A Gambling Urban Legend

Forces outside of people's control influence the outcomes of gambling games. To try to manipulate these uncontrollable factors and gain the upper hand in a gambling game -or even victory- many gamblers turn to superstition. The gambling games that are featured in casinos are the kinds of games that have very low chances of winning. While in games like poker, your chances are stacked up against other players. In games like roulette though, you win if the roulette ball lands on the number and color combination that you had initially betted on. There are several other number and color combinations on a roulette wheel, and the ball can land in any one of them. In fact, one of the gambling tips that many gambling websites offer is to expect to lose. These websites suggest that it is more important to learn money management rather than it is to learn about the game. This is true, of course, but it does not apply as much to games that require tactics, such as blackjack and poker. Whatever the case may be, one of the reasons why casinos make so much money is because of the games. This means that the more people hang around and gamble in the casino, the more money the casino makes.

Casinos and cities like Atlantic City are rife with urban legends about how they keep people playing. One such urban legend is that casinos pump pure oxygen into the gambling area through the air vents. Oxygen is very important for human survival. The air that most people breathe in cities is laden with impurities and harmful pollutants. In fact, in cities where the air is especially congested, very little of the air that people breathe consists of oxygen. When there are large amounts of oxygen in the air, this can cause a person to feel energized, even elated. Higher concentrations of oxygen in the air can perk a person right up. The versions of this urban legend vary, but the most common one is that casinos start pumping oxygen into gaming floor in the wee hours of the morning, so that tired gamblers will feel revitalized and keep on gambling, thus drawing in more revenue for the house.

This legend probably started when Mario Puzo made mention in his book, Fools Die, of a fictional casino in Las Vegas called Xanadu, that does just that. This urban legend has gone through many permutations. In some versions, the gas released was a sedative that made players feel complacent about their losses and keep on playing.

This urban legend is not true. Casinos make enormous amounts of money without having to resort to such tactics in the first place