RENO, Nev. — Vicky Picco was playing slots at the Peppermill Hotel Casino the other day. She was asked what she thought of the carpet.

"It's loud," she said kindly, looking down at the floor for the first time.

Actually, it is more than loud. It's black, purple and aqua with planets, comets and rainbows.

It's certainly nothing that you would want in your home.

But put it in a casino, and loud carpeting can subtly help separate you from your money, some gambling experts said.

"Casino carpet is known as an exercise in deliberate bad taste that somehow encourages people to gamble," David Schwartz, director of the Center for Gaming Research at the University of Nevada-Las Vegas, wrote in an essay.

Casino carpeting is a hobby for Schwartz. He has posted shots of casino carpets throughout the nation on his Web site (www.dieiscast.com). They're wild and bright and follow a Nevada tradition that at least dates to places such as Reno's Riverside Hotel Casino in the 1930s.

And the Peppermill? That carpet might be at the core of the concept that bad carpet is good for gambling.

"It is the essence of the whole thing," Schwartz said of the Peppermill's carpeting. "You don't get rainbows and planets at most places."

Peppermill officials defend their spaced-out carpet, although they say it contains a subtle reminder that the Peppermill may be the place where visitors win.

"People always don't notice the rainbows (in the carpet) but they have a perception of good luck," said Bill Hughes, marketing director. "Rainbows give us a sense of good feeling."

And the black, purple and aqua background?

"There is a practicality side to it, too," Hughes said. "You don't want a real plain carpet because people drop cigarettes on it and spill drinks on it."

THEORY IS NOTHING NEW

The long-held tradition is that loud carpeting makes people look up and somehow rivet attention on slot machines and table games, some experts said.

"I think there is something to that," said Bill Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada. "It is the same thing as putting canopies on tops of (gambling) tables, which has become popular. That lowers the ceiling. People don't look up at the spaciousness and concentrate more where the action is."

Finding subtle ways of keeping eyes focused on the machines follows a business tradition that dates back long before Reno and Las Vegas became gambling cities, other experts said.

"The fact is, at the places that have the most play, the attention of the visitors are focused on the gaming equipment, just like in a department store, which (Frank Winfield) Woolworth thought of in 1878," said Bill Friedman, author of "Designing Casinos to Dominate the Competition."

Traditionally, casinos have not installed beautiful carpet.

"Beauty doesn't drive casino play at all," Friedman said. "What would be the real issue here is gambling is a hyper experience. Nobody gambles to relax. They gamble for the adrenalin rush. Therefore, it is possible that a more exciting carpet pattern will create a more exciting atmosphere but nobody has ever demonstrated that."

CARPETS JUST 1 FACTOR

Casino carpeting was not a consideration in Friedman's research for his book. However, he would not discount subliminal suggestions to gamble that carpet patterns may hold.

"I am not arguing against it but I could not find the impact," Friedman said. "But I emphasize, that doesn't mean it is not there."

Schwartz is more straightforward in his essay about the subliminal role carpet plays in Las Vegas resorts: "Note the regal tones of Caesars Palace, the bountiful bouquet of Mandalay Place, the soft, almost abstract pointillism of Paris, all whispering, gamble, gamble, just out of the range of consciousness as people walk to the nearest slot machine," Schwartz wrote.

Eadington questions if carpet has the power to put the subliminal whammy on casino customers. Yet the carpets play a major role in the lure of a casino's environment, he said.

"You are trying to create an ambiance that is going to encourage people to stick around and play," Eadington said. "So you can't treat carpets all by themselves. They are part of the integrated pull."

That integrated pull needs to create a willingness to gamble, others said.

'SENSE OF VIBRANCY'

Today's casino world is one that hopes to convert the unlikely player into a player, said David Kranes, a professor of English at the University of Utah and a casino design consultant.

"In that world, it is not enough, simply, to provide games and play. One has to understand as deeply as possible, what 'play' is and then build playgrounds."

And carpet concepts are literally on the ground floor in building that playground.

"You want to get that sense of vibrancy and energy, that something is going on," Hughes said.

The floral designs on the just-installed carpet at the Atlantis Hotel Casino have a style with long curves and bright circles, supposedly helping visitors feel comfortable and alive.

"The most enticing and alluring and stimulating casino spaces are those which make principal use of the curvilinear rather than the straight," Kranes wrote about casino space in general.

Flowers and circular shapes dominate casino carpeting at the major resorts in Reno and Sparks. Although each design is unique, they could hold a universal message, Schwartz said.

"Many of the carpets use flowers and wheels, both suggestive of a cyclical life: flowers bud, bloom, and then die, and their beauty is only ephemeral," Schwartz said. "The wheel was famous to the Romans, note its prominence at Caesars Palace, as a symbol of the relentless capriciousness of fortune.

"Could both be subtle reminders to casino patrons that life and luck are fleeting, and one should eat, drink, and be merry before the morrow brings a swing in fortune?" Schwartz said.