Behind the flashing lights and free cocktails, casinos are engineered to slowly drain patrons of their hard-earned cash. Physicists have been trying for years to turn the tables, using math and game theory to exploit weaknesses in this seemingly rigged system. But they’re up against an industry that isn’t easily frightened.
In addition to blackjack, roulette and other table games, casinos also offer a wide range of electronic gambling machines that convert coins into chips. This helps to dissociate the gambling experience from spending real money and can make it easier to win. Casinos often sell these chips, which are not the same as actual cash, at a discount to their normal retail price.
Unlike Martin Scorsese’s previous Mafia movies, “Mean Streets” and “Goodfellas,” which were sometimes misinterpreted as advocacy for that lifestyle, “Casino” is an examination of how messed up that life really is. The movie shows how Vegas swallows up people like Ace and Ginger, and spits them out. But it also makes clear how difficult it is to wrest control of your own destiny from the all-powerful Vegas machine.