For most people, a casino is just a place to go out for a night of gambling with friends. But behind the glitzy decor and twinkly lights are all kinds of tricks that casinos use to make you spend more money and crave coming back no matter how much you lose.

Casino stars Robert DeNiro as Ace Rothstein, a bookie who draws the attention of the mob because of his genius with numbers and gets assigned to run the Tangiers casino in Las Vegas. There he finds himself with a drug-addicted con artist trophy wife (Sharon Stone) and a loose-cannon partner (Joe Pesci). But when the casino is raided by the FBI, they discover that it’s all part of a tangled web that connects to politicians, Teamsters unions, Chicago mob and the Midwest mafia based in Kansas City.

One of the most effective tactics a casino uses to keep players in the gambling environment is to offer free alcohol. This distracts players and clouds their sense of time, making it more likely that they’ll continue gambling past the point at which they originally planned to leave. Another trick is to use slot machines and other games that produce “near wins” which trigger the brain’s reward system, causing players to think they’re close to hitting a jackpot. This keeps them playing longer, increasing their chances of losing even more money.