Casino Psychology 101: Chips vs. Cash

Every casino has a simple goal. Provide entertainment while separating the maximum dollar amount from each person that comes through the door. Not an easy task considering that most people work extremely hard and value every penny earned. Like many industries, psychology is the most important part of the casino revenue recipe.

Forbes magazine did an article breaking down the $60 billion in casino revenue made in 2022. Understanding some of the methods behind this windfall is incredibly interesting to discuss. Let’s put the spotlight on a few casino tricks that help these corporations build lavish new hotels and cruise ships that are the size of small cities.

The first method used to suck cash out of your wallet happens before you even place a bet. Historians tell us that casino chips can be traced back to 1752. Today, we drop our currency on the table, and a dealer exchanges it for pretty colored clay chips. Now we can play the game! We can now have ‘fun’ playing with our pseudo game pieces like checkers or Monopoly. It’s not real money, it’s just a black or green chip. As a casino player, we don’t turn chips back into ‘real’ world money until we are ready to exit the casino. Wallets are usually much lighter for the average gambler.

Taking green backs and converting them into multi-colored chips transports us back to the game arcades that were in every mall during the 80’s. Instead of feeding our Pac-Man addiction using tokens, we are now playing Blackjack or Red/Black at the roulette table. Using play money instead of currency adds to the fantasy environment of the Vegas-style glitz we are all enamored with on every visit to the casino.

Modern slot machines, video poker, and automated roulette machines are now using the same logic to ease even more money out of our pockets. Most mechanical slot machines took coins and paid out winnings in coins through the mid 90’s. Almost all of these have been replaced with video slots that have more in common with Nintendo or Xbox. Incredible animations, bonus games, and loud soundtracks can only be experienced by feeding your old stodgy paper currency into the machines. The screen informs us about how many ‘credits’ we have without mentioning money or dollars. Once again, reinforcing our nostalgic return to that arcade next to The Gap or the food court.

Can we battle our inner desire to lose our minds and every chip in our possession? YES! First, we have to establish a pre-set bankroll for every gaming session. As part of our Cruise Casino Mafia money management rules, we teach new members to break their total bankroll into five equal session bankrolls. This instantly provides a barrier against a total bankroll bust. Secondly, you should always set a session profit target. It can be a percentage of your session bankroll or a dollar amount. A hard stop loss can be any desired amount, with the highest being the total session bankroll. In conclusion, our most successful casino income students have a quick hit mentality with small profit targets and tight stop loss measures. Lots of quick gambling sessions that end with a positive outcome give us the best chance of ducking and dodging the ever-present house edge. If you are interested in learning more about our pro casino strategies and methods, you can start with our free educational videos and posts (YouTube and Instagram). If you really want to take the next step and treat the casino as a business, think about purchasing one of the premium courses or private 1 on 1 lesson packages today.

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