Halloween is one of my favorite times of the year! If you’re anything like me, you appreciate the season too and you might love seeing all the different costumes, watching holiday classics, and taking in all the decorations.
Yes, all that is very exciting, but one thing might cause you a little stress – landing on the perfect costume. Costumes come in all varieties, and I got to thinking, what casino inspired costumes are out there?
Instead of hitting the nail directly on the head for all ideas, I wanted to challenge myself to think of some more covert ways to incorporate an appreciation for slots, whether it be their characters, location, or something else. Of course, there are some very direct options as well including more than one table games costume that puts you in the middle of the action!
Before you lock in your choice for this year’s Halloween, read on for a few suggestions, some more covert than others. Have a happy Halloween!
People
We’re going to start off with an easy one! One of the most obvious ways you can embrace the casino vibe this Halloween is by dressing up as the people that make a living at a property. There are more than a few ways to go about this, there are hundreds of different positions at any given casino ranging from public facing positions to more covert back of house options, and don’t forget about the folks that call “office level” home.
Starting off with dealers, these are some of the most recognizable people that you could emulate this Halloween. Put on some slacks, a common theme for casino team members, a button up shirt, a name tag, and carry around a deck of cards that you can be constantly shuffling. There is a mass produced option too! You can decide to buy a costume that includes the dealer outfit and the table itself.
Another front of house option is to dress up as a slot technician. Start off with the base layer of slacks and a button up, and then layer on a fanny pack complete with fake cash, and a clip board. You can up the ante by strapping a phone to your wrist to make it look like you are logging win amounts and clearing systems.
A more unique idea is to go undercover as a surveillance officer. This is a lay-up for anyone looking for more of a minimal effort option. All you need for this is – you guessed it – slacks, a branded polo or jacket, and your best poker face. If anyone jokes that they don’t know what you are, all you have to say is “that is the point.” Surveillance officers are meant to blend in.
Lastly, go straight to the top. You can dress up as a fancy casino owner. If I were to dress up as an owner, I’d lean into the old school vibes of Fremont Street. I’d wear a suit, carry around a fake cigar, and wear an egregious amount of bling. If at any point a problem arises during Halloween, I’d throw some fake money at the situation in hopes to make it go away.
Licensed Characters
If you aren’t feeling like dressing up like a real person, you can always look into licensed characters! These licensed characters can look like the Monopoly Man or Mr. Lee from Flaming Hot Pots. In both these examples, all you need to do is pull an image of the character and get to shopping to match their look.
For Mr. Monopoly, you’re going to want to get your paws on a cane, top hat, and red bow tie. You can also create a sack of money for the cherry on top. His outfit is very fancy, you can either try to create a similar three piece suit look from what you currently own or bring in an image of the fictional man to your nearest formal wear rental shop.
When it comes to Mr. Lee, it’s time to get culinary! His chef outfit is shown in a variety of colors including blue, red, and gold. Pick which look you want to embrace and get a chef jacket in that color. Next, you will want a bandana that matches and, if you’re feeling it, some stick on facial hair. Mr. Lee has a signature look that includes a mustache and goatee. The last item is to either carry around a big soup pot, just like the accumulators shown in the game, or fake dumpling. Good thing dumpling squishees are very popular these days!
Animals
A more discrete way to incorporate some slot flavor into your Halloween plans is to pick an animal from your favorite game. If you’re a slot player, you already know, animals play a BIG part in a number of game designs, I’d argue the majority, and they have been for a long, long time.
One option is to dress up like a real animal, three popular options that immediately come to mind include a buffalo, cat, and panda. These are three animals that have a monopoly on the floor, appearing in a number of titles.
Reading “buffalo,” you probably already know which game we’re going to start with. Yup, any one of the dozens of Buffalo titles made popular by Aristocrats all-time fan-favorite slot series. For this, there are a few options for full buffalo costumes online, or you can go with a DIY hybrid of pairing a hat with horns with a brown outfit.
Of course, we can’t talk about Halloween without mentioning one of the most embraced costumes of all time- cats. You can take a walk around any casino floor to pick out a cat to design your look around. Cats are represented in many, many slot titles including Cats, Kismet Cat, and Lucky Wealth Cat. My choice would be the very regal, white, fluffy cat featured in “Kitty Glitter.” Depending on which cat you pick, style your hair to match and try and buy a matching collar if your selected cat is shown wearing one. Your look will be complete after drawing on your nose and whiskers.
Lastly, pandas are a very popular slot inclusion. The first game that comes to mind is Panda Magic, one of the very popular Dragon Link titles. Other pandas can be seen in San Fa Panda, Wicked Wheel Panda, and Wild Panda. Just like with the cats, this is a great option to DIY. Start by picking out black and white elements from your closet and then either buy or make a piece of bamboo you can carry around. Don’t forget to add some panda face paint!
Bonus: Speaking of dragons, you can also take a page from the mythical world. Embrace critters like Yetis (Yo Yo Yeti), dragons (5 Dragons), or unicorns (Mystical Unicorn).
Locations
More of an outside of the box approach is to lean into locations that play host to casinos (think Vegas or Atlantic City) or a location featured in a slot.
When it comes to leaning into the Vegas style, you can go one of two ways- fancy high roller or laid back tourist. Fancy high rollers can wear suits, evening dresses, and basically anything that sparkles. While I’d argue that most high rollers actually just look like everyday people, we’re going for exaggeration here. In addition to the sparkles, you can include a martini glass, fake money, and an ATM card with the words “unlimited” somewhere on it.
The more casual Vegas or Atlantic City visitor can look more like an exaggeration of seasoned hardcore players. I am picturing a branded track suit, visor style hat that says “Las Vegas,” and maybe even a scooter. Instead of a martini, I would include a giant branded cup.
For locations featured in a slot, you can have tons of fun recreating looks of fictional places or those located around the world. Think about wearing lederhosen for Heidi’s Bierhouse or dress up like you’re headed out for the adventure of a lifetime like in IGT’s Big 5 Safari.
Casino Elements
We already talked about the people that work in a casino lending themselves as possible costume inspiration, but now we’re going to think about the inanimate objects that are instantly recognizable.
People will immediately know what you are if you decide to dress up like an actual slot machine. There are a few options of slot machines available online that you can decide to buy. You could also try and make your own costume slot by piecing together cardboard. If you go that route- you’re going to want to get to gluing now! The custom route does allow you the chance to include your own easter eggs and pick a theme you know and love.
If you want to flex your DIY muscle, a great option is to make a giant card. For this, you need to get a piece of light weight material that you can either paint or layer printed materials on to make it look like your card of choice.
An easy way to make sure your card design is just right, is to get your hands on a small projector. The projector can make it very easy to outline your design and you can use it for additional projects in the future.
Remember, you’ll need to design the front and back of the card. Once you have your design, connect the two pieces together to create a wearable sandwich board. Creating a Royal Flush is a great idea if you want to create a group costume!
