Until the late 1960s, about three-quarters of a typical casino's profits came from table games, from poker, blackjack, baccarat, roulette. During the last twenty-five years table games, which are supervised by dealers and offer gamblers the best odds, have been displaced by slot machines. Today about two-thirds of a typical casino's profits now come from slots and video poker - machines that are precisely calibrated to take your money. They guarantee the casino a profit rate of as much as 20 percent - four times what a roulette wheel will bring.

The latest slot machines are electronically connected to a central computer, allowing the casino to track the size of every bet and its outcome, The music, flashing lights, and sound effects emitted by these slots help disguise the fact that a small processor inside them is deciding with mathematical certainty how long you will plat before you lose. It is the ultimate consumer technology, designed to manufacture not a tangible product, but something much more elusive: a brief sense of hope. That is what Las Vegas really sells, the most brilliant illusion of all, a loss that feels like winning.


Eric Schlosser. Author and correspondent for Atlantic Monthly. Fast Food Nation - The Dark Side of the All American Meal. By Eric Schlosser. 2001. p.236