How Casinos Work

about this? No way, is it really? I think I used to say it was a close second to Good Fellas, but I believe this is edge. I watched it again the other day. Man, and I love Casino the movie. It might edge Goodfellas out. I can't believe you're saying that. But to each his own. We always say to me, it's like flip a coin. That mean Streets and Good Fellows just like either of those three, they're all different. I've not seen Main Streets, should I? Yeah, that was

the first one he did with the Neros. Yeah, and Harvey Catel. Yeah, alright, casinos casinos. Well, now we've already talked about the movie. So are you still excited about this one, okay, because your favorite part out UM I read UM that casino winnings for June in Las in Vegas, Nevada, or in Nevada as a whole are We're up sixteen percent over last year, which is a good sign because one of the things that UM are pretty much recession proof are stocks in vice well vices basically like liquor

company stock, tobacco company stock, and gambling company stock. By gambling company of course, I mean like a casino or something like that. But with the recession of two thousand eight, even those kind of stocks are taking a hit. It was that my to a bath. So in the midst of all this talk about like a double dip recession and the downgrade UM by Moody's UM to double a plus for government bonds, the fact that the the revenue in Nevada for gambling is up six is a good sign. Conversely,

it's down like eight percent in Atlantic City. But that's the Atlantic City I see has struggled on and off over the years since like the beginning, right, I mean, even Trump took a bath there, yeah, and figuratively yes, So what I mean, You've been to plenty of casinos, right, you spend most of your time there? Not true? But I've been to Vegas a bunch. Just live in l A. You go more than Oh yeah, i'll bet your average Joe white because it's close. You can drive, work jobs there,

film jobs and stuff. I've been to Vegas a few times, and I think those are the only casinos I've ever been to. I hate We're ones in Vegas. I hate Vegas, now, do you? Yeah? Man, I'm done. I like it. I like it if you go into Vegas with like a Vegas kind of mind set, Yeah, it's fun. I mean I wouldn't ever spend like my yearly vacation there, right, but I mean a few days in Vegas that's pretty cool.

I like it. I'm not a big gambler though, either, so I don't go there, and like there's not a chance that I'm going to come out of there, like my life is ruined. See. I love to gamble, but I don't do I do too, but I'm not a big game Like I can walk away at any time. Yeah, I just enjoy it, but I don't do it. So it's weird to say that I love gambling. What's your what's your game? Oh, you know black jack sports book.

I think I told you before on the show that I usually go into the sports book and throw down some bets, and depending how I do on those, I'll gamble with that money. Gotcha at the table. Gotcha? It's fun. Okay, I'm gonna have to try that next time because I usually just walk up to the rue light table and go, here's some money I lost, here's a little more. I've never lost money faster in my life in at a roulette table. Yeah, it's pretty fast. When it hits, it

is the thrilling it is. That's what they count on. So um chuck. You know casinos, Well, gambling itself is pretty ancient. The grabster who wrote this article and included a Monty Python reference, did you catch it? I don't know if I did. He mentions the Italian Inquisition. The noble people expected the Italian Inquisition and we're never caught gambling. Um. But there there's been uh dice found in prehistoric sites. There's something called ostro Gali and their carved knuckle bones

that were that were the predecessors of dice. They look kind like molars, yeah, a little bit. And then after that we're actual primitive suxcited die dice. That's right. And so we've been gambling. We've been shooting craps at least for eons, both at the very least from millenn um. But casinos or places where you go to gamble didn't really come about until I think about the fifteenth or sixteenth century, and Venice was actually the birthplace of the casino,

of the gambling hall. I love it. It's Italian, yeah, it's uh. Initially there were these aristocrats in Italy would have these private parties at places called and at the Ridotti. It was a private club for rich folks, but it was basically a gambling club because that's what went on there, right, And this is where the the Monty Python reference comes in,

where that it was it was illegal. Yeah, you weren't allowed to gamble, but the aristocrats knew when to expect the Italian Inquisition and they didn't do a lot of inquiring from what I understand to write, so um, but it was known that like this is outlawed. But the um, I guess the fathers of Venice figured out that the people who were running the show there, we're making a ton of cash right, Oh yeah, uh, and if they set up their own ridotto, right, they could make their

