Speaker 1: Brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve Camray.
Speaker 1: It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff You Should Know
Speaker 1: from House Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, and welcome to
Speaker 1: the podcast. I'm Josh Clark. There's Charles W. Chuck Bryant,
Speaker 1: and this is the Stuff you Should Know the podcast. Yes,
Speaker 1: it is Chuck Josh. Um. How's it going great? I'm
Speaker 1: excited about this one. Really? How you know my favorite
Speaker 1: casino or favorite Scores has everything? Casino? How we talked
Speaker 1: about this? No way, is it really? I think I
Speaker 1: used to say it was a close second to Good Fellas,
Speaker 1: but I believe this is edge. I watched it again
Speaker 1: the other day. Man, and I love Casino the movie.
Speaker 1: It might edge Goodfellas out. I can't believe you're saying that.
Speaker 1: But to each his own. We always say to me,
Speaker 1: it's like flip a coin. That mean Streets and Good
Speaker 1: Fellows just like either of those three, they're all different.
Speaker 1: I've not seen Main Streets, should I? Yeah, that was
Speaker 1: the first one he did with the Neros. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: Harvey Catel. Yeah, alright, casinos casinos. Well, now we've already
Speaker 1: talked about the movie. So are you still excited about
Speaker 1: this one, okay, because your favorite part out UM I
Speaker 1: read UM that casino winnings for June in Las in Vegas, Nevada,
Speaker 1: or in Nevada as a whole are We're up sixteen
Speaker 1: percent over last year, which is a good sign because
Speaker 1: one of the things that UM are pretty much recession
Speaker 1: proof are stocks in vice well vices basically like liquor
Speaker 1: company stock, tobacco company stock, and gambling company stock. By
Speaker 1: gambling company of course, I mean like a casino or
Speaker 1: something like that. But with the recession of two thousand eight,
Speaker 1: even those kind of stocks are taking a hit. It
Speaker 1: was that my to a bath. So in the midst
Speaker 1: of all this talk about like a double dip recession
Speaker 1: and the downgrade UM by Moody's UM to double a
Speaker 1: plus for government bonds, the fact that the the revenue
Speaker 1: in Nevada for gambling is up six is a good sign. Conversely,
Speaker 1: it's down like eight percent in Atlantic City. But that's
Speaker 1: the Atlantic City I see has struggled on and off
Speaker 1: over the years since like the beginning, right, I mean,
Speaker 1: even Trump took a bath there, yeah, and figuratively yes,
Speaker 1: So what I mean, You've been to plenty of casinos, right,
Speaker 1: you spend most of your time there? Not true? But
Speaker 1: I've been to Vegas a bunch. Just live in l A.
Speaker 1: You go more than Oh yeah, i'll bet your average
Speaker 1: Joe white because it's close. You can drive, work jobs there,
Speaker 1: film jobs and stuff. I've been to Vegas a few times,
Speaker 1: and I think those are the only casinos I've ever
Speaker 1: been to. I hate We're ones in Vegas. I hate Vegas, now,
Speaker 1: do you? Yeah? Man, I'm done. I like it. I
Speaker 1: like it if you go into Vegas with like a
Speaker 1: Vegas kind of mind set, Yeah, it's fun. I mean
Speaker 1: I wouldn't ever spend like my yearly vacation there, right,
Speaker 1: but I mean a few days in Vegas that's pretty cool.
Speaker 1: I like it. I'm not a big gambler though, either,
Speaker 1: so I don't go there, and like there's not a
Speaker 1: chance that I'm going to come out of there, like
Speaker 1: my life is ruined. See. I love to gamble, but
Speaker 1: I don't do I do too, but I'm not a
Speaker 1: big game Like I can walk away at any time. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I just enjoy it, but I don't do it. So
Speaker 1: it's weird to say that I love gambling. What's your
Speaker 1: what's your game? Oh, you know black jack sports book.
Speaker 1: I think I told you before on the show that
Speaker 1: I usually go into the sports book and throw down
Speaker 1: some bets, and depending how I do on those, I'll
Speaker 1: gamble with that money. Gotcha at the table. Gotcha? It's fun. Okay,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna have to try that next time because I
Speaker 1: usually just walk up to the rue light table and go,
Speaker 1: here's some money I lost, here's a little more. I've
Speaker 1: never lost money faster in my life in at a
Speaker 1: roulette table. Yeah, it's pretty fast. When it hits, it
Speaker 1: is the thrilling it is. That's what they count on.
Speaker 1: So um chuck. You know casinos, Well, gambling itself is
Speaker 1: pretty ancient. The grabster who wrote this article and included
Speaker 1: a Monty Python reference, did you catch it? I don't
Speaker 1: know if I did. He mentions the Italian Inquisition. The
Speaker 1: noble people expected the Italian Inquisition and we're never caught gambling. Um.
Speaker 1: But there there's been uh dice found in prehistoric sites.
Speaker 1: There's something called ostro Gali and their carved knuckle bones
Speaker 1: that were that were the predecessors of dice. They look
Speaker 1: kind like molars, yeah, a little bit. And then after
Speaker 1: that we're actual primitive suxcited die dice. That's right. And
Speaker 1: so we've been gambling. We've been shooting craps at least
Speaker 1: for eons, both at the very least from millenn um.
Speaker 1: But casinos or places where you go to gamble didn't
Speaker 1: really come about until I think about the fifteenth or
Speaker 1: sixteenth century, and Venice was actually the birthplace of the casino,
Speaker 1: of the gambling hall. I love it. It's Italian, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's uh. Initially there were these aristocrats in Italy would
Speaker 1: have these private parties at places called and at the Ridotti.
