What Makes a Casino a Casino?
Founded over a century ago, the casino in Germany’s Black Forest spa town of Baden-Baden is still a beautiful place to be. It attracts tourists and locals alike with its elegant poker rooms, blackjack and roulette tables, and over 130 slots. Its design is meant to give visitors the feeling of a high-end establishment.
But it’s not all about aesthetics. Casinos have certain specific goals to meet. Most importantly, they must make sure their patrons enjoy themselves while playing. This means minimizing their awareness of the passing of time, as well as providing an overall sense of luxury and mystery.
Casinos also have a number of built-in advantages that ensure their profitability. Every game has a mathematical expectation that the house will win—it’s called the “house edge.” This makes it impossible for players to beat the house, at least over the long run.
Because of this, casinos rely on volume to maximize their profits. They offer discounted travel packages, hotel rooms and free drinks and cigarettes to lure in lots of people. They also encourage big bettors to play by offering them extravagant inducements, such as free spectacular entertainment and luxurious living quarters.
But gambling has a reputation for encouraging cheating and theft, especially when large sums of money are involved. And studies show that compulsive gambling reduces the economic benefits of a casino by shifting spending away from other forms of local entertainment and reducing property values in the surrounding area. So casinos spend a lot of time, effort and money on security.
Founded over a century ago, the casino in Germany’s Black Forest spa town of Baden-Baden is still a beautiful place to be. It attracts tourists and locals alike with its elegant poker rooms, blackjack and roulette tables, and over 130 slots. Its design is meant to give visitors the feeling of a high-end establishment. But…