What is a Casino?

A casino is a facility where people can gamble on games of chance or skill. Most casinos offer table games such as baccarat, roulette, blackjack and poker and slots. Most of these games have mathematically determined odds that give the house a profit over the players. This advantage, known as the house edge, is usually a small percentage of total bets but can vary between different games. Casinos make money by charging a commission on bets or taking a share of the profits from the games.

The modern casino is often designed with a theme and has many attractions, such as musical shows, restaurants and fountains. However, the majority of its entertainment (and profits) still comes from gambling.

Something about gambling (probably the prospect of winning) encourages cheating and other violations of fair play, which is why casinos spend so much on security. Casinos have elaborate surveillance systems that provide a high-tech “eye-in-the-sky” view of the entire facility and its patrons. The cameras can be adjusted to focus on specific suspicious patrons by security workers in a separate room filled with banks of monitors.

Casinos are found in most countries of the world, though some have more regulated gambling than others. In the United States, casinos first appeared in Atlantic City in 1978 and from the 1980s started appearing on American Indian reservations, where state laws did not prohibit them. The biggest casino in America is in Ledyard, Connecticut and is operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Indian tribe. It offers 4.7 million square feet of gaming space with a variety of table games, slot machines and bingo.