Sustainability can mean several different things to different people, but it is mostly used these days to describe businesses and practices that are ‘greener’ and more environmentally aware. When it comes to the casino industry, being sustainable can also include looking out for the local community and protecting customers – and in this article we will explore both concepts.
There are two main types of casino available – the physical premises, such as the sprawling resorts in Vegas, and the online casino, like casino.com. For both, the most pressing concern when it comes to environmental sustainability is the sheer consumption of power needed. For the brick-and-mortar casino, it is the 24 hour a day usage of power for lights and machines, and for the online casino it is the servers that are needed to host games without problems with lagging and overheating.
The Casino
Picture a casino, and you’ll think of one of the huge casino hotel complexes in Las Vegas. The City of Sin never sleeps, and neither do the game rooms – which is why they have historically been such a drain on resources like electricity and gas.
The constant lights, the slot machines and other gaming machines, the music, the bars, and the kitchens – all these rely on electricity, so it is not a big leap to see that greener initiatives should be the focus of all land-based casino premises.
There are a few steps that the online casino can take to improve their ‘green’ credentials:
Design and Construction
Newer casinos are more likely to have environmentally friendly innovation built in, but that isn’t always possible – so even the most well-established casinos need to think of ways that they can reduce their carbon footprint and their reliance on fossil fuels.
Some ideas that might help include installing renewable power sources as standard.
Other ideas include upgrading lighting to LEDs, which use less power, last longer, and are usually brighter too.
They can also think about upgrading gaming machines to the latest hardware; these tend to use less power (and provide an even greater experience for customers).
Slight changes to the design of the building and constructing new, more efficient power sources helps make a casino a better bet environmentally. This Dedication to the environment is also likely to make new customers want to visit, especially if they are environmentally conscious too.
Renewable Energy Sources
Reliance on fossil fuels is one thing that we can all agree on – it isn’t good for us or for the planet. There is a lot of money being invested in ways of making cheaper, greener energy available to businesses and consumers, and these are getting better and better every day.
If every casino in Vegas took advantage of all the sunshine that was available and put solar panels on their buildings, they could not only see a huge drop in their consumption – but also a huge drop in their electricity bills.
The same could be said for other renewable energy sources, like water (the fountains at the Bellagio, for example), and for wind.
Obviously, casinos elsewhere might not have the same success – the Hippodrome in London might struggle to drag enough energy out of the paltry amount of sun in the UK to make much of a difference, let alone the planning regulation hoops they would have to jump through to make it a reality.
Waste Management
Recycling has been a key point for decades now, but it is only relatively recently that removing things like plastic straws has really been implemented.
Some casinos are taking this a step further, employing teams to sort through waste in-house to ensure that as much as possible is recycled, food waste is composted for the gardens, and that things like unused complementary shampoo are distributed to the needy.
Carbon Offsetting
While reducing carbon use at the source might be a good first step, some casinos and other businesses are also practicing what is known as carbon offsetting. This can include things like planting more trees to negate their use of fossil fuels, or investing in green initiatives in the local are.
An important facet of Corporate Social Responsibility is caring for the environment, and as already mentioned, this can have a positive effect on the mindset of customers.
The Online Casino
The growth of the online casino has had a significant impact on the casino industry. Not only has it encouraged many new players to get involved, especially those who might live too far from a physical casino to visit, it also encourages people to play from home – reducing the carbon footprint caused by travel to one of these casinos.
That doesn’t mean that online casinos are completely green – they still need to contend with the massive energy consumption that comes from the servers needed to ensure that games run smoothly – and greener energy use here is something that modern casino gamers are becoming increasingly concerned with.
Casinos who are committed to being greener may well be the choice for the discerning new player – so it is worth the extra effort.