If casinos are to succeed, they need people to spend money and gamble. The more they can keep people on the premises, gambling away their money for extended periods, the more profits they make. This is why casinos use a variety of tactics to influence and encourage gambling behavior.
Many of these tactics are visual and are designed to keep people engrossed in gambling for longer periods. For example, some casinos have deliberately omitted clocks and windows, leading players to lose track of time. This encourages them to stay longer, which in turn leads to increased comp spending. Some casinos even pump in extra oxygen and pleasant scents, encouraging people to gamble for long periods of time.
The biggest casino in the world today is in Macau, but it wasn’t always that way. Once upon a time, Oklahoma was home to the largest casino in the US and New York City hosted two of the top six. Casinos were once everywhere, but times have changed and the industry is now concentrated in a few states and a few Asian cities.
Casino is a terrific film from Martin Scorsese that captures the ambiance and feel of Las Vegas casinos in all their opulence and excitement. Robert De Niro is in top form as usual and Sharon Stone and Joe Pesci are both captivating as well. The movie is also fairly violent in places, but it’s not gratuitous and serves a purpose: to show how fucked up mob life can be.