid, of course) which could be a great opportunity to drive revenue across a lot of other amenity platforms.”

There can be great opportunities to connect land-based premises with online accounts and be able to directly interact with the casino and the various amenities those facilities offer, Bacon asserts. This could create an entertainment experience that is beyond just one physical area like the sportsbooks of old. It could become facility-wide.

“As an example, on-site betting could drive higher-profit F&B sales and potentially drive casino play,” he indicates. “The key is creatively intersecting amenities like bars or restaurants with televised events. Brick-and-mortar casinos obviously offer experiences you can’t get on a phone or computer terminal.”

Application of laws varies widely from jurisdiction to jurisdiction.

Where betting is currently legal or on the verge of being legalized, HBG works with clients to study the impact and opportunity of integration of sports betting into larger entertainment experiences and venues.

“A few of our concepts integrate sports betting into the center bar or into existing restaurants or multi-use venues,” Bacon says. “Instead of having a sports betting back room, there is a great opportunity to bring the activity right out to the casino floor, or at least adjacent to the floor, and potentially introduce casino gaming to a new customer.

“Depending on what is allowed in a particular jurisdiction, we will work with clients to either update existing sportsbook areas, move the activity entirely to a new location in the casino or possibly into an existing restaurant, or create an entirely new space. What’s really compelling is the notion that sports betting could potentially attract a younger demographic to the casino. Sports betting can become an integral part of a total entertainment experience that appeals to a wide audience, male and female.”

While sports betting doesn’t generate a lot of revenue by itself, it becomes a marketing tool, especially when combined with enhanced food and beverage sales, potential other types of gaming spend, and maybe even an overnight stay.

There are sporting events going on somewhere all year long, so there are great opportunities to create special event nights, particularly on off nights, and promote them as such.

What should the standard book look like now?

“Modern sportsbooks need to be more open and inviting to all demographics and less intimidating,” Bacon says. “Betting can be more fun and attractive to a much broader customer base if it’s social and communal. This means the creation of larger areas that include open seating or areas with pods, with tables that allow food and bar service but still meet distancing guidelines.

“In a post-Covid era, there may be plenty of underutilized spaces and square footage in a resort. Operators will be looking for new activities or uses for these spaces, and the creation of a modern and entertaining sportsbook could be one of the best.”

One Hill of a Nice Book

William Hill Sportsbook, Ocean Casino Resort Atlantic City

SOSH Architects has worked with the biggest operators in this realm, including FanDuel, DraftKings, William Hill and PointsBet. It has collaborated on more than 25 innovating and world-class gaming destinations.

One of them was the William Hill book at Ocean Casino Resort, an Atlantic City industry leader when it launched in 2018.

“When we were in the early planning stages for the William Hill Sportsbook at Ocean Casino Resort, there was a large tenant space identified in the center of the casino that was ideal to repurpose into a sportsbook,” says Bill Salerno, principal of SOSH Architects. “Not only because it was in the heart of the property, but because it could accommodate a massive amount of A/V and technology equipment that had to go into it. Within the 7,700 square feet of space, we were able to include bar, high top and lounge seating, a 24-hour bar and 17-seat slot bar, and a state-of-the-art video wall with over 1,500 square feet of high-definition LED screens and 330 square feet of sports ticker.

“At Ocean Casino Resort, we wanted to create an attention-grabbing transformation from the existing entertainment tenant space into an exciting and inviting new high-tech, state-of-the-art sportsbook which was more integrated into the rest of the casino,” Salerno adds. “The design objective was to provide guests with a Times Square-esque digital experience to view and immerse themselves in sporting events. Our team took the large space and broke it out into three zones: a wagering counter and general public viewing area, a VIP sofa and club chairs area for a comfortable and intimate viewing experience, and a center concourse with high-tops as a public gathering space.”

Michael Mangini, the director of design for SOSH Architects, says the size of a sportsbook can range anywhere from 2,500 square feet to 12,000 square feet, depending on the operator and the location. A casino book space will vary in size from a stadium sportsbook, for example, and have different program requirements. A larger space can include more amenities like retail, food and beverage, whereas a smaller space can be more digitally driven. It depends greatly on budget and the goals of the client.

“The design (at Ocean Resort Casino) was developed with the intention of a quick construction turnaround—selecting custom FF&E and materials that had fast deliveries—so the venue could be up and running as soon as possible after the sports betting legislation was passed in New Jersey,” he says. “The construction took approximately 12 weeks with an all-in budget of about $10 million.”

Shortly after books like this came into play, mobile betting changed this dynamic. Most patrons bet on their phones. Some brick-and-mortar facilities throughout Atlantic City have been negatively impacted, because customers don’t want to wait in line.

“Mobile phones and the brick-and-mortar venues work hand in hand,” Salerno asserts. “Mobile betting came first with fantasy sports before brick-and-mortar sportsbooks began popping up. Once sports betting legislation was passed, many states required bets to be placed in land-based venues.

