Bill Friedman
Bill Friedman | |
|---|---|
| Occupation | Casino designer |
| Notable work | Designing Casinos to Dominate the Competition |
Bill Friedman is an American casino designer, author, and consultant. Considered a pioneer in modern gambling, he is credited with transforming Las Vegas into a slot machine-oriented gambling destination.
Career
[edit]Friedman got his start in the casino industry as a gambling addict,[1] which led him to turn his personal expertise into lucrative work as a casino manager.[2][3] He managed the Castaways Hotel and Casino and the Silver Slipper.[2][4] He has also been a consultant on numerous other casinos and resorts, including The Mirage.[5]
As an academic with a focus on addiction psychology, Friedman taught the first course in casino management at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.[2] He has been credited with introducing many aspects of cognitive psychology into the design of casinos and resorts, with a design philosophy oriented around maze-like casino floors with low ceilings, no windows, and no clocks.[4][1] This was the standard for casinos in Nevada until the creation of Bellagio, where designer Roger Thomas adopted the opposite philosophy for interior design.[2] Friedman's ideas have been linked to later developments in social media such as infinite scrolling.[3]
Bibliography
[edit]- Casino Management (1974)
- Casino Games (1995)
- Designing Casinos to Dominate the Competition (2000)
- All Against The Law (2014)
- 30 Illegal Years To The Strip: The Untold Stories of the Gangsters Who Built The Early Las Vegas Strip (2015)
References
[edit]- 1 2 Dent, Mark (March 21, 2024). "Why you almost never see a clock at the mall". The Hustle. HubSpot. Archived from the original on May 16, 2026. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
- 1 2 3 4 Lehrer, Jonah (March 19, 2012). "Royal Flush". The New Yorker. Archived from the original on February 28, 2026. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
- 1 2 Bhogal, Gurwinder (August 7, 2025). "Social Media Shortens Your Life. Here's How to Get Time Back". The Free Press. Archived from the original on February 26, 2026. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
- 1 2 Keppler, Nick (November 28, 2024). "Why Don't Casinos Have Windows?". Mental Floss. Archived from the original on May 16, 2026. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
- ↑ Cheng, Jack. "A Space to Play". American Experience. Archived from the original on October 13, 2022. Retrieved May 28, 2026.
Further reading
[edit]- Schüll, Natasha Dow (May 11, 2014). Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas. United States: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0691160880.