As numerous as the games offered in casinos are the myths, fallacies and false ideas concerning gambling in general. Some are ages old, while new ones have emerged as gambling has evolved. One of the most persistent casino myths is that the operators insert oxygen, or some other chemical into the venues, the effect being players lose their focus. The end result is that they lose track of how much money they have bet. This is false; the basis of this rumor was a scientific study conducted in a casino in Atlantic City, studying the effects of various scents on people.
The fact is that any extra amount of oxygen, or chemical that can induce people to behave differently will have physical side effects, and there has never been a case reported in casinos of people suffering any form of illness related to chemicals. Secondly, any chemical released in casinos would also affect the employees and operators too. A gambling myth that has remained entrenched in the minds of some people is that casinos are connected to the mob. The persistence of this legend can partly be blamed on Hollywood and the mainstream media, which has exploited this assumption numerous times in films and television.
It is true that during the past, criminal syndicates used casinos as front for their illegal activities. One of the early hotel casinos established in Las Vegas, the Flamingo, was owned by Bugsy Seigel. However, after the well publicized Senate hearings on the subject in the 1950s, the association between the mob syndicates and casinos evaporated.
Today casinos and other gambling establishments are owned and run by companies and corporations with legitimate business licenses, and are managed as any normal business enterprise. The rules and regulations governing gambling are stringently followed.A lot of gambling myths are concerned with the games in the casinos. There are those who say that some slots that give away too much money are somehow "switched off", and certain machines that have been cold can be turned hot with a flick of a switch. There are also those who claim that casino card games are rigged by the dealer.
Again, it is easy for someone who has never played in a casino to state these claims as fact. But if it were so, then casinos should have gone out of business years ago. People who go to casinos are not dumb and illiterate; they know very well the odds in the games, and if a casino were somehow able to manipulate the games, then word would spread quickly.
This same rule also applies to those gambling myths that claim the progressive jackpots can never be won. This is easy to dispel, for the number of people who line to play slots only proves this is untrue. Also, if a gambling establishment were to engage in fraud, government regulatory bodies will instantly know. It is a fact that a lot of the myths being perpetuated about gambling come from people who have never even gambled. Thus, for a would-be gambler, it is vital to check the facts for himself before believing any of these stories.
