In 2002, 51 million people visited casinos domestically. The majority of them played slots and table games. The opulent décor, flashing lights and free drinks drew people in and kept them gambling. But beneath the veneer, casinos are businesses, engineered to slowly bleed players of their cash.
Casino is the most comprehensive of Scorsese’s mob movies, showing how the mafia ruled Vegas and how huge gaming corporations seized control. It lays bare the past connections of the city with organized crime while also highlighting its modern-day ties to mass tourism, megaresorts and high finance.
Unlike other films that depict the mafia, Casino focuses less on characters and more on the city itself. It reveals how the mafia was allowed to thrive and then spit out, as Vegas became too big, too profitable, and too corrupt for anyone to slow its operation.
Casinos are designed to mesmerize the player, and they’re very effective at it. They use a wide variety of techniques to keep players gambling for as long as possible. One example is the “near win” tactic in slot machines, which is designed to trigger a brain reward system similar to that activated by a real jackpot. This makes players believe that a jackpot is just around the corner, motivating them to spend more time and money trying to achieve it. Another strategy is to offer players comps like free meals and rooms, which make them feel valued, encouraging them to gamble more to maintain or increase their loyalty status.