make that cash themselves. So they did. They set up what was called the Ridotto, and the capital r that it was a four story gambling house where they took all these different games and just put them under one roof. It was a casino. It was the first casino. Yeah yeah. And they they even did things like give you food and beverages and keep you happy, and like you said, ran a variety of games. And uh, the grabs are points out. This is a big deal for a couple

of reasons. A. It's a government sanctioned gambling house the first time, and it's open to the general public. You can just go down to the ridotto throw down some cash. You don't have to be an aristocrat or a noble person. Nope, you just go ahead and lay your money down. That's right. And that the word casino is obviously Italian, right, but that that was different. So that was that Venice opened

the Rodotto. It didn't last forever, no no um. Eventually they tied of a public moral opinion turned against it, which happens a lot to gambling. Um. And the Rodotto was shut down, So the the aristocrats went back to it again and went and uh started gambling again at what we're called casinos, which are small little clubs. Right, Yeah, that's what it means. The casino is a small little club. And then they added gambling to it, and then hence

the name that we know and love today, the casino. Yeah. So the ridotto was broken up into smaller casinos and they were uh pretty popular and flourished. Yeah. So, um, that idea was exported from from Italy or there were other places where it just kind of came up on its own, but Italy, for the most part, is known as the birthplace of the casino. France was big and France is known as the birthplace. So most of the casino games that we play today. Roulette means little wheel

in French. Uh, Bakara means Bert baker rat and um and uh in burt backreck in French it means crystal. That's not true. Uh and what else is there? Black Jack means twenty one, I believe in French. Oh yeah, wow, didn't know that. So basically, the French invented a lot of games because they loved to gamble. They did and so did the United States. Early on the eighteen hundreds in the wild West, there were gambling riverboats on the Mississippi,

poker games and card games for money. And then uh, kind of like with prohibition, the moral conservatism kind of came on and uh stemmed the tide of gambling for a while up until the Hoover Dam and Nevada kind of really put it back on the map again. Yeah, so legalized gambling. I'm there was a huge, huge anti gambling wave in like nineteen by sically the first decade and a half of the twentieth century, and it almost

wiped out horse racing entirely. Like they were like two horse racing tracks at like in n in the US, and it went down to like twenty five and like like thirty years. Um, so that same wave basically broke up all gambling until yeah, like you say, Nevada said, you know what, we're gonna buck the trend because there's not a lot going on here in Nevada. But we do have a new dam. We're gonna call it Hoover Dam eventually, but for now, let's call it Bowler Damn

got into coming and seeing it still do. Yeah, it's I mean it is a marvel still to this day. It's a marvel of engineering. It's it's uh, it's it's the pinnacle of humans contempt for nature. You know, Oh, you want to flow as a river, we tell you when to flow. You're gonna generate power for us and exactly so. Um. From the get go Boulder Damn. Now, Hoover dam was a tourist attraction, and Nevada said, why not get some money off of these pork pies from Iowa. Um,

while they come, let's let them gamble. And that what happened. And gambling and casinos had already been started. Bugsy Segull did not start that, but he and Mayer Landski, famous gangsters, did have a large hand and expanding the casino scene famously with the Flamingo Hotel and casino in And that

was a good movie too. That was a great movie. Uh. And today I think this number is still right nineteen at the largest hotels by room number are on the Las Vegas trip, the largest in the world, largest in the world. Yeah, I can believe that they're huge. And that's just they're still gambling downtown too. They're a Fremont if you really want the real Las Vegas. Yeah, so that's how that's how it started. They were downtown gambling houses. Um. And then they figured out that if they if you, uh,

you gotta break some egs to make an omelet. So they spent some money to make tons of money tons yeah. Um. And they also, in a very unusual kind of agreement, these uh, these early strip makers uh said you know what, we're all gonna go into this together. Sure, it's more competition, but if we're concentrated, we make this a destination. Not only is Nevada a destination for gambling, but this specific spot in Nevada is the destination for gamblings and it