“There are three ways to place a bet within a venue, and they’re all important: mobile devices, betting kiosks, and teller windows,” Mangini adds. “The sportsbook venues we design include and support all of these methods. It’s also important to include a space for advocates to talk to and educate players, some of which are new to betting. This also gives the operator an opportunity to capture the player’s information and keep them coming back.”

Mangini indicates that the sportsbook look depends on the operator, the location and the guest experience they want to deliver. He notices a trend of more preference toward expanding amenities to be inclusive and interactive, such as food and drink offerings, retail, and participatory games and events like cornhole, bowling alleys and virtual driving ranges. By incorporating more participatory events and creating an entertainment destination complex, guests will likely stay longer beyond the game.

Salerno sees the sportsbook-operator marriage as an evolving dynamic.

“New advances in technology are happening as we speak,” he says. “It’s critical that sportsbooks keep up-to-date on trends and keep the latest technology and apps incorporated into their interactive experience to keep betting simple and easy for their guests to use. The technology of the sportsbook drives the architecture and design.”

Books Get Bigger and Better

Brett Ewing, principal with Cuningham Group, has a cutting-edge overview of the industry. The marriage between casino gambling and professional sports leagues has opened a financial spigot.

Advancements in betting, display, seating and mobile technologies have led to the creation of modern, comfortable sportsbook spaces with amenities appealing to the increasingly diverse casino attendee base.  These venues will be entertainment-based, immersive environments—sports theater, he believes.

“Online betting platforms are growing rapidly, and casino owners are embracing their popularity,” Ewing asserts. “Many operators have already teamed up with or created their own platforms. Analysts predict this usage will increase as sports leagues restart during Covid-19. In response to this growing popularity, on-site sportsbooks are expanding services, as well.”

According to Ewing, the upgrades in many sportbooks include personal LED terminals with high-definition resolution, state-of-the-art odds boards that constantly update and offer opportunities for in-game live wagers, and new full-service bars, ticket windows, and ultra-comfortable seating and VIP areas with their own dedicated theatrical spaces. Operators are also developing new player incentive programs online and in-house.

What about the role sportsbooks play in a property? They could be teamed up with bars or become stand-alone entities.

“Due to state approvals and the convergence of operator-based betting platforms, sportsbooks are earning a lot more attention from owners,” Ewing indicates. “Players are utilizing the technology at a very high rate, and sports betting is making a much faster recovery than other types of gambling; therefore, it makes sense that owners will continue to parlay that popularity into other areas of their properties. We have owners that are looking at both stand-alone venues and venues incorporated into food-and-beverage solutions.”

Cuningham has blended these concepts into design for two properties, not named for confidentiality purposes.

One location fashions a simpler integration of a casino bar and a grab-‘n’-go deli where the sports element both centers and ties the venues together with state-of-the-art audio and video. The other property will be a new, stand-alone sportsbook bar and restaurant within a repurposed space. That venue will have a great outdoor space associated with it as well.

Embracing a New Age

JCJ architect Mike Larson says sportsbook venues vary greatly depending on the client, the property, and the environment. The traditional, large sportsbooks of Las Vegas are not what the industry is seeing now, as both the experience and technology driving those spaces has changed.

“We’re mainly seeing two types of scenarios playing out,” he says. “First is a venue with sports betting that looks and feels much more like a food-and-beverage lounge. They are often fit out with amenities such as sporting activities and buy-out spaces for small to mid-sized groups, with components like private TVs, sound, and video gaming consoles.

“The second scenario is deployment of sports betting technology across the properties in the form of betting kiosks. Both speak to the future of sports betting, which is one that is fully integrated into how the customer experiences the game and the property.

“That can take many forms, whether it’s convenience betting for the guests, or the ability to combine sports betting with other revenue-generating activities such as food and beverage, buy-out events, or traditional gaming.”

Regardless of what style is selected, some design elements are consistent, according to Larson.

“While this will depend largely on the property and their goals, it will all start with creating a beautiful, distinctive and exciting space that supports great service,” he indicates. “Sightlines to the screens are of the utmost importance. You also want to establish various seating types and zones to give options to both guests and operations. These zones and seating types should always create complementary energy, while servicing the range of customers—whether those are bar patrons, traditional race bettors, or small or large groups.

“And since watching sports is often a communal activity, we really welcome the opportunity to create comfortable small group spaces where people can enjoy games with friends, food, and fun. All the details that you can work into these spaces can go far in making sure the guests have a memorable experience, which is one of the most important ways we define a successful project.

“We’ve done group spaces that include things like USB power ports, drink holders, tabletop interactive gaming, dedicated/multiple video screens, and tuned audio specifically for that zone.”

Larger group spaces are also an interesting aspect in that these areas will also enter the property’s group sales inventory, he asserts. Sporting events have long been a place where companies entertain. These spaces are the natural evolution of that, and can give tremendous opportunity to both the event host and the property—especially now that in-person attendance at sporting events is much harder to come by, he notes.

JCJ has worked on a couple of new projects in Mississippi. The rich sports culture in this region brought a tremendous amount of excitement from the sports community, and was well-received, he says.

