After the smash hit Goodfellas, Martin Scorsese made Casino, a thriller about organized crime in Sin City. Based on the fact-based book Casino by Nicholas Pileggi, it stars De Niro and Joe Pesci and lays bare the intricate web of corruption that was at the heart of Las Vegas, with tendrils reaching into casinos, politicians, labor unions, the Chicago mob, and the Kansas City mafia.
Casino is a gripping story of greed, betrayal, and murder, but it’s also a fascinating look at human behavior. Why do otherwise rational people, who make reasoned financial decisions on a day-to-day basis, throw hundreds or even thousands of dollars away based on the roll of a dice or spin of a wheel? This is the psychological principle of the sunk cost fallacy in action, and it’s at play everywhere you go in a casino.
To get you to keep gambling, the casino manipulates your senses with dazzling lights and soothing scents. They even make it hard to tell what time of day it is by tinting the windows and arranging the interior so that you can’t see your watch or phone. This creates a manufactured blissful experience that makes you want to spend more money, and it’s what keeps gamblers coming back for more. In the end, though, it’s a losing proposition for everyone.