paid off like in aces. Hey. Yeah, and since we're on gangsters, uh, the mafia had a lot to do with the Las Vegas casino operation for a long time until they eventually money kind of went out and real estate developers had more money than the mob said, you know what, we need to clean this up and make it legit and buy you out, essentially, And because I understand it, it's mafia doesn't have anything to do with

it these days because it's just too big of a risk. Yeah, and their money is not needed for a while they're there. They had the money, and they also had the willing to One of the reasons the mob got into Vegas was because the rest of the country saw Vegas as since city. It's a it's a place of ill repute. Gambling is is sinful, and we're morally opposed to it. So I don't want my customers at my bank to to withdraw their money something. They can invest in your casino.

But then Mayer Landski or um. So there's other ways of getting money, right, he said, you know what, I've got no problem with this. Here's some money. Uh, the teamsters, Uh, we're heavily invested in in Vegas. But yeah, but then Trump was like, I got way more money than you guys. Yeah, and that's why. One reason Vegas was was sin city for a long time, and you can still get into some trouble there. But since the nineties it has become a much more of a family destination. It's stilling to

swing back the other way a little more. I hear they're trying to do that. Some casinos are opening up with like rules against kids, and oh yeah, plenty of them have. Yeah, it's like get your kid out of here. This is a ca and with like nothing but kids, Treasure Island, all those places. Yeah and so, and we should say, chuck that we just gave like the history of Vegas, and Vegas is obviously like the crown jewel

of the gambling world around the world. But there's also other like just world class casinos like Monaco Monte Carlo, a city in Monaco, um which is a principality built exclusively on gambling money. Um. Yeah, there's Macau is off the coast of Hong Kong. That's like gambling paradise. Now. Um there's where else is there riverboat Indian reservations. Yeah, so it's uh, we didn't mean to neglect to anybody,

I guess, that is what I'm saying. And the you know that four story gambling house, the ridotto um that has translated very very well. In Japan, they have things that are called pachinko parlors, which are usually multi story um outfits where you just is it all pachinko. The first floor is usually all pachinko. And it's also like you you you can go in there and play all day and no one will know because you can't see through the cigarette smoke in there. It is crazy, bet. Yeah,

they smoke a lot over there. So there's gambling all over the world. Where aware of that? Yeah, I got some stats, some gaming stats. Uh. In two thousand nine, seventy of US adults placed a wager of some kind, uh, to the tune of nine hundred billion dollars at casinos, racetracks, lottery, and then like poker games and dog tracks and OTV

places and stuff like that. But um, I think of that gross gaming revenue was eighty point five billion, and about fifty seven billion of that was casino based, whether land or riverboat casino knows. Thirty thirty billion, twenty six of that was from tribal casinos and the other thirty

was from just standard casinos. That's definitely up from when this article was written, because it was twenty two point six two billion in two thousand five for Native American casinos and thirty one point eight five billion for everything else in the US. Yeah, that's significant. Yeah. Yeah, it's forty one states. Forty one states have casinos or allow casinos. George is not one of them. No, but George allows

gambling in the form of lottery. Yes, and every video poker. Yeah, everything, But Hawaii and Utah allow some form of wagering, right, I wonder what Hawaii steals. I don't know. Utah makes sense, but yeah, totally, But I have no idea what Hawai's Maybe they're just like, yeah, we don't need that. Yeah, I'll find out. We're surfing eating spam, right exactly, it's a spam cation. Sure. Uh So, Chuck, why is there so much money in gambling if it's all games of chance? Yeah?

Why is there so much money in owning a casino? You know why, Josh? Why? Because every single game a casino offers has a statistical edge built in for the casino. Otherwise, that's how they make their dough. That is, h's your fact that these are not everyone. I didn't know that. Well.

