Casinos have a few goals when it comes to keeping patrons happy and playing for longer. They want them to lose track of time and they often use bright colors, especially red, to elicit a cheering reaction. It is also why you won’t see clocks on the casino floor. Instead, they encourage you to keep on playing with comps, free items like food and drinks, or even hotel rooms and limo service. You have to ask for them, however, since they aren’t automatically awarded.
Every casino game has a built in advantage for the house, which is usually lower than two percent but adds up over millions of bets. This profit is how casinos can afford to build extravagant hotels, fountains and replicas of famous landmarks.
Many people who walk into a casino don’t realize how lousy the odds are on most games. So the casino makes the games with the worst odds more attractive by amping them up with flashing lights and bright colors. Craps is a prime example, with the flashiest bets, such as “the Field” and “Any 7,” having the highest payouts.
Mob money flowed into Reno and Las Vegas from the beginning, but federal crackdowns and the possibility of losing a license at even the hint of mafia involvement has kept legitimate businessmen away from gambling. Instead, real estate investors and hotel chains bought out the mobsters, who were unable to compete with their deep pockets.