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32 Things You Don't Know About Casinos
From the biggest slot jackpot to those nasty surveillance cameras to why all music is in the key of C
By Jefferson Reid
1. Big Easy does it.
The first U.S. casinos appeared in New Orleans in the 1820s after the city legalized gambling and began charging $5,000 for casino licenses. The city used the fees to fund education and a local hospital.
2. Paradise lost or found?
The first real casino on the Las Vegas Strip, the Pair-O-Dice Club, opened In 1931. Of course, back then the Strip was simply known as dusty old Highway 91.
3. Gam-tastic
Legendary gangster and Vegas visionary Bugsy Siegel named his Las Vegas casino the Flamingo after the long legs of his showgirl sweetheart, Virginia Hill.
4. And speaking of Bugsy...
The pit boss, who controls the casino's table gambling area, is so-named because once upon a time the person running the show was a real boss--a Mob boss.
5. And speaking of legs...
The longest-running casino floor show in Las Vegas is the Folies Bergere at the Tropicana. It opened there in 1959.
6. Pocket shocker
Not that the casinos don't trust their employees or anything like that, but dealer costumes/uniforms usually don't have pockets in their shirts or slacks.
7. Here's the deal
Casinos introduced automatic shuffling machines at blackjack tables to speed the game. Because: More hands = greater profits. A shuffling machine results in 20 percent more games played per hour.
8. A pretty nice tip
One of the world's largest slot jackpots to date is $34,959,458, won in the year 2000 by a cocktail waitress at the Desert Inn Resort in Las Vegas.
Illustrations by Jim Paillot
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