A Working Glossary of Casino Design

Casino design borrows from hospitality, retail, theatre and heavy construction, and the same word often means different things to each. These are the definitions as this archive's practitioners use them.

The building

Porte-cochère. The covered arrival canopy. In casino work it is a piece of infrastructure rather than a detail — it sets the number of arrival lanes, the ceremony of entry and the property's face to the road. Why the casino entrance keeps getting bigger, and the archive's fifteen stories at Design Index: porte-cochère.

Podium. The low, wide base of a resort containing casino, retail, restaurants and meeting space, with the hotel tower above. It is why casino ceiling heights are usually inherited rather than chosen.

Floor plate. The usable area of one level. The figure that matters is rarely the total: Aqueduct Adventure reports 1,086,000 square feet (180,000-square-foot casino) — six times more building than gaming floor.

Back of house. Everything the guest never sees: kitchens, loading, staff circulation, count room, plant. On a casino it is the constraint that decides where restaurants and floors can go.

The floor

Gaming positions. The countable capacity of a floor — seats at machines plus places at tables. Spurred to Success uses it as the sizing unit: up to 1,100 total gaming positions… in a total of 90,000 square feet.

Slot bank. A run of machines sharing a plinth and signage. Banks set the aisle geometry, and the aisle geometry sets sight lines.

Pit. The enclosure of table games around a supervisory position.

Sight lines. What a guest can see from a given point. Casino sight lines are deliberately short at eye level and long overhead — which is why the ceiling does the wayfinding.

Open floor. A layout with fewer fixed enclosures. Design Q&A: Future Shock attributes the shift to technology: more fluid and open floor layouts due to the permeation of gaming outside of the casino floor.

Casino within a casino. A defined, separately conditioned gaming room inside the main floor, usually for a segment the main floor cannot serve — see the casino inside the casino.

Interiors

Pattern scale. The size at which a carpet or ceiling motif repeats, chosen against walking speed and viewing distance rather than against a sample board — what the pattern is actually doing.

Ribbon ceiling. A continuous coloured or lit band overhead used as a route. Category Killer: 'ribbon' ceiling paths… that also changed color and help lead the guest from one end of the casino to the other.

Intimate scale. Not small — enclosed. The Asian Equation: Low ceiling heights help create an intimate, cozy, warm and sophisticated mood.

Boutique. In casino usage, four possible specifications at once: rooms per social unit, a recognised guest, non-chain tenancy, and lower ceilings. Rarely a statement about total size.

Money and delivery

Hard construction cost. The builder's number: labour, materials, plant. Iowa Landmark reports $130 million all-in / $48 million construction.

All-in / total investment. The owner's number: land, design fees, FF&E, gaming equipment, financing, pre-opening. See what a project cost actually includes.

FF&E. Furniture, fixtures and equipment — everything not fixed to the building. Frequently procured outside the construction contract, which is why it goes missing from comparisons.

Design-build. One contract for design and construction. Building an Industry: design and construction occurred at virtually the same time. See why casinos kept choosing it.

Design-assist. Trade contractors brought into the design phase for their own scope. The Technology Revolution notes significant growth in design-assist or variations of design-build.

Architect of record. The practice that stamps the drawings and holds the local licence — not necessarily the practice that designed the building. How to read a credit block.

Adaptive reuse. Putting a casino into a building built for something else. It supplies a theme for free and a structural survey bill in exchange.

Systems and performance

MPE. Mechanical, plumbing and electrical, taken as one designed system. Building an Enterprise: the MPE design is energy-efficient to minimize the impact to the environment.

LEED. Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design, the US Green Building Council's certification. On casinos it is usually owner-driven and increasingly incentive-driven — the greenest building in the world was a casino resort.

Air changes. How often the volume of air in a space is replaced per hour. The number behind every smoking-policy conversation — designing the smoke-free floor.

Daylighting. Admitting controlled natural light. Long treated as forbidden on a gaming floor; the archive's record is more complicated than the folklore — no windows, no clocks.

Programme

Dayclub. A pool operated as a venue with its own admission, sound and service. Beach Party: a new element of casino resorts, allowing executives to get the most out of every space in the property. See the pool went up.

Signature restaurant. A named, separately branded venue intended to draw its own traffic — when the restaurant started paying the rent.

Racino. A racetrack with gaming, where two regulated businesses and two customer groups share one building, often with separate entrances for age reasons.

MICE. Meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibitions. The Art of the Resort describes Marina Bay Sands as a MICE-led integrated resort.

Non-revenue space. Area that earns nothing. The starting point of a serious renovation survey: opportunities exist in unused, non-revenue-generating space — The $50 Million Budget.

Terms are indexed against the archive at the Design Index, and practices at the Firm Directory.