How do casinos try to gain an advantage over players?

As the saying goes, there is only one guarantee in gambling (and poker too) - the house always wins. Translated from the English, a gambling operator is always guaranteed a profit, because no matter how many talented gamblers turn up to play, the odds of winning are lower than the odds of losing in every game. The difference between these probabilities is called the casino advantage or house edge.
The casino advantage

The rules of the game itself give casinos an edge, but they also use various other tricks to increase their advantage over players, both in real gambling houses and online. The house edge is part of their business model. Here are the main tricks used by online and real casinos to gain a bigger advantage over players.

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1. Distractions and feasts

Casino feastThis trick is only used in real casinos, as it is not possible in the virtual world. If you have ever been to a casino, you may have seen waitresses constantly hovering around the casino, carrying and offering drinks. Not to mention film footage of gamblers betting large sums of money (high rollers), the real beauties swirl around, sticky-tonguing every gambler and distracting them from the poker table.

This gives the casino a double benefit. They both make money from the drinks and snacks they sell to patrons and reduce their chances at the poker table as their concentration wanders from the cards to the staff. The refreshments brought in (e.g. alcohol) also do not appear on the table by chance. After all, the critical and analytical thinking of a drunken person is much lower than that of a sober person, so free beer, cider or whisky is just a nice facade. In fact, it's a bigger advantage for the casino.

2. Played with chips instead of real money

You may be aware of a psychological phenomenon that makes a person's money not equal to their money. What we mean is that EUR 50 in cash seems to almost all of us to be more valuable than EUR 50 in a bank account or in tokens. The fact that we exchange real cash for chips in casinos is no coincidence either. It is all done to disassociate in your mind the link between gambling and real money. Chips are not real money and, as a result, the losses do not hit as hard as they could.

3. Voiceovers of rare and unexpected achievements

voiceover of achievements

If you go to any gambling house's website or social media accounts, or visit the establishments themselves, you will probably find that it is not possible to win a large amount of money without special attention from the casino. The biggest wins are written about on the website, online gamblers always see running lines about the prizes someone has won, and so on.

This is most evident with slot machines, but poker winners also get their due, and their success is sure to resonate with the entire gaming community. This is not by accident either. This focus on the winners only serves to arouse the excitement of the other players and the hope that they too will be lucky, which in the end is a win-win situation for the gaming operator, and therefore again an advantage for the casino. 

4. VIP and loyalty programmes

the house always winsIn online casinos and poker rooms, players who gamble a lot have the option to join VIP or loyalty programmes. These offer a range of discounts or free benefits when playing in those particular poker rooms. These can include free chips, free tournament entry, cheaper withdrawals and a host of other extras that encourage you to get more involved and reward you for being a regular player. This not only helps to increase player activity, but also to stop or reduce churn to other companies or poker rooms.

5. Better conditions high-limit or no limit for players

If you are high-limits as a poker player, you are sure to get a lot of attention from the gaming operator. High stakes online Poker players usually get immediate access to VIP programmes, exclusives and other cash. However, these players are risking much larger sums and their losses are much more rewarding for the organisers, which is what drives the attention.

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