Larson indicates that as sports betting becomes more prevalent across the nation, JCJ works with many gaming clients to convert existing spaces into sportsbook experiences which expand and complement their current offerings. The company also has several clients in states where sports betting has yet to pass regulatory approvals. In those instances, JCJ is creating multi-faceted spaces designed to serve as sportsbooks at the appropriate time so they are well-positioned to move quickly once that approval takes place.

Where is the industry going?

“I think the keyword here is integration,” he says. “We’re going to see sports betting become more deeply integrated in all aspects of the property—whether that be an integrated resort or a regional casino property. While we’re seeing a lot of specific efforts to bring sports betting online in terms of venues and functional sportsbooks, down the road this will be a product offering that will come up in all project types in terms of how sports betting may be integrated. It’s all about giving the customer a seamless, convenient and fun experience.”

Multi-Faceted Approach

Nick Schoenfeldt, vice president and principal at Thalden Boyd Emery Architects, says the company’s Native American and corporate clients are planning for the inevitability of sports betting. His advice: prepare the space ahead of time. This is especially important prior to an NFL season.

“To the majority of our clients, sports betting is simply another amenity to add to their integrated resort,” he says. “Everyone is planning for one because they all want to be ready. Many of the well-informed operators we communicate with understand the limitations and the risks associated with a sportsbook.

“With an average profit of between 3 percent and 4 percent, the amenity needs to be paired with another, more consistent revenue generator. We are seeing a lot of sports bar concepts surrounding the sports bet to bring a consistent level of activity to the area and to energize to crowd. The ability to cross-use the monitors and televisions saves on A/V costs, which have gotten very capital-intensive.”

Schoenfeldt says TBE’s typical sportsbook has been used in conjunction with a food-and-beverage venue. This helps generate additional revenue from the sportsbook during off hours. The screens and A/V connections can easily be justified if two functions are using the hardware, he says.

Phones are definitely a tool of convenience, but a well-designed sportsbook creates an atmosphere of enthusiasm and team spirit. For operators, it’s all about finding a balance of creating high-energy guest experiences and maximizing potential profitability.

Each book takes on a unique personality.

“Having designed a sportsbook for some of the largest ‘off-Strip’ gaming players, each sportsbook has taken on a unique feel. In certain areas, the ‘vintage’ feels or design direction combined with the technology of a modern sportsbook gives a nod and a wink to the unsavory past of illicit betting and the sleek technology of the 21st century,” he says.

“Novice guests respond well to the ability to follow the action before venturing into the full world of sports betting.

“For the dedicated sports bettor, we provide an area which encourages full immersion of the guest into the sensory world of sports betting. If it be horse racing, European football, or North American Football, the guest has the ability to view everything available. The same monitors, sound equipment and information are available to the intermittent wagerer as the casual observer who might happen to be enjoying the F&B in the area. Sports betting can be intimidating to those not familiar with it.”

Schoenfeldt says that while many people have a mental image of the intensity with which a middle-aged man bets, many women and younger guests who are sports enthusiasts can also be enticed to participate.

“The goal is to provide the most options and opportunities for wagering,” he says. “The built environment can do this by being warm and comfortable. Very high technology harmonized with familiar touchpoints to reassure the guest ensure the best possible experience. This is one place where the supporting role of food and beverage needs to move away from the traditional quantity and focus more on a quality product.”

Sportsbooks may not fit the classic evaluation of revenue per square foot. He says operators need the option of incorporating the book venue into a lesser-used bar or another area, providing flexibility.

“With Covid-19 restrictions in place for the foreseeable future, space is a premium you cannot afford to waste,” he says. “Operators don’t have to start with the biggest and best A/V equipment. By introducing the sports betting kiosks into an existing sports bar or other bar that has a lot of televisions, a functional sportsbook can easily be accomplished in most facilities.

“As the sports betting appeals to a broader base, operators can then reinvest in bigger and better A/V. This is something that needs to be monitored closely, as each casino will look to meet the demands of slightly different populations and demographics.”

Where did it go? The fun, that is.

Using an extreme then-and-now comparison, during the start of what might be called the modern era of casino gaming that began in the early 1940s with the opening of the first legit Las Vegas Strip casino-resorts, casinos were reasonably scarce in number, small but edgy, personable, naughty and outright sexy, these perhaps the quintessential adult native environments for fun. If you were not there for fun, you didn’t belong.

Fast forward, today’s casinos are legal, numerous, accessible to just about everyone, and bigger, badder, better edifices of their birthrights—admittedly generating more fun in aggregate as a noun but perhaps less fun as a verb for certain players individually. Hence the title.

We can argue about what was better or worse, more or less fun, but if there is indeed some fun to put back into casino gaming that would accretively generate more visitors, profits and continued expansion of casino gaming, then the opportunity is worth exploring. This article will attempt to do just that.

Step 1: Align the Company/Casino Goal Set

All casino companies and casinos talk about being committed to their customers. Not all, however, are committed to it as honestly, irrevocably, and/or holistically as they should be where “it” is defined as:

• Conceptualizing, producing, and delivering target guest experiences (TGEs) that meet or exceed the needs, wants and expectations (NWEs) of each and every customer in your optimal target market segment mix (optimal TMS mix) at a price/cost that creates a real or perceived value, niches/beats the competition, and meets or exceeds the goal set—i.e., being customer-centric.

