In the Oscar-nominated 2003 movie “The Cooler,” William H. Macy portrays a downtown Las Vegas casino employee whose job is to reverse winning streaks. Bernie Lootz — get it, lose? — has such extraordinary bad luck, all he needs to do is sit next to a guest experiencing good luck and it stops.

Five red roulette numbers hitting in a row doesn’t mean a black one is more likely on the sixth spin. Even if you recognize the truth of this statement, whenever that sixth spin lands on black, it can still be difficult to resist learning incorrectly from the experience.

Reducing free play offers to gamblers has a minimal impact on the likelihood that they will return to a casino, according to a new academic study. However, completely removing free play incentives could prove problematic for casino operators, according to the same study.

Reducing free play offers to gamblers has minimal impact on whether customers will return to a casino property, according to a new academic research study. Eliminating free-play incentives, however, might prove to be problematic for casino operators, the study found.

Free play campaigns—those casino incentives in which customers are given money to gamble on the house — have historically grown exponentially as a form of competition between gaming institutions. If one casino offers $10 in free play, but a consumer chooses another that offers $15, then the first casino will adapt to offer $20 and so on.

Las Vegas has always been a gambler's paradise, and it's likely to remain that way as long as planes full of visitors continue to land at Harry Reid International Airport. But does that mean Sin City is still the best bet for gamblers?

Las Vegas has always been a gambler’s paradise, and smart money says it will stay that way as long as planes full of visitors continue to land at Harry Reid International Airport. But does that mean Sin City is still a gambler’s best bet?

Despite the gambling industry’s near-religious reliance on free-play bonus offers, new evidence affirms that other factors like amenities and ambiance might be more important to customer retention in a retail casino environment. One recent study found that reducing or even eliminating free-play offers had little impact on retail gamblers’ behavior. A similar discussion is underway in the iGaming space, as online operators and their investors are increasingly concerned about whether they’re getting a return on their promotional investments. In both channels, experimentation and selective targeting of free play spending seem to be key, while traditional scattershot approaches may be a waste of money.