Casinos in Vegas Allegedly Increase Oxygen Levels Indoors
The popular myth that casinos pump oxygen onto their floors to keep players alert and increase their playing time has been debunked, as revealed in the latest entry of the "Vegas Myths Busted" series, published every Monday on Casino.org. This series also includes a Flashback Friday edition, delving into previously busted Vegas myths, which can be found on VegasMythsBusted.com.
The misconception originated from Mario Puzo's 1978 novel "Fools Die," where casino owner Alfred Gronevelt is depicted making a regular 2 a.m. call to his building engineer to pump pure oxygen through the casino air-conditioning system. However, this fictional tale has been circulating as fact in the 45 years since the book's publication, with conspiracy theorists and some legitimate media sources spreading the fiction.
Tony Cabot, a distinguished fellow in gaming law at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, debunked this myth in a statement to Casino.org. He explained that a typical Las Vegas casino contains approximately 1 million cubic liters of air. Increasing the oxygen level by just 1% in a casino would require more than 40,000 cubic meters of oxygen gas every day, an enormous expense.
Moreover, adding more oxygen to a casino would create a fire hazard because air with a greater than normal 21% oxygen content is more of an accelerant, making any open flame burn hotter, faster, and at lower temperatures.
While casinos do fill the air with things to entice players to keep playing, such as loud music, pleasant scents, and freezing air-conditioning, the myth of oxygen evaporation remains just that - a myth.
Readers can suggest a Vegas myth that needs busting by emailing [email protected]. Previously busted Vegas myths can be found on VegasMythsBusted.com, including a 2006 BBC article that built the myth up as true to make the point that "such psychological trickery would be banned in Britain."
The author of the book "Fools Die," which invented the myth of oxygen evaporation in Las Vegas casinos, is Mario Puzo.
