Do casinos pump oxygen in the air?

The rumor that casinos pump oxygen into the air to keep players awake has circulated both on Las Vegas floors and among conspiracy theorists for quite some time. The idea suggests that by increasing oxygen levels, casinos could keep people more alert, encouraging them to gamble longer rather than heading off to their hotel rooms for sleep.

But is it true? Do casinos pump oxygen into the air, and what would the implications of this be? In this article, we set to find out the truth, but in case you cannot wait until the end, the answer is no, The Strip casinos are not interested in pumping oxygen into the air, and there are many good reasons why this is so.

Truth or myth: do casinos pump oxygen to keep you awake?

Myth. Casinos do not pump oxygen to keep you awake. The theory, although seemingly logical and believable, has some serious issues with it, and what it implies. Here are several arguments that oxygen is not pumped into the air at your favorite brick-and-mortar casino.

Legality & regulation

For starters, the matter is legal.

Filling the air in a casino with anything – be that contaminant or even tinkering with the levels of oxygen – could have serious health effects with unpredictable consequences.

It would also be illegal to do so in many places, including Nevada, New Jersey, and most other states and places around the world.

Fire hazard code

There is also the issue of fire hazard regulation. Pumping more oxygen into the air might have a sobering effect on some patrons, but it would also make the environment far more flammable, as oxygen is an accelerant, meaning that if a fire were to break out, it would spread quickly, possibly costing human lives. In other words, you would end up with casinos ignoring the fire hazard code, but also – getting them disqualified from fire insurance policies.

But although these arguments may still seem unconvincing, there are very practical considerations that would curb casinos from using oxygen.

Expenses

Even if we were to assume that the answer to the question "do Vegas casinos pump oxygen" was a definitive yes, it would still not make much sense. For example, a typical Las Vegas casino has around 1m cubic liter of air.

Now, to raise the oxygen in that much air would require more than 40,000 cubic meters of oxygen gas daily, with the price tag for such expense ranging from $8,000 to $20,000 daily. There is no definitive evidence to suggest that "alert" gamblers would be spending more, either.

Although this is a slightly cynical view, and clearly the considerations in the previous points play a far more significant role in curbing the use of oxygen gas on casino floors, it’s still good to run the numbers and come to a hard truth – that rigging the air in the casino simply isn’t a good business practice.

Lack of proof

When people ask "do casinos pump oxygen in the air" they should start by doing one simple thing- check the documented cases of such use. No regulator around the country has ever documented the use of oxygen gas for the purposes perpetuated by the myth.

In other words, there is no hard evidence to back up the claim.

Air filtration standards

Air filtration in casinos has always been rigorous, but even more so after the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, which forced casinos to invest heavily. Companies providing such systems for their part are subject to stringent regulation, meaning that they would not do anything untoward, such as the pumping of oxygen into the atmosphere without explicit legal permission to do so – which there isn’t.

Public relations impact

Not least, proving that casinos really pump oxygen into the air would have a damning and chilling public relations impact. Players will turn away from casinos, and conspiracy theorists will stoke new fears, damaging casinos’ bottom lines significantly. Casinos would certainly face litigation and lawsuits, and possibly lose their licenses.

Who started the myth that casinos pump oxygen in the first place?

Although we may ask ourselves questions such as "do they pump oxygen in casinos" and seem to rationalize that it is plausible, a simple way to prove or disprove this would be to trace the claim to its myth.

Guess what? People have been asking themselves "do casinos pump in oxygen" not because of a well-documented case, but rather the imagination of one person, Mario Puzo. If the name rings familiar, it’s not because he is a major whistleblower against the gambling industry.

Rather, you know him for his seminal work, "The Godfather." In one of his other works, "Fools Die," another mafiosi-type, Alfred Gronevelt, calls in on his casino employees and asks them to make sure they are filtering more oxygen gas into the casino, to keep the gamblers playing longer, by keeping them awake and alert.

This literary reference has quickly become fertile ground for conspiracy theories. After all, why do casinos pump oxygen only in literary work when they can do it in real life, right? Well, be that as it may, there has not been a shred of evidence about this actually taking place.

Conspiracy theories rely on an emotional response that is not always traced back in hard evidence and is usually perpetuated by people who "feel" that something "could be true," rather than seeking to look at the hard facts.

Casinos do not pump oxygen, but do they use something else?

Absolutely. Casinos may not be villains per se, but they do use psychological and conditioning contraptions to make sure that players are somewhat keener to continue playing.

The two most common things that casinos do to keep you "hooked" and playing are to avoid using clocks, although, in the age of smartphones and health wristbands, this seems a little dated.

Then again, the universal factor is the lack of windows – since you cannot tell what time it is in the casino by the amount of light that gets filtered in, you will quickly lose sense of the time, and possibly spend more money than you originally intended to.

Another thing that casinos do actually is to try and keep you slightly disoriented, with the gaming floor becoming a little like a puzzle. You can still see the exit sign, and it’s easy to get there if you really need to, but there is much thought going into the planning of the floor layout.

Not least, casinos are keen on serving you alcohol and complimentary drinks. Loosening player inhibitions often comes with loosening the purse strings, and this is a practical way.

There is also the very ambience, which uses flashy lights, dim lighting in certain sectors, and the social pressure of people cheering you on after a big win, which is more intoxicating and sobering than any oxygen gas in the air.

Do casinos pump oxygen into the air – a conclusion

The truth is that casinos have very little incentive to pump oxygen into the air. It’s a dubious and dangerous practice, that imperils not just human lives, but their own property in which they have often invested hundreds of millions of dollars over the decades.

Casinos are not past devising strategies to keep you playing longer, not at all, but it’s just that pumping oxygen into the air is a myth that sprung from literature and is not based on any hard evidence.

Besides, the practical ramifications, as demonstrated in this article, would be devastating for any casino that is found to be doing this.

Image credit: Unsplash.com