What Makes a Casino Successful?

A casino is a gambling establishment that offers various types of chance-based games, some with an element of skill. The casino earns money by charging a fee to each player, known as the house edge or the rake. Some casinos also host poker games where players compete against each other. Whether a casino is successful depends on a number of factors, including its design, customer service and reputation.

When Goodfellas hit the cinematic zeitgeist in the 1980s, Scorsese followed with Casino, starring Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci in an orgy of crime-driven grift. Both films are masterpieces of their genre, but there’s a clear difference between how the two directors approach the material. While Goodfellas has a bravura feel, Casino is judicious in its tone and keenly attuned to institutional systems of graft.

To be profitable, a casino must understand its customers. The best way to do this is by hiring gaming mathematicians and computer programmers, who can assess how a given game’s odds are likely to play out. These mathematical analyses are critical to casinos’ decisions about how much money they should pay out in winnings and losses. Casinos also use a variety of design tricks to keep people gambling as long as possible. For example, they use scented air to make gamblers feel comfortable and create intimate, windowless spaces lined with enticing slot machines. Combined with the joyful sound of jackpots and near-misses, this manufactured blissful experience can be enough to keep some people coming back for more.