Speaker 1: It was a private club for rich folks, but it
Speaker 1: was basically a gambling club because that's what went on there, right,
Speaker 1: And this is where the the Monty Python reference comes in,
Speaker 1: where that it was it was illegal. Yeah, you weren't
Speaker 1: allowed to gamble, but the aristocrats knew when to expect
Speaker 1: the Italian Inquisition and they didn't do a lot of
Speaker 1: inquiring from what I understand to write, so um, but
Speaker 1: it was known that like this is outlawed. But the um,
Speaker 1: I guess the fathers of Venice figured out that the
Speaker 1: people who were running the show there, we're making a
Speaker 1: ton of cash right, Oh yeah, uh, and if they
Speaker 1: set up their own ridotto, right, they could make their
Speaker 1: make that cash themselves. So they did. They set up
Speaker 1: what was called the Ridotto, and the capital r that
Speaker 1: it was a four story gambling house where they took
Speaker 1: all these different games and just put them under one roof.
Speaker 1: It was a casino. It was the first casino. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 1: And they they even did things like give you food
Speaker 1: and beverages and keep you happy, and like you said,
Speaker 1: ran a variety of games. And uh, the grabs are
Speaker 1: points out. This is a big deal for a couple
Speaker 1: of reasons. A. It's a government sanctioned gambling house the
Speaker 1: first time, and it's open to the general public. You
Speaker 1: can just go down to the ridotto throw down some cash.
Speaker 1: You don't have to be an aristocrat or a noble person. Nope,
Speaker 1: you just go ahead and lay your money down. That's right.
Speaker 1: And that the word casino is obviously Italian, right, but
Speaker 1: that that was different. So that was that Venice opened
Speaker 1: the Rodotto. It didn't last forever, no no um. Eventually
Speaker 1: they tied of a public moral opinion turned against it,
Speaker 1: which happens a lot to gambling. Um. And the Rodotto
Speaker 1: was shut down, So the the aristocrats went back to
Speaker 1: it again and went and uh started gambling again at
Speaker 1: what we're called casinos, which are small little clubs. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's what it means. The casino is a small little club.
Speaker 1: And then they added gambling to it, and then hence
Speaker 1: the name that we know and love today, the casino. Yeah.
Speaker 1: So the ridotto was broken up into smaller casinos and
Speaker 1: they were uh pretty popular and flourished. Yeah. So, um,
Speaker 1: that idea was exported from from Italy or there were
Speaker 1: other places where it just kind of came up on
Speaker 1: its own, but Italy, for the most part, is known
Speaker 1: as the birthplace of the casino. France was big and
Speaker 1: France is known as the birthplace. So most of the
Speaker 1: casino games that we play today. Roulette means little wheel
Speaker 1: in French. Uh, Bakara means Bert baker rat and um
Speaker 1: and uh in burt backreck in French it means crystal.
Speaker 1: That's not true. Uh and what else is there? Black
Speaker 1: Jack means twenty one, I believe in French. Oh yeah, wow,
Speaker 1: didn't know that. So basically, the French invented a lot
Speaker 1: of games because they loved to gamble. They did and
Speaker 1: so did the United States. Early on the eighteen hundreds
Speaker 1: in the wild West, there were gambling riverboats on the Mississippi,
Speaker 1: poker games and card games for money. And then uh,
Speaker 1: kind of like with prohibition, the moral conservatism kind of
Speaker 1: came on and uh stemmed the tide of gambling for
Speaker 1: a while up until the Hoover Dam and Nevada kind
Speaker 1: of really put it back on the map again. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so legalized gambling. I'm there was a huge, huge anti
Speaker 1: gambling wave in like nineteen by sically the first decade
Speaker 1: and a half of the twentieth century, and it almost
Speaker 1: wiped out horse racing entirely. Like they were like two
Speaker 1: horse racing tracks at like in n in the US,
Speaker 1: and it went down to like twenty five and like
Speaker 1: like thirty years. Um, so that same wave basically broke
Speaker 1: up all gambling until yeah, like you say, Nevada said,
Speaker 1: you know what, we're gonna buck the trend because there's
Speaker 1: not a lot going on here in Nevada. But we
Speaker 1: do have a new dam. We're gonna call it Hoover
Speaker 1: Dam eventually, but for now, let's call it Bowler Damn
Speaker 1: got into coming and seeing it still do. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: I mean it is a marvel still to this day.
Speaker 1: It's a marvel of engineering. It's it's uh, it's it's
Speaker 1: the pinnacle of humans contempt for nature. You know, Oh,
Speaker 1: you want to flow as a river, we tell you
Speaker 1: when to flow. You're gonna generate power for us and
Speaker 1: exactly so. Um. From the get go Boulder Damn. Now,
Speaker 1: Hoover dam was a tourist attraction, and Nevada said, why
Speaker 1: not get some money off of these pork pies from Iowa. Um,
Speaker 1: while they come, let's let them gamble. And that what happened.
Speaker 1: And gambling and casinos had already been started. Bugsy Segull
Speaker 1: did not start that, but he and Mayer Landski, famous gangsters,
Speaker 1: did have a large hand and expanding the casino scene
Speaker 1: famously with the Flamingo Hotel and casino in And that
Speaker 1: was a good movie too. That was a great movie. Uh.
Speaker 1: And today I think this number is still right nineteen
Speaker 1: at the largest hotels by room number are on the
Speaker 1: Las Vegas trip, the largest in the world, largest in
Speaker 1: the world. Yeah, I can believe that they're huge. And
Speaker 1: that's just they're still gambling downtown too. They're a Fremont
Speaker 1: if you really want the real Las Vegas. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: that's how that's how it started. They were downtown gambling houses. Um.
Speaker 1: And then they figured out that if they if you, uh,
Speaker 1: you gotta break some egs to make an omelet. So
Speaker 1: they spent some money to make tons of money tons yeah. Um.
