The Casino Experience

Stepping into a casino is like entering an alternate reality – gaudy lighting, clanging slots and coins, a mix of music and laughter. It is an intoxicating experience that makes even the most jaded individual take a moment to marvel at the spectacle. But behind the glitz and glamour, casinos are serious businesses with one very clear goal in mind – making money.

According to the American Gaming Association, 51 million people visited casinos in 2002. A significant percentage of these were visitors who gambled.

The game floor is a hive of activity, dominated by dealers and pit bosses watching over the games with keen eyes to catch any blatant cheating or suspicious betting patterns. They are assisted by table managers and pit bosses, who have a much broader view of the table game and can spot a number of common violations such as chip dumping. In addition to the floor staff, there are also numerous security personnel in uniform to ensure that all is well.

Martin Scorsese’s Casino, released in 1995, is a spiritual sequel to Goodfellas that brings back Robert De Niro and Joe Pesci to the screen, completing their “raging bull” trilogy. It is a liminal work, situated not between Victorianism and Modernism but between organized crime and organized finance. It is set at a time when the rough blur of old-school gangster street life was being replaced by the antiseptic clean cut image of corporate big business.

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Cape Town, South Africa