It ranges from I think about the lowest you can get as Baker raw at about one one point six percent, that it can go as low as uh I think point seven point six something is the casino advantage all the way up to the sucker's bet of all time, which is the slot machine, which gives a casino a

edge on average. And the reason it stops at is because by law, most most states say, if you're gonna have slots or video pok or whatever, since it's computer operated randomly making a quotes, you have to set it so that there's of the time they have a chance of winning, the time you're playing that you have no chance of winning. Yeah, and they'll they'll change the slot. Some casinos will say, like our slots payout eight or

nine to try and get you in there. But that is where the casino makes seventy of their revenue is from from slots, nicol slots, quarter slots, whatever, whatever. Slots. Um, there's uh are we talking about games? Yeah, let's get into it. So, yeah, if you go to a casino, there's obviously going to be slots in there, absolutely everywhere. I've never been a big slot guy. It's just over too fast. It's not too much to it. It is a little boring. Um, I like black jack, black checks

a lot of fun. I played black check in Paris in Vegas and it was like the middle of the day and my brother in law and I were the only ones at the table, and um, I was like hit me, and the guy hit me, and I was like hit me again, and the dealer went and just shook his head. I've had them do that too, and it was like you don't want to hit? Yeah, And I'm sure the pit boss is like, you know, he's got X number of times he can do that in a day or whatever. But yeah, I thought it was

very nice. I ended up spending more money. I'm sure, Well, that's exactly why you did it. They want to keep your button that chair, and sometimes they might allow the dealer to say, like, are you certain, sir, Wait a minute, he didn't do it to be nice. He may have been being nice. He was definitely being nice. But yes, I'm sure constructed. I don't know. Yeah, I don't know how it works on the inside, but yeah, I was I was told I was told not to. He said no when I told him, right, And uh yeah, I

came out a little bit on top. I think. So Blackjack, Josh, you got about a two percent house edge. Not bad as far as gambling goes. Um And if you play by the statistical strategy that they say you should play by, there are rules like if you follow this, then chances are you could win some money. But people, what happens is you get caught up. You like hit when you shouldn't. You lay down more money to try and make up for what you've lost, and that's when they take you.

Or you can count cards, and you can count cards, which is legal. If you go to m I T. They'll teach you to count cards, right Andy, that movie was about, Yeah, the M I T. Black Jack Team, Um, the movie twenty one. If you count cards then and they figure out that you're counting cards, are gone. Like, I don't think they can break your hand, but you're out of the casino for sure. They can do a lot of things up until that point to make it harder.

But I think if they they verify that and they know that you're counting cards, I think they can't ask you to leave, even though it is not against the law. No, but a casino has rules against the exactly. Yeah, all right, so that's blackjack. I gotta get come closer to twenty one without going over Oh yeah did we say that? Yeah? And we we're not gonna there's we're not gonna break down each of these games. So specifically, these could have their own podcast. Exactly. They won't, but they could. So

that's that's that. Slots, by the way, they are spam slots. H Yeah, that's cool. That's what we need, is that we need a stuff. You should know, slot machine. Well, they're all kinds of crazy themes. But then realized how much we would have arrived if we had our own slot machines. We go broke playing them. I bet we could make that happen. I don't know about that. No, okay, so you got boogie Nights, Oh yeah, just all sorts

of crazy themes. And recently it was in the news because they're Happy Days machines, and everyone but Fonzi and Ritchie sued because they're like, dude, we're not getting seeing any money from these slot machines that all my friends are telling me that our faces are on. That's what Happy Days sued for. I thought it was like DVDs. No, no, no, it's all sorts of back payment that they they're not getting. But the slots is what tipped off the mom. Like someone called he was like, oh, so you want a

slot machine. She's like really, So she banded together with Potsy and uh yeah, everybody except Fonzi and um and Richie Richie because they still have money. Um wow, that's an awful thing to say. They imagine that they didn't. When I read that, I didn't know that it was slot machines that tipped them off. But I thought, I hope Ron Howard like paid for their legal team. Yeah. I think they just settled recently. Actually. Um. Roulette of

course one of my favorites. Yeah. If you want to see your money disappear before your very eyes, go play some roulette. Yeah. So there's a thirty six spaces on a little wheel, numbers uh one through No, I'm sorry, there's thirty eight spaces numbers one through thirty six with a zero and a double zero, right, very very simply put. The dealer spins the wheel up black and red. Two. Yeah, well you can. You can bet on all sorts of things.