Speaker 1: And they also, in a very unusual kind of agreement,
Speaker 1: these uh, these early strip makers uh said you know what,
Speaker 1: we're all gonna go into this together. Sure, it's more competition,
Speaker 1: but if we're concentrated, we make this a destination. Not
Speaker 1: only is Nevada a destination for gambling, but this specific
Speaker 1: spot in Nevada is the destination for gamblings and it
Speaker 1: paid off like in aces. Hey. Yeah, and since we're
Speaker 1: on gangsters, uh, the mafia had a lot to do
Speaker 1: with the Las Vegas casino operation for a long time
Speaker 1: until they eventually money kind of went out and real
Speaker 1: estate developers had more money than the mob said, you
Speaker 1: know what, we need to clean this up and make
Speaker 1: it legit and buy you out, essentially, And because I
Speaker 1: understand it, it's mafia doesn't have anything to do with
Speaker 1: it these days because it's just too big of a risk. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and their money is not needed for a while they're there.
Speaker 1: They had the money, and they also had the willing
Speaker 1: to One of the reasons the mob got into Vegas
Speaker 1: was because the rest of the country saw Vegas as
Speaker 1: since city. It's a it's a place of ill repute.
Speaker 1: Gambling is is sinful, and we're morally opposed to it.
Speaker 1: So I don't want my customers at my bank to
Speaker 1: to withdraw their money something. They can invest in your casino.
Speaker 1: But then Mayer Landski or um. So there's other ways
Speaker 1: of getting money, right, he said, you know what, I've
Speaker 1: got no problem with this. Here's some money. Uh, the teamsters, Uh,
Speaker 1: we're heavily invested in in Vegas. But yeah, but then
Speaker 1: Trump was like, I got way more money than you guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and that's why. One reason Vegas was was sin city
Speaker 1: for a long time, and you can still get into
Speaker 1: some trouble there. But since the nineties it has become
Speaker 1: a much more of a family destination. It's stilling to
Speaker 1: swing back the other way a little more. I hear
Speaker 1: they're trying to do that. Some casinos are opening up
Speaker 1: with like rules against kids, and oh yeah, plenty of
Speaker 1: them have. Yeah, it's like get your kid out of here.
Speaker 1: This is a ca and with like nothing but kids,
Speaker 1: Treasure Island, all those places. Yeah and so, and we
Speaker 1: should say, chuck that we just gave like the history
Speaker 1: of Vegas, and Vegas is obviously like the crown jewel
Speaker 1: of the gambling world around the world. But there's also
Speaker 1: other like just world class casinos like Monaco Monte Carlo,
Speaker 1: a city in Monaco, um which is a principality built
Speaker 1: exclusively on gambling money. Um. Yeah, there's Macau is off
Speaker 1: the coast of Hong Kong. That's like gambling paradise. Now.
Speaker 1: Um there's where else is there riverboat Indian reservations. Yeah,
Speaker 1: so it's uh, we didn't mean to neglect to anybody,
Speaker 1: I guess, that is what I'm saying. And the you
Speaker 1: know that four story gambling house, the ridotto um that
Speaker 1: has translated very very well. In Japan, they have things
Speaker 1: that are called pachinko parlors, which are usually multi story
Speaker 1: um outfits where you just is it all pachinko. The
Speaker 1: first floor is usually all pachinko. And it's also like
Speaker 1: you you you can go in there and play all
Speaker 1: day and no one will know because you can't see
Speaker 1: through the cigarette smoke in there. It is crazy, bet. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they smoke a lot over there. So there's gambling all
Speaker 1: over the world. Where aware of that? Yeah, I got
Speaker 1: some stats, some gaming stats. Uh. In two thousand nine,
Speaker 1: seventy of US adults placed a wager of some kind, uh,
Speaker 1: to the tune of nine hundred billion dollars at casinos, racetracks, lottery,
Speaker 1: and then like poker games and dog tracks and OTV
Speaker 1: places and stuff like that. But um, I think of
Speaker 1: that gross gaming revenue was eighty point five billion, and
Speaker 1: about fifty seven billion of that was casino based, whether
Speaker 1: land or riverboat casino knows. Thirty thirty billion, twenty six
Speaker 1: of that was from tribal casinos and the other thirty
Speaker 1: was from just standard casinos. That's definitely up from when
Speaker 1: this article was written, because it was twenty two point
Speaker 1: six two billion in two thousand five for Native American
Speaker 1: casinos and thirty one point eight five billion for everything
Speaker 1: else in the US. Yeah, that's significant. Yeah. Yeah, it's
Speaker 1: forty one states. Forty one states have casinos or allow casinos.
Speaker 1: George is not one of them. No, but George allows
Speaker 1: gambling in the form of lottery. Yes, and every video poker. Yeah, everything,
Speaker 1: But Hawaii and Utah allow some form of wagering, right,
Speaker 1: I wonder what Hawaii steals. I don't know. Utah makes sense,
Speaker 1: but yeah, totally, But I have no idea what Hawai's
Speaker 1: Maybe they're just like, yeah, we don't need that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'll find out. We're surfing eating spam, right exactly, it's
Speaker 1: a spam cation. Sure. Uh So, Chuck, why is there
Speaker 1: so much money in gambling if it's all games of chance? Yeah?
Speaker 1: Why is there so much money in owning a casino?
Speaker 1: You know why, Josh? Why? Because every single game a
Speaker 1: casino offers has a statistical edge built in for the casino. Otherwise,
Speaker 1: that's how they make their dough. That is, h's your
Speaker 1: fact that these are not everyone. I didn't know that. Well.
