Beneath the flashing lights and free cocktails, casinos are rigged to slowly bleed their patrons of cash. For years mathematically inclined minds have tried to turn the tables by harnessing their knowledge of probability and game theory, but no one can beat the house edge.
The movie Casino is the first film to truly show how casinos manipulate their customers, and it’s all thanks to a stellar cast led by Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone. But the real star is Joe Pesci, who adds a terrifying dimension to the film that was lacking in other Mafia movies of the time.
Casino is a fascinating look at a city that has become too big and too successful for its own good. It lays bare the complicated web of corruption that once centered in Vegas, with tendrils reaching out to politicians, Teamsters unions, Chicago mobster and Midwest mafia based in Kansas City. It also shows how casinos are designed to make you lose money, from the design of their slot machines (which suck up more than 25 percent of the take) to the food service and gift shops.
Casinos use a variety of tricks to keep people gambling, including scented air to create a manufactured sense of happiness. They also avoid showing clocks on the floor and limit the number of windows near the gaming area so that you can’t see how much time has passed. Lastly, they use the psychology of near-misses to keep players playing; for example, when you spin a slot machine, the computer is programmed to give you the illusion of hitting a jackpot every few rounds.