It’s no accident that almost all casino tables are covered in green felt, with the colour having a subliminal effect on players in more ways than one.
Upon entering an in-house casino, one of the first things you notice is the mesmerising colour schemes and lavish décor covering each corner of the gambling floor. Casinos know how to draw you in by offering exciting games and freebies, but they also know how to keep you there so that you can continue reaching into your pockets for as long as possible.
One of the ways to grab your attention is by using subconscious illusions. Possibly the most popular of these tactics is the employment of green felts across gambling tables. Green felt games include poker, roulette, and blackjack, as well as billiard. But it’s no accident that you’ll find this colour on casino tables since it’s known to affect us in more ways than we can imagine.
Colour Psychology
The colour green is often associated with wealth, ambition, prosperity, growth, and success. It’s also one of the most agreeable colours to the human eye, evoking calmness, relaxation, and ease.
Green is also the colour that represents life, nature, stability, and safety. Thus, it features as the go signal on traffic lights, appears on medical products and facilities, and fosters the message of ecology and natural energy.
Green in Cultural Traditions
One aspect of green that genuinely appeals to players is its association with luck! The Irish consider green exceptionally lucky; hence it dominates in folkloric elements like St Patrick’s Day, leprechauns and shamrock. In Islam, green is regarded as a sacred colour, while in China, green is viewed as a symbol of harmony, fertility, and cleanliness.
In the west, green is heavily associated with financial security and wealth, which is why banknotes in many countries are typically green. As it is a positive colour in various cultures and often related to money, it’s easy to see why it was chosen as the colour of the casino felts.
The Use of Baize
Baize is the synthetic felt found on snooker and pool tables. It’s deliberately designed to look like grass because this is how the game was initially played before it transitioned to a table. The primary purpose behind the green material is to reduce the speed of the balls and give players a tactical advantage.
Poker tables were also covered in baize to help the dealer slide cards to the players more quickly. In places where gambling was illegally practised, baize allowed players to write on the felt in chalk and speedily erase any evidence in case of police arriving.
How is Green Used at Online Casinos?
Online casinos tend to use plenty of green across their site layout and graphics. Again, this is mainly seen in virtual poker, craps, and baccarat. Additionally, you’ll also notice green in games like the American roulette, where zero and double zero are marked in this colour.
Online casinos also incorporate a lot of black, red, and gold into their sites. Gold is inherently associated with providence, and this is why coin imagery is an appealing aspect of online casino games. Red and black can be found in card suits as well as pockets on a roulette wheel — another familiar colour scheme that rings with players.
Playing on the Remaining Senses
Vivid visual colour schemes are not the only trick up the sleeves of casinos. According to a study by Wiley, players are susceptible to smells and odours on the gaming floor too. In 2006, a casino in Las Vegas experimented by releasing pleasant aromas across its slot machine area. Data showed that gambling activity shot up by 45 per cent on Saturdays and another 34 per cent on Sundays in the area where the pleasant scents were released.
Similarly, slot machines are the loudest games you’ll find on the casino floor. When hundreds of them are lined up like dominos, flashing and singing, it becomes hard to miss them. The stirring sounds and music are enough to get you geared up for an anticipated win.