For fun to have to be “brought back,” it had to be allowed to “leave.” Admittedly, there can be valid reasons to allow it to leave—surviving the financial crisis one recent good example. But absent such outlier events, for fun to be brought back, its potential to be fully unlocked and sustained…

Customer centricity must be embedded as one of the top independent goals in your casino’s goal set, and then interdependently linked to your financial and non-financial performance goals so that both must always be considered and simultaneously optimized.

The customer centricity goal and performance goal are the two dominant cause-and-effect forces that lead to the sustained success of a casino. They are symbiotic and synergistic; one cannot optimally perform without the other, and both perform better when managed in combination.

Step 2: Establish the Institutional Foundation Needed to Bring Back and Sustain Fun

There is a need to declare, announce and initialize the fun. The goal should be declared and announced as a major, critically important undertaking.

The driving strategy to achieve this goal arises from the following observation: Casinos serve hundreds, thousands, and even tens of thousands of customers a day, but they do so “one customer at a time.” For each customer, it should both feel and be that way.

But modern-day casinos send unintended signals that they may be more interested in attracting large volumes of patrons and then processing the collective “them” than serving and satisfying “me” individually.

Consequently, the driving strategy is to make customer service:

• First, “It’s about me!” individually;
• Second, “It’s about them” collectively, not vice versa.

The process to achieve the strategy is not complicated. De-construct each individual, grouped, and collective target guest experiences (TGE) generated by your casino and then where there is an opportunity, re-construct those TGEs to create and foster an “It’s about me!” environment.

The remaining foundation elements needed to support the “Bringing back the fun!” initiative follow:

De-Institutionalizing

Regardless of whether a single entrepreneur like Bill Harrah, a tribe, or a publicly traded company, the owner must make a passionate commitment to “It’s About Me!” That commitment must be evidenced in practices and deeds that continuously rise and break through the noise of business and so they can be heard externally by the public, internally by your employees, and ultimately and most importantly individually by each gaming and/or non-gaming customer.

Humanizing and Human Scaling

Walking into a building of any type with a million or more square feet is intimidating. Walking into a large, mega, meta-sized casino that serves upwards of 80,000 people a day is even more so. The challenge is to capture the benefits of size as your casino gets larger without making your customers feel overrun, unimportant, and insignificant—i.e., the absolute need to humanize your casino and make it about me.

Personalization

Casino TGEs are complicated to conceptualize, produce and deliver. The tendency has been to stamp them out in a relatively small number of variations in large number, e.g., X-dozens of blackjack tables or Y-hundreds of slot machines. Your casino might be able to more personalize these options following one or more of the following principles.

• Personalizing Playing Areas to Player NWEs

Players typically first determine what table game or type of slot machine they want to play and then go find it. But the information players need to decide where, what, and how to play is largely absent. In all, playing areas and environments could be more varied and personalized and more help provided to the player in finding the right area, game, and machine.

• Personalizing Service to Player NWEs

The obvious method to increase personalized service is to add staff. But after a decade of listening to the beat of the cut! cut! cut! expenses mantra, scored and published during the financial crises, arguing for more staff can still be a hard slog and worse, a career killer. Even so, the burden should be on those who refuse to show why well-researched and thought-out proposals to extract incremental revenue are not probed to determine if they can produce an accretive net increase in earnings, even if they add labor.

• Personalizing Casino Marketing Perks and Benefits

Excepting VVIP and VIP players, for all remaining players receiving a perk or benefit from a casino can be an amazingly institutional, inflexible and impersonal exercise, about as much fun as receiving your airline loyalty club statement in the mail. How to personalize service for the other 97 percent to 99 percent of your players is the challenge. Part of the cry for fun to return might be a desire to be recognized and awarded in an earnest, personal, and human manner.

• Personalizing Price/Cost/Value to Players’ NWEs

First, a visit to a casino must be affordable. Once determined to be affordable, the TGEs must create a real or perceived value in the mind of your customer. But determining the actual price/cost/value of casino gambling is complicated, the nuances of which go beyond the interest and training of most adults. Casinos must ensure that not only is fun delivered, but its customers know or perceive value was received.

Step 3: Bringing Back (and Adding New) Fun

This section presents an array of ideas and programs that have the potential to achieve the “Bring Back the Fun!” goal.

First, an introduction to value. A fun experience must ultimately be translated into some sense of value received for a player to conclude at the end of a casino visit that they enjoyed the trip, want to return, and will speak highly of the experience to others. The value of a casino visit to a player is typically evaluated in terms of both time spent value (time value), from a finite amount of personally available free time; and dollar spent value (dollar value) from a finite amount of personally available disposable income relative to this casino visit, visits to other casinos, other gambling options, and other free time and disposable income options.

Casinos need to increase involvement when playing the game or machine.

