Casinos are supposed to offer games of chance to the public offering entertainment and the chance to beat the casino. Unfortunately, casinos have gotten so greedy that they continue to accelerate the pace at which they separate their customers from their money. 6:5 blackjack, side bets with ridiculous edges, triple zero roulette, carnival games with high house edges and double odds on craps are all examples of casinos' desire to not give their customers a fair chance. In Nevada, the slot machine hold percentage has crept up steadily over from a statewide average of 5.72% to 6.91% in 15 years. That may not sound like a huge increase but when you factor in the current statewide handle of over $110,000,000,000! A minute increase of 1% represents an increased hold of $1,100,000,000!

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Consider this. For two decades gaming revenue has represented less than 50% of revenue for Las Vegas strip casinos. Gaming revenue has become increasingly insignificant but yet the games are becoming more and more player unfriendly.

As a result, casino revenues are soaring and casinos care less and less about their gaming customers. Customers who do (occasionally) win are increasingly being shown the door and are treated like criminals. Casinos take losing personally and because their edges are so high, they are not used to seeing winning players. Winning players are assumed to be up to something and are subjected to unwarranted scrutiny and harassment. Unfortunately, what happens in Las Vegas is modeled everywhere else. Casinos need to reign in their greed and return to their roots of gambling and entertainment or else they risk burning out their base customers and they will not fare well in the next economic downturn without that large customer base.