Third-party Casino Servicescape Design Evaluation: Highlighting Architectural Attributes Addressing Health & Wellness

Session Title

Poster session

Presentation Type

Poster Presentation

Start Date

27-5-2026 12:00 AM

Abstract

This study examines three critical components of understanding the casino environment’s impact on human well-being. First, a Delphi study with expert architects’ analysis of design cues establishes that not all casino designs are equal. Casinos are typically analyzed in terms of their profitability, guest satisfaction, visit duration, average spend, etc., or their individual components are separately measured but not assessed in their impact as part of an integrated whole. Their impact on health and wellness is often an afterthought or hardly a consideration at all. This fills a key gap in the existing servicescape literature. Second, AI image generation accelerates discernment of casino design decisions’ relationship to potential guest perception and behavior. As real-world design and construction take time to materialize, simulating innumerable design options provides field experts with the opportunity to illustrate how certain design variables may have more profound effects on health and wellness (e.g. lighting and proportion, color and connection to nature, layout and wayfinding, etc.). Rapidly creating design iterations for visual stimuli in surveys enables more reliable focus-group testing. The third component illustrates that by demonstrating greater control over key design elements and their integration into the comprehensive guest experience, casino architects and developers can point to more positive or negative influence on occupant health and well-being.

Author Bios

Dr. Nowak is a member of the American Institute of Architects, and he is the founder and coordinator of the Hospitality Design (HD) Concentration at the UNLV School of Architecture. Glenn serves as the Coordinator of the HD-Lab at UNLV, the Chair of the School of Architecture Committee for the AIA Las Vegas Chapter, and NCARB’s AXP Architect Licensing Advisor for Nevada. He earned his Master of Architecture from Cornell University and Doctor of Philosophy in Hospitality Administration from UNLV.

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May 27th, 12:00 AM

Third-party Casino Servicescape Design Evaluation: Highlighting Architectural Attributes Addressing Health & Wellness

This study examines three critical components of understanding the casino environment’s impact on human well-being. First, a Delphi study with expert architects’ analysis of design cues establishes that not all casino designs are equal. Casinos are typically analyzed in terms of their profitability, guest satisfaction, visit duration, average spend, etc., or their individual components are separately measured but not assessed in their impact as part of an integrated whole. Their impact on health and wellness is often an afterthought or hardly a consideration at all. This fills a key gap in the existing servicescape literature. Second, AI image generation accelerates discernment of casino design decisions’ relationship to potential guest perception and behavior. As real-world design and construction take time to materialize, simulating innumerable design options provides field experts with the opportunity to illustrate how certain design variables may have more profound effects on health and wellness (e.g. lighting and proportion, color and connection to nature, layout and wayfinding, etc.). Rapidly creating design iterations for visual stimuli in surveys enables more reliable focus-group testing. The third component illustrates that by demonstrating greater control over key design elements and their integration into the comprehensive guest experience, casino architects and developers can point to more positive or negative influence on occupant health and well-being.