Speaker 1: It ranges from I think about the lowest you can
Speaker 1: get as Baker raw at about one one point six percent,
Speaker 1: that it can go as low as uh I think
Speaker 1: point seven point six something is the casino advantage all
Speaker 1: the way up to the sucker's bet of all time,
Speaker 1: which is the slot machine, which gives a casino a
Speaker 1: edge on average. And the reason it stops at is
Speaker 1: because by law, most most states say, if you're gonna
Speaker 1: have slots or video pok or whatever, since it's computer
Speaker 1: operated randomly making a quotes, you have to set it
Speaker 1: so that there's of the time they have a chance
Speaker 1: of winning, the time you're playing that you have no
Speaker 1: chance of winning. Yeah, and they'll they'll change the slot.
Speaker 1: Some casinos will say, like our slots payout eight or
Speaker 1: nine to try and get you in there. But that
Speaker 1: is where the casino makes seventy of their revenue is
Speaker 1: from from slots, nicol slots, quarter slots, whatever, whatever. Slots. Um,
Speaker 1: there's uh are we talking about games? Yeah, let's get
Speaker 1: into it. So, yeah, if you go to a casino,
Speaker 1: there's obviously going to be slots in there, absolutely everywhere.
Speaker 1: I've never been a big slot guy. It's just over
Speaker 1: too fast. It's not too much to it. It is
Speaker 1: a little boring. Um, I like black jack, black checks
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. I played black check in Paris
Speaker 1: in Vegas and it was like the middle of the
Speaker 1: day and my brother in law and I were the
Speaker 1: only ones at the table, and um, I was like
Speaker 1: hit me, and the guy hit me, and I was
Speaker 1: like hit me again, and the dealer went and just
Speaker 1: shook his head. I've had them do that too, and
Speaker 1: it was like you don't want to hit? Yeah, And
Speaker 1: I'm sure the pit boss is like, you know, he's
Speaker 1: got X number of times he can do that in
Speaker 1: a day or whatever. But yeah, I thought it was
Speaker 1: very nice. I ended up spending more money. I'm sure, Well,
Speaker 1: that's exactly why you did it. They want to keep
Speaker 1: your button that chair, and sometimes they might allow the
Speaker 1: dealer to say, like, are you certain, sir, Wait a minute,
Speaker 1: he didn't do it to be nice. He may have
Speaker 1: been being nice. He was definitely being nice. But yes,
Speaker 1: I'm sure constructed. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know
Speaker 1: how it works on the inside, but yeah, I was
Speaker 1: I was told I was told not to. He said
Speaker 1: no when I told him, right, And uh yeah, I
Speaker 1: came out a little bit on top. I think. So Blackjack, Josh,
Speaker 1: you got about a two percent house edge. Not bad
Speaker 1: as far as gambling goes. Um And if you play
Speaker 1: by the statistical strategy that they say you should play by,
Speaker 1: there are rules like if you follow this, then chances
Speaker 1: are you could win some money. But people, what happens
Speaker 1: is you get caught up. You like hit when you shouldn't.
Speaker 1: You lay down more money to try and make up
Speaker 1: for what you've lost, and that's when they take you.
Speaker 1: Or you can count cards, and you can count cards,
Speaker 1: which is legal. If you go to m I T.
Speaker 1: They'll teach you to count cards, right Andy, that movie
Speaker 1: was about, Yeah, the M I T. Black Jack Team, Um,
Speaker 1: the movie twenty one. If you count cards then and
Speaker 1: they figure out that you're counting cards, are gone. Like,
Speaker 1: I don't think they can break your hand, but you're
Speaker 1: out of the casino for sure. They can do a
Speaker 1: lot of things up until that point to make it harder.
Speaker 1: But I think if they they verify that and they
Speaker 1: know that you're counting cards, I think they can't ask
Speaker 1: you to leave, even though it is not against the law. No,
Speaker 1: but a casino has rules against the exactly. Yeah, all right,
Speaker 1: so that's blackjack. I gotta get come closer to twenty
Speaker 1: one without going over Oh yeah did we say that? Yeah?
Speaker 1: And we we're not gonna there's we're not gonna break
Speaker 1: down each of these games. So specifically, these could have
Speaker 1: their own podcast. Exactly. They won't, but they could. So
Speaker 1: that's that's that. Slots, by the way, they are spam slots.
Speaker 1: H Yeah, that's cool. That's what we need, is that
Speaker 1: we need a stuff. You should know, slot machine. Well,
Speaker 1: they're all kinds of crazy themes. But then realized how
Speaker 1: much we would have arrived if we had our own
Speaker 1: slot machines. We go broke playing them. I bet we
Speaker 1: could make that happen. I don't know about that. No, okay,
Speaker 1: so you got boogie Nights, Oh yeah, just all sorts
Speaker 1: of crazy themes. And recently it was in the news
Speaker 1: because they're Happy Days machines, and everyone but Fonzi and
Speaker 1: Ritchie sued because they're like, dude, we're not getting seeing
Speaker 1: any money from these slot machines that all my friends
Speaker 1: are telling me that our faces are on. That's what
Speaker 1: Happy Days sued for. I thought it was like DVDs. No, no, no,
Speaker 1: it's all sorts of back payment that they they're not getting.
Speaker 1: But the slots is what tipped off the mom. Like
Speaker 1: someone called he was like, oh, so you want a
Speaker 1: slot machine. She's like really, So she banded together with
Speaker 1: Potsy and uh yeah, everybody except Fonzi and um and
Speaker 1: Richie Richie because they still have money. Um wow, that's
Speaker 1: an awful thing to say. They imagine that they didn't.
Speaker 1: When I read that, I didn't know that it was
Speaker 1: slot machines that tipped them off. But I thought, I
Speaker 1: hope Ron Howard like paid for their legal team. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think they just settled recently. Actually. Um. Roulette of
Speaker 1: course one of my favorites. Yeah. If you want to
Speaker 1: see your money disappear before your very eyes, go play
Speaker 1: some roulette. Yeah. So there's a thirty six spaces on
Speaker 1: a little wheel, numbers uh one through No, I'm sorry,
Speaker 1: there's thirty eight spaces numbers one through thirty six with
Speaker 1: a zero and a double zero, right, very very simply put.
