{"id":280585,"date":"2024-02-02T07:07:08","date_gmt":"2024-02-02T13:07:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=280585"},"modified":"2024-02-03T11:25:45","modified_gmt":"2024-02-03T17:25:45","slug":"vegas-myths-busted-casinos-employ-coolers-to-cool-down-hot-streaks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-casinos-employ-coolers-to-cool-down-hot-streaks\/","title":{"rendered":"VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Casinos Employ Coolers to Stop Hot Streaks"},"content":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0<\/strong>\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d publishes every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0<\/em>Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on Aug. 14, 2023.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

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?<\/em> — has such extraordinary bad luck, all he needs to do is sit next to a guest experiencing good luck and it stops.<\/p>\n

\"William
Actor William H. Macy sells an urban legend in the 2003 movie “The Cooler.”<\/em> (Image: Lion’s Gate)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cNo job like this can exist today in Las Vegas,\u201d Anthony F. Lucas, a professor of casino management at UNLV and former gaming industry operations analyst, told Casino.org.<\/em> \u201cMany in-house procedures and external regulations are in place to ensure randomness is present in the production of the outcomes on all games.”<\/p>\n

Employing someone to alter the random process of statistics would qualify as cheating.<\/p>\n

Players would not patronize a casino that is known, or even rumored, to cheat,\u201d Lucas said. \u201cAnd if caught, consequences such as heavy fines, possible loss of the gaming license, and catastrophic PR fallout would all be likely.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

In addition, Lucas said, casinos need big winners, because \u201cthey provide valuable marketing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most importantly, though, there’s no such thing as good luck or bad luck.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

“What many people don\u2019t understand about randomness is that it includes both hot and cold streaks,” Lucas said. “Therefore, there is no need to bring in someone to affect the game — even if someone could — since it will recover on its own.\u201d<\/p>\n

Were Coolers Ever<\/em> a Real Thing?<\/h2>\n

\u201cThe Cooler\u201d didn’t take place in modern Las Vegas, though. It appears to have been set in the past, sometime before its 2003 release date. (Reno subbed for Las Vegas to give it a smaller feel.)<\/p>\n

\"\"
William H. Macy, as Bernie Lootz, does his thing at a downtown Las Vegas blackjack table in “The Cooler.” (Image: Lion’s Gate)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Before casinos completely understood and placed their faith in the mathematics of the house advantage, some of their operators were as superstitious as their customers. For example, it wasn\u2019t unheard of for pit bosses to carry rabbit’s feet, cross their fingers during tense craps rolls, or wear their lucky shirts to work to ensure a profitable house run.<\/p>\n

In this environment, the concept of a casino cooler certainly seems<\/em> plausible.<\/strong><\/p>\n

However, an extensive search of newspaper articles and books about Las Vegas from the \u201950s through the \u201980s turned up not a single reference to anyone employed by a casino to impose bad luck on a live gaming floor.<\/p>\n

There was a concept called a \u201ccasino cooler.\u201d However, it referred to a rigged deck of cards (aka a cold deck) that cheaters would attempt to introduce into play to turn a table game\u2019s odds in their favor.<\/p>\n

Cooler Heads Prevail<\/h2>\n

The premise of “The Cooler” was borrowed by screenwriters Wayne Kramer and Frank Hannah from one of many false beliefs held by some of the heaviest casino gamblers of yesteryear.<\/p>\n

\n

While it certainly is possible for a casino employee with an unsettling look or habit to have been seated next to a winner to distract their thought process and throw their game off, all such stories are highly suspect, at best.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cHeavy gamblers are often very superstitious,” Lucas explained. “So if they\u2019re winning when someone else happens to join the table or a dealer switches out, they are tempted to interpret these random events as the casino trying to mess with their luck.\u201d<\/p>\n

Look for \u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d every Monday on\u00a0<\/strong>Casino.org.\u00a0<\/b><\/em>Click here<\/a> to read previously busted Vegas myths. Got a suggestion for a Vegas myth that needs busting? Email corey@casino.org.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d publishes every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on Aug. 14, 2023. 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? — […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":78,"featured_media":280589,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,3313,81896,81886,88494,1],"tags":[87031,87030,83020,13363,87032,87524,87525,23],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nVEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Casinos Employ Coolers to Stop Hot Streaks - Casino.org<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"EDITOR\u2019S NOTE:\u00a0\u201cVegas Myths Busted\u201d publishes every Monday, with a bonus Flashback Friday edition.\u00a0Today\u2019s entry in our ongoing series originally ran on\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/vegas-myths-busted-casinos-employ-coolers-to-cool-down-hot-streaks\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"VEGAS MYTHS RE-BUSTED: Casinos Employ Coolers to Stop Hot Streaks - 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