- Las Vegas casinos have all sorts of sneaky tricks
they use to take your money.
These are 25 ways that they scam you.
The first way that they scam you
is they no longer give out change
at the ticket redemption machines.
And in order to get your pocket change,
you have to take your tiny little ticket
to the cashier,
and have them give you coins for that.
Now, almost nobody does this
because it's a pain in the ass,
and then that just ends up being the casino's money.
But you know, some of the casinos
are really nice and they're like,
"Would you like to donate your change to a charity?"
Oh, and by the way,
we're going to take a tax deduction on your donation.
Have you ever noticed that the layout
of these Las Vegas casinos are super confusing,
and it's really easy to get lost in them?
Well, this is no accident.
They make sure there's no straight lines to the exit.
And if you want to find an exit,
you have to zig and zag all over the place,
and walking past many machines and many table games.
Every one of which is an opportunity
for them to take more of your money
if one of those catches your eye.
This is one of many tricks
they use to empty your wallet.
And on the topic of layout and casino design,
something else they do,
is they purposely make it
so there's natural light coming into the casino.
There's no windows or natural light coming in from above
so you don't realize what time it is,
and that it's time for you to go to bed.
And to also keep you from knowing what time it is,
there's no clocks in the casino anywhere,
nor on any of the machines.
They want to keep you awake
and keep you gambling as long as they can.
Hey, British Jordan, will you tell them about
the next way casinos trick you to take your money?
- Why, of course, young lad.
The next way is they pump special scents into the casino
to make you feel more comfortable,
to bring back happy memories
that keep you in there longer,
and keep you playing and gambling longer
to take more money from you.
- Thank you very much.
I really appreciate that.
- The pleasure is mine, cheerio.
- You know, I'm not sure he was actually British.
He might have just been faking that.
Another really sneaky trick these casinos use
is they A/B test their music like crazy
to see which songs make people stay in the casino longer,
which songs make people play the machines more
and bet higher.
And they test hundreds and hundreds of songs.
And the very best performers become the playlist
in the casino.
You might notice that when you come to Las Vegas,
a lot of the casinos are pretty chilly.
So when you come here, I recommend that you bring a jacket
or a sweatshirt to make sure you stay comfortable,
but they're doing this on purpose
because colder temperatures keep you awake.
And I've noticed, that later in the day,
often the casinos get even cooler
like as you would start to get more tired,
well, then they turn the temps down even more
to keep you awake and keep you gambling.
I don't know if this one is true or not,
but rumor has it
these casinos pump extra oxygen in the building,
to keep you awake and keep you more alert.
And again, this is one of their many tricks
to keep you gambling, to take more of your money.
Another trick that casinos use
is they liquor you up and give you free caffeine.
Now, I'm not hating on the casinos for this.
This is actually one of my favorite things
about coming to Las Vegas.
I can play at low limits
and get an unlimited number of free drinks.
Oftentimes, well, depending on the casino,
it's with top shelf liquor as well.
So I really appreciate that.
But I know that personally,
I do have to be careful
because after I reach a certain level of drunkness,
I care less about the money I'm betting,
and I'm a lot looser with it,
and I'm more likely to lose more money.
So this is definitely not
out of kindness the of their hearts
that they provide free drinks and free caffeine
to keep you awake, and things like that.
At the end of the day,
it's just a way for them to take more of your money.
Another dirty trick casinos use to empty your bank account
is to disassociate you from your money.
So if you go to a table game,
and you wanna play blackjack, for example,
you can't just put a $5 bill down
or a $100 bill down,
you're going to give them a $100 bill,
and they're going to give you casino chips in exchange
because if you're playing with casino chips,
instead of the cash that you're accustomed to using
to making your everyday purchases,
well, then you are going to be less careful with your money.
And they use the same concept with slot machines.
Like you put in a $100 bill into a slot machine,
and then it shows up that you have 10,000 credits,
or 400 credits,
depending on the denomination of the machine.
And again, when it shows up as credits,
you're more likely to spend your money more recklessly.
And here's a little tip for you.
If you click on the screen where it says, "10,000 credits",
well then, that's going to change back to $100
so you can easily tell
how much money you have in the machine.
And another reason
they print out that ticket for you
instead of giving you cash
when you're cashing out of a slot machine
is because it makes it a little bit harder for you
to get cash and walk out of the casino.
It's just one more step.
So they're hoping you find another slot machine
that you stick that ticket in,
instead of cashing out and leaving.
There's a similar concept here,
when cashing out chips after leaving a table game.
So you have to take your chips to the cashier,
to get cash.
However, if you take your chips to another table game,
well, then you can just keep on playing
without any extra steps.
And something else they do with the cashier,
is they locate it on purpose in the back of the casino,
so you have to walk past a bunch of table games
or past a bunch of slot machines,
in order to get your cash.
And also at the cashier,
once you get there,
they purposely understaff it
to make sure there's always a line
because if there's a line, well then,
maybe that's a little bit of motivation you need
to keep playing,
instead of turn your casino chips into cash and head out.
So, I'm here in my comped private villa,
and this is another way
casinos trick you into spending more money
because when they're giving you
these awesome comps like this,
it makes you feel
like it's okay to gamble a bunch of money
because you're going to get some of it back,
or in your mind,
it might be like you're getting all of it back,
in the form of comps.
And I've heard countless people say that,
"Oh, with my wins and losses and all the comps I get,
it all evens out over time."
Well, I call bullshit,
because this $4 billion casino was not built
on everything evening out over time.
