"Bad Bet" Blog Post Two

Now that I have gotten further in this book I have been able to learn about the gambling industry and how it came up throughout the years and has become one of the largest money making industries in the world. In the 1930's when Las Vegas started to separate themselves from all the other states in the U.S. there was a ton of competition among the casinos to have the most appealing place trying to attract the most customers as possible. Instead of the normal casinos containing just the usual blackjack, poker, craps, and other gambling tables many owners decided to make a change to the outlook of their place in order to get everyone to come so that they could generate more revenue. With the majority of gamblers having the likability of losing money the owners and general managers of these casinos wanted to do anything to wipe out those negative aspects of the game so they could just have a good time and not think about how much money they would be losing. Casinos were willing to lose some money to their customers because they felt enticed that they would make the money back from the gamblers so they offered their customers free food, drinks, and even lodging at their hotels. This was already intriguing for the customers that they would get all these free accommodations if they would gamble, and on top of this they would have entertainment to attract them even more including acts by famous musicians such as Frank Sinatra, entertain them with cocktail parties, trapeze acts at the front of the casinos, merry go rounds, and more. As the casinos like Caesars, Desert Palace, Circus Circus, and others competing against each other for customers they were willing to do anything in order to get them to attend their place. It seems like there are no issues going on with the casinos, but on the other side of it there were  reasons for the casinos being able to afford all of these expensive entertainment. The Mob was highly involved with much of the success of these Las Vegas casinos at these times. Many of the biggest casinos had sketchy business transactions with Mob members and were able to make up from any of the money they lost by being connected with these criminals. Later through investigations by the FBI and discoveries by the IRS where millions of dollars had not been recorded in the casinos books but were part of their revenue. As they cracked down on these members such as Frank Costello, Edgar Hoover, and Michael Sarno the casinos had to pull back on some of the entertainment and other accolades of the casino. Some casinos stayed away from the high roller methods of betting and were able to attract more people based on the lower wages that many people in the time were interested in. It is clear that all these casinos were able to make up for the problems they had with the involvement with Mob members, but this was a major issue in these times. There are schemes going on in everyday businesses and though they will have their luxury for the time being they will eventually get caught for these actions and they will serve major consequences (like Bernie Madoff). The possibility of being on top for a certain time is not worth the risk because when these criminals are caught their life makes a 360 and they will be leaving their families with uncertainty of where to go in the future. Hopefully the large industries can continue to stay clean and these investigations will not have to occur again.