Fun Gaming Facts

Las Vegas Facts

- At the time of this writing, there are 75 casinos in Las Vegas. However, there are over 1,700 businesses in Vegas that have licenses to offer gambling.

- Almost 40 million people visit Las Vegas each year, which dwarfs the actual population of the city (568,000 people).

- According to surveys, only 5% of people define gambling as their main purpose for visiting Sin City. This is in great contrast to the 88% of people who actually end up gambling at some point during their visit.

- 320 weddings are held in the city of Las Vegas each day. This is in part due to the fact that it only costs $35 (on average) to get married in Sin City.

- Vegas Vic, which is the large neon cowboy sign on Fremont Street, is the biggest neon sign in the world.

- The first online “casino” with real money games was offered by MicroGaming in 1997. The software was labeled “Internet Casino System Version IV” because online casino owners preferred to remain anonymous in the late 90’s.

- Over 3 million people in the UK gamble online every year; internet bingo and online poker are the most popular games.

- Cyprus residents gamble an average of €2.5 billion a year. Considering the fact that Cyprus only has 800,000 residents, that’s an average of €3,125 for each person!

- Contrary to what’s shown on TV shows and movies, high stakes gambling isn’t a quick and easy process. Those who want to place extremely large wagers such as $100,000 or more must contact the casino ahead of time; the casino managers must then decide if they will take the risk. In many cases, a contract is even involved.

- If you add up the number totals (1-36) on a roulette wheel, you’ll come up with a demonic total of 666.

- 55% of people in the world buy lottery tickets each year making this the most popular form of casino gambling.

- 25% of Americans admit to gambling illegally at some point in their life. Of course, this doesn’t include online casino gaming, which is actually illegal in most US states.

- Scholars have found that the act of gambling predates recorded history. The evidence is in the various devices and items they’ve found that indicates gambling. 2,300 B.C. China is considered to be the earliest time where evidence of gambling exists.

- While most people think the first casinos were developed in 17th Century Europe, casinos existed long before this time period. In fact, there is a big debate over whether the first casinos spawned in the B.C. Nile Delta or Ancient China.

- Eighteenth Century English gambling parlors actually hired people to swallow the dice in the event of a police raid.

- Gambling has been frowned upon throughout most of the United States’ history. However, both European settlers and Native American culture has helped make gambling more acceptable throughout the US.

- Charles Fey invented the first slots machine in 1897, and it was called the Liberty Bell.

- The fact that there are four kings in a deck of cards is not random since each suit represents a different historical king. Hearts is Charlemagne, diamonds is Julius Caesar, spades is King David and clubs is Alexander the Great.

- Card suits and numbers actually have a lot to do with nature. Night and day are represented by the colors red and black, while each suit symbolizes the four seasons (summer, spring, fall and winter).