Easy ways to stay clean, healthy, and safe every time you play at a casino

Even under the best of circumstances, an extended period of time in a casino releases bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other germs that spread through close contact. From the felt under your fingers to the chips in the palm of your hand, surfaces in a crowded casino tend to accumulate all kinds of mud and grime.

Fortunately, casino operators go a step further with disinfection, but you can still do your part to keep yourself safe. Whether you're worried about flu season on the go or just want to stay clean and safe, here are six easy ways to do it.

Use hand sanitizer to clean your hands after touching chips

While every player and their mom were playing poker for real money in 2007, Bluff Magazine commissioned a unique study of germs in the casino.

In particular, the team at Bluff wanted to know what types of harmful microorganisms are found on the average poker chip. The magazine contacted the University of Nevada-Las Vegas (UNLV) microbiologist Brian Hedlund, who then received several chips from various Sin City poker rooms.

After rubbing the samples and incubating the found life forms for a few days, Hedlund reported surprising results. According to their analysis, the average chip used for betting contains 3,000 unique microorganisms, while a particularly nasty chip has peaked at over 5,000.

These germs ranged from relatively harmless to dangerous microorganisms such as staphylococci and Bacillus cereus, which cause staphylococcal infections and food poisoning, respectively. Hedlund's team even identified the pathogen responsible for antibiotic-resistant staph infections known as MRSA.

Before leaving casino games for good, Hedlund advised players to remember that these germs are already everywhere. As stated in the Bluff Report, your hands naturally contain hundreds of millions of microorganisms that are naturally present and largely harmless.

However, adding some germs to the existing petri dish in your hands these days is not a good idea ...

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The smart game is to stock up on alcohol-based hand sanitizer before playing board games or poker. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), you should check the label to confirm that your disinfectant contains 60% ethanol or 70% isopropanol.

These percentages, combined with regular use and a 30-second wash, ensure that any germs absorbed by the casino chips are dead on arrival.

The key to preventing flea transmission is to stay vigilant and avoid complacency. After buying chips, sanitize your hands and repeat about every 15 minutes while enjoying the game. Finally, use warm water and antibacterial soap for a final hand wash when you return home. at home or in the hotel room.

Trim your nails and keep them short throughout the trip

When you spend enough time playing casino table games , you will inevitably find that the tips of your nails have changed from bright to black.

This happens when you keep collecting chips, cards or dice at a silent table. As you do this, your nails will scratch the surface of the felt, dragging all kinds of dirt with them. Most of this debris contains small pieces of lint that the felt leaves behind after use.

Based on what we know about casino chip cleanliness, you can bet that things like dead skin, food crumbs, cigarette ash, and old grime have also been added to the tables. Casino.

I hate having to clean my nails after a long session at the tables, so I take the preventative step by trimming them carefully and short before playing my first hand. The shorter the better in my book!

Lately I've gotten used to cutting my nails before and after a board game session. This way, any accumulated dirt quickly ends up in the trash.

Use disinfectant wipes for slot machines and video poker machines

While chips are the dirtiest surface you can find in a casino, the screens and buttons on slot machines are clearly the finalists.

Hundreds of people sit in front of a machine every day to try their luck. And each of these people touches the screen with their fingertips or presses keys while playing.

Casinos are supposed to disinfect machine surfaces on a regular basis, but prevention is better than cure. If you have a few packets of alcohol-based disinfectant wipes in your pocket, it may take a few minutes to clean your machine.

Make sure to press the screen, buttons, lever, and slot that holds the players' club's tickets or cards. Let the disinfectant do its job and let it dry for about a minute. Then sit back and enjoy your favorite machine without worries.

Always use a straw for drinks.

Enjoying a good drink while playing has a centuries-old tradition in the casino.

Maybe you have a Starbucks latte, a cold beer from the sports bar, or a Jack and Coke delivered by the cocktail waitress. But drinking and playing go hand in hand. Instead of pressing your lips against the cup or glass, it is better to use a straw to create a kind of buffer zone.

After all, you don't know how well this glass was washed or if someone else recently had their mouth on it. Knowing this, a straw offers a surefire way to avoid any second hand contact that can spread germs.

Fortunately, in every real casino that is worth its salt, cocktail servers have their trays full of straws. Better still, I recommend that you bring your own metal straw to cut out the middleman.

Avoid smoke

I've always used this tactic when walking around the casino because I hate the smell of cigarettes and cigarette smoke.

However, given what we've learned about the flu and other airborne transmissions, it makes sense to avoid prolonged smoke. Passive smoking is inherently dangerous. When expired germs are considered, heavily smoky areas can become one of the dirtiest places in any casino.

Wear a sheet mask when you are with other people

At the time, wearing a mask in the casino was definitely considered a no-no. The rules of the game prevented players from covering their faces as it essentially obliterated the influence of that ubiquitous "eye in the sky".

Those days are long gone and the next time you step into a casino you will likely be asked to wear a simple cloth mask just to cover your nose and mouth. Look, I see ... Masks can be inconvenient to play with and difficult to work with, especially during the hot Las Vegas summer months.

Still, they're one of the easiest ways to avoid the flu and other infectious diseases. If staying clean and safe is important to you, adding a mask to your play equipment is a breeze.

Conclusion

It has never been more important to stay healthy while gambling , but that doesn't mean you have to give up your favorite casino entirely. Between the extra steps operators have taken to keep customers safe and the helpful tips above, anyone can navigate the casino without worrying about the flu or any other illness.

Washing your hands after handling chips and scrubbing slot machines may seem like a burden at first, but you will get used to the habit in no time. And when everyone adds these preventive measures to their casino routine, the entire place becomes cleaner and safer.

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