Efficiency initiatives have reduced player involvement. It may be time to consider the possible elasticity of allowing cards to be handled, removing the shoes on card games, putting the “ka-chunk” or its equivalent back into playing slots, allowing coins to be played in machines (putting them in and hearing the payout as they hit the tray), encouraging free play credits to be converted to cash (to be felt/touched and shown to others), and the like.

This is not a suggestion to return every everything back to the way it was in the ’50s and reversing all of the efficiency gains. Rather, it is a suggestion to consider something like a nostalgia pit of, say, six to 12 games and/or a nostalgia slot area of 25 to 50 machines that returns player involvement in one or more ways to test customer reaction incrementally and evolutionarily.

It is also not to say the price/cost of playing that game/machine has to stay the same. Adjustments may need to be made to retain financial performance.

It behooves a casino to always promote a sense of winning by ensuring that by the end of a casino visit the player leaves a winner, has been a winner, and/or has seen other players win sometime during their visit.

The larger casinos have become, the more difficult this has become. The taller the slot machines, EGM, ETG, progressive meters, and signage in general, the more difficult it becomes to see, hear or feel a sense of winning. Good physical configuration and sight lines, use of light/sound and technology to act as proxies of winning and winners, and use of video and vid-walls to announce/track winners can be part of the process of creating and promoting a sense of winning. Existing tracking technology can be expanded to cover more games, machines and areas and more visual/audio ways of projecting “winning” sprinkled around the gaming areas and the casino. More conscious, proactive thought needs to be applied to promoting a sense of winning in modern-era casinos.

Some players complain that their playing time has decreased over the years. It has. This is due to casinos increasing game speed in a multitude of ways, most without informing the customers but not “hiding it” either, but not giving anything of value to the player in return.

Casinos may want to consider probing whether there is elasticity in giving back some of the playing time it has eroded away to select target market services. If they do so, casinos may want this time to promote this change, not hide it.

Casinos may even want to help players choose games and machines that are slower than their counterparts.

Note that another way to extend time value is to extend non-gaming time by providing indoor areas in otherwise “dead spots,” with couches and chairs, television sets, places to play cards with friends, and/or outdoors around a pool or overlooking a view for this purpose.

Encouraging use of dining, bar, lounge, entertainment, recreation, relaxation and other non-gaming activities will also add “time.” Doing so would amortize the casino playing time across a longer trip time and increase the time value in the process.

Perks, Discounts, Awards and Other Benefits

Loyalty clubs, signed comps, and/or property perks, promotions, and other benefits can be used to keep your property “sticky.”

Demand stimulation marketing initiatives, or DSMIs, have the potential to reduce the cost of a casino visit and thereby increase dollars-spent value—and/or, particularly when delivered human to human, have the potential to personalize and humanize the overall casino visit TGE, thereby increasing both time- and dollars-spent value.

Periodically, but definitely when conducting a “fun audit,” it would benefit most casinos to take a zero-based review of the efficacy of current DSMI personalization initiatives and to probe the elasticity of deepening and broadening the use of them.

Increase Human Contact With Your Customers

Except for the VVIPs and VIPs where human-to-human contact is still high, the personalization of giving perks, discounts, awards and benefits has been slowly but relentlessly eviscerated by technology and other efficiency initiatives. For many, the fun of interacting with a real casino exec, host or representative is missed.

Casinos would do well to periodically take a zero-based review of their human-to-human protocols to see where more human involvement would be accretive.

Create Physical Environments that Align Player with NWEs

For time immemorial, casinos have been conceptualized and configured essentially as “one big room.” As casinos have gone from small to meta-sized, the utility of this approach has been strained. Primarily because, as currently executed, most large main casino areas are homogenous, they do not provide a sufficiently diverse range of activities and/or environments to align with the diverse and changing NWEs of your customers. Secondarily, as exciting as a large casino can be when full, as utilization decreases and more “empty-ness” results, the effect becomes increasingly off-putting just as it does with an empty restaurant.

In most casino situations, there should probably always be a “main casino” with non-gaming activities around the perimeter and a casino bar in the center, albeit perhaps not as big or as single-purposed as prevalent today.

Along with the redefined “main casino” area, it may be time to think about opening a mix of multiple mid-sized self-contained areas and smaller areas with adjacent or nearby non-gaming support. These areas should be retrofitted to accommodate in-house food, beverage, ticket, and other delivery options to be self-sustaining.

Besides size, each of these areas should have varying degrees of flexibility in terms of permanence and usage. Permanent areas might not change but every three to seven years. Multi-use areas would allow use by a limited number of activities/environments without a major overhaul. “Flex” areas would be designed to be changed frequently—i.e., ranging from, say, quarterly to several times per day. Ideally, management should have 25 to 50 environments in which to develop TGEs that align to differing customer NWEs.

