Casinos attract people from all around the world and from different cultures. Some people wander in while away on business, some choose to look at what they spend inside a casino as entertainment dollars and some are lured by the bright lights and sounds. Whatever the reasons, here are ten things you probably didn’t know about casinos and what’s inside them.
10 – The Slot Machine Was Invented as a Way to Keep Customers Entertained
The first slot machine was created in the late 1890s when Charles Fey was looking for a way to keep his customers happy while they waited for their car repairs to be completed. He invented a machine with symbols and spinning wheels that paid out in candy and cigarettes. The machine was named the Liberty Bell after one of the symbols on the reel
9 – The Biggest Slot Machine Jackpot Ever
Speaking of slot machines, millions of people play the slots with a dream of hitting a big jackpot. Well, one lucky Los Angeles software engineer, who decided to remain anonymous, scored the biggest jackpot in history when hit put $100 into the right machine and the right time. The $39-million jackpot was hit in Las Vegas on a Megabucks machine in 2003 and has held the record as the biggest jackpot for the last 13 years.
8 – The Casino Helped Coin The Term “Blue Chip Stocks”
Some people liken playing in a casino, and specifically playing poker, to picking stocks in the stock market. You might be interested to find out there is even more of a connection there. The term “blue chip stocks” which is used to describe premium stocks on the New York Stock Exchange came from poker games, where the blue chips have more value than white and red chips.
7 – Playing Cards Come From the French
It is believed that the French influenced our modern playing card deck. Depending on who you listen to, the suits in a deck of cards either represent social classes, historical kings or historical cultures.
The social classes include peasants, merchants, clergy, and nobility. The four historical cultures include Greece, Middle East, Rome and The Roman Empire. The four historical kings are Charlemagne, Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great and King David. Staying on the theme of kings, the term “kissing kings”comes from the two kings that are back to back in the middle of a newly opened card deck.
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6 – The Roulette was Discovered By Accident
The roulette was developed by Blaise Pascal, a well-known French scientist who lived the mid-1600’s. As a mathematician and physicist, he accidentally created the roulette wheel, while trying to invent the perpetual motion machine. Pascal was a great inventor and mathematician, who also came up with the first calculator and probability theory.
5 – Casinos Are Some of The Safest Places on Earth
Casinos attract a wide variety of people. To ensure the peace of mind of its guests, casinos invest a lot of money in creating a safe environment. With thousands of cameras plus well-trained security personnel watching the feeds from those cameras in a state-of-the-art security mecca, keeping a protective eye on the fast-paced happenings is a priority. Casinos know the key to creating great customer experience starts with keeping its patrons safe.
4 – The First Casino Ever Built
Casino-like games and even sports-like betting can be traced back to civilisations as far back as 2300 BC. Placing the games in what we know now as a casino setting, however, is a more modern concept, with the first series of casinos opening in the first half of the 1600s. The title of the first casino goes to Casinò di Venezia which opened its doors in 1638 in Venice, Italy.
3 – The Largest Casino Ever Built
The title of largest casino goes to The Venetian Macao Resort Hotel, which is 546,000 square feet and hosts over 3,000 machines, 870 table games and more than 3,000 hotel rooms. It was the first mega-casino to open its doors in the famed Cotai Strip, in 2007 and serves as a landmark for casino enthusiasts throughout Asia and the world. Now if you’re looking for the smallest casino ever built, perhaps these fruit machine gifts will do.
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2 – The Movie Casino Was Shot in a Real Casino
Director Martin Scorsese was adamant that the movie Casino should be shot in a real casino and what Scorsese wants, Scorsese gets. Every Monday through Thursday from midnight to late morning over a six-week period, The Riviera closed off part of its facility for filming purposes.
Scorsese, often known for his authentic touches, used real dealers and pit bosses from the hotels instead of hiring actors and trying to teach them to deal. It’s nice to have The Riviera documented in such an iconic film as it closed its doors for good in May 2015, taking with it a chunk of Las Vegas history.
1 – Casinos Actually Like It When You Win
It’s true. It is good business for a casino to have winning players. It’s not unusual for someone to try and learn every winning tip and strategy they can to beat the house, but the reality is casinos are in the entertainment business. And what’s more, entertaining than someone hooting and hollering when they score that jackpot?