Casino Tricks of the Trade | What you need to Know before Gambling
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Casinos are fascinating and enticing places offering the excitement of the potential for big wins. Most people enjoy a bit of a flutter from time to time and you maybe one of them but are you aware of all the neat casino tricks used to ensure that they extract the most money out of you and your fellow gamblers as they possibly can?
Casino games all have odds which favor the house in the long run but this does not preclude gamblers achieving quick wins. This being the case, the longer gamblers keep playing the better for the casinos. Most of the casino tricks of the trade center on how to keep you playing for longer.
Casino Tricks | Light, Sound & Smell
When you enter a casino you are treated to an orgy of sound and light. Bells, buzzers and alarms are sounding off all around you and you can sometimes hear the clink of coins dropping into the trays of the machines. Lights are flashing and the machines are brightly colored and this is all a grand effect to attract you to the vehicles of play and to give the impression that people are constantly winning.
The light is generally bright to mimic daylight but not so bright as to make life uncomfortable for the gamblers. The casinos want people to stay as long as possible and so the lighting is designed to make playing as pleasant as it can be.
Some casinos even pump pheromones or oxygen into the air to promote confidence and euphoria and others spread scientifically researched scents into the rooms to ensure you stay longer and gamble harder. These casino tricks are tried and true.
Casino Tricks using Layout and Presentation
Ever wondered why it is so easy to wander into a casino but quite hard to find your way out again? Casinos deliberately employ floor plans and pathways which invite you in and then direct you into a maze making it hard to find your way out when you decide it is time to go. These casino tricks ensures that you have to pass many temptations before you actually manage to extract yourself from the building.
The color red has been proven to attract gamblers to machines but studies show that they quickly tire of the color and relocate themselves. Casinos want to pull in the players but they don’t want them spending too much time wandering around and so the enticing red machines are often placed at the ends of rows with the slots becoming more subtle in color towards the center. The gamblers are sucked in by the red machines but can quickly move to another when they want to.
Game Play
The more games that are played on a table the greater the chance that the house will come out on top and so everything is set up to ensure that as many games as possible are conducted. Dealers deal quickly at the tables and when you offer money for chips they will usually give you a large number of small denominations rather than a small number of high value chips. This ensures that you play more games and are not put off playing by the high value of any bets.
Slot machines are set to make frequent low value pay-outs to give the impression that they are hot machines and that the gambler has a good shot at the big prize. If you win a bit every so often it doesn’t seem like you are spending so much.
Casino Tricks using Comps
The casinos encourage their clients to join their reward schemes. Here players insert a membership card into the machines they are playing or have them scanned at the tables. They are rewarded with complimentary gifts in proportion to how much they play. This system works well for the casinos as research has shown that those playing with the membership cards spend more money and stay more loyal to the issuing establishment than other guests.
In addition the application process and use of the cards gives the casinos access to a huge amount of data about their customers thus assisting them in targeting the right sort of people to market to in the future. Players are also given free drinks whilst at the machines and tables and this is a triple whammy for the house. Players feel they are being treated well and so stay longer, they don’t leave the machines and tables when they need a drink and they get less inhibited the more they alcohol they consume!
Time
Other casino tricks include the casinos working overtime to ensure that gamblers’ perception of time is altered. They don’t want you to know how long you have been in there and employ a number of techniques and casino tricks to ensure that you lose track of time. There are no windows in most casinos and so players cannot see when light turns to dark or when morning dawns.
There are no clocks or timepieces of any kind on display and the dealers don’t wear watches. It is difficult to defend yourself against the tactics of the casinos but one thing you can do to help yourself is wear a watch!
The Odds
When you visit a casino it is not just the odds that are stacked against you. Every little detail and all the casino tricks have been analyzed and manipulated to ensure that you stay as long as possible in order to give the house the best chance of coming out on top.
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License: Creative Commons image source
License: Creative Commons image source
Sally Stacey is a frequent visitor to Las Vegas and knows what tricks are being employed but ends up gambling anyway!