There's the table where you bet on you can bet on it being landing on a black or red color. You can bet on the specific number and the color, just the number one that I'm gonna bet on twenty two, and it comes up and it pays off and well yeah, um, and depending if you think it pays two to one, if you um, if you correctly bet on red or black, and then it just gets more from there. But the dealer spins a wheel and then the ball is dropped in and it spins around and bounces and then whatever

number color lands on. If you bet on that, baby, you are rolling in it. But I think the roulette, I think the reason I like it it's just so it's such an elegant game. There's a wheel that spins and then you feel like you're in Monte Carlo very much. So. Yeah, I think that's why I like The house edges between five and seven um, even though it varies because there's so many different bets and payouts. Craps. Craps I know almost nothing about. It's the most fun game in Vegas

or at a casino. In my opinion, it's the most social game. You hear a lot of people having a lot of fun and chances arts coming from the crap section. Yeah, because you're involved, you're throwing the dice. That has a lot to do with it. And my advice if you want to play craps, it's really complicated with all the bets, but make it really easy and pick out, like, learn two or three little simple bets that you can make and just stick to those. Okay, that's good advice. That's

my advice. Unless you're really good and you know all that stuff, then just go wild if you if you know all that stuff, probably not gonna take our advice on crafs. Keino Josh is a big rip off. Well, it's like inside the the the casino, there was a scandal um some guy from Vegas who worked at the Nevada Gaming Commission. Um, they use random number generators to to just run the Keyno games. It's all computer operated. The thing is is there's no such thing as randomness

with a computer, like it just doesn't exist. It's a computer, right, it's a program. So if this guy figured out um, basically the pattern that comes up there the underlying pat to all of it. And he and a buddy went to Atlantic City and he stayed up in the room and watched the Keyno um play out basically on the on their TV. And he um called down to the guy and told him what to bat based on what

number who are about to come up? And this guy one so much that the security followed him up to was to the room and found the guy there, found out he was from Vegas and we're like, why did you come to Atlantic City to play Keynoe? And that was that. That was in an article in Harper's. You know what happened to him? He got busted. I'm sure any longer. Yeah, I don't know if Atlantic City has that kind of pull. In Vegas though, where they can,

you know, rub you out. They don't dig a hole in the desert there, They just do the old submit shoes in the ocean. Yeah, with the fishes toss you off the boardwalk. Yeah, but then you have to pay for the guy you just killed, to the to the people in Vegas. Right, Yeah, you got Backara what you've talked about. And if you've never played it, it it seems complicated,

but it's really not. The object is to get close to nine instead of twenty one, but you only get two or three cards, and the total if it's more than ten, you refer to the right hand number. So if you get a nine in a six, your hand isn't fifteen, Your hand is five. If you get a nine in six, your hand isn't fifteen, it's five. Where come from the one five? It's the digit on the right hand side. If your hand totals thirteen, your hand

is really a three six. There's no five in there, no nine in a six, total fifteen oh, I got you. So you added up and then take the right hand

digit of the double digit, yes, and your object. Yes, it's I mean it's not easy, but it's sort of easy that I've never played, because, as is pointed out in the article, like it's usually away from the rest of the casino and yeah, it's like you have to be wearing a tuck to get into the Baker Ross typically known as a big money game because the guys because you know why, it's because it's got the best

or the least amount of statistical advantage. So if you've got a lot of money, you're probably smarter to be playing back. Yeah, and because of that loads statistical advantage. Um, a lot of times Cassine know say hey, thanks for playing, you owe us three percent of everything you just want. Yeah, I think background is one of those that takes it off the top, right, is that right? I think so I would imagine pokers like that as well. It's called

a rake and poker. Yeah. They essentially just you're what you're doing in poker is they're hosting the game essentially in supplying you with a dealer for a fee. Right, So there sometimes you're charged, Um, the rake will be based on how long you spend in there or how much you win that kind of thing. Yeah, but poker's poker, that's right, right. And then there's video poker, which is pretty close to slots that has some laws that say you have to pay out x percentage of time, that

