What is a Casino?

A casino (also known as a gambling house, gaming room, or simply a gambling establishment) is an establishment where people can gamble for cash or other items of value. Many casinos offer a wide variety of casino games, including table games such as blackjack and roulette, and slot machines. Some casinos also have restaurants, non-gambling game rooms, hotels, and other amenities.

Something about casinos seems to encourage cheating, stealing and scamming, perhaps because there are large amounts of money at stake. This is why casinos spend a lot of time and money on security.

Casino security starts on the floor of the casino, where employees watch over the games and patrons. Dealers are trained to spot blatant cheating, such as palming cards or marking dice. Pit bosses and table managers watch the game from a different angle, looking for betting patterns that could indicate cheating. All of this information is fed into a casino computer system, where security personnel can monitor each table, window and doorway with cameras that are adjusted to focus on suspicious patrons.

Casinos make money by accepting bets that give the casino a statistical advantage over the players, a little more than two percent on average. This ‘house edge’ can vary from game to game, but the overall effect is that the casino never loses more than it takes in bets, allowing the casino to invest in extravagant decorations and architecture. The four things that come together to make a casino profitable are popularity, odds, player skills and pure luck.