The Casino Sunk Cost Fallacy
Casinos are designed to lure people into spending more money. They use sounds, lights and physical design to create an environment that is at once welcoming but hard to step away from. It has happened to everyone: You stride into the Luxor, Mohegan Sun or Tropicana brimming with confidence, your wallet filled with cash and plans for a bit of enjoyable, sensible gaming and maybe two rounds of drinks. Hours later, you have no idea what time it is, how many drinks you’ve had or what happened to your money. You’ve fallen victim to one of the oldest tricks in the gambling book: the sunk cost fallacy.
There are a lot of different games in a casino, and each one has a different house edge or probability of winning. Players often get confused by the number of decisions involved in each game and end up making rash decisions that result in losing big. This is especially true for video poker, which has many variants with different rules and payout requirements.
While it is not easy to win at any casino game, it is possible to make a profit, so long as you play within your bankroll and keep an eye on your bank balance. Some of the best ways to make money in a casino are to play blackjack, roulette or video poker. You can also try your luck at the lottery, though you should be aware of the odds of winning before you place a bet.
As a business, casinos have a very high mathematical expectation of gross profit. They rarely lose money on a single day, and they can afford to give large bettors extravagant inducements such as free hotel rooms, meals, tickets to shows, reduced-fare transportation and limo service. Casinos rely on this expectation of profits to offset the high costs of security, equipment and staff.
The film’s characterization of greed and corruption in Las Vegas makes it hard to root for any of its characters. It would be difficult to find a more unrelentingly vicious and cynical depiction of criminality, but it is also deeply persuasive, thanks to the outstanding performances of Robert De Niro and Sharon Stone.
In an era when violent, profane crime dramas were enjoying a surge in popularity thanks to Quentin Tarantino and other millennial auteurs indebted to Scorsese’s groundbreaking Goodfellas, Casino proved to be a monster hit. Despite its shocking scenes of torture by vice, the infamous popped eyeball scene and Joe Pesci’s ax murder (all of which were carefully edited to avoid an NC-17 rating), the movie is not a voyeuristic depiction of underworld mayhem.
Ultimately, the success of a casino relies on four things: its popularity, its odds, the player’s skills and pure luck. Keeping these factors in mind, you can develop a marketing strategy that will attract customers to your casino and maximize revenue.