How Casinos Keep You Gambling

Casino is a classic story of greed and addiction, capturing the essence of Las Vegas in the mid-to-late ’80s. Martin Scorsese’s film is an epic history lesson about how big gambling corporations took over the city. It also provides an inside look at how casinos use sounds, lights and physical design to keep you gambling.

The house always wins. In fact, a casino’s math assures that it will make a profit on every bet placed, at least for one day. This virtual assurance of gross profit allows a casino to offer high-stakes gamblers extravagant inducements, like free spectacular entertainment, transportation and elegant living quarters.

When someone hits a jackpot on a slot machine, loud sound effects and bright lights flash and cheers rise up. These are meant to create a false sense of possibility that keeps people playing the games and betting more money.

Another way that casinos trick their patrons into spending more money is by keeping them in the casino longer than they intend. There are no clocks on the walls, and the lighting is designed to be just right so that you can’t tell what time it is. This keeps you from leaving the casino to satisfy your basic human needs for sleep and food.

Casinos can also lure patrons with comps. For example, if you are a big enough gambler, you may receive free hotel rooms, dinners, show tickets, limo service and airline tickets. The best way to know if a casino is trustworthy is to find out what others are saying about it. A reputable casino will promote responsible gambling and offer reality checks, deposit limits and self-exclusion tools for players. It should also provide transparent policies and T&Cs to reassure consumers that the site is fair.