Generally speaking, I prefer to play video poker and slots without interacting with anybody else. To be sure, this is a personal preference and not everyone agrees with me.
I’ve found that if I’m chatting with somebody while playing video poker, my error rate increases. I never make a lot of mistakes, but the edges we’re playing with these days are so small, even a few mistakes are too many.
I don’t know why, but I can listen to music or spoken words and still play accurately. It’s when I have to engage my brain to form a response to somebody else that it interferes with engaging my brain to play accurately.
I can control whether I initiate conversations with others. It’s harder to control whether others start talking to me.
One device I use to discourage others from talking to me is that I frequently wear a large, over-the-ear, headset while playing. Sometimes I’m listening to music. Sometimes a story or podcast. Often, I’m listening to nothing at all. Someone seeing me wearing my headset generally can’t tell what I’m listening to — if anything.
If someone I know and like sits near me while I’m playing, I’ll typically nod my head in acknowledgement. It’s kind of a, “Hi. How are you doing?” acknowledgement without wanting or expecting an answer. This presents them with an opportunity to say something, if they wish, but not the necessity.
Should someone begin a conversation with me, or I need to interact with casino personnel, I’ll signal them to hold on a second, turn off my headset, and lower it from over my ears to around my neck. Then I’ll speak to them for as long as is appropriate. It almost never devolves into a situation where I continue to play and chat at the same time.
I’m not shy about telling people, accurately, that I need to concentrate when playing video poker. I try to be polite, yet firm. Even though I’ve been playing this game for more 30 years, there are hands I need to think about. If I always played 9/6 Jacks or Better, I know that game cold and probably can chat away with no loss in accuracy. But I play different games at different casinos, and, among other things, need to focus on which game I’m playing now. If I’m chatting with somebody else, I might not recognize a problem hand when it comes along.
There are a number of players who know me. Over 25 years of teaching video poker classes, more than 100,000 players attended one or more classes. Many of them still frequent casinos and when they recognize me, sometimes they come and say hello. That’s fine. I don’t mind a break of a minute or two.
There’s another reason for earphones. Many casinos these days pipe the music up to unhealthy levels. Circa, in downtown Las Vegas, is one of them. With good earphones on, the noise level is much lower.
Casinos differ widely in the type of overhead music they provide. While I enjoy classic country music, I have no appreciation for many other types of music. I know other players who have no tolerance for country music at all. The advantage of earphones is that you can replace whatever is “standard” for the place where you are playing to something you prefer more.
I’m in the casino to work and not for entertainment. But if I find I can make my working environment more entertaining and productive at the same time, so much the better.
How dare someone talk to the great Bob Dancer………good Lord…sigh
Give it a rest, dude.
Music on headphones is a maybe but I couldn’t listen to a podcast and play, especially if it’s one of my favorite podcasts. A little surprised that the casino music volume like at circa is distracting but I get it…
Circa does it for a reason, it messes with your brain, hard to concentrate, mistakes in VP and causes anxiety…therefore more $ into slots when you are anxious.
The noise at casinos has gotten louder and louder. Most of the music I hear is classic rock, which I love. But it’s so loud, along with people screaming when they win $5.00, and machine noise and music, and the inevitable “WHEEL OF FORTURNE”, it gets distracting. I have a great way to shut out the noise without headphones. I very simply turn off my hearing aids, but leave them in place. Works like a charm.
I hate wearing my hearing aids in a casino, it’s uber noisy. I’d love to get some new aids with Bluetooth so I could play soothing music in a loud environment.
A few months back I was at the 4 Queens and saw Bob playing the $1 full pay Double Bonus machines. I elected to not go and talk with him – I knew he was there to play and not to teach a class. I prefer to give other Video Poker players their space – just as I prefer having my own space. I don’t think that doing this is too much to ask.
This guy is a barrel of laughs. LOL
Noise is definitely getting louder in the casinos lately. The newer slots have incredible sound systems built in. The thing that grates on me the most is people who insist on pressing Max Bet on EVERY hand. I can hear that DING-DING-DING-DING-DING in my sleep.
Noise canceling headphones are on my list for my next casino visit!
The column and comments were interesting. I have noticed that casino background noise, especially as it relates to music, is much, much louder than it once was, and this seems consistent locale to locale. It’s very different from 30 years ago. And I also noticed that Circa, which I anticipated as a potential hangout/stopover point daily regardless of where I was staying due to the sports betting emphasis, was unusually, uncomfortably loud. So baseline loud that I don’t think I want to work there for any length of time — so I’d have cross the street to the GN Starbucks or something to work out wagers and cross-reference lines and all that. It really is glaring, as Dancer mentions, that Circa is so loud. I’m glad someone else experiences it that way.
So here’s my question to the readers and people commenting — my quick hypothesis is that the amped-up noise is likely in service of (1) no player interaction, so more machine action while discouraging speech with others, (2) hyper-stimulation, which may lead to errors, (as Dancer mentions) and also faster play, as the hyper-stimulation may have behavioral effects, and (3) the younger the person, the less socially interactive they seem to be these days, so maybe it’s in service of catering to unmarried under 30’s who (my personal observation, however limited my experience) really don’t know how to interact with each other live and are often uncomfortable doing so.
How do you guys feel about the WHYS of the Circa decibel levels? Mr. Dancer, you spend more tie in these places than any of us. What purpose do you think those decibel levels play?
Gosh, I would have to agree….going up to speak to THE Bob Dancer?? I am not worthy.
He certainly thinks that Brad? And he wonders why he has some health ailments…….playing uncomfortable uprights at 4Qs. Wow, what a big play he found there……..
Many slots have a volume control of sorts that the player can raise or lower. I always lower it, but I see many players intentionally raising it to the highest level, and they say they like it that way, makes the play more exciting for them. OK, but that is one way players could help lower the din if they would.
One girl told me “the manufacturers make it so you win more when you raise the volume”, which draws more players to use those machines, more business for that manufacturer. Uh, that sounds a little far fetched as far as volume having an effect on win or not, but it might explain why folks keep the volume high if they believe it.
I think the music at Circa, Golden Gate, and The D is intentionally loud because they are trying to create a party atmosphere. I doubt it goes any deeper than that, but I could be wrong.
I agree about the music being louder at some of these places. I was in LV for my first visit in a few years recently and found the modern music at the D to be loud and not to my liking. It seemed like it was one female ballad after another. But then I went upstairs and found that they were playing oldies. Much better!