The craziest casinos and gambling facts you may not know

28 Sep 2020

Casino History Facts

The first gambling houses appeared among the ancient Romans and Greeks, and the first casino, which supplemented actual state treasury was French, opened in Paris in the sixties of the seventeenth century. Though, playing at home have been known in Europe since the XII century, it was short-lived and the forbidden one.

The word "casino" is often associated with luxury, wealth, gloss, etc. So, it really so: the casino owners of that time spared their money on something to show their respectability to the customers and create the illusion of their immersion in another world. It emphasizes the fact that the casino is exactly "a home", a place where you can come and relax and feel as comfortable as possible.

However, the primary casino first made ever is said to be built in the Italian city Venice, in 1638. Obviously because the origins of the word casino itself is Italian. Such buildings were also used to offer civic town functions like music, dancing, and... gambling.

Casino design

Interior design of different casino is different, but all of them are built according to certain distinctive laws based on knowledge of human psychology:

There are no clocks and windows in casinos. This serves to create an internal comfort and a feeling of isolation from the outside world of everyday life. No need to keep track of time where there are real estate, cars and other reputable prizes on stake which are an extra bonus to the overall probability of winning or a trick of the casino to make money and leave you with nothing. Either this or that.
Basically anything will do to keep you from leaving the casino.
The house always has an advantage.and to live the casino according to the usual schedule. Secondly, to plunge into the world of gambling games takes time differently with each person. And a few hours may seem a matter of minutes. The longer a customer stays in the game, the higher the potential chance of losing.
Meal places and bathrooms are found realy deep into the gambling labyrinths. Regardless of the fact that you pop into a casino on the strip to use the restroom or meet a companion for supper, you'll see that you need a guide to get there.
The very layout of gaming halls is carried out according to the rule: "the smaller the line passes, the more walls, partitions, stairs and other obstacles on the way out, the better." An owner of any prudent "way out" will place the maximum number of "traps" for the player on his or her way, not to end up going out or fight back, and keep them tempting the fate, so they will find themselves caught like Alice in Wonderland falling deeper into the rabbit hole.
The lighting in any clubhouse is made to look like your family room, making you more quiet and comfortable.
If you google any layout of any major functioning casino, you’ll see they all are set up in a form of giant mazes to get you lost intentionally and keep you playing.
Remember the atmosphere of a Las Vegas casino visited by a junk Hunter Thompson played by Jonny Depp in Fear and Loathing...? Well, casinos always strive to create a holiday atmosphere. Animation programs, shows, striptease, comps, popular artists speeches, musical performances or special guest stars, all that creates an illusion of a better different life and never ending success, excitement and dynamics.
Free casino services: free bar with drinks, alcohol, snacks and other comps, free taxi or a hotel room, free entrance on birthdays are rather complex ways of manipulation and in each particular casino are implemented differently. Control of comps distributions: publicly available tea, coffee, juices, mineral water, champagne, cheap vodka, is always based on the human vices and psychology.
The majority of casinos in the USA will defiitely serve you free drinks on the ground floor to keep their gamblers recless, sloppy in order to induce poor decisions at games.
Popular membership or club cards. Loyal customers get access to the free service, while casual visitors have to pay more.
Free shows and meals to keep you in the hell interior of the casino is another tactic.
Such events have a positive impact on the reputation of the casino and attract more customers. Typically, the player will go to where the probability of winning is higher and where there are real estate, cars and other reputable prizes on stake which are an extra bonus to the overall probability of winning or a trick of the casino to make money and leave you with nothing. Either this or that.
Basically anything will do to keep you from leaving the casino.
The house always has an advantage.

Famous persona and casinos

Apart from the historical data and generally known evidences on how the casino is designed and served and why, there are several more interesting facts about gambling you might now know:

Nero, the Roman Emperor was not allowed to be disturbed during the game, even in the case of a fire in Rome.
English King Henry VIII managed to lose the famous "Jesus Bell" - the bell of St. Paul's Cathedral. And when the winner, Sir Miles Partridge, wanted to take the win, Henry VIII, no hesitation, hung him.
England didn't always was friendly towards casinos and gambling. During the 18th century, English casinos hired people to swallow the dice in case of a police raid, actually.
In 1865 Dostoevsky was forced to escape abroad, having 3000 rubles in his pocket. The writer went straight to Bad Homburg, where he lost everything at the roulette table. This true story inspired him to write his world-famous novel The Gambler.
There was only one case in Monte Carlo history, when the casino had to return the amount of the lost. The captain of a warship, who lost at roulette all the ship's coffers, put the ship directly in front of the casino and pointed all the barrels of guns in its direction. This proved to be a powerful argument, and the manager returned the sum.
General Blucher lost one million marks in Baden-Baden, in 1814.
Monaco citizens are forbidden to enter the gaming rooms in local casinos. This restriction was established by Charles III, the Prince of Monaco from 1856 to 1889.
Peter O'Brien was lucky enough to win 3 million in "Black Jack".
Black Jack is one of the favorite games of skill among the majority of today's players, but the French Emperor also had a special interest to this game. It was the game of Blackjack that Napoleon Bonaparte spent some of his exile on Elba at.
Charles Fey, who was a car mechanic, invented slots in 1887 simply because he wanted to improve the customer services and entertain his clients while their having the car repaired.
Andre Citroen, the founder of the Citroen group managed to lose 13 million francs in 1926 in Deauville.
If you calculate all the roulette table numbers from 1 to 36, you get the number 666, which is most often associated with the devil. That's why roulette is also called ‘The Devil’s Game’.

Slots

The mechanics of the process is very simple: when the weight of the coins in the machine exceeds a certain limit, it opens the gates and coins are poured into the tray.

One of the biggest wins in slot machines is nearly 39 million dollars. This jackpot was won by an American programmer, who came to watch basketball and casually decided to play on the slot machine.

In Japan, the slots with cash prizes are banned. Slot machines give out prizes not in coins, but in toys, cigarettes, chewing gums and other things.

One of the greatest big stakes in slots was also won in 1998 when a lady won 27.6 million dollars in Las Vegas.