What is the 'No 90 Degree Turns' Rule in Casino Design?

Question

I've come across the 'no 90 degree turns' rule in casino design. Can you explain what this means and why it's used?

Answer 1

The 'no 90 degree turns' rule is part of Bill Friedman's casino design principles. The idea is that sharp, right-angle turns act as decision points that could lead a player to consider leaving the casino. By using gentle curves and angles in the walkways, casinos can subtly guide players through the space without triggering the decision-making part of their brains, keeping them engaged with the gaming equipment for longer periods.

Comments

I repair atms, and one of our clients is a casino, so I see the design elements.  It took me roughly 4 months of regular visits (at least 1/week) to get the building layout firmly in mind, and I had advantage of a security pass that admits me to certain employee corridors to help fill in the blanks!  I also enjoy finding out back-of-house shortcuts between the various gaming areas (scattered between three floors) where I can.

---

“It’s hard to leave when you can’t find the door.” -Joe Walsh

The Las Vegas Monorail is great… until you have to leave through a casino floor and the layout doesn’t give you a straight line from the backdoor (where the monorail is because it runs behind the resorts on the East side of the strip before veering off to stop at the Convention Center, what used to be the Intercontinental Hotel, and finally dead ends at what used to be the Sahara, but that station thankfully has a staircase exit so you don’t have to walk through the casino (which is technically across the street from the monorail terminus) and the street outside. (Note, the MGM also has a direct entrance from the street-ish… it’s an elevator in the driveway).

---

Geometrically, without 90-degree turns, you will always have another gambling equipment in your line of sight instead of walls and exits.

---

One thing about the lack of 90 degree angles is that it makes casinos easy to walk in, but harder to find the exit once inside.
On a side note, Ikea designs their stores like that for the same reason, to get their customers to part with their money.

---

this video made me wanna take a 90 degree turn in a casino, I bet I can take a 90 degree turn in a casino.

---

1:24 the footage shows several 90 degree turns being made

---

I feel like there's a "cold? Go to the corner, it's 90 degrees!" joke here, but I'm too lazy to come up with it

---

It would be interesting if more of these design concepts were used in grocery store, I know they already use a few, but they still mostly seem like endless rows of shelves with lots of corners.

---

:30 a shit ton of 90 degree turns in the video

---

Winstar up in Oklahoma (i live in Dallas) totally has a 90 degree turn about halfway down... It's also the largest casino in the world, so maybe they needed that turn to keep a smaller footprint

---

3:15 Ahhhh! This is why Ikea have the twisty showroom at the top.

---

It's fine I'll just take a 89° turn

---

How to make your Geometry Teacher give you a 100 on the next test, take them to a Casino.

---

What if you do a half 180 degree turn

---

I made the mistake of taking the Las Vegas monorail once.  We got out in the back of Imperial Palace, and it took forever to wind our way through the labyrinth of unmarked paths, corridors, wrong turns, dead-ends, and whatnot to get the hell out of there.

---

The casino i frequent actually has long straight paths with 90 degree turns and intersections. But they are the main paths, linking you to the various haming areas, restaurants, and the hotel. If you go off the path, then you're in a maze of machine banks. Its like walking through a forest on a trail, you look to the left or the right and you can only see so far between the trees, in this case the machines, so you getna sense of depth and scale. I feel like this triggers your sense of curiosity. A desire to go off the path to explore or attempt to find a shortcut, thus luring you into the labyrinth.

---

I just went to a casino for the first time. Spent some money, had some fun, but I did take a LOT of 90 degree turns...