kind of thing. Another sucker game if you ask me. Yeah, they have those all over the place here in Atlanta, like in gas stations and stuff. Oh and interestingly, slots and video poker aren't monitored. They're just set up and you just go play. They don't have like cameras above each one like they do all the other games. Yeah, well, they don't have people watching the slots area. They're self managed essentially, So Chuck, let's talk about the casino experience,

shall we. Well, they get you in there, they load up on liquor while you're playing for free, which helps. They give you food comps sometimes, like hey, sir, would you like to buffet tickets here? And would I? They they won't show you too, They won't show any clocks. You won't find any big clocks or windows. And casinos to this day they the whole thing is designed to

to basically, um I guess simulate eternal twilight early evening. Yeah, the nights, just the lights are and that is the weird thing when you you can't tell and people gamble at all hours. That's why I was surprised. Like, you'll go down at four in the morning and you can't tell the difference between that and noon. Sometimes a little creepy. Yeah, it is very creepy. They do not pumping oxygen, No, they don't. Apparently that would be extremely illegal, which makes

sense the felony. It's basically drugging people. But the whole premise of that was that you basically gave people a rush or it kept them awake so they would stay and not get tired. Uh. Contrary to that, Um, Like you said, people will often be comped food, drinks, rooms kind of drunk. You might spend a little more. But yes, if you are, if you're lucky enough to be camped the room, UM, and you're a slot person, you're probably a member of the slot club, which you need to

join when you um. When you check in, it usually doesn't cost anything. But basically you have a card that tracks your play. UM. And you don't want to be bashful about this. You don't want them to notice you. You wanna if you if you're looking to get camped, you go ahead and let them know you're you're here to play. Yeah, and if you want to get camped and you're not a slat person, you can just ask. If you have a lot of money you want to spend and you're like, this is what I'm gonna start

doing this. You tell them you go to someone and say hey, and to get my play rated. H And they will basically just put you on a list and say, okay, we'll start tracking and seeing what kind of money you're losing. But as the Grabsher points out, it is a sucker bet to spend more than you normally would or just to get camps, because you're going to spend more money in losses than you would just haven't gotten the room

or gotten the buffet. Yeah, and Vegas is still cheaper, maybe than some places, but it's not like the old days where it was like a hotel room is twenty bucks, in the buffet is five. Like it's it's a a vacation destination. Now they get you with the room charges now to or the shows. The shows kids, Uh, they got stuff for the whole family now to keep everyone busy while mom and dad are giving away their money

college fund, said Chuck. UM security is kind of an issue, right, Yeah, there's the ubiquitous I in the sky, which apparently they don't necessarily have. Over the slot areas, every other table's got a camera watching it, and the whole the whole process of UM security is ground up right the front.

The first defense in UM I guess against cheating or fraud or theft is the dealer him or herself because they're really paying attention to the game, and they're going to see clear as day if you're palming cards or um counting cards, whatever you're doing. They're trained to look out for that stuff, right, and they know this game is literally their job to play this game every day for hours on end UM, so they know if something's

weird about it, right. And then above them, you've got table managers and pit bosses watching out over an area, right, And they're not just watching customers, they're watching the dealers and the managers. Everybody's watching everybody else. Yeah, that's a

great part because you know they break down the security. Sorry, I had a moment there that when he bust the country bumpkin who's not who's got taken on the slots and that his country bumpkin uncle try to get him like reinstated, and de Niro's like, I can't do it. It's like you sure, you want to think about this, and he had that great line He's like, what you people don't ever realize is that you're all just guests here.

And he's right because he eventually left the The guy who got taken on the slots, his name was he used to host like a d movie. Yeah, and Billy Bob something. Yeah, he was awesome. Yeah, I can't remember. He was great though. He was pretty funny dude. Um, I don't know what happened to him. He's around him, sure, okay, um.

