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HOW THE CASINOS GET YOU TO LOSE EVEN MORE (2)

CHIPS INSTEAD OF CASH

Whoever invented chips was a genius. Plopping down a stack of $100 black chips isn’t as painful as plopping down a stack of $100 bills. Even though you know in your head it’s the same thing, it’s ever so slightly easier to push out those chips.

Whenever you win a small jackpot at the tables, instead of giving you the choice of paying you in cash or chips, dealers automatically pay you in chips. Cash goes straight into your pocket, and the casino might never see it again. But if we pay you in chips, hopefully you’ll just set your winnings next to your other stacks and burn right through them without a second thought.

Have you ever noticed that there are a dozen places in a casino to buy chips - blackjack, craps, pai gow - but there’s only one place you can cash them out? That’s right, the cashier cage . . . located in the middle of the entire casino . . . and there’s only one window open . . . and you have to wait in a huge line that marches right past all those glorious slot games.

RAT MAZES

Sure, those humongo casinos on the Las Vegas strip get all the press, but it’s the smaller casinos with the cramped, maze-like floors jammed with machines that get all the money. Tourists want to be dazzled, but real players want intimacy. They want lots of slot machines crammed into smaller private areas. That’s why casinos are built like labyrinths, and visitors must navigate bank after bank of wonderfully profitable slot machines before you can actually get anywhere, be it the cashier, your hotel room, or, God forbid, the exit.

PLAYER’S CLUBS

We’d love for you to join the Player’s Club. That way, we can reward you with things like cash back on your slot play or maybe a free meal now and then. Of course, we can now keep detailed records of which machines you play, when you play them, and how much money you spend down to the dollar - but that has nothing to do with it. And just because we now have your address and date of birth doesn’t mean we’ll necessarily flood your mailbox with targeted offers for the holidays and your birthday - but we probably will.

GOOD OLD-FASHIONED GREED

None of the elements listed above compare to plain, simple greed. When a player is winning, no matter how much, he wants to win more, so he keeps playing. And more often than not, he plays until he loses it all. Then he pulls out even more money, thinking, “If I did it once, I can do it again,” only to lose that money too. But now we’ve got our hooks in him, and he’ll always remember that one time when he was killing the casino for thousands, and he’ll keep coming back hoping to repeat. Thank God for greed, or I’d be out of a job. Most people wouldn’t even come into a casino, but hey! Have you heard? We’re giving away free cars, free trips, free money! You’d be a fool not to come on down this weekend! We can barely stay in business with all the money we’re just giving away!