Not an exhaustive list of possibilities by any means, but as illustrations of what the above approach portends, think about…

• “Permanent” area efforts that already include a single main casino floor with sub-areas allocated within or adjacent to high-limit areas, VIP rooms, Asian, tournaments, and party pits concepts. When downsizing, thought could be given to replace gaming with non-gaming bars, lounges, places to eat, informal entertainment staging areas, rotating “retail kiosks,” and just plain furniture to relax and socialize. Today, there is little that does not mix well with gambling.
• “Midi” and “small” areas could be developed around such themes as other cultures, micro-immigration cultures, feeder market country cues, exotic destination “escape” themes, music and movie themes, club-like environments, e-gaming/casino hybrids, generational (one for each of the five current generations of gaming age today), holidays, sports, haute couture, and as many other demographic/psychographic/market segment cues that can be thought of.
• Areas could also be developed around “softer” environments and activities: e.g., for those who want to escape, relax, socialize, or be able to be loud and raucous while watching sports, races, or music videos.
• Stadium seating with everyone facing a center focal point could be expanded to be habitat-like cubes facing multiple directions, and/or developed even more vertically, taking a cue from the Lan Kwai Fong Entertainment Area in central Hong Kong where over 100 dining, bar and club outlets rise upward from a rather small footprint with balconies overlooking every perimeter—interlocking the energy and magnifying it.
• Some areas traditionally viewed as single-purpose might be designed to be more flexible, such as meeting rooms, exhibition areas, day/night clubs, showrooms, pool/outdoor decks and patios, and hotel suites.

Increase Socialization

Much of the adjunct fun of gaming is socializing and/or people watching people. This behooves a casino to provide the means to direct a player to where similar players are gambling, to find opportunities to play together with friends, family or a date, and to find areas where other people are simply aggregating.

A data app could be modified, geofenced to your casino perimeter following popular and accepted protocols to further people-meeting-people. Anyone participating would have to opt in, but there is no reason these days for two lonely people to be alone or a casino not to enhance people meeting other people.

Socializing can also be physically promoted by providing places to socialize. More chairs, couches and coffee tables, mini-areas where games are intentionally slowed down a bit so people can talk a bit, announcements of “mixers” taking place rotating in and around the casino, a dance floor in the main casino area, and more social dining, drinking, music, dancing and mixed gambling configurations will subtly reinforce socializing as well.

Price/Cost/Value; ‘Truth in Pricing’

It may be time to consider rethinking how casinos price and “cost” gaming TGEs, share critical price/cost information with players, and how doing so impacts the customer’s sense of real and perceived value of a given or multiple casino visits.

The means exist to provide all of the information a new or seasoned player needs before the start of their trip to help set their gaming NWEs and budget, help them manage their trip in progress to adjust their gaming to help achieve their NWEs based upon actual results, and at the end of their trip accurately and validly determine the real price/cost of the casino visit so they can accurately determine the value received.

In short form, all of this would be accomplished via a system and app that may be referred to as a “truth in pricing” game/bet optimizer, finder, and manager. Players could enter their gaming/gambling NWEs with respect to “playing to win” vs. “playing to win to play” objectives, this visit dollar and playing time budget, and other NWEs so that the system could show players their best game/bet options and betting styles that optimize meeting expectations.

The objective would be to better align the fun of playing to the financial expectations of the player. Intuitively, there appears to be enough upside, perhaps substantial, to make that work worthwhile.

Employ Technology and Systems to Connect and Leverage the Initiatives

There is a real opportunity to further leverage and multiply the benefits of a fully executed “It’s About Me!” environment via a system that expands on technology already in use today, so the system dynamically connects everyone with everyone else, every activity, and everything in real time.

Capability-wise, the truth-in-pricing module and capabilities become an essential part of the system for reasons already explained. Once placed in the system, it could go beyond providing truth in pricing information. For example, upon arrival, the system could direct the player to open table or slot machine options that meet their parameters (including both areas and environments), allow them to reserve the gaming position to make sure it is available when they get there, and provide the ability to plan and reserve all of a trip’s non-gaming activities (e.g., meetings with friends/family/dates, send alerts for starts of shows booked or your table is available at a club).

The app could and should be downloaded to the player’s mobile device to allow remote or proxy betting, partake in other forms of e-gaming, race and sports betting and the like, where legal. The mobile device would facilitate the aforementioned deliveries in and around the casino.

Video streaming would be a critical part of the system generated by an array of fixed video cameras that would show dozens of images where public activity can or is taking place, augmented by a roaming casino 24/7/365 video team streaming “up-to-the-minute news.”

Opening/closing times would be posted for everything, and people density would be shown using such things as heat maps to see where the action is taking place in real time.

Ideally, every bet on every table and on every machine would be monitored, tracked and displayed in a manner that promotes a sense of winning in real time.

All of the existing loyalty club protocols would be subsumed into the system. There would be no reason why a player would miss a perk/award to which they are entitled or miss any activity if used properly.

Added to the system would be a back-of-the-house, purposed personal customer service tracking and support module. Essentially, customer service standards would be established and human-to-human contact would be tracked to make sure it is proactively delivered and player requests for contact are responded to in a timely manner.

There is more to discuss the system, but the point to remember is that the system has the potential to extract the maximum potential from the total environment approach to meeting or exceeding the NWEs of every customer, every visit.