And then above that you have security who are monitoring everything on TV, right, lots and lots of TVs, lots and lots of cameras, and they can train in each one to look at whatever they want, Like it's not just the tables, all the ins and outs, the exits, the bathroom, not in the bathrooms, but these are all heavily policed by cameras, and uh, I don't know. I

could see them monitoring the bathroom. I could see that too, actually, And in Ocean's eleven, if you remember one of the little tricks they used to get the cameras out of the way, it was Casey affleck In in uh, James CON's kid, what's his name? James CON's kid. They got in the argument and and he'd let go of the balloons, and the balloons covered the camera was long enough to to get whatever they needed to get done done. That

was a great movie too. The first one was really good, I think, and not the original, I mean the first Soderberg Okay, the original was awesome. Yeah, yeah, I can watch that like all day every day. I like that. I like the Redo as well, though I thought it was glib. I really Matt was glib. I thought the

whole thing was glue. Um. So chuck. If you're a chump like me and you walk around casinos with like your your your money in your hands, right, just kind of smiling at people, like where do I put this? How do you stay on? Security's good sign? Well, if

you're the casino expert, here's a few tips. You don't want to touch any of the gaming equipment, like don't grab the roulette wheel and say this feels need o, don't They say not to use two hands to do anything, right, like always kind of keep one hand off off the stuff, and it doesn't hurt to keep the other hand in sight the hand you're not using. Don't on the table.

It don't go up to a craps table with like one hand in your pocket and then like lower the dice below the table and then blow on them and then throw them. And also don't ever ever tickle the dealer. They don't like that. Yes, you're not supposed to. You can't hand your money to a dealer. Always your money on the table, on the table, and don't expect them

to cash anything out. They'll give you chips, but when you want your chips to turn back into money, yea, the dealer's not going to help you, which we should mention. The reason they use chips is a to keep track of things easier and b because you feel a lot better losing a hundred dollar chips the chip than you do a hundred dollar bill. It's it's just like a

debit card. Like there's so many things that you normally just wouldn't buy if you had to shell out cash for it, but you totally get because it's debit card. You can watch people play, but just watch. Don't go up to people at the table and start talking to them. Don't tickle other players. Don't tickle players. Don't touch your chips. A few place to bet. It's final once you put it down. Don't reach across the table and knock over everyone else's chips. Ask for some help, and uh, don't

like put your drink on the table. Although I've done that. People do that. They say not to do that, but I've done that. I don't think it's the end of the world. Agreed, Especially black check. There's no other place to put it. Usually there might be like a little thing right here. Like a lot of times, it's just what am I gonna do? What am I gonna do? Exactly?

Um So, Chuck, we talked about riverboat gambling in Native American casinos, and both of those are fairly recent in origin, really about the early nine nineties, late eighties, right, So a Native American casinos, their existence can be traced back to one guy. He was the head of the the Cabazon tribe from California, and his name is Arthur James Wellness, and basically he figured out a loophole in the way that Native American territory is treated. It is technically sovereign ground, right,

but criminal law extends into the sovereign area. So if you murder somebody, that you committed a crime and the federal government has jurisdiction to investigate that crime. But if something is legal in that state where that territory is, then by extension, there's no crime that can possibly be committed if that is carried out within the Native American territory,

it becomes a matter of civil law. Civil law doesn't extend in the Native American territory, right, Yes, So basically they said, hey, if you can allow gambling in California and arcis are reservations in California, and if it's just a lottery, yeah, then we can do that here however we want, because it's a civil matter exactly. And as an aside related to that, if you fall and break your leg and a Native American casino, you're not gonna be able to to sue anybody. No, no, no redress

for that, no redress. And riverboats, Josh, how that usually works is you go on a cruise quote unquote two hour cruise but it's not so much a cruise because you don't go anywhere. The boat just stays there and that's just your allotted time two And it is specific and you can't just say can I stay a little longer? No, They're probably like no, but you can leave and then come back. Yeah. And and a lot of times they'll have a lost limit too, they'll be like, you can't