And the law of large numbers
proves that the casinos will end up the winner.
Now don't get me wrong,
I love getting comps like this awesome villa,
but the casinos make sure
that your comps are less than the money you're losing.
So in the end, they always end up the winner.
What the hell are these people doing in my villa?
Now there's a ton of ways slot machines scam you.
And one of those ways
is they use all sorts of tricks
to try to get you to play max-bet,
like, "Play max-bet for a better chance at the bonus.
Play max-bet to open up these extra lines.
Play max-bet to have a chance at winning the grand jackpot."
They use all sorts of things like this
to try to get you to hit that max bet button.
Because if you do, it's easier for them
to take your money faster.
Another way slot machines scam you
is rigged near misses.
For example, I was playing this Buffalo Diamond machine
earlier today.
And on this machine and many other machines,
the symbols that you need to hit the bonus games,
the bonus free games,
are more likely to appear on the earlier reels,
which means, the machine will like,
have one of those bonus symbols show up,
then it will start making a lot more noise,
as if you're about to hit a bonus
or you have a big chance of winning,
but the reality is,
the moment you hit that spin button,
the machine knew that that spin was a losing spin,
but those bonus symbols appear anyway.
And then the sounds get louder,
as if you're about to win.
But in reality, sadly, no.
Another sneaky tactic casinos use to take your money
is that if you leave money in a machine,
that money becomes property of the casino.
So let's say, for example, you're at a machine
where the minimum be is 80 cents.
Well, you spin and spin and spin,
and then finally you have like 50 cents left,
and you can't spin again.
Well, a lot of people just get up and leave.
Well, if you do that,
you're just donating 50 cents to the casino.
Now, in fairness, technically,
someone could come behind you
and start playing on that machine,
and they take your 50 cents.
But legally speaking, it's property of the casino.
Another way slot machines get you
is they all kinds of noise.
Even if you're losing,
it still makes it sound like you're winning.
Like maybe you'll play one spin,
and that spin costs you $2,
and then you win 50 cents.
Well, it will make sounds as if you're winning,
but really that spin lost you $1.50.
But it's all kinds of psychological tricks like this,
that keep you playing,
that keep that dopamine rush coming,
that keep you wanting to continue hitting that spin button.
And on the topic of slot machines,
making all sorts of sounds,
that's also part of the atmosphere they try to create.
There's all sorts of stimulants,
flashing lights, loud noises,
sounds like people are winning,
attractive cocktail waitresses walking by.
It's all part of this atmosphere that keeps you gambling
and keeps you losing money.
Another way they trick you into spending more money
is instead of having a button like,
"Click this to bet a dollar" "Click this to bet $5."
It's like, "This machine is a 5-cent denomination,
and you can play eight credits.
You can play 50 credits."
And then it just gets really confusing, really quickly.
Like, for example, I was at this machine,
that was a 10-cent denomination machine.
However, on this 10-cent machine,
the lowest bet you could possibly make was 80 cents.
And if you click that max-bet button
that they really, really want you to click,
you're betting $88 a spin.
And when you do that,
they are gonna take your money very quickly.
Another way they trick you
into not knowing what time of day it is
and keep you playing,
and keep you from getting tired,
is that no matter the time of the day,
the atmosphere in the casino doesn't really change.
Now, of course, the number of people in the casino changes.
But what I'm talking about is the lighting, the music,
that doesn't change much throughout the day.
Now, sometimes later in the day,
they'll increase the volume of the music,
to create more of a lively atmosphere,
that kind of feels more like a club,
or a lively bar, or something.
But other than that,
it doesn't really change throughout the day,
and the lighting is always staying the same.
Another way casinos get you
is they're changing the odds
of a lot of the games you're playing.
For example, they're doing this on roulette,
they're doing this on blackjack,
they're doing this on craps.
On roulette, they're adding a third zero
to a lot of the wheels,
making the odds way worse for you.
On blackjack, on a lot of the tables,
they're changing the payout for a blackjack,
from 3 to 2, to 6 to 5.
Now, if you don't know this lingo,
and don't know what this means for you,
well, basically, with a perfect play on blackjack,
the casino advantage is going from 0.5% to 2%
or four times worse odds for you.
And on craps,
like they're changing the odds for the field bet,
and things like that.
It seems like wherever they can get away with it,
they're changing the odds to be in their favor,
and I am not a fan of it.
Something else casinos are promoting
to take more of your money
is by pushing their Casino Credit Program.
And basically what this is,
is they're gonna take a look at your bank account
and depending on your bank account, they might say,
"Okay, we're going to give you a credit line of $5,000."
And then you can take your player's card,
and put that into the machine and activate,
let's say, like $500 of that $5,000,
and start playing with that.
And then when you're done,
you cash out a ticket,
and then you put that ticket in another machine.
So in this case, you're never dealing with cash.
Now, if you use your casino credit at a table game,
you take out what they call a "marker."
So let's say you take out a $500 marker,
and then when you're done playing,
you can pay back that marker, and they rip it up.
But again, you're never touching the cash.
So, it's another way to disassociate you from your money
and make you spend more.
Something else a lot of slot machines do to scam you
is they'll have some animation on the screen
that gets added to,
as you play and play and play.
And it makes you think
that the bonus is getting closer to hitting.
But on most of the machines like this,
if you read the fine print in the rules,
it will say something like,
"Coins being added to this pot
have zero effect on when the bonus pays out."
But it's a dirty little trick they use
to keep you playing.
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