USA Today – Gambling is the reason Las Vegas (in its modern incarnation) exists. It is the industry that fuels the local economy, paves the roads and gives the city its identity. To visitors and tourists, gambling may be a game. To those who derive their livelihood from gambling, however, it is serious business.
There is an extraordinary and interesting dichotomy in the ways gambling is perceived. To the tourist and the recreational gambler, gambling is all about luck. To those in the business, gambling is about mathematics. To the visitor, gambling is a few hours a day, while to the casinos, gambling is 24 hours a day, every day. The gambler hopes to walk away with a fortune, but the casinos know that in the long run that fortune will belong to the house. To visitors, gambling is recreation combined with risk and chance. To the casinos, gambling is business combined with near-certainty.
The casino takes no risk in the games themselves. In almost all cases, in the long run the house will always win. The games, the odds and the payoffs are all carefully designed to ensure this outcome.
If casinos did engage in fair bets, like when you flip a coin with a friend, they would win about half the bets and lose about half the bets. In other words, the casino (and you), on average, would break even, or at least come close to breaking even. While this arrangement would be more equitable, it would not, as a rule, generate enough money for the casino to pay its mortgage, much less foot the bill for the dancing waters, erupting volcanoes, lounge shows, $10 buffets and free drinks.
