Persuading gamblers to play for as long as they possibly can has always been central to the casino business model, and that has been true long before the invention of the Internet.
Back when society couldn’t even grasp the notion of online casinos, their physical counterparts used environmental design to make gamblers forget about the world outside and focus on the betting table.
The most shocking part, however, is that the methods of old have hardly changed for close to a century. At least, until quite recently…
Friedman’s Involuntary Customer Engagement
The old-school casino tactics? Removing all windows and clocks from the playing areas (so gamblers wouldn’t know for how long they had been playing); providing easy access to money; and, of course, giving free drinks to high rollers.
The American author Bill Friedman was one of the first to combine environmental design and psychology, and he’s the grandfather of the Las Vegas method. Friedman is known for creating the famous maze-like architecture of Las Vegas’ casinos, which is based on a model introduced in 1974.
Friedman’s design was the “dominant design approach in Las Vegas for decades” and was based on a simple but powerful hack: in the casino, exits shouldn’t be visible “from any interior point” and slot machines should be “visible from every entry.”
Considering Friedman’s model is still being put to use in physical casinos, it’s hard to argue that it is a highly effective client engagement driver. The morality of the whole thing, on the other hand, can be easily questioned…
After all, the environmental design of Vegas’ casinos preys on excessive gamblers, the most vulnerable type of players, and employs deceptive psychological methods to literally ensure they never find the way to the exit.
Yes, Friedman’s client engagement strategy undoubtedly works, but only through involuntary customer engagement. Gamblers continue playing, sure, but that hardly seems to be a decision they have made for themselves.
The innate deceptiveness of online casinos
Unlike physical casinos, online platforms were never able to rely on environmental design and free drinks to fuel client engagement. But they were quick to develop their own retention methods, many of which were, at least at first, nearly as deceiving as Friedman’s model.
For example:
- Welcome bonuses manipulated players through rollover requirements, forcing them to bet 20, 35, or even 45 times the value of the bonus to collect the reward, often in 48 hours or less.
- The first online casino VIP programs were bonafide traps for excessive gamblers, especially as responsible gaming resources were still extremely rare. Operators ensured excessive players would always come back using everything from email marketing to direct phone calls.
Considering that the first online casino was launched in 1994, it’s only natural that welcome bonuses and VIP programs have become commonplace now. Consequently, they have also become less dangerous.
However, that doesn’t change the fact that online casino retention methods have hardly changed during the last three decades. Just like the Friedman model in Las Vegas, online casino tactics have always seemed to work.
More than simply effective, welcome bonuses and VIP features have now become a quintessential element of the online gambling culture. Players have grown to love them to the point of immediately discarding casinos without these pivotal resources.
But have we really reached the end? Or is it still possible to create a client engagement strategy for online casinos that doesn’t involve deceiving players and preying on gambling addicts?
The answer may lie in a new type of dual-currency platform known as sweepstakes casinos…
A Classic Sweepstakes Casino With a Twist
I was inspired to write this article when I stumbled upon Titan Casino, a U.S. sweepstakes casino launched earlier this year. Like all sweepstakes casinos, Titan offers two types of virtual tokens:
- Fun Coins, used to play just for fun (meaning no money is involved)
- Sweep Coins, used to play for real-money rewards
There are other familiar elements, such as the usual sign-up bonus, the left-side menu page layout, and the live casino games with real dealers. However, Titan only looks like “just another sweepstakes casino” at first glance.
The sweepstakes platform shows its true colors upon close inspection and sets itself apart from the competition by relying on a “deposit-free” client engagement strategy that is centered around the notions of transparency, community, and non-predatory user tiers.
Here’s what stood out and caused me to reflect on the negative aspects of the client engagement methods that have characterized the gambling industry for close to a century:
- Players are always visible and never alone: While online casinos tend to isolate players, Titan Casino has a homepage display that shows, in real time, every bet placed by users. Making all losses public may sound like a disastrous client engagement move, but it only contributes to making the website feel alive.
- Free-for-all chat: Instead of offering the classic QA chatbot, Titan Casino has a free-for-all chat available where everyone, even unregistered users, can comment. This means that the platform can count on its own user base to answer questions, creating a new type of fluid, community-based customer support.
- Mission-based user tiers: While not equally innovative, the user tiers provided by Titan Casino (namely, the 16-level Cashback Tier up to 22% and a 52-level Achievements Tier) are almost entirely dependent on activity-based missions; in other words, players don’t have to spend a fortune on new deposits. Sometimes, all it takes to get a reward is to log in for three days straight or confirm an email address.
The live display also shows High Roller bets and Rare Wins, but the casino’s VIP resources are backed by exhaustive responsible gaming resources, one-on-one support, and flexible bonuses that can be directly discussed with each VIP player.
Why Titan Casino Made Me Stop and Think for a While
Titan Casino’s transparency-based client engagement strategy comes paired with the usual online casino perks, from welcome bonuses to catchy rewards. However, the platform pushes the envelope by fostering a sense of community unforeseen in the iGaming sector.
While we may not be there yet, this makes me believe that, no matter how engrained, Friedman’s deceptive psychology can finally give way to a voluntary type of client engagement. Casinos can indeed go beyond bonuses and embrace their players instead of exploiting them.
