A casino is a place to gamble, play games, and enjoy food and drinks. But casinos aren’t just for fun and excitement; they’re designed to manipulate you into spending more money than you intended. Whether it’s the flashing lights, sounds, or physical design, these tricks are designed to make it difficult for you to walk away from the table or slot machine.

When you enter a casino, the first thing you notice are the gambling tables and machines. This is because casinos want you to spend your money on their games as soon as possible, so they put them front and center. Then, as you move through the casino to find a bathroom or exit, you’re forced to pass even more opportunities to press your luck.

Another trick casinos use is to distract you from the passage of time. This is why you don’t see clocks or daylight outside of the casino doors, and the floors are often painted to look like daytime instead of night. By eliminating any external cues of the passing of time, casinos ensure you’ll spend hours in the casino long past what you originally planned, resulting in greater profits for them.

Robert de Niro is amazing in Casino, and the movie itself is a great depiction of mob greed and corruption. However, one of the most interesting aspects of the film is the way that it shows you that even the “good guys” in a story can be bad.