How Casinos Are Engineered to Bleed Patrons of Your Cash

It’s happened to all of us: You stride into the Luxor, Mohegan Sun or Tropicana brimming with confidence and a wallet filled with cash. You intend for a bit of enjoyable, sensible gaming and maybe two rounds of cocktails. Hours later you’re not sure what time it is, how many drinks you’ve had or where all your money went. That’s because casinos are engineered to make you keep spending your money. They use a variety of sounds, lights and physical design to create an environment that is at once welcoming yet hard to step away from.

Beneath the varnish of flashing lights and free cocktails, casinos are built on a bedrock of mathematics, designed to slowly bleed patrons of their cash. For years mathematically inclined minds have tried to turn the tables, but it’s a hard task to beat a system that is designed to give the house an advantage at all times.

In games with a skill element, such as poker, the casino’s advantage is mathematically determined by the house edge. But in games where players aren’t competing against each other, the casino makes money through a commission called the rake.

It is this virtual assurance of profit that allows casinos to offer high bettors extravagant inducements in the form of free spectacular entertainment, transportation and elegant living quarters. It’s also the reason why you rarely see a clock in a casino – the people who manage them want you to lose track of time and focus only on your luck.