Gambling: Lesser Known Facts.

As an online gambling portal, we pride ourselves on providing unbiased, useful, information in the hope that you spend your earnings wisely. So given this, the following article will reveal to you some little known facts about the ways that casinos conduct their business, and hopefully help you to make more informed decisions when choosing to spend your money gambling.

The information we provide here is either largely unknown or slightly obscure, we hope that you enjoy it!

-Firstly, the origins of dice; although no-one can actually document where dice originated there are some interesting facts that are known. In the past, witch doctors in Africa used to throw animal knuckles with the games being based on which way up the knuckles landed. In Greece, they updated the knuckle chucker’s by carving marks into the bones, these knuckle/dice where much more akin to the type of dice that we use today. After the Greeks arrived the Romans, they decided to swap bones for wood and fashion them into six sided cubes. Other materials used to fashion dice have included ivory, metal, stone and plastic.

 -Today when playing cards we use a 52 card deck or a 54 card deck if the jokers are included. However, today’s cards are descendents of cards that were first fabricated in France, as early ago as the 12^th century. The cards were similar to the ones we know today in that they consisted of four distinct suits; however each suit had 14 cards, plus 4 jokers. The suits were said to reflect the social structure in France at the time, and these can be seen today: the hearts were said to represent the highest order, that of the church, who oversaw matters of the heart/soul; the diamonds were said to represent the merchants, people who made their money from buying and selling, hence the diamonds to represent wealth; next comes the spades, they represented the military, the theme that spades represents the military is a well documented fact, a simple internet search will reveal that they have been associated with as far varied military personnel as the 506th Parachute Infantry Regiment and 101st Airborne Division, in tarot cards the spade represents death; finally, the clubs, they are said to represent the proletariat, who had to use clubs to fight for their dinner.  

-  More recently, the English are credited with updating these original cards by making them legible regardless from whether the person is looking from the top or from the bottom, so players could then read the cards upside down and thus avoid confusion, and arguments, about such numbers as 6 and 9.

  - The casinos are wily masters of psychology and the gambler should never forget this. Casinos have even commissioned psychologists from the top of their profession in order to help them to exploit human behaviour for their own gains- although it is not as sinister as that may sound. For example, when a gambler approaches a table wanting to play, their first act will be to lay the money on the table in order to inform the croupier of their intentions, the dealer then exchanges the cash for chips. Chips are used because they allow a psychological chasm between the concept of money and the concept of gambling, it no longer feels as if real money is at stake, not to the degree that it would if the games were actually played with money. It is a lot easier to throw away one little piece of plastic than a $50 note. In other words, players are more likely to spend more money by using chips, so bear this in mind if you find yourself in a real world casino.

 - If you have ever been into a real world casino cast your mind back to the decor, look at the carpet, has a casino that you have played at ever had a carpet that was a single block of colour? No, the patterns on the carpet are mad, crazy swirls and squiggles, but look up, the ceiling is bare, no overbearing decor there. The reason being is that the casino wants to maintain your focus at ground level, why? Because that’s where the tables are, they do not want you looking here there and everywhere and they use attention grabbing items to make sure that they keep your focus exactly where they want it. You do not want to look at the carpet, the pattern is too much to bear, especially if you have been drinking too much (another psychological trick to ensure your inhibitions are lowered and you are grateful for their generosity- free drinks!), and the ceiling is boring, where do you look then? At the games!

They are a crafty lot those casinos, did you realise that the position of the games is also well thought-out and carefully considered. Even the most innocuous of things experienced in a casino may be fashioned in such a way as to elicit a psychological response from you, usually a response whose endgame is the parting of cash from client.

 - Research has revealed much to the casinos. For example, a longitudinal study, one carried out over a long period of time, revealed that areas with low ceilings generated more custom within the casino. Basically, the more intimate the area, the more people it attracts, people are put at their ease, they are more relaxed, thus less on their guard- probably not the best state of mind for playing a skill game for example, that means the casinos will probably win slightly more than the odds dictate because the gamblers are not as ready as they otherwise would be.

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