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The
average gambler at an American casino comes to the
club with cash or traveler's checks that can easily
be converted to cash with the showing of proper
identification.
It is only a small minority that establish credit
at the casinos games, but those who do probably
account for a greater volume of play than all the
cash customers combined. Nearly all the junket players
are credit customers, and the big casinos on the
Las Vegas Strip count on half their profits coming
from junketeers' play.
The high rollers, known as premium players by the
casinos games , generally have credit lines at one
or more casinos in Nevada and Atlantic City. These
players can't be bothered with cash; they like to
be able to show up at a club at any time, and, within
thirty minutes, without anything in their pockets
but a driver's license, bet thousands at the tables.
The casino world, after all, often reflects the
real American world outside. And today credit is
the name of the game, and everyone who is anyone
has some kind of credit. Just as the credit card
has replaced cash in American life to the point
where you can't rent an automobile in many cities
without a credit card, so credit has replaced many
cash transactions in casino operations. Many players
who bet heavily don't like the risk of carrying
cash, and the casino is only too happy to give its
premium players all the credit they can use.
Casino credit has another lure as far as the casinos
are concerned. When a person signs a marker and
receives casino chips on credit, he is not only
playing with abstract plastic disks (the chips),
but the whole thing has a makebelieve aspect. All
this man has to do is sign his name and get money
and often this is treated as play money. It's only
when the moment of reckoning comes, when he has
to pay back what he has signed for, that the harsh
reality of the situation becomes evident.
Thus credit can become a snare for the unwary, especially
in a casino situation where the action is fast and
hard, where gambling fever is contagious and money
can be won or lose rapidly.
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