Looks Aren't Everything (But They May Keep Me From Playing In Your Casino)

In my 26 odd years of life on this planet I have come upon many truths. One is that my wife is always right, even when she isn't. Another is that looks may not be everything, but many times the first impression they give us shapes the way we are going to treat a given situation. This can apply to the opposite sex, purchases, and even the places we choose to eat. (Tip: When you are at a restaurant the first place to judge on looks is the bathroom. If the bathroom is gross looking, would you really want to eat what is coming out of a potentially dirty kitchen?)

In the world of online gambling, the design of a casino and graphics of the games inside of that casino has the opportunity to draw in and retain many potential customers. In the same vein, a casino with sub-par site and game design may make some of those same customers go elsewhere for their gambling experience.

When I first started online gambling a few months back I was drawn to several casinos that offered me free chips or other great bonuses. I found myself staying to play at the ones with the best graphics and coolest slot machine animations. In the end, the result of those games may be very well identical to another casino playing the same game (3 card poker, blackjack), but the user's experience is enhanced by those shiny new graphics, those neat animated backgrounds in the casino lobby that make you take extra notice of the great bonus being offered. Play time in my case was also extended by me wanting to check out the other cool games with neat graphics at these casinos.

My top casinos graphics wise are High Noon Casino, and Aladdin's Gold Casino. Both really deliver that great experience and I have noticed my play time at those casinos was likely extended by me wanting to see what else was going on with those cool animations (like the buggies riding in the High Noon Bonus offer area).

I also noticed myself being repulsed by the MANY other types of casinos with designs and graphics straight out of the late 90's.

I can honestly say that I have stayed and played at some casinos with lower end graphics and had winning experiences, but I also can say that I feel my experience would have been enhanced by those websites investing in updating their graphics and keeping me drawn into their games. This is driven home by the fact that my go to casino is English Harbour, but I absolutely hate the graphics there. I am not a big slots player, but I think the slots at EH are so generic and vary so little in between the games that I could not feasibly spend money playing slots there; it would not be nearly as entertaining as a casino that has flashy graphics popping out at you and keeps me to just playing table games there (slots only for the free tournaments they offer).

Now I am new to this blogging thing, and I am unsure if anybody from a casino is reading this, but for the love of Pete, please take an honest look at your casino and notice that you could enhance the user's experience by keeping up to date with your graphics and really draw more customers in. A little polish goes a long way for the common player.

How about you Casino Listings readers? Do you think graphic design is important to you when choosing a casino to play at?