The underlying theme of this article is that there is always room for more fun for players and non-players alike. This article provides some pathways to uncovering it. Go forth and make more fun. Never stop. And, don’t ever let anyone take fun from your casino again!

Today’s casino experience—post Covid reopenings—is nothing like it was intended to be. The excitement of a slot jackpot can now only be celebrated from six feet away. Table game players are often separated from other players and the dealer by a Plexiglas shield. And in many jurisdictions, takeout from casino restaurants to your room is the best choice. And always masks are mandatory.

What does this mean for the future of casinos? Their business models aren’t built for today’s realities. With no entertainment, no meetings or conventions, no special events, and an underperforming gaming floor as a result of these restrictions, how will casinos survive? And with demographics changing, how can casinos meet the expectations of their younger clientele?

Casino architects and designers believe there is a way out. While these current constraints are onerous, shows and conventions and full-service F&B will eventually return. But what will be the experience, and how will casino executives decide how to best serve their best customers?

Gaming Floor Redux

Even before Covid, the casino floor was changing. Increased competition and interactive alternatives made the casino floor less congested, more flexible and slowly evolving.

Brett Ewing, a principal with the Cuningham Group, says the extra space will allow for more comfort for players.

“One of our clients had some extra back-of-the-house space,” he says. “They took down the walls, laid down some carpet and spread their machines out. Short rows, small carousels, no Plexiglas. Customers really appreciated the fact that they spread it out, and they lost very few games.

“The key is flexibility. Our clients are going to want to pivot as they see new trends evolve and it becomes more clear about what their customers are looking for. There are important densities to consider when you’re talking about the relationship of table games to slot machines. We need to figure out where the critical mass is for the energy of the casino to be fully involved.”

Mike Larson, an architect and project director for JCJ, predicts the slot floor will change markedly.

“We’ll see a regrouping of the way slots are laid out,” he says. “We’ll largely eliminate side-by-side slot machines. It will also free up space for other uses. The real opportunity is how to use the extra space in a flexible nature to give your guests a way to enjoy themselves that may not be traditional for a casino floor.

“Fewer players at tables could become the norm or at least an option. There are people who enjoy the extra space. But how do you create energy on the floor with fewer players? We’ve been talking about how you could change the actual tables. What innovations could be introduced that could integrate technology that would make it easier to play and prevent the spread of germs?”

Tom Sykes, a principal with SOSH Architects, believes there needs to be more radical changes on the casino floor.

“There needs to be a great emphasis on familiarization and comfort with remote gaming, and gaming in whatever place you’re located in the casino,” he says. “There needs to be an interface that will kick in that will link interactive and in person gambling or even gambling from your home.”

Every other slot machine is turned off at most casinos due to Covid 19

Nick Schoenfeldt, a principal with TBE Architects, believes the space on the casino floor could be repurposed, and explains how they did it with one client.

“We’re utilizing space more efficiently,” he explains. “We abandoned poker in favor of a non-smoking slot area. We’re spreading out the machines more so people can safely social distance.

“Even before Covid, I think the relaxed atmosphere was moving forward. People didn’t like being right on top of one another like a cattle call. They like being spread out. So even after Covid passes, people are going to want to continue that more relaxed, more space.”

Sykes says that the days of an ocean of slot machines are over.

“Right now, we’re developing different zones to allow more engagement on the casino floor,” he says. “We’re no longer locked to the rows of slots. We’re pulling out a few machines in exchange for more space. We need to change how the environment feels.”

Sykes’ partner at SOSH, Bill Salerno, says the capacity restraints didn’t really have an impact.

“You don’t know what to expect when the limits were imposed,” he says. “The casinos are very happy with 25 percent, which they never hit. Expenses are down because of less staff, marginal F&B. So they’re making some money and doing OK even with these limitations.”

Paul Steelman, founder and president of Steelman Partners, believes some basic changes need to be made across the spectrum.

“We want to reduce the touchpoints,” he says. “We want to reduce chips, we want to reduce cash, we want to reduce the cash machines. We want to take advantage of the technologies that exist today on our phones, to integrate the phone much more so into the casino design, whether it be a slot machine, or whether it be a gaming table. In the hotels, we’re doing things like making the phone be your remote control in your hotel room; the phone can open up your hotel room as a key. Therefore, we can make our lobbies smaller, because people are going to be checking in on their phone, as 5G proliferates throughout the entire world.”

Food & Beverage Changes

The buffet is dead. Almost all architects agree. But how will we replace the buffet?

“The original buffet concept has changed,” says Schoenfeldt. “We’re adding additional screens and wider seating layouts, and we’re using technology so guests can order from their tables. Of course, they can order as much as they want just like a buffet, but they won’t be touching or even seeing the food until it gets to their table.”

Ewing believes the food court concept will come back, but with major changes.

“We all know what the old food courts look like,” he says. “We’ve already been trending away from that for some time now. It’s already a much more engaged experience. That’s already taking us in another direction from the traditional food court. I think we’re going to see an incorporation of grab-and-go. Not just a premade sandwich, but a meal made to order using high-quality ingredients. One of the most unpleasant experiences with food courts was trying to find a table. The experience of dining in your room is going to evolve very quickly.”

