VEGAS MYTHS BUSTED: Casinos Make use of Coolers to Cease Sizzling Streaks
Within the Oscar-nominated 2003 film “The Cooler,” William H. Macy portrays a downtown Las Vegas on line casino worker whose job is to reverse successful streaks. Bernie Lootz — get it, lose? — has such extraordinary dangerous luck, all he must do is sit subsequent to a visitor experiencing good luck and it stops.
Actor William H. Macy sells an city legend within the 2003 film “The Cooler.” (Picture: Lion’s Gate)
“No job like this will exist in the present day in Las Vegas,” Anthony F. Lucas, a professor of on line casino administration at UNLV and former gaming trade operations analyst, instructed On line casino.org. “Many in-house procedures and exterior rules are in place to make sure randomness is current within the manufacturing of the outcomes on all video games.”
Using somebody to change the random strategy of statistics would qualify as dishonest.
Gamers wouldn’t patronize a on line casino that’s identified, and even rumored, to cheat,” Lucas stated. “And if caught, penalties similar to heavy fines, potential lack of the gaming license, and catastrophic PR fallout would all be possible.”
As well as, Lucas stated, casinos want massive winners, as a result of “they supply priceless advertising and marketing.”
Most significantly, although, there’s no such factor nearly as good luck or dangerous luck.
“What many individuals don’t perceive about randomness is that it contains each cold and hot streaks,” Lucas stated. “Subsequently, there isn’t any want to usher in somebody to have an effect on the sport — even when somebody may — since it is going to get well by itself.”
Have been Coolers Ever a Actual Factor?
“The Cooler” didn’t happen in trendy Las Vegas, although. It seems to have been set previously, someday earlier than its 2003 launch date. (Reno subbed for Las Vegas to present it a smaller really feel.)
William H. Macy, as Bernie Lootz, does his factor at a downtown Las Vegas blackjack desk in “The Cooler.” (Picture: Lion’s Gate)
Earlier than casinos fully understood and positioned their religion within the arithmetic of the home benefit, a few of their operators have been as superstitious as their prospects. For instance, it wasn’t unprecedented for pit bosses to hold rabbit’s toes, cross their fingers throughout tense craps rolls, or put on their fortunate shirts to work to make sure a worthwhile home run.
On this surroundings, the idea of a on line casino cooler definitely appears believable.
Nonetheless, an intensive search of newspaper articles and books about Las Vegas from the ’50s by the ’80s turned up not a single reference to anybody employed by a on line casino to impose dangerous luck on a reside gaming flooring.
There was an idea known as a “on line casino cooler.” Nonetheless, it referred to a rigged deck of playing cards (aka a chilly deck) that cheaters would try to introduce into play to show a desk recreation’s odds of their favor.
Cooler Heads Prevail
The premise of “The Cooler” was borrowed by screenwriters Wayne Kramer and Frank Hannah from one in every of many false beliefs held by among the heaviest on line casino gamblers of yesteryear.
Whereas it definitely is feasible for a on line casino worker with an unsettling look or behavior to have been seated subsequent to a winner to distract their thought course of and throw their recreation off, all such tales are extremely suspect at finest.
“Heavy gamblers are sometimes very superstitious,” Lucas defined. “So in the event that they’re successful when another person occurs to affix the desk or a seller switches out, they’re tempted to interpret these random occasions because the on line casino making an attempt to mess with their luck.”
Search for “Vegas Myths Busted” each Monday on On line casino.org. Click on right here to learn beforehand busted Vegas myths. Bought a suggestion for a Vegas delusion that wants busting? Electronic mail corey@on line casino.org.