Speaker 1: The dealer spins the wheel up black and red. Two. Yeah,
Speaker 1: well you can. You can bet on all sorts of things.
Speaker 1: There's the table where you bet on you can bet
Speaker 1: on it being landing on a black or red color.
Speaker 1: You can bet on the specific number and the color,
Speaker 1: just the number one that I'm gonna bet on twenty two,
Speaker 1: and it comes up and it pays off and well yeah, um,
Speaker 1: and depending if you think it pays two to one,
Speaker 1: if you um, if you correctly bet on red or black,
Speaker 1: and then it just gets more from there. But the
Speaker 1: dealer spins a wheel and then the ball is dropped
Speaker 1: in and it spins around and bounces and then whatever
Speaker 1: number color lands on. If you bet on that, baby,
Speaker 1: you are rolling in it. But I think the roulette,
Speaker 1: I think the reason I like it it's just so
Speaker 1: it's such an elegant game. There's a wheel that spins
Speaker 1: and then you feel like you're in Monte Carlo very much. So. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think that's why I like The house edges between
Speaker 1: five and seven um, even though it varies because there's
Speaker 1: so many different bets and payouts. Craps. Craps I know
Speaker 1: almost nothing about. It's the most fun game in Vegas
Speaker 1: or at a casino. In my opinion, it's the most
Speaker 1: social game. You hear a lot of people having a
Speaker 1: lot of fun and chances arts coming from the crap section. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because you're involved, you're throwing the dice. That has a
Speaker 1: lot to do with it. And my advice if you
Speaker 1: want to play craps, it's really complicated with all the bets,
Speaker 1: but make it really easy and pick out, like, learn
Speaker 1: two or three little simple bets that you can make
Speaker 1: and just stick to those. Okay, that's good advice. That's
Speaker 1: my advice. Unless you're really good and you know all
Speaker 1: that stuff, then just go wild if you if you
Speaker 1: know all that stuff, probably not gonna take our advice
Speaker 1: on crafs. Keino Josh is a big rip off. Well,
Speaker 1: it's like inside the the the casino, there was a
Speaker 1: scandal um some guy from Vegas who worked at the
Speaker 1: Nevada Gaming Commission. Um, they use random number generators to
Speaker 1: to just run the Keyno games. It's all computer operated.
Speaker 1: The thing is is there's no such thing as randomness
Speaker 1: with a computer, like it just doesn't exist. It's a computer, right,
Speaker 1: it's a program. So if this guy figured out um,
Speaker 1: basically the pattern that comes up there the underlying pat
Speaker 1: to all of it. And he and a buddy went
Speaker 1: to Atlantic City and he stayed up in the room
Speaker 1: and watched the Keyno um play out basically on the
Speaker 1: on their TV. And he um called down to the
Speaker 1: guy and told him what to bat based on what
Speaker 1: number who are about to come up? And this guy
Speaker 1: one so much that the security followed him up to
Speaker 1: was to the room and found the guy there, found
Speaker 1: out he was from Vegas and we're like, why did
Speaker 1: you come to Atlantic City to play Keynoe? And that
Speaker 1: was that. That was in an article in Harper's. You
Speaker 1: know what happened to him? He got busted. I'm sure
Speaker 1: any longer. Yeah, I don't know if Atlantic City has
Speaker 1: that kind of pull. In Vegas though, where they can,
Speaker 1: you know, rub you out. They don't dig a hole
Speaker 1: in the desert there, They just do the old submit
Speaker 1: shoes in the ocean. Yeah, with the fishes toss you
Speaker 1: off the boardwalk. Yeah, but then you have to pay
Speaker 1: for the guy you just killed, to the to the
Speaker 1: people in Vegas. Right, Yeah, you got Backara what you've
Speaker 1: talked about. And if you've never played it, it it seems complicated,
Speaker 1: but it's really not. The object is to get close
Speaker 1: to nine instead of twenty one, but you only get
Speaker 1: two or three cards, and the total if it's more
Speaker 1: than ten, you refer to the right hand number. So
Speaker 1: if you get a nine in a six, your hand
Speaker 1: isn't fifteen, Your hand is five. If you get a
Speaker 1: nine in six, your hand isn't fifteen, it's five. Where
Speaker 1: come from the one five? It's the digit on the
Speaker 1: right hand side. If your hand totals thirteen, your hand
Speaker 1: is really a three six. There's no five in there,
Speaker 1: no nine in a six, total fifteen oh, I got you.
Speaker 1: So you added up and then take the right hand
Speaker 1: digit of the double digit, yes, and your object. Yes,
Speaker 1: it's I mean it's not easy, but it's sort of
Speaker 1: easy that I've never played, because, as is pointed out
Speaker 1: in the article, like it's usually away from the rest
Speaker 1: of the casino and yeah, it's like you have to
Speaker 1: be wearing a tuck to get into the Baker Ross
Speaker 1: typically known as a big money game because the guys
Speaker 1: because you know why, it's because it's got the best
Speaker 1: or the least amount of statistical advantage. So if you've
Speaker 1: got a lot of money, you're probably smarter to be
Speaker 1: playing back. Yeah, and because of that loads statistical advantage. Um,
Speaker 1: a lot of times Cassine know say hey, thanks for playing,
Speaker 1: you owe us three percent of everything you just want. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I think background is one of those that takes it
Speaker 1: off the top, right, is that right? I think so
Speaker 1: I would imagine pokers like that as well. It's called
Speaker 1: a rake and poker. Yeah. They essentially just you're what
Speaker 1: you're doing in poker is they're hosting the game essentially
Speaker 1: in supplying you with a dealer for a fee. Right,
Speaker 1: So there sometimes you're charged, Um, the rake will be
Speaker 1: based on how long you spend in there or how
Speaker 1: much you win that kind of thing. Yeah, but poker's poker,
Speaker 1: that's right, right. And then there's video poker, which is
Speaker 1: pretty close to slots that has some laws that say
Speaker 1: you have to pay out x percentage of time, that
Speaker 1: kind of thing. Another sucker game if you ask me. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they have those all over the place here in Atlanta,
Speaker 1: like in gas stations and stuff. Oh and interestingly, slots
Speaker 1: and video poker aren't monitored. They're just set up and
Speaker 1: you just go play. They don't have like cameras above
Speaker 1: each one like they do all the other games. Yeah, well,
Speaker 1: they don't have people watching the slots area. They're self
Speaker 1: managed essentially, So Chuck, let's talk about the casino experience,
Speaker 1: shall we. Well, they get you in there, they load
Speaker 1: up on liquor while you're playing for free, which helps.
Speaker 1: They give you food comps sometimes, like hey, sir, would
Speaker 1: you like to buffet tickets here? And would I? They
Speaker 1: they won't show you too, They won't show any clocks.
Speaker 1: You won't find any big clocks or windows. And casinos
Speaker 1: to this day they the whole thing is designed to
Speaker 1: to basically, um I guess simulate eternal twilight early evening. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the nights, just the lights are and that is the
Speaker 1: weird thing when you you can't tell and people gamble
Speaker 1: at all hours. That's why I was surprised. Like, you'll
Speaker 1: go down at four in the morning and you can't
Speaker 1: tell the difference between that and noon. Sometimes a little creepy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it is very creepy. They do not pumping oxygen, No,
Speaker 1: they don't. Apparently that would be extremely illegal, which makes
Speaker 1: sense the felony. It's basically drugging people. But the whole
Speaker 1: premise of that was that you basically gave people a
Speaker 1: rush or it kept them awake so they would stay
Speaker 1: and not get tired. Uh. Contrary to that, Um, Like
Speaker 1: you said, people will often be comped food, drinks, rooms
Speaker 1: kind of drunk. You might spend a little more. But yes,
Speaker 1: if you are, if you're lucky enough to be camped
Speaker 1: the room, UM, and you're a slot person, you're probably
Speaker 1: a member of the slot club, which you need to
Speaker 1: join when you um. When you check in, it usually
Speaker 1: doesn't cost anything. But basically you have a card that
Speaker 1: tracks your play. UM. And you don't want to be
Speaker 1: bashful about this. You don't want them to notice you.
Speaker 1: You wanna if you if you're looking to get camped,
Speaker 1: you go ahead and let them know you're you're here
Speaker 1: to play. Yeah, and if you want to get camped
Speaker 1: and you're not a slat person, you can just ask.
Speaker 1: If you have a lot of money you want to
Speaker 1: spend and you're like, this is what I'm gonna start
Speaker 1: doing this. You tell them you go to someone and
Speaker 1: say hey, and to get my play rated. H And
Speaker 1: they will basically just put you on a list and say, okay,
Speaker 1: we'll start tracking and seeing what kind of money you're losing.
Speaker 1: But as the Grabsher points out, it is a sucker
Speaker 1: bet to spend more than you normally would or just
Speaker 1: to get camps, because you're going to spend more money
Speaker 1: in losses than you would just haven't gotten the room
Speaker 1: or gotten the buffet. Yeah, and Vegas is still cheaper,
Speaker 1: maybe than some places, but it's not like the old
Speaker 1: days where it was like a hotel room is twenty bucks,
Speaker 1: in the buffet is five. Like it's it's a a
Speaker 1: vacation destination. Now they get you with the room charges
Speaker 1: now to or the shows. The shows kids, Uh, they
Speaker 1: got stuff for the whole family now to keep everyone
Speaker 1: busy while mom and dad are giving away their money
Speaker 1: college fund, said Chuck. UM security is kind of an issue, right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's the ubiquitous I in the sky, which apparently they
Speaker 1: don't necessarily have. Over the slot areas, every other table's
Speaker 1: got a camera watching it, and the whole the whole
Speaker 1: process of UM security is ground up right the front.
Speaker 1: The first defense in UM I guess against cheating or
Speaker 1: fraud or theft is the dealer him or herself because
Speaker 1: they're really paying attention to the game, and they're going
Speaker 1: to see clear as day if you're palming cards or
Speaker 1: um counting cards, whatever you're doing. They're trained to look
Speaker 1: out for that stuff, right, and they know this game
Speaker 1: is literally their job to play this game every day
Speaker 1: for hours on end UM, so they know if something's
Speaker 1: weird about it, right. And then above them, you've got
Speaker 1: table managers and pit bosses watching out over an area, right,
Speaker 1: And they're not just watching customers, they're watching the dealers
Speaker 1: and the managers. Everybody's watching everybody else. Yeah, that's a
Speaker 1: great part because you know they break down the security. Sorry,
Speaker 1: I had a moment there that when he bust the
Speaker 1: country bumpkin who's not who's got taken on the slots
Speaker 1: and that his country bumpkin uncle try to get him
Speaker 1: like reinstated, and de Niro's like, I can't do it.
Speaker 1: It's like you sure, you want to think about this,
Speaker 1: and he had that great line He's like, what you
Speaker 1: people don't ever realize is that you're all just guests here.
Speaker 1: And he's right because he eventually left the The guy
Speaker 1: who got taken on the slots, his name was he
Speaker 1: used to host like a d movie. Yeah, and Billy
Speaker 1: Bob something. Yeah, he was awesome. Yeah, I can't remember.
Speaker 1: He was great though. He was pretty funny dude. Um,
Speaker 1: I don't know what happened to him. He's around him, sure, okay, um.
Speaker 1: And then above that you have security who are monitoring
Speaker 1: everything on TV, right, lots and lots of TVs, lots
Speaker 1: and lots of cameras, and they can train in each
Speaker 1: one to look at whatever they want, Like it's not
Speaker 1: just the tables, all the ins and outs, the exits,
Speaker 1: the bathroom, not in the bathrooms, but these are all
Speaker 1: heavily policed by cameras, and uh, I don't know. I
Speaker 1: could see them monitoring the bathroom. I could see that too, actually,
Speaker 1: And in Ocean's eleven, if you remember one of the
Speaker 1: little tricks they used to get the cameras out of
Speaker 1: the way, it was Casey affleck In in uh, James
Speaker 1: CON's kid, what's his name? James CON's kid. They got
Speaker 1: in the argument and and he'd let go of the balloons,
Speaker 1: and the balloons covered the camera was long enough to
Speaker 1: to get whatever they needed to get done done. That
Speaker 1: was a great movie too. The first one was really good,
Speaker 1: I think, and not the original, I mean the first
Speaker 1: Soderberg Okay, the original was awesome. Yeah, yeah, I can
Speaker 1: watch that like all day every day. I like that.
Speaker 1: I like the Redo as well, though I thought it
Speaker 1: was glib. I really Matt was glib. I thought the
Speaker 1: whole thing was glue. Um. So chuck. If you're a
Speaker 1: chump like me and you walk around casinos with like
Speaker 1: your your your money in your hands, right, just kind
Speaker 1: of smiling at people, like where do I put this?
Speaker 1: How do you stay on? Security's good sign? Well, if
Speaker 1: you're the casino expert, here's a few tips. You don't
Speaker 1: want to touch any of the gaming equipment, like don't
Speaker 1: grab the roulette wheel and say this feels need o,
Speaker 1: don't They say not to use two hands to do anything, right,
Speaker 1: like always kind of keep one hand off off the stuff,
Speaker 1: and it doesn't hurt to keep the other hand in
Speaker 1: sight the hand you're not using. Don't on the table.
Speaker 1: It don't go up to a craps table with like
Speaker 1: one hand in your pocket and then like lower the
Speaker 1: dice below the table and then blow on them and
Speaker 1: then throw them. And also don't ever ever tickle the dealer.
Speaker 1: They don't like that. Yes, you're not supposed to. You
Speaker 1: can't hand your money to a dealer. Always your money
Speaker 1: on the table, on the table, and don't expect them
Speaker 1: to cash anything out. They'll give you chips, but when
Speaker 1: you want your chips to turn back into money, yea,
Speaker 1: the dealer's not going to help you, which we should mention.
Speaker 1: The reason they use chips is a to keep track
Speaker 1: of things easier and b because you feel a lot
Speaker 1: better losing a hundred dollar chips the chip than you
Speaker 1: do a hundred dollar bill. It's it's just like a
Speaker 1: debit card. Like there's so many things that you normally
Speaker 1: just wouldn't buy if you had to shell out cash
Speaker 1: for it, but you totally get because it's debit card.
Speaker 1: You can watch people play, but just watch. Don't go
Speaker 1: up to people at the table and start talking to them.
Speaker 1: Don't tickle other players. Don't tickle players. Don't touch your chips.
Speaker 1: A few place to bet. It's final once you put
Speaker 1: it down. Don't reach across the table and knock over
Speaker 1: everyone else's chips. Ask for some help, and uh, don't
Speaker 1: like put your drink on the table. Although I've done that.
Speaker 1: People do that. They say not to do that, but
Speaker 1: I've done that. I don't think it's the end of
Speaker 1: the world. Agreed, Especially black check. There's no other place
Speaker 1: to put it. Usually there might be like a little
Speaker 1: thing right here. Like a lot of times, it's just
Speaker 1: what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? Exactly?
Speaker 1: Um So, Chuck, we talked about riverboat gambling in Native
Speaker 1: American casinos, and both of those are fairly recent in origin,
Speaker 1: really about the early nine nineties, late eighties, right, So
Speaker 1: a Native American casinos, their existence can be traced back
Speaker 1: to one guy. He was the head of the the
Speaker 1: Cabazon tribe from California, and his name is Arthur James Wellness,
Speaker 1: and basically he figured out a loophole in the way
Speaker 1: that Native American territory is treated. It is technically sovereign ground, right,
Speaker 1: but criminal law extends into the sovereign area. So if
Speaker 1: you murder somebody, that you committed a crime and the
Speaker 1: federal government has jurisdiction to investigate that crime. But if
Speaker 1: something is legal in that state where that territory is,
Speaker 1: then by extension, there's no crime that can possibly be
Speaker 1: committed if that is carried out within the Native American territory,
Speaker 1: it becomes a matter of civil law. Civil law doesn't
Speaker 1: extend in the Native American territory, right, Yes, So basically
Speaker 1: they said, hey, if you can allow gambling in California
Speaker 1: and arcis are reservations in California, and if it's just
Speaker 1: a lottery, yeah, then we can do that here however
Speaker 1: we want, because it's a civil matter exactly. And as
Speaker 1: an aside related to that, if you fall and break
Speaker 1: your leg and a Native American casino, you're not gonna
Speaker 1: be able to to sue anybody. No, no, no redress
Speaker 1: for that, no redress. And riverboats, Josh, how that usually
Speaker 1: works is you go on a cruise quote unquote two
Speaker 1: hour cruise but it's not so much a cruise because
Speaker 1: you don't go anywhere. The boat just stays there and
Speaker 1: that's just your allotted time two And it is specific
Speaker 1: and you can't just say can I stay a little longer? No,
Speaker 1: They're probably like no, but you can leave and then
Speaker 1: come back. Yeah. And and a lot of times they'll
Speaker 1: have a lost limit too, they'll be like, you can't
Speaker 1: lose over five. But apparently much the same way with
Speaker 1: the government in venice Um, state legislatures have been like, well,
Speaker 1: you know, we really come to depend on this riverboat
Speaker 1: gambling tax money, so you know what, go crazy, go nuts,
Speaker 1: stay on as long as you want to lose as
Speaker 1: much as you like. We are rolling in it because
Speaker 1: of you. So chuck, um, I guess if a casino
Speaker 1: comes to your town, anybody who's ever seen that Simpsons
Speaker 1: episode knows that it's a boon for the community, right,
Speaker 1: big business, dude. Everyone's happy, everyone's making tons of money,
Speaker 1: everybody's got jobs, money for free. Yeah, exactly. No. So
Speaker 1: studies show that there's actually a negative economic impact on
Speaker 1: um a local community by a casino. And it's pretty
Speaker 1: simple why most casinos play is carried out by locals
Speaker 1: who come into the casino and lose their money, not
Speaker 1: necessarily by tourists who wouldn't have come there otherwise and
Speaker 1: are having an economic impact. That definitely accounts for a
Speaker 1: substantial portion. But when you take it all into account,
Speaker 1: the local economy actually loses money when a casino comes
Speaker 1: to town. That's right, Josh. At least several studies have shown.
Speaker 1: And we'll get into gambling maybe on a different show,
Speaker 1: but we should point out that, uh, the dark side
Speaker 1: of casinos is about of their profits are generated from
Speaker 1: the five percent of addicted gamblers. Yes, the profits are
Speaker 1: coming from people out gambling problems, right, and probably most
Speaker 1: of those people live like down the street. Yeah, maybe
Speaker 1: work at casinos. Yeah, we should do one on gambling that.
Speaker 1: There's so much more there. I don't want to breeze
Speaker 1: over that. So that's it for casinos. Though, if you
Speaker 1: want to know how craps works, we have a how
Speaker 1: craps works article. We have articles on most of the
Speaker 1: games that we talked about in here. Um, you can
Speaker 1: type any of those up or you can find links
Speaker 1: to them within the casino article. You can just type
Speaker 1: casino c A S I N oh, yeah, which means
Speaker 1: social club. It's a casine though. Um in the handy
Speaker 1: search bar how stuff works dot com, which means it's
Speaker 1: time for a listener mail. Wh what what happened to you? You? Yeah,
Speaker 1: because we gotta we got a little plug for audio book.
Speaker 1: We gotta insert here. Yes, we have two audio books now,
Speaker 1: but the most recent one is the one that we're plugging. Yes, okay,
Speaker 1: So it is the super Stuff Guide to Happiness and
Speaker 1: it features us and Josh's niece and interview subjects and
Speaker 1: different music and sound design. And it's about an hour
Speaker 1: in seventeen minutes and agreed, even though it won't necessarily
Speaker 1: make you happy, right, well, how how are people going
Speaker 1: to buy this and go to iTunes and buy it
Speaker 1: for three in the US? And it could be a
Speaker 1: little more if you're in Australia. Sorry, I'm told but
Speaker 1: they they said, I actually told them out in three
Speaker 1: bucks and they say, we're going to take you up
Speaker 1: on it. Yeah, I saw that you need to be careful.
Speaker 1: Same things like that. So yeah, help support us. Bite
Speaker 1: on iTunes makes us look good. We don't get any
Speaker 1: of it, no, that's true, but it does make us
Speaker 1: look good, that's right. Yeah, yeah, and it makes us
Speaker 1: feel good too, that's true. Yeah. So now it's time
Speaker 1: for listener mouth Josh. This one I'm gonna call kind
Speaker 1: of gross but funny. Just listen to Can You Sweat Colors? Guys?
Speaker 1: It brought to mind a heroin question that my friends
Speaker 1: and I have been grappling with for years. Sit down
Speaker 1: and prepare yourself for this. Are you ready? Would you
Speaker 1: rather sweat ranch dressing or always smell like Chinese food?
Speaker 1: And here the clarifications. You would only sweat the ranch
Speaker 1: dressing in times that would normally cause you to sweat.
Speaker 1: The ranch dressing is consumable. The Chinese food smell is
Speaker 1: the general smell of a small Chinese food takeout. Join
Speaker 1: No amount of washing will make you not smell like
Speaker 1: Chinese food, nor will perfumes and colognes abolish the smell.
Speaker 1: It will simply compliment it. Let me know, guys, ps
Speaker 1: follow me on Twitter. It would make me feel special
Speaker 1: that it is clay c l A Y capital g
Speaker 1: N on Twitter this his name is Clayton N. So Clayton.
Speaker 1: My answer is I would rather smell like Chinese food
Speaker 1: because I'm such a heavy sweater. The ranch thing would
Speaker 1: just be infinitely more embarrassing. I wish you'd sweat ranch
Speaker 1: and you could always explain away the Chinese food saying gosh, sorry, man,
Speaker 1: I just want to catch Chinese food, but you can't
Speaker 1: explain ranch. Sweat neither, Kim medical science. What's your answer
Speaker 1: is neither? Although my friend Eddie loves rance dressing so
Speaker 1: much he might elect for that. He would just sweat
Speaker 1: over his pizza. If you have a question for us
Speaker 1: unanswerable or otherwise us, and you want to tweet it
Speaker 1: to us, We're always on Twitter. It's s y s
Speaker 1: K podcast. Tweet to that. You can go like us
Speaker 1: on Facebook. Stuff you should Know. That's Facebook dot com,
Speaker 1: slash stuff you should Know, and you can always send
Speaker 1: us an email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff works
Speaker 1: dot com. Be sure to check out our new video podcast,
Speaker 1: Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as
Speaker 1: we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow,
Speaker 1: brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera.
Speaker 1: It's ready, Are you