A casino is a place where people gather to play games of chance for money. While some casinos add extra luxuries like free drinks and stage shows to draw in gamblers, a basic casino is simply a public space that houses gambling activities. A casino’s goal is to encourage gamblers to play more often by making them feel comfortable and welcome in the environment. The longer gamblers stay and the more they bet, the higher the casino’s profits.

Casino is not the only film to portray Las Vegas as a hellscape. Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls in 1995 and Scorsese’s Goodfellas and Boogie Nights in the ’80s are some of the other great films that showcase this city of sin. Casino, however, is the first to make a point of how the casino industry uses psychological tricks to lure its customers and keep them coming back for more.

One of the biggest tricks is comping, or offering free goods and services to “good” customers. For example, if you play for a long time at a slot machine and bet big amounts, the casino might give you free hotel rooms, meals or even airline tickets. This is a way of encouraging customers to play more, because it gives them more rewards for their loyalty.

Another strategy is removing all indicators of time, so players get lost in their game and don’t realize they need to eat or go to the bathroom. Casinos also use visuals like bright lights and the noise of pennies dropping in slots to stimulate the senses.