What Is a Casino?What Is a Casino?
Casino is a gambling establishment where patrons can play games of chance for money. While many casinos offer a wide variety of games, the best-known are blackjack, roulette and poker. Casinos rake in billions of dollars each year for the companies, investors and Native American tribes that own them, as well as state and local governments. They are a source of entertainment for millions of people who visit them and spend money on food, drinks and souvenirs.
Gambling is a popular pastime and, as an industry, the casino business is booming worldwide. There are more than 3,000 legal casinos and gaming houses in operation. Many are located in resorts and hotels, while others are independent facilities. Regardless of location or structure, all casinos are designed to provide a stimulating environment where gamblers can place bets on the outcome of a game.
Almost every country in the world has laws allowing or prohibiting casinos. Some have strict controls over the locations and types of games, while others are loosely regulated. In the United States, the only nationwide casino regulations are those that apply to riverboats and Indian reservations. The first modern casinos opened in the 1970s, and many other countries amended their laws to allow them in the 1980s or 1990s.
Although casinos are in the business of making money, they must be careful not to overspend and lose control of their finances. To control their spending, they must carefully monitor their incomes and expenses, and ensure that their games produce the expected results. They also must keep their employees on a tight leash, because even a small mistake can result in large losses.
To avoid cheating, security personnel must be able to watch the entire casino floor from multiple angles and be alert for suspicious behavior. Dealers are heavily focused on their game and can quickly spot blatant cheating such as palming or marking dice. Pit bosses and table managers have a wider view of the tables and can identify unusual betting patterns that may indicate cheating. Each person in a casino also has a “higher-up” who tracks his or her activity and notifies supervisors of any potential problems.
In addition to strict surveillance, casinos use advanced technology to help keep their games fair. Chip tracking systems enable them to oversee the exact amounts wagered minute by minute, and electronic monitoring of roulette wheels makes it easy to detect any statistical deviation from their expected results. Other innovations include touch-sensitive screens on slot machines that display a player’s total winnings, and wholly automated versions of casino classics like poker and roulette where players place bets by pushing buttons.
To increase their profits, casinos encourage gamblers to stay longer by offering a wide range of complimentary items, or comps. These might include free beverages while gambling, reduced-rate hotel rooms or tickets to shows. High-spending gamblers get much more, such as free airline tickets, meals and limo service. Critics point out that compulsive gambling shifts expenditures away from other forms of entertainment and costs the community in the form of lost productivity.