lose over five. But apparently much the same way with the government in venice Um, state legislatures have been like, well, you know, we really come to depend on this riverboat gambling tax money, so you know what, go crazy, go nuts, stay on as long as you want to lose as much as you like. We are rolling in it because of you. So chuck, um, I guess if a casino comes to your town, anybody who's ever seen that Simpsons episode knows that it's a boon for the community, right,

big business, dude. Everyone's happy, everyone's making tons of money, everybody's got jobs, money for free. Yeah, exactly. No. So studies show that there's actually a negative economic impact on um a local community by a casino. And it's pretty simple why most casinos play is carried out by locals who come into the casino and lose their money, not necessarily by tourists who wouldn't have come there otherwise and are having an economic impact. That definitely accounts for a

substantial portion. But when you take it all into account, the local economy actually loses money when a casino comes to town. That's right, Josh. At least several studies have shown. And we'll get into gambling maybe on a different show, but we should point out that, uh, the dark side of casinos is about of their profits are generated from the five percent of addicted gamblers. Yes, the profits are coming from people out gambling problems, right, and probably most

of those people live like down the street. Yeah, maybe work at casinos. Yeah, we should do one on gambling that. There's so much more there. I don't want to breeze over that. So that's it for casinos. Though, if you want to know how craps works, we have a how craps works article. We have articles on most of the games that we talked about in here. Um, you can type any of those up or you can find links to them within the casino article. You can just type casino c A S I N oh, yeah, which means

social club. It's a casine though. Um in the handy search bar how stuff works dot com, which means it's time for a listener mail. Wh what what happened to you? You? Yeah, because we gotta we got a little plug for audio book. We gotta insert here. Yes, we have two audio books now, but the most recent one is the one that we're plugging. Yes, okay, So it is the super Stuff Guide to Happiness and it features us and Josh's niece and interview subjects and

different music and sound design. And it's about an hour in seventeen minutes and agreed, even though it won't necessarily make you happy, right, well, how how are people going to buy this and go to iTunes and buy it for three in the US? And it could be a little more if you're in Australia. Sorry, I'm told but they they said, I actually told them out in three bucks and they say, we're going to take you up on it. Yeah, I saw that you need to be careful.

Same things like that. So yeah, help support us. Bite on iTunes makes us look good. We don't get any of it, no, that's true, but it does make us look good, that's right. Yeah, yeah, and it makes us feel good too, that's true. Yeah. So now it's time for listener mouth Josh. This one I'm gonna call kind of gross but funny. Just listen to Can You Sweat Colors? Guys? It brought to mind a heroin question that my friends and I have been grappling with for years. Sit down

and prepare yourself for this. Are you ready? Would you rather sweat ranch dressing or always smell like Chinese food? And here the clarifications. You would only sweat the ranch dressing in times that would normally cause you to sweat. The ranch dressing is consumable. The Chinese food smell is the general smell of a small Chinese food takeout. Join No amount of washing will make you not smell like Chinese food, nor will perfumes and colognes abolish the smell.

It will simply compliment it. Let me know, guys, ps follow me on Twitter. It would make me feel special that it is clay c l A Y capital g N on Twitter this his name is Clayton N. So Clayton. My answer is I would rather smell like Chinese food because I'm such a heavy sweater. The ranch thing would just be infinitely more embarrassing. I wish you'd sweat ranch and you could always explain away the Chinese food saying gosh, sorry, man, I just want to catch Chinese food, but you can't

explain ranch. Sweat neither, Kim medical science. What's your answer is neither? Although my friend Eddie loves rance dressing so much he might elect for that. He would just sweat over his pizza. If you have a question for us unanswerable or otherwise us, and you want to tweet it to us, We're always on Twitter. It's s y s K podcast. Tweet to that. You can go like us

on Facebook. Stuff you should Know. That's Facebook dot com, slash stuff you should Know, and you can always send us an email to Stuff Podcast at how stuff works dot com. Be sure to check out our new video podcast, Stuff from the Future. Join how Stuff Work staff as we explore the most promising and perplexing possibilities of tomorrow, brought to you by the reinvented two thousand twelve camera. It's ready, Are you