Tell me about common cons/scams: "Thanks, you suck. Hello, this is Linda."

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about common cons/scams: "Thanks, you suck. Hello, this is Linda."

CleverHans: Apr 25, 2011; Can't post for 8 years!

doctorfrog posted:

This is just me, but I'd welcome any analysis of the actual tricks or processes that anything from casinos to corporations to street-level conmen use to get people to do something that they otherwise wouldn't.

IMO, casinos and lotteries are scams. You need your mind clouded at least a little to part with your money for these things, even if you "know" you won't win and you just do it for a mild "thrill."

Great, now what? What are their mechanisms? How do they manage to avoid being popularly labeled as scams, or how do we as a culture offload the responsibility from them onto their victims? How do they leverage power structures to maintain their dominance, and how much are they like 'legitimate' businesses or religions? What's the truth of what's going on and how can we self-inoculate? I'm interested in stuff like that. I dunno, any good documentaries or anything?

Reminds me, I need to find a copy of Randi's Flim-Flam!

I disagree on the whole "casinos and lotteries are scams" thing: pretty much everybody knows there is a house advantage and they spend their money on it anyway because *maybe this time I beat the odds!*

That said, as an occasional Vegas traveler, I have definitely noticed a few things that could be construed as putting the finger on the scale even more.

Roulette: European wheels have a single zero on them, standard US ones typically have 2 zeros: I have been seeing ones that have *3* zeros on them with, of course, the same payouts as the single and double zero wheels. You do the math on that.

Blackjack: Old school tables paid out 3:2 on a blackjack - most now pay 6:5.

These are kinda moot, as it seems like everyone is feeding money into all the massive, video-heavy slot machines, and god knows what the relative odds are for all of those.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2019 04:52

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# ¿ Apr 26, 2024 11:53

CleverHans: Apr 25, 2011; Can't post for 8 years!

CleverHans posted:

These are kinda moot, as it seems like everyone is feeding money into all the massive, video-heavy slot machines, and god knows what the relative odds are for all of those.

Quoting myself here as, upon re-reading, this is probably more what you are looking for.

All the modern slot machines are engineered to have the absolutely most insidious combinations of lights/sounds/mechanics/payout ratios to basically act like crack cocaine on the brains of the customers.

# ¿ Sep 9, 2019 04:58

The Something Awful Forums > Discussion > Ask/Tell > Tell me about common cons/scams: "Thanks, you suck. Hello, this is Linda."