Gambling has been a part of human culture for millennia. Archaeological discoveries show that dice first made an appearance in China around 2300 BCE, while playing cards arrived later in Rome. Today, casino games are everywhere and are the most popular form of gambling, generating more money than all other forms of entertainment combined.
One thing is certain about casinos: the house always wins. This isn’t just a random chance; there is a mathematical expectancy of gross profit built into every game, and it is extremely rare for a patron to win more than a casino can afford to lose. To help offset this expected loss, casinos offer extravagant inducements to big bettors such as free spectacular entertainment and transportation. They also provide players with complimentary drinks, hotel rooms, meals, and other services to entice them to stay longer and increase their overall spending.
Like Paul Verhoeven’s Showgirls a few years earlier and Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas a year after that, Casino depicts the underworld of Sin City in all its gritty glory. But it does so with a sense of restraint that’s less outwardly exuberant than rueful and carefully attuned to institutional systems of grift.