Sykes believes that there will be some sea changes in the food-and-beverage approaches from the casinos.

“It’s back to the future,” he says. “I think there’s going to be a trend toward third-party food and beverage. Buffets have always been house-owned, but they’re not going to exist anymore. There will be food halls and eateries and entertainment that makes it fun to eat and try different things. It can be very formal or very informal. We’ve already seen a pattern of outsourcing to third-party food vendors. You know how to run a casino, but restaurants and buffets are marginal. Let someone do it who’s an expert at it and has a name.”

Going forward, Ewing says the capacity limits are more problematic for restaurants.

“If you operate at 50 percent capacity, restaurants can’t survive, even in a casino environment,” he says. “So new restaurants have to be designed with that in mind and right-size the capacity. Restaurants are going to have to offer take-away service and maybe even incorporate some level of customer service into the guest rooms.

“Where you would once have had a long row of booths, the design will be more flexible. There might be a big family booth in the corner, but there will have to be flexibility until we see what will happen with social distancing. If you do have booths that are back to back, you’ll have a screen that physically separates the customers. It would be something very artful and decorative so it could be a permanent change.”

Steelman says the trend will now be for restaurants to offer outdoor space as well on patios or other enclosed spaces.

“Over time, we have started to see a lot more integration of outdoor spaces,” he says. “Now, they weren’t necessarily integrated in accordance with the virus that we currently have, but they have proved useful. We think that the restaurants will be fine, but I’d be surprised in the future if we do a lot of indoor restaurants.”

Entertainment Options

Showrooms and large concert halls have yet to come back, but the smaller shows have returned, particularly in Las Vegas where both MGM Resorts and Caesars Entertainment have opened several shows at their Strip properties. Social distancing and mask wearing are required, but it’s heartening to see entertainment return.

Schoenfeldt says that some of his tribal clients are eschewing larger national entertainment.

“There’s going to be a building trend toward smaller venues where local talent can be showcased,” he says. “These days you don’t need the huge superstars to pack a big ballroom, since you can’t pack it anymore, or at least for quite a while.”

Sykes says while the larger showrooms can be apportioned off in order to honor social distancing, that won’t help casinos sign the bigger acts that demand higher fees.

“I don’t think you’ll see the headliner or the more expensive talent for some time,” he explains. “Casinos will be looking for the more affordable, B-level acts, because the seating is going to be more dispersed and you won’t be able to pack a theater.”

As for the nightclubs that have become so important to the bottom line, there is no light at the end of the tunnel, according to Ewing.

“Nightclubs are tough,” he says. “There’s no way around the social distancing at nightclubs. But one thing I know after having a fair amount of experience designing them is that nightclub operators are smart. If there’s a way to do it, they’ll figure it out. It’s already happening. At Marquee at the Cosmopolitan, they’ve already repurposed their outdoor area as a nighttime poolside environment. It might not be a long-term solution but it proves the desire is there. We’re going to have to really look hard at what the appetites of millennials and Gen Z are toward social proclivities going forward.”

Salerno agrees that the desires of the younger generation will drive innovation.

“Prior to Covid there was already a changing of the guard occurring,” he says. “Baby boomers and blue hairs were getting older. Casino operators were concentrating on how we replace them with younger gamblers. The Covid situation has accelerated that. They need to figure out what they want and how they want it.”

Changing Times

Most designers believe that technology will play a role in anything they imagine going forward.

Larson says the mobile devices are front and center.

“The biggest change is going to be the use of apps,” he says. “A lot of these properties have been looking into this for some time, but now it’s going to be accelerated. This situation is supercharging that rollout. We’re seeing apps that help you check in and make dinner reservations. These apps can track your location so maybe they can help increase mobile betting or allow players to place wagers while they’re at dinner. If we have a seating area or lounge or sportsbook in the middle of the casino, people could actually be gaming there on their devices. This is something that’s going to be rolled out very quickly.”

Health and safety are also going to depend largely on technology. Sykes says many of his clients are already installing equipment that ionizes the air and therefore kills any virus—including Covid—in the air entering the casino resort.

“It’s a very achievable goal and quick to implement,” he says.

Steelman believes a casino resort could be the safest place to be with regards to air handling.

“I believe that good engineering, good operations, will all be put together in this particular place, in this particular building, to probably create the safest, cleanest casino in the world,” he says.

“Casinos do in fact change the air more than any other building. The casinos, especially in Las Vegas with some of the finest engineers, are probably the freshest, cleanest air in any building, other than a hospital operating room.”

Along with technology, says Schoenfeldt, it’s going to take human aspirations to solve these problems.

“Change is something we always embrace at TBE,” he says. “It’s exciting when you see the creativity of the people and what they come up with. And 90 percent of it is creative perception. They know how clean it is. They understand how much attention the staff is paying to cleanliness. I don’t think the average gambler is going to be comfortable exactly as it used to be—ever. If we’re given the opportunity to do something we love and enjoy and if we can do it safely, we’re going to make those changes and some of them are going to be here to stay.”