Known for their glamour and sophistication, casinos give the impression that life can be a sequel to the film If Drink Doesn’t Case. Of course, this image owes a lot to the great casinos, who do not spare the time to create and offer luxurious and fun experiences for their visitors. However, it is not only of pomp and happiness that cities like Las Vegas, Atlantic City and Macau live. These places are full of curious, sometimes funny and, in some cases, even bizarre stories. Let’s go to the list!
FedEx was saved by its founder in a casino in Las Vegas
We start our list with an even inspiring story. FedEx founder Fred Smith saved the company from going bankrupt in 1973. Going through great financial difficulties, Smith decided to take the last $5,000 from the company’s cashier and flew to Las Vegas, where he bet it all on a Blackjack table. The result? Fred returned home with $27,000 and managed to keep the doors open to recover the company, which now has an annual turnover of more than $20 billion.
You can ban yourself from casinos in the United States!
It sounds strange, but it is perfectly possible. The possibility was created so that people with gambling problems could force themselves not to go to casinos. In Ohio, there is a kind of “voluntary exclusion” for those who really want to quit, making it a crime simply to step foot in a casino. You can choose whether to ban yourself for one year, five years, or for the rest of your life. And if you choose to be banned for life, forget about the possibility of returning to a casino in the United States, as it is impossible to get off that list.
A prison with a casino in it?
The State of Nevada takes the casino business seriously. But so seriously that inmates in Carson City jail could play blackjack, dice, poker and even bet on sports inside the prison for 35 years, until the new warden of the prison ended the party in 1967.
To bet at the Monte Carlo casino, you just couldn’t have been born in… Monte Carlo.
One of the paradises for gamblers, Monte Carlo only accepts foreign players. If a person was born in Monte Carlo, they cannot bet there. Princess Caroline declared it illegal for Monte Carlo natives to gamble at the casino, still in the middle of the 19th century. The reason is that part of the money collected by the casino is used by Monaco to pay taxes, leaving its citizens free of taxes.
The sandwich was practically born in a casino
This is a legend, but who says it is not true? In 1765, John Montagu, one of the predecessors of the Earl of Sandwich franchise family, was a gambler so aficionado that he didn’t want to leave the gambling table or to eat. In order not to have to do this, he asked his helpers to bring a piece of meat in the middle of two slices of bread so that he could eat while he played, thus creating the first official sandwich that was ever reported.
Of course, there is nothing very inventive about this meal. After all, it’s just a piece of meat in the middle of two slices of bread and probably people already ate it around, but nobody bothered to give it a name and create a story about it before him.
The biggest source of casino profit are…penny slot machines!
With so many high-stakes games, that seems unlikely, but it’s true. Penny slot machines are the most profitable business for casinos. Due to the great recession in 2000, the popularity of these machines has exploded as it allows the gambler to place only 1 cent to bet.
Famous actor banned…
In 2014, actor Ben Affleck was caught by the security guards at the Hard Rock Cafe casino in Las Vegas, counting cards at the blackjack table. Although the practice is not illegal, it is extremely rejected by the casinos, who have the right to expel anyone caught. The consequence? Affleck has been banned from the blackjack tables at the Hard Rock Cafe forever.
The number of the beast!
Who has never played dice and blown them before? Or never bet on a football match and wore his lucky underwear on the day of the game, just to give that “forcinha”? Superstition and betting go together, because there is no such thing as “too much luck”. But some superstitions can seem a little bizarre. One of them, which mainly afflicts the most religious, is that the number of the beast can be found in every casino in the world. More precisely at every roulette table, where the sum of the roulette numbers results in 666.
Take that light away!
Billionaire Howard Hughes did not save when buying casinos. Between 1966 and 1968, he bought several casinos, such as the Landmark Hotel and Casino and the Sands. However, one of his purchases had a very specific reason. Howard bought the small Silver Slipper casino just to change the neon light of the establishment, because the light could be seen from Howard’s room and it disturbed his sleep.
