Casinos are businesses, and they’re not charitable organizations that give away free money. From the moment you walk in, they are designed to lure you into gambling with their dazzling lights and joyous sounds. They employ a variety of tricks, like curving walkways that direct you toward new gaming sections and tempting machines, to keep you from leaving until you’ve spent all the money you brought. Casinos are even known to spritz their floors with scented oils, which are meant to make you feel euphoric, so that you’ll want to return for more.
Despite their efforts to create a sense of euphoria, casinos are not without their dark side. Gambling can be addictive, and the sunk cost fallacy encourages people to keep betting on things that they’ve already lost, often with higher stakes. To reduce this, casinos often offer reward programs that let you earn points on every dollar you spend, which you can then redeem for meals or other prizes.
Although the film is set in Vegas, Scorsese is less giddy than rueful in Casino, which is more a civic portrait than a thriller. He lays bare a system of corruption in which Ace and Nicky are the tip of the iceberg, with tendrils reaching into politicians, Teamsters unions, Chicago mob bosses, and Midwest mafiosi based out of Kansas City. But he also shows that these are not just bad guys; they’re human. Even in the midst of the hellacious violence that includes a torture-by-vice sequence involving popped eyeballs, Scorsese never loses control.