The Economy of Waiting (Day 351)

I've been wanting to try out the Oyster Bar @ Palace Station and finally planned to visit last weekend.

This place is so famous that I am aware there'll be a LONG wait time. It opens 24 hours a day, but when I called to check on the wait time, 2 am in the morning, or 8 am in the morning, it has never gone below 2 hours!

I assumed that it is a strategy to keep people waiting so they can play some games in the casino while waiting, then I found out that they make you physically wait in the line for hours!

Why wouldn't they allow people to take a number and start hanging out in the casino, but insist on making people wait physically in line? What is the economy behind this? 🤔