After the gangster epic Goodfellas landed on top of the box office charts in 1990, Universal Pictures greenlighted Casino to follow it up with another mob film starring Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci. It would prove to be the right move, capturing all the brutality and raw energy of Mafia history while still managing to tell an interesting story with a satisfying narrative structure.
You will never see a clock in a casino, because the people running the establishment want you to lose track of time and keep pressing your luck. The bright lights and blaring noises also serve to create an artificial sense of euphoria, helping keep you gambling even after you’ve lost your last dollar. Casinos are also designed to take advantage of the sunk cost fallacy by giving players free meals and hotel rooms based on their spending, creating an incentive to keep playing despite the losses.
A large variety of casino games is also essential for keeping patrons engaged and happy, as well as attracting new players to the property. The huge variety means that no one day of gambling action has to be the same, and it’s a surefire way to ensure that gamblers will come back for more.
In addition, casinos are a great source of revenue for local communities. Taxes on casino profits help pay for services like schools and public works, allowing cities to avoid cutting funding from other sources or raising taxes elsewhere. Casinos have also been known to provide jobs, which has helped boost the economy in